Last Updated on January 30, 2023 by The Betting Dad Team

If you have recently started you may have wondered – What is liability in Matched Betting?’.

It is important that you understand what liability is and how it affects your betting exchange balance.

In this post, you will find out how liability works in Matched Betting.

What Is Liability In Matched Betting?

When Matched Betting, your liability refers to the amount of money that you will need to place your lay bet.

You will need the liability amount available in your betting exchange account.

If your lay bet loses, you lose this liability amount.

However, this money is not actually at risk when Matched Betting as it means your opposite back bet will have won.

If your lay bet wins, you win your lay stake and the liability amount is returned to your exchange balance.

How Much Money Will You Need To Cover Liability?

When choosing a lay bet you need to make sure you have enough money.

You need to have at least the liability amount available in your betting exchange balance.

Using OUTPLAYED‘s Matched Betting calculator you can see what the liability will be for this bet:

Placing a lay stake of £15 at odds of 4.80 will cost you £57.

So you would need at least £57 available in your betting exchange account to place this bet.

Can You Lose Your Liability Amount?

When Matched Betting your liability is not at risk, provided you have placed the correct bets.

If we take the example from OUTPLAYED‘s Matched Betting calculator, when using a £20 free bet:

You can see that if you lose the lay bet you would lose £57.

However, you would win £72 profit from the bookmaker back bet leaving you £15 in profit.

If the bookmaker bet loses, you would lose or gain nothing as the bet was a free bet.

However, you would win the lay stake of £15 leaving you £15in profit overall.

When the lay bet wins your liability is returned to your balance and the lay stake is your profit.