One of the most common problems new matched bettors find is unmatched bets. So, what is an unmatched bet and how can we rectify the problem?

An unmatched bet or lay typically happens when either there is not enough liquidity (amount of money) on the market, or that market has began to drift. When laying a bet its important to check the liquidity available on that result to ensure our bet gets fully matched right away. 

From the picture above we can see Street Poet has £24 of liquidity available while Celtic Artisan only has £2. This mean we could immediately lay £24 against Street Poet and be safe in the knowledge our lay bet would fully match. However if we tried to lay £10 against Celtic Artisan only £2 of our lay bet would matched. The remaining £8 would be left unmatched unless somebody on the betting exchange decided to place a back bet at odds of 10.0 on Celtic Artisan.

If however (and this does happen a lot on horse racing) we happen to have an unmatched bet it is important not to fret, take your time and remain calm – It’s not the end of the world.

We can use the help of the Matched Betting Calculator to add in part lays at different odds. This will ensure we still take the optimal qualifying loss at the new odds, while also taking into consideration the part lay we already have.

For this example we have placed a back bet at odds of 9.0, we have tried to place a lay bet of 10.0 but unfortunately only £2.00 has matched. There is enough liquidity to lay the remainder of the lay bet at 10.5. All we need to do is click “Add part lay” on the calculator, enter our part lay stake of £2.00 at odds of 10.0, then adjust our initial back odds to 10.5. 

And it’s as simple as that. The Matched Betting Calculator will then work out the remaining optimal lay stake required at odds of 10.5 while taking into consideration the £2.00 we had already layed at odds of 10.0.

It’s worth noting that the calculator can perform multiple part lays, so if you’re ever in a rut and the odds keep changing you can safely work out the optimal stake quickly and easily.