Of course there is a down side too. If the horse you “layed” wins then you will have to pay out to the winning punter. Depending on the winning odds you have offered you may have to pay out a sum rather larger than your stake. It is obvious that if you are going to start laying bets against horses to win then you definitely need to have a good method for assessing which are the most likely to lose whilst still being at prices which keep your risks low.

Recently, I have been trying to lay horses and have had very little success until I came across Raj Patel’s eBook called Losers into Winners. The publisher of this eBook has kindly sent a copy to Computer Racing for me to review. In the book Raj describes in detail the method that he uses with great success to bring in the profits from the betting exchanges. The method is based on a topsey turvey analysis of the races to identify the favourites and well fancied horses which are least likely to win and are also probably running on inflated reputations. These are the ones that Raj lays to lose.

Raj’s rationale for concentrating on lay bets is based on the idea that it is far easier to pick a loser than it is to pick a winner because the rest of the field is running for you. If you can combine that with a method for minimising your risk on losing bets then you will have a winning strategy.

The book describes, with many real life examples, how to assess the top few runners in the race to see if the favourite really does stand out from the crowd or if any one of a number of horses could realistically win. Raj’s method assumes no prior knowledge of either racing, form or using the betting exchanges and explains things in an very easy to understand way and includes lots of screen shots to help with his explanations. He uses Betfair.com for the examples as at the moment they are the largest of the betting exchanges. With a little practice you should be able to select a few likely prospects to lay quite quickly. He explains exactly which races you should be looking at and what to look for in deciding whether the horse is a worthy favourite or worth laying. Raj also gives examples for both flat and national hunt races and talks you through the factors of the race and the conclusions he has arrived at.

So does it work? Well you can only give it a try and the author and publisher seem so confident they have gone to great lengths to let you try for yourself with absolutely no risk. Firstly the eBook comes with an unconditional money back guarantee. If you should decide, after reading that this method is not for you then you can ask for a return of your purchase price and they promise to return this to you within twenty-four hours.

Secondly, for four whole weeks, Raj will send you every day to your email his personal selections of suggested horses to lay. You can then compare these to your own choices and just trade on paper until you are convinced that it works or you can jump straight in and start laying from day one.