How the ladder works
A detailed explanation of the price ladder — price rows, BACK and LAY sides, queue depth, and runner tabs.
The price ladder
The ladder is the central execution interface in Horse Racing Trader. It presents the Betfair order book for a single runner as a vertical grid of prices. Understanding its structure is fundamental to using the platform effectively.
The 17 price rows
At any moment the ladder displays 17 price rows. These are centred around the current market price for the selected runner. As the market moves, the rows scroll to keep the most active prices visible. You can manually scroll the ladder if you want to see prices further out from the current market.
Each price in the ladder corresponds to a valid Betfair increment. Betfair's price increments change at different levels — for example, prices between 2.00 and 3.00 move in 0.02 steps, while prices between 4.00 and 6.00 move in 0.05 steps.
BACK side (left column — blue)
The left column shows money available to be matched at each price on the BACK side of the book. When you click a price on this side, you are placing a BACK order — you are backing the runner to win. Backing at a higher price gives you a larger potential return if the runner wins.
The numbers in the left column represent the total amount of money queued at that price that is available to match your order. If there is £850 available at 4.2 and you want to back £50, your order can be matched fully from the available liquidity.
LAY side (right column — pink)
The right column shows money available on the LAY side. When you click a price on the right side, you are placing a LAY order — you are acting as a bookmaker, accepting someone else's back bet. Your liability on a lay order is (price - 1) × stake. Laying a runner at a higher price means greater potential liability.
Queue depth and position in queue
The numbers in each cell represent total available money at that price, not just one order. On busy markets at key prices, there can be hundreds of orders queued. Your order joins the back of the queue at that price — orders that arrived earlier will be matched first. The ladder does not show your precise queue position, but the volume ahead of you is implied by the available amount.
Active runner tabs
Above the ladder you will see a tab for each runner in the race. Clicking a tab loads that runner's order book into the ladder. Your stake selection and mode (Safe/Pro) persist when you switch between runner tabs, but the ladder content updates to reflect the selected runner.
If you have open orders on a runner, their tab will show a dot indicator so you do not lose track of active positions when switching between runners.
The centre price column
Between the BACK and LAY columns is the price column itself. When a price is the current best available BACK or LAY, it is highlighted. The spread between the best BACK and best LAY prices is the market's bid-offer gap — this is normal and represents the cost of entering and exiting a position.