To lock in a profit or limit a loss, it has always been possible to lay your bets during an on the Betfair Exchange – assuming you can find someone to match the other side of the bet.

That process, however, generally comes with an amount of unpredictability and requires a level of skill.

In times gone by, if you were trading a race, game or sporting event and wished to Cash Out, you had to do the calculations and work out how much you needed to either back or lay.

Fortunately for punters nowadays, Betfair has made the whole process a much simpler task with their Cash Out tool.

How does it work?

Betfair Cash Out allows bettors to achieve a profit or loss before an event has finished.

The calculations are done automatically to offer you a real time value of your bet based on their live market prices and with a single click you can accept a “Cash Out”.

When you click the Cash Out button you will be given the option to confirm, which you must also click to proceed with the process. It might be a slightly annoying extra step to have to take, but it’s a sensible safety feature that prevents users from cashing out by mistake.

Cash Out is available on numerous betting markets from horse racing to football and Betfair display an easily recognisable orange icon to let you know where and when it is available.

Auto and Partial Cash Out

Another betting management aspect to have in your arsenal is Betfair’s Auto and Partial Cash out features.

Auto Cash out is quite simple – to set it up, click the dropdown arrow next to the Cash Out button on your bet slip. You will be given the option to set a specific profit that would like to automatically cash out on.

Click save and if your profit hits your preset Auto Cash Out figure, Betfair will do the rest.

With Betfair’s Partial Cash Out feature, punters can choose to either Cash Out the full value of their bet, or a proportion of it – and a handy slider is available to make this easier.

What else do I need to know?

Betfair specify that their Cash Out amounts are not guaranteed – but this isn’t something worth looking into too deeply.

All punters know how unpredictable sport is and depending on any one of a myriad of factors, there may be latency in the system or a sudden large change in the market e.g. a final fence faller or a leader in the clear who begins to idle unexpectedly.

When that happens your Cash Out could fail, however, in those instances Betfair will send you a message informing you of this along with a new Cash Out value for you to consider.

When should I cash out?

There are no set parameters as to when you should use the Cash Out option with Betfair. It’s really up to the punter themselves.

Some punters would advise adopting specific Cash Out strategies like cashing out at the same value of their original stake or setting a win/lose limit and cashing out when they are reached.

However, there isn’t a definitive catch-all approach to using the Cash Out tool. What is certain, is that the option can provide an extra layer of control to your betting on the exchange, and it’s definitely worth learning how to use it.

More in this series:

What is the Betfair Exchange?
Back and Lay Betting Explained
Advantages of Using the Exchange
Placing a Back Bet on the Exchange
Placing a Lay Bet on the Exchange
How to Set Your Own Odds on the Exchange
Arbing and Matched Betting