lay odds

Related to lay odds: give odds

lay odds

1. To offer a bet with favorable odds to other bettors. Bookmakers are laying odds that the company's new smartphone outsells its competitors 2:1.
2. To assert complete certainty about something. I'll lay odds that Jeremy tries to skip out on paying me back for dinner.
See also: lay, odds
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

lay odds

Make a bet on terms favorable to the other party, as in I'll lay odds that it will rain before the week is out. [c. 1600] The closely related lay a wager means "make a bet," as in He laid a wager that Don would be late. [c. 1300]
See also: lay, odds
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

lay (or give) odds

1 offer a bet with odds favourable to the other person betting. 2 be very sure about something.
The opposite of lay odds in sense 1 is take odds which means ‘offer a bet with odds unfavourable to the other person betting’.
See also: lay, odds
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • give odds
  • give odds that
  • give odds that (something will happen)
  • at odds over (something)
  • against all odds
  • against the odds
  • at odds
  • odds
  • by all odds
  • be at odds (with)
References in periodicals archive
Evans has seen bookies starting to lay odds on his possible successor, with Frenchman Gerard Houillier favourite and John Toshack, Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish and Ruud Gullit next in line.
SKYBET were the only bookmaker still prepared to lay odds on the next Premier League manager to leave his current position after rumours surfaced last night that Derby's Billy Davies may be on the verge of leaving Pride Park.
That has tempted the bookies to lay odds of 12-1 for a Barrichello-Montoya one-two, or 16-1 with Ralf following Rubens home.
Sacrificed on the altar of a shady Madras bookmaker trying to lay odds on a one-day tournament that would otherwise have been forgotten more quickly than amnesia itself.
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER continues his search for a bright new star of musical theatre tonight, and VC's decision to lay odds of 4-1 about Simona to be booted out this evening could be music to punters' ears.
Bookmaking giant William Hill agreed to lay odds against snow falling on the Daily Record's new multi-million building at Central Quay in Glasgow.
Although it's not the first time he has beaten her I'd lay odds she'll probably decide that somehow it was her fault and that she wants her husband back.
To lay odds of 1,000 as a single bet requires the layer to stump up a substantial sum to win very little.
I would lay odds the answer would be in terms that even the French and Germans, normally deaf to other languages unless it suits them, would understand.
In fact, if I were a betting man then I would lay odds on me not being around the team at all tomorrrow.
Hills were one of the few firms still prepared to lay odds on Lazio to win against Hellenic minnows Egaleo in last night's Uefa Cup Group E contest.
It's essentially a number-crunching program, that takes an initial supremacy assessment of a given football match, and provides suggested back or lay odds across the whole range of typical markets: 1x2, over/under, correct score, total goals, Asian handicaps, next goal and corners.
Apparently there was a time, long before exchanges, when it was commonplace for individuals to take a view on a sporting event, and then lay odds, to sizeable lumps of cash, that they were right, and you were wrong.
It has been asserted that, if such unfit persons use exchanges to lay odds regularly, the aims of regulation would be defeated.
I wouldn't want to lay odds on this one incurring a loss.