Before pressing the button, "What does live betting mean?" is a question of price. Cash out lets a bettor settle a bet before the event ends, for a sum the book offers at that moment. What does cash out mean in betting terms? The book buys the bet back. If the pick is going well, the offer is above the stake; if it is going badly, below. Either way the price includes a margin, and knowing how it is set makes the choice easier.
A cash out bet against a plain cash in at the end is a trade: certainty now for a smaller share of the possible return. Over many bets the difference is exactly the margin the book keeps on each offer, so frequent cashing out lowers what a bettor gets back in the long run. The trade is worth it now and then, when the situation has changed in a way the original bet never priced, and the sum still matters.
How does cash out betting work in practice? The book takes the current live odds of the bet winning, works out what the bet is worth at those odds, and offers a little less than that value. The gap is its margin on the buy back. A cash out bet calculator does the same sum from the outside: stake, original odds and current odds in, fair value out, so the offer can be compared with what the bet is actually worth.
The book works out what the bet is worth at the current live odds and offers slightly less, keeping the gap as its margin on buying the bet back.
Given the stake, the original odds and the current odds, it returns the fair value of the bet, so the book's offer can be compared against it.
Before kickoff, as part of a plan, so the choice rests on a reason worked out calmly rather than on nerves during the game.
The bettor sets a value in advance, and the bet settles on its own once the offer reaches that figure, removing the need to watch the screen.
Usually not. Most books exclude bets placed with bonus tokens from cash out, since the stake behind them was never real money.
Yes. Every offer carries the book's margin, so settling early again and again lowers the total a bettor gets back across many bets.