Sports Betting Bankroll Management Guide – The Life Jacket for Effective Betting
Betting on your favorite sports can be a fun pastime activity. Still, if you’re not thinking much about it, you could easily lose your hard-earned money in a heartbeat. So, if you want to become a profitable pundit, it’s of the utmost importance that you learn everything about sports betting bankroll management.
If you’re a novice bettor or an experienced one, and you’re unfamiliar with managing your bankroll, don’t worry because we’re here to help you.
In this article, we’ll explain in detail bankroll management, its importance, various tips, and much more interesting information.
After reading our guide to sports betting bankroll management, you’ll undoubtedly become an efficient bettor who can make regular profits.
Without further ado, we’ll begin!
What is Bankroll Management in Sports Betting?
Bankroll management is an efficient way to manage your funds while betting on various sports. It includes putting away a specific amount of money you’re willing to lose and only betting a small percentage of your bankroll on a sports event, match, or game.
Here’s an example. If your bankroll is $1000, you should bet something within 1-2% of your bankroll on a particular sports game. In this case, that would be between $10-$20. It might look like a small amount of money, but if you win consistently while betting 1-2% of your bankroll on each game, you could accumulate a large amount of money.
Why Is Sports Betting Bankroll Management Important?
Bankroll management in sports betting is essential. But why? Knowing how to manage our bankroll is of utmost importance because if you don’t know how you will ruin your chances of becoming a successful bettor. Even the smartest sports pundits would go bankrupt if they didn’t follow bankroll management practices. Let’s see why that is the case.
It Prevents Chasing Losses
A foolproof betting bankroll management strategy ensures you don’t chase losses when you’ve lost a few bets. Surprisingly, even the most seasoned betting enthusiasts can’t avoid losing streaks occasionally since they’re just a part of the betting experience. Moreover, it’s always tempting to put a larger amount of money on a bet than you would usually put, but that doesn’t mean your odds of winning will increase.
What’s great about bankroll management is that you’re provided with a set of rules that you should abide by. Initially, the rules will be hard to follow, but once you see the benefits, you won’t think about chasing losses again.
It Helps During A Hot Streak
Bankroll management is as important in the previous segment as in this one. For instance, imagine that you’ve won three consecutive bets, and you think you’re on a roll. Then, you decide to increase your bet size and go for that big win. For obvious reasons, this would be a huge mistake because if you lose that big bet you’ve made, then your winning streak would’ve meant nothing.
That’s why you must follow a sports betting bankroll management strategy since it forbids you from going for that big win and ensures that you don’t dramatically change your bet size. All in all, you shouldn’t make careless bets while you’re on a winning streak.
It Helps To Withstand Multiple Losses
Multiple losses will prevent you from making a profit. When that happens, you should stop betting for a minute and consider how much money you’re willing to spend on placing wagers.
A good bankroll management strategy demands that you decrease the stake of every bet you make when you suffer multiple losses. This allows you to avoid losing a large amount of money.
Betting should be a fun experience, and you can do it longer if you rationally spend your money.
Sports Betting Bankroll Management Strategies
Below, you’ll see various bankroll management strategies you can apply while betting on your favorite sports. No one can guarantee you’ll make more money using any of the following strategies, but they can be an effective way to save your funds.
The Fixed Unit Strategy
If you’re a novice sports bettor and not familiar with bankroll management, we highly recommend using the fixed unit strategy. You don’t have to be knowledgeable in math to figure out the system since it’s pretty straightforward. Also, it’s a strategy that will make sure that you’re consistent and systematic as well.
With this bankroll management system, you should pick a certain bet size and stick to it while betting. The bet size should be 1-2% of your bankroll.
For instance, let’s say you’re willing to put away $1000 for sports betting, and you decide that your bet size will be 1% of your bankroll. That means that you’ll always bet $10 for each wager that you make.
The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to worry about losing a large amount of money. On the flip side, the major drawback of using the fixed unit strategy is that your potential profit will be quite limited because with betting only $10, you won’t be able to make a fortune.
Percentage Method
Another popular sports betting bankroll management strategy is the percentage method. It’s similar to the previous method, but rather than betting the same amount of money on each wager, with the percentage method, you’ll bet the same percentage of your bankroll for each wager.
Suppose your entire bankroll is $500, and you decide to bet 2% of your bankroll for each wager, meaning your first bet would be made with $10. Nonetheless, that number could change from time to time. If your bankroll goes up to $600, you would wager $12 for each bet. On the other hand, if you go on a losing streak and your bankroll goes down to $400, you will wager $8 for each bet.
The advantage of using the percentage method is that if you go on a winning streak, that’ll go in your favor since the longer you win, the more money you’ll win. The downside of using the percentage strategy is that if you go on a losing streak, it might take a while to recover since you wager less money.
Potential Return Method
The percentage method and the fixed unit strategy take the size of the bankroll into account, but the potential return method will take odds into account. Using this method, your goal is to win 1 unit per bet and not risk one unit per bet.
For example, you might make an against-the-spread bet on an NBA game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Philadelphia 76ers, with odds of -110. In that scenario, rather than betting one unit, you would place a wager of 1.10 units to win 1.0.
However, if you bet on the underdog, say the Mavs, at +120 odds, you should place a bet of 0.83 (1/1.2) units to win 1.0.
What’s great about this method is that it’s based on the premise that favorites will win more games (less risky) while underdogs will rarely win (more risky).
Confidence Strategy
Another popular sports betting bankroll management strategy is the confidence method. This strategy is not as reliable as the ones we’ve mentioned earlier because it relies on how much you’re confident about making a certain bet. The confidence strategy will only be efficient if you possess enough knowledge regarding the team or the player you’re betting on to feel confident about making that bet.
The premise of the confidence strategy is to assign a particular number of units to each match based on how confident you are in making a bet.
For instance, most confidence strategies recommend that you use a scale of 1-3, meaning you can place a bet up to 3% of your total bankroll.
The 1 on the scale signifies low confidence in making a bet, meaning you’ll only wager 1% of your bankroll. Number 2 indicates you have a medium confidence level in placing a bet, meaning you’ll wager only 2% of your bankroll. The number 3 on the scale shows you have high-level confidence in making a bet, so you’ll wager 3% of your total bankroll.
The advantage of using this method is you can boost your profits by placing more of your funds on the bets you are most confident about. The drawback is that making the right call is hard, especially if you know nothing about the match you’re betting on.
Kelly Criterion
A highly popular bankroll management method is called the Kelly Criterion. Suppose you want to use this sports betting bankroll strategy. In that case, you must follow this formula to successfully calculate which percentage of your bankroll should place on a wager:
f*= ((p(b+1))-1)/b
- f* – is the percentage of your total bankroll that you should bet
- b – is the profit based on the odds of your wager (2.0 odds will give you a solid profit of $10 if you’ve placed $10 on a bet).
- p – is the probability of winning the wager you’ve made(this is your estimate), from 0 to 100%.
Example:
- The odds are 2.0 or 1:1 on a specific match, b=1
- You estimate that the probability of you winning the bet is 55%, p=0.55
- Here’s how it looks when you put all the variables in the formula: ((0.55(1+1)) -1)/1 = 0.1. So, if we look at this example, you should place a wager that is 10% of your total bankroll.
Sports Betting Bankroll Management Tips
If you’re unfamiliar with sports betting bankroll management strategies, these tips will be useful.
- Track your bets – If you want to be a successful bettor, you should keep track of your bets. You can write all of your bets in a notebook, or you can open, for example, Google Sheets and track bets in that program.
- Stay level-headed – Don’t get too confident and place a reckless bet, as you’ll lose your money. Instead, use a bankroll management strategy to protect you from rash decisions.
- Don’t Drink and Place Bets – Watching a game and opening a few cans of beer isn’t all that bad. However, don’t mix alcohol with betting because you can make some irrational bets and lose your hard-earned money in the blink of an eye.
Sports Betting Bankroll Management FAQ
Below, I’ll provide you answers to the most common questions regarding sports betting bankroll management.
Do Bankroll Management Strategies Guarantee Profits While Betting on Sports?
- Bankroll management methods don’t guarantee you’ll make profits. Instead, it improves your chances of having long-term success while betting on sports while minimizing the risk of losing a large amount of your funds.
Which Percentage of My Total Bankroll Should I Use For Making Bets?
- It’s recommended that you wager anything from 1% to 5% of your entire bankroll on each bet.
Is It Wise for Me to Increase My Bet Size After Going On A Winning Streak?
- It would be wise not to increase your bet size if you go on a winning streak because doing so could result in a significant loss of money. Instead, you should stick to a sports betting bankroll management strategy.