How to Manage Your Betting Bankroll

Whether you know everything there is to know about sports betting or not, the most important thing if you want to make a long term profit is to to correctly manage your bankroll.

How to Start a Bankroll

First of all, you need to decide how much you will start your bankroll with. The best way to do this is to calculate your incomings and outgoings, on important things such as bills and living costs. Once you figure out your disposable income, you can then decide how much you want to set aside for betting. This is your bankroll.

You also need to figure out how long the bankroll should last you. So, for example, if you get paid monthly you will be looking at your bankroll lasting at least 28 days.

Managing You Bankroll

Once you have set aside a figure for your bankroll, you need to manage it properly. There’s no point setting aside £500 for a month and then putting it all on an odds on favourite in a horse race who then gets beat.

You must look at it with a business mind and look at long term profit instead of short term gain.

Proper money management is required so you can afford to lose bets without going completely bust. Remember, not every bet will be a winner and bankroll management is in place to ensure you have the chance to make a long term profit by allowing you to place more bets.

The best way to manage your bankroll is to work on a points or percentage system. Divide your overall bankroll by 100 to give you a monetary value for each point, with each point being 1% of your betting bankroll.

So, lets say your bankroll is £500 and you divide it by 100. Each point, or percentage, will be £5.

When betting with this system, you need to set yourself a points limit for each bet. Most professional gamblers will only allow themselves a maximum of 2% per bet. This gives them 50 bets from their bankroll and will allow for any possible losing run they may go on.

If they win and the bankroll increases, the stakes are higher and the winnings will be higher. If they suffer a few losses, the stake goes down. But, they will always be betting the same percentage of their bankroll.

If your bankroll is £500 and you bet 2% on each bet, your starting stake money will be £10 per bet. If you have a few winning bets and your bankroll increases to £750, your stake will raise to £15 per bet but it will still be 2% of the bankroll.

This system ensures you will not blow your bankroll on one bet, regardless of how much of a sure thing you think it is.

Stay Responsible

The key to anything when gambling is to stay responsible. Most casual gamblers will change their stake depending on how high they think their chances of winning are. They then chase their losses if they lose or increase their stakes if they get confident after a big win.

With proper bankroll management, you will stick to a formula regardless of whether you won or lost your last bet. This eliminates the chance of emotion-led or reckless gambling and maintains a business like approach to sports betting.

Always Remain Analytical

Even if you put a proper bankroll management system into place, you still need to ensure you approach every bet in an analytical way. Carry out your research, study statistics and maintain a level head when betting. Do not let emotions get in the way and ensure you are only placing bets you have fully prepared for.