Guide to Bankroll Management in Sports Betting

As a critical component of any sports betting strategy, bankroll management can often be the difference between unsuccessful and successful sports bettors.

Throughout your sports betting career, you will have many losses, but if you are successful at managing your funds, you have a chance of coming out ahead.

Let’s take a closer look at everything sports bettors should know about bankroll management strategy, as well as some practical advice you can use today to get started. Keep in mind, that every sports bettor has a different financial situation.

This means that how much, how often, and when you should bet at the best sports betting sites is specific to your own situation.

In sports betting, bankroll management simply means the amount of money you want to wager with, and how you manage wager size to manage that amount. Proper bankroll management includes choosing a strategy for deploying those funds as well, whether you bet the same amount each time, or vary your bet size based on a confidence model.

To begin, you’ll want to assess the appropriate size of your own starting bankroll and take things from there. Oftentimes, the difference between professional sports bettors and those who come close, is simply bankroll management.

Let’s dive into some specific steps you can take to become a successful sports bettor using a proper strategy.

For starters, your spend should never be more than you can financially comfortably afford to lose. Sports betting is a marathon, not a sprint, and if you plan to be successful at it, you should be prepared to grind.

No matter how good you are at sports betting, or how bulletproof you think your betting system is, losing streaks will inevitably happen and you should be positioned to weather them. Taking into account bonus bets, different bet types, and different betting strategies is all part of successfully managing your bankroll.

As a general rule of thumb, most professional bettors calculate their units via a percentage model, making each unit a percent of their total initial pot. You should never allocate more than 5% (typically should be in the 1-2% range) of your total bankroll to a unit.

Said a different way, if your total bankroll is $1,000, your unit bets should be in the $10-$20 range. This way, each flat bet you make can not affect your bankroll by more than 1-2% of its total.

One of the biggest things amateur bettors struggle to avoid in making their bankroll management work is leaving emotion out of the equation. Whether you have a sports betting model or go off of feel, you should always be as objective as possible when analyzing betting lines.

Gambling addiction is a very real thing. Letting your emotions take control can put your entire bankroll at risk. When betting on college football, for example, I try to avoid wagers that involve my alma mater as there will be some inherent emotion in it.

An effective bankroll management system begins with determining the unit size you want for each bet and sticking to it even through losing streaks.

By having the same amount of money allocated to each unit, you’ll be able to place more bets while using money management to pre-determine how much each wager will be for.

For many, understanding their bankroll begins and ends with calculating their unit size and sticking to it. When bettors start to chase a losing streak by increasing their unit size, it oftentimes is the first step in the path to a gambling problem.

Again, it can’t be stressed enough that you should never bet more than you can afford to lose without your lifestyle being affected.

While actual strategy is part of the equation in sports betting, bankroll management is equally important. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples of systems that you can use today to make your sports bets.

One approach to bankroll strategy is a flat betting model, which is arguably the best if you are making your first bet. In this model, every single bet should be the same amountvbased on the total you are starting with.

Each bet you make should be exactly one unit, with a single wager never being more than the preset amount (unit) of your bankroll. This is a great way to weather a losing streak, as well as set yourself up for a nice winning streak where the units stack up.

As the name implies, a confidence model is one where you determine your wager size based on how confident you are the bet will win. Unlike a fixed unit model, your big bets will be the ones you feel the most confident in.

While it is more difficult to effectively manage your funds with this model, as your bet amount will vary, it can be a great one if you have the patience to pick and choose your bets patiently. Your long-term success in confidence model betting will be determined by trusting your confidence, but you’ll have to weather the storm when your banked amount dips with losses.

Confidence betting models are good for a smaller bankroll, as you have less to manage and can make your next wager your most important one. It will suffer with bad bets, however, as a large portion of your bankroll will be gone with losses you were confident in.

Percentage model betting is similar to flat betting, except that it’s based on the percentage of the amount of your initial stake of total funds. For example, if your total bankroll is $1,000, and you set your unit as 2%, your unit size will be $20.

In this model, it’s critical to keep your unit size in line with your pre-established percentage, even when you think you have a greater perceived edge. One bet should never be bigger than another, despite whether you think Las Vegas has set a bad number or you are extra confident.

With this model, your day-to-day bankroll changes will be minimal, and your bankroll size will remain mostly steady even if you start losing.

While the Kelly Criterion Model is best known in investing and stock trading, it actually started out as a betting model. It uses a combination of percentage model betting and confidence model betting and a formula to determine your wager size. The equation for the Kelly criterion model is as follows:

F = (PB - Q) /B

F = Bet Size

B = Decimal Odds of Bet

P = Implied Probability of Bet Winning

Q = 1 - P

While other bettors might not use it because of its complexity, those who can master it can have an advantage on the house. This model is great for calculating a wager size using math and reason, with every winning wager giving your model more confidence.

As with any facet of gambling, there are many pros of managing a bankroll that bettors should be aware of. Whether you are riding a winning streak or losing as of late, exploring bankroll management is a great way to wager responsibly.

Let’s dive into a few of the pros.

Gambling in a responsible manner is critical when making a bet, or wagering long term. With so much temptation out there and many states having a plethora of legal online sportsbooks, responsible gambling is becoming more and more important.

Part of responsible gaming is constantly reminding yourself that sports wagering should be approached as entertainment. Understanding bankroll management is one way to gamble in a responsible manner, making sure things don’t get out of control.

If you think you have a problem, there are many state and federal resources you can take advantage of to get help such as 1-800-GAMBLER and the National Council on Problem Gambling. Whether it is your first bet or you have been betting for years, a gambling problem can creep up at any time so be sure to take stock of your situation.

As betting continues to sweep across the country for popular sports such as the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and college football, responsible gaming will come more and more into focus. Below are a few tools to use to make sure you are gambling in a responsible manner.

Now that you know all the basics of bankroll management, here are some tips you can take advantage of.

Let’s dive into some of the frequently asked questions around bankroll management.

A bankroll is part of an overall betting strategy that helps determine a bettor’s bet size and how to deploy their money. In general, a bankroll is the total amount of money a bettor has allocated to wager with.

Yes, you should manage your bankroll while sports betting to ensure you can weather periods of losing without losing all of the money you have set aside to bet with.

You manage a sports betting bankroll by calculating unit size and sticking with your betting strategy in terms of how much you are betting and which bets you place.

Yes, you should have limits in your wagering bankroll, depending on which bankroll management strategy you choose. To start, calculate your unit size using one of the systems discussed on this page.

Bankroll management in sports wagering is important because it allows you to withstand losing periods by managing your money effectively.

You may save money in betting with a bankroll, as it will allow you to manage exactly how much money is coming in and out of your account. By more clearly highlighting losses, you can also dial into why those bets lost and make adjustments.

The Inquirer is not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.