Money Management in Sports Betting

Posted at March 17th, 2011 Add your comment

Betting sometimes looks like very profitable hobby, but cruel truth is only 1% of bettors are making profit in a long term. Other 99% are losers. Despite widespread opinion the handicapping skills are the most important, this is only the partially true. Yes, if you don’t have betting skills and experience your account will probably be wiped out. But, if you don’t know how much to bet the result will be always the same. And here I come to the point. Probably the most common reason for failure in betting is poor money management. The most of the punters are betting too much on each game. Few wins would bring them some fast profit, they feel powerful and additionally increase the stakes. Problem is bad streaks are inevitable even to the top professionals. If you bet too much, run of few bad results will eat your previous profit and betting account in total. If you are not able to manage your emotions, you will face addiction, borrowing money and a real trouble. So, my personal opinion is money management is more important than good handicapping skills or any other requirements for long term betting success. Good management of your money will reduce the chance of extreme losses and help to turn this hobby into a successful long term investment. Begin to manage your betting like a business that doesn't need a good day, week, or a good month, but rather needs to show a positive balance at the end of the year.

Managing Money

The major benefit of good money management is you cannot go to bankrupt! Yes, you’ve read it well. There’s no possibility to go broke! How it’s possible? Let’s go step by step. First task to do is making a bankroll. That is money set aside specifically for betting and it must be kept apart from your usual living expenses. Also, it must be amount that you can afford to lose. Exclude any possibility of borrowing money, or selling the things. It can be as small or as big as you like, but the rule is it must not affect your everyday living under any circumstances!

When you have established your bankroll, next decision is how much of it you will put on each bet, 1%, 30%, or 50%? There’re many different opinions about it, but common for all of them is you must not bet on single event with more than 5% of your bankroll, best 2% or 3% (regardless of its actual size). The imperative is to bet that low percentage of a bankroll and the reason is simple. Losing streaks are inevitable! They happen to amateurs and top professionals, you can’t avoid them. If you are wagering too high of bank’s percentage, only one losing streak could eat up your whole bankroll and wash out you from the market. If you expect these bad runs, you won’t be too upset which could prevent you from doing the wrong thing (chase the losses or quit betting).

Usual question is what if I make a good run, wouldn’t it be more profitable if I increase my stakes? Well, here is the main catch. You calculate the percents from the current bank, when you win your stakes are bigger when lose they are smaller. When you’re winning it looks more attractive to put 30% on each bet, but when you’re losing this way will protect your bank. You will keep your bets on 2% (or 3%) of the bank and won’t ever face the bankrupt!

It is much easier to say than to do it and there’re plenty of problems in implementation of money management, the most of them are related to discipline. So...

Managing Emotions

When you are winning, it’s very tempting to put a lot on each event and even to make more bets than usual. But, the crucial is to keep your expectations realistic and reachable. Stick to your plan and remain disciplined. There are two most common mistakes that you have to avoid.

Chasing the losses is the biggest danger to your bank and a losing strategy almost the every time. It refers to increasing bet size based on the last bet in a try to recoup the losses quickly. If you lost $100 on first bet, then make a second bet of $200 attempting to make up for your loss, you would be chasing. Chasing is so big nightmare for your bankroll because you lose you calmness, risk too much of your money and make yourself vulnerable to the big losses. The worst case is when bettor loses several games in a row and destroys his betting account. It is not easy (and not everyone is capable for that), but you have to remain calm and to keep your self-confidence. Bad streaks come and go.

Long-shot accumulators are not so lethal, but only if you have some spare money on your account. If you want to put some small amount (few bucks, Euros, quid) in attempt to earn for a summer holiday, go ahead. But, real danger comes when a bettor sees it as a way to make up for his losses. So, first $100 bet is lost. Let’s try to return that money with 10 bets accumulator and $5 stake. To win one bet is hard enough, how could be a good idea to believe in 10 straight wins?! The odds for long-shot accumulators are absurdly bad, so why not save those five bucks. Maybe once you will hit all 10 bets, but in a long-term it’s better to save the money than to play these.

A Final Word

Doing a good money management is far from being easy and can’t be applied by everyone, but it is something that makes the difference between winners and losers. Stay calm, keep your confidence and have patience, patience and more patience.

Stay Updated

More about: