Want to Prevent Losses in Bets? Money Management is the Key

Sports betting online can be one of the most rewarding and fun pastimes available on the web today. This is proven to be true the sheer number of quality betting providers that now exist on the internet. Every day, millions of people from all walks of life spend money placing bets at their preferred sportsbooks, across a wide range of sports and betting markets.

• effective money management will help to increase profits;
• money management is an applied system;
• you can create or customize your own money management system;
• sports betting pros always employ money management systems;
• money management systems will help to keep losses down.

The Meaning of Money Management

The global sports betting industry is worth billions, and is one of the easiest ways for virtually anyone (over legal age) to make money by placing bets. However, if you do decide that you would like to make sports bets (or any other kind of a bet) online for real money, you will need to know how to manage your money carefully.

Whenever you hear someone talking about any negative experiences that they have had with online sports betting, it usually revolves around them losing all of their money on a long shot bet. Alternatively, you may hear about someone that chased bets on the Superbowl or soccer world cup and ran out of money.

If this happens, there really is no way to recover losses and throwing good money after bad will get you out of the game faster than you can say “poor money management skills”!

In order to be successful at sports betting online, you not only need to have a working understanding of odds and betting markets, you also need to understand betting strategies and how to handle your money effectively.

In this quick but thorough guide to sports betting money management tips, we break down effective management strategies, and show you how you can get the most out of your sports betting budget, right now.

Why is Money Management so Vital in Sports Betting?

While sports betting has always been around in one form or another, the practice has become hugely popular since the introduction of the modern online sportsbook. Virtually overnight, millions of sports fans around the world could now actually bet on the outcome of the match or event they were following, from the comfort and convenience of their own homes.

The idea of multiplying your bet amount by the posted (available) odds to forecast your potential profits soon caught on, as bettors realized that, the more they put up – the more they stand to win. Those with previous experience with real world (betting shops and race tracks) betting seemed to fair better than the ‘new generation’ of sports bettors, who generally tended to deplete funds rather quickly. The main difference between the two? Effective money management.

It is important to note at this stage that effective money management basics have nothing to do with the size of the bet that you put down. There is a generally misconception in the world of sports betting that it is better to bet small. This is not true. Betting small merely limits the amount of profit that you could potentially make.

On the contrary, effective money management will give you both the means and the confidence to size your bet according to the odds or the market that you are interested in. Effective money management means having the power to take advantage of a once in a lifetime bet, or incredible odds posted on a sure thing.

Good money management is about controlling your betting bank roll through expenditure and profit management, constantly revising your betting history and learning how to assess good prices and sport value wherever you find it. Of course, this is a lot to take in, especially if you are totally new to online sports betting.

The Pot

The pot or bankroll is the amount of money you have set aside for sports betting.

This is important because if you start with an initial bankroll of $1,000 and you lose it all, you should probably take a break. It’s a method to abide by so you don’t go overboard and dip into your life’s savings.

The best way to manage your bankroll is betting a certain amount of money per bet. For example, it’s wise to bet one to five units (or one to five percent of your bankroll) on every wager. That’s a helpful rule because if you start with $1,000 and bet 10 units or $100 on a team you really like and they lose, your money could go down the drain fast.

Of course, this differs if you plan on gambling on a daily basis or just for the weekend. If you go to the sportsbook with your friends and are okay with throwing away a set amount of money, bankrolls and units don’t often matter. However, if your plan is to slowly grow your bankroll, it’s best to limit the amount you bet, no matter how confident you are.

Money Management Strategies

Forget Martingale, Fibonacci and all the other progressive betting systems that will always drive you to bankruptcy sooner or later. Essentially, there’s only one progressive sports betting strategy that might be worth your while, especially if you’re on a tight budget. On top of that, we’ll present the money management betting strategies used by most pro punters these days.

Fixed Stake

This strategy is the most simple to put into practice as you always bet a fixed figure for every single bet you make. This is usually a percentage of your initial pot and it allows the bettor to give equal value to each bet. This is a very safe strategy, especially for beginners, as it doesn’t over complicate things and it’s easy to work out your stake.

Kelly Criterion

This is one of the most well-known strategies in football betting. The bet stake is calculated as a percentage of your bankroll by multiplying the odds by the chances of winning, then dividing the odds and taking away 1. E.g. If you were to bet on Liverpool beating Everton at odds of 1.98 and thought the Reds had an 80% chance of winning. You’d bet (1.98 x 0.75 – 1) / (1.98 – 1) = 0.494 or 49% of your bankroll.

Star System

This strategy is the most risky and you’ll need some bravery to adopt it as it’s even more aggressive the Kelly Criterion and is based on the martingale system. Put simply, it involves an incremental number or bets which goes 1, 1, 1 / 2, 5, 10, 15, 25, 40 STOP. You would start the progression (‘/’) only after a win and you’d need to be extremely confident in your predictions to adopt this strategy. But get it right, and you can significant boost your winnings.

Simple Steps to Manage Your Bankroll

Just remember the following steps, and you’ll have a basic grasp on how every “sharp” bettor regulates their bankroll.

Consider Your Sports Betting Goals

Everyone has a different reason as to why they decided to start betting on sports. Some prefer to bet on sports as a way to relax, while other find that betting on the games that they follow helps to enhance their enjoyment of the game. Still others bet on sports as a way to make extra money on the side.

No matter why you like to bet on sports, considering your goals will help you to determine or design a good money management structure. If you bet on sports casually, you’ll undoubtedly have a smaller bankroll than if you bet on a more professional level. In either case, setting achievable and realistic betting goals for every session that you bet in, will help to preserve your capital and allow you to get the most mileage out of your bets.

Determine Your Bankroll

Before you even decide on what sports to bet on, or even what sports betting provider to sign up with, you need to have an idea of what you can realistically afford to put towards your bankroll. Your betting bankroll money needs to be completely separate from money used for your day to day expenses. In other words, you need to be sure that this is indeed disposable income.

Determining your betting bankroll also ties in with your ultimate goals as a sports bettor.

• Are you planning on just betting on every other Saturday?
• Are you aiming to make extra money from sports betting?

Answering these sorts of questions will help you to decide what your bankroll is actually going to be.

Don’t forget that you can also boost your bankroll with additional betting bonus offers. In fact, bonuses are not just there to entice you to sign up with a betting provider. You will find plenty of great enhancements and incentives that can keep your betting bonus strong and help you to maintain solid money management at the same time.

Don’t Think in Currency, Think in Units

Naturally, when you first set up your betting bankroll, you’ll be thinking about its value in currency such as Euros or USD (for example). However, when it comes to the actual betting, you’ll find that professional sports bettors only think and speak of bet value in units.

Organizing the value of your bankroll into usable units will help you to manage your betting money more efficiently. When it comes to professional sports bettors, you’ll find that most will never bet more than ten units on a given bet (regardless of betting type). The value of the unit varies but, in for most bettors, the unit increments are usually valued at 0.5 and, according to most betting experts, betting units that are valued at more than 1% of the entire bankroll are big and thus fairly risky.

Percentage Money Management

Converting your bankroll into units and not currency, introduces you to percentage money management. Thinking of your money as a percentage of your entire bankroll and not as actual euros or dollars, will allow you to be more rational and analytical when it comes to betting. While currency values fluctuate, almost on a daily basis, unit percentages remain constant, allowing for easier value calculations when betting or realizing profits from successful bets.

Never Chase Your Losses

Here is a common issue with novice sports bettors. You make a series of bets and, through inexperience (and plain bad luck) you hit a losing streak, which naturally reduces your betting bankroll significantly. It is natural to panic or to act emotionally, with a sudden urgency to ‘get back’ your losses. This is a mistake, since chasing your losses is an emotional response, your chances of making good, rational bets are very low.

In this instance, the best way to manage your money is by taking a step back and not placing any more bets until you have regained your faculties. Lost bets can never be recovered. The only thing you can do is to learn from your mistakes and rebuild your bankroll, slowly and methodically.

Keep Track of Your Betting History

Keeping an accurate record of every bet that you have made since joining your sports betting provider, is a great way to help your money management along. Experience comes through making mistakes and experimenting. By keeping a record of your bets, you can easily what worked and what didn’t. It is also a great way to assess if your current sports strategy or your overall betting strategy is actually paying off dividends.