Planning and managing your bankroll in sports betting: why is it so important?

Sports betting for the vast majority of punters is both an activity done for entertainment purposes and a means of getting some extra income to their pocket. Wagering on their favorite teams and players, in their favorite sport is something that has always been a key motive for the recreational bettors. Wagering based on some sort of betting edge and based on data analysis has been more of a thing for the professional, advanced or regular bettors.

Regardless of the type of bettor one is, being able to manage smartly, effectively and efficiently the betting money is of paramount importance, not to say an absolute necessity. Punters who hope to get some money from betting see a long-term perspective in wagering, which requires a more systematic and sophisticated approach to staking. They don’t just wager and cash immediately their winnings, although there are plenty of bookmakers offering instant withdrawal betting app Australia. They maintain a bankroll, which they plan and manage strategically in order to be able to optimize their chances of winning, while at the same time mitigating the risks of losing bigtime and in a very short period of time.

Planning and managing your bankroll is so essential that it must be a key, integral part of every bettor’s game. Bankroll in sports betting is the money available for staking. Unlike the money that people have in real life – the money for betting is not going to multiply or grow unless you either pour more of it in the account or you gain profits from winning bets. So, the way you handle this money will determine – at least at some considerable level – the chances you have for making some income from sports betting. 

Think of the bankroll as a tank of money. If you don’t have a plan for keeping this tank at satisfactory levels, then most probably you will be able to generate money only by reloading it. But if you have a money management plan for your bankroll, protect your money, stake wisely and carefully allocate betting units to wagers, then you will most likely be able to enjoy the fruits of your game. 

In fact, the purpose of bankroll management is to help bettors avoid losing all their money in one single bet or in a losing streak, while simultaneously improving the possibility for long-term profits. 

There are a lot of different approaches to bankroll management and if you commit yourself to some reading, you will be able to appreciate each and every strategy distinctively for its value and long-term effectiveness. 

There is the fixed unit or flat betting strategy, where punters just stake a specific number of a predetermined unit size for every bet. The unit size is set in advance and it usually depends on the bankroll size. This strategy is a relatively safe approach to sports betting and it can give long-term profits. 

There is the percentage betting strategy, where bettors have a fixed percentage of their bankroll put on every wager. It sounds pretty much like the previous approach, but in essence it is differentiated in that the actual bet keeps on changing as the bankroll changes. If for example you decide to stake a 2% of your bankroll on every bet, then an initial bankroll of 1000 units will give you a stake of 20 units, whereas a bankroll that has grown at 2000 units will give you a stake of 40 units. 

There is the well-known Kelly Criterion strategy, where bettors allocate a percentage of their bankroll based on a highly sophisticated formula that takes into account the probability of winning, the bankroll size and the expected value. Using the formula can give bettors the optimal size of the bet, which is greater than the probability of winning and smaller than the probability of losing. 

Of course there are other strategies and approaches as well, but these three are the ones that are most frequently used by the majority bettors around the world.

The good thing with bankroll management is that it might not be confined to certain strategies, but be an approach that is unique, customized and fully tailored to the needs and wants of each and every distinctive punter. But what is important is to understand that there can’t be NO bankroll management plan or strategy, because this will surely lead to long-term (or even short-term) losses.