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Like in any other business, a proper bankroll management strategy in sports betting helps guarantee profit in the long run. While sports betting money management isn’t the most exciting topic, it’s essential to your success.
Your sports betting bankroll is different from the one in real life. Unlike in the real world, your ability to make money from sports betting depends on the money you have. If you’ve burned your bankroll, the only way to generate more income is by reloading your account. And that’s what sports betting money management is all about.
The key to sports betting success is to view beating bookies as a long-term process. Since the margins are extremely thin, short-term variance can burn your bankroll if you play too aggressively. You can find out more about wise sports betting money management in the following sections.
How Do You Manage Money When Betting?
Most sports bettors bank on profitable betting systems and strategies to make money in sports betting. But what many fail to realize is that proper bankroll management is as crucial. If you don’t pay enough attention to sports betting money management, you might not be able to advance in your gambling career.
Good sports betting money management minimizes the chances of extreme losses. Even better, it helps turn sports betting into a good investment opportunity. Below are some of the best sports betting money management strategies.
Flat Betting Model
The simplest and safest way to manage your bankroll is to use the flat betting model. In this strategy, you bet the same amount for every play. It’s not advisable to chase or raise your bet according to your last wager or series of bets. So, set your unit size and wager one unit for every bet.
Percentage Model
Like flat betting, the percentage model involves betting the same amount for each play. The only difference is that your unit size depends on your sports betting bankroll. While the figures should be consistent, your unit size moves way quicker than the previous model. Be careful, though, as it can be harder to recover from losses.
Confidence Model
When using the confidence model, you can raise the size of your wager in games where you feel more confident. Ideally, you can increase your bet size to up to two or three units only. Going beyond that is inadvisable unless you have a reputation for winning most of your confident bets. It’s best to take this model for a test drive before committing to it.
Kelly Criterion Model
The Kelly criterion model is like the confidence model but on steroids. Here, you try to figure out your winning percentage for every bet instead of setting a confidence level. Note, however, that this strategy is only advisable if you’ve done thorough research on how to determine winning percentages accurately.
Regardless of which sports betting money management strategy you use, monitoring your results is essential. That will give you the necessary bits to audit how well you’re performing as a sports bettor.
Sports Betting Money Management Tips
Mastering good sports betting money management is one of, if not the most valuable strategy you can do. But you don’t need any advanced math skills to be so good at it. Below are some practical sports betting money management tips you can use to make your experience more lucrative.
Play Within Your Bankroll
Whether you’re a recreational or professional sports bettor, it’s vital to know that you shouldn’t be betting too much. Betting within your budget means you must only gamble with money you can afford to lose. That way, you wouldn’t have to stress over some bad luck and just enjoy your game.
Set a Separate Sports Betting Budget
Many sports bettors know this tip but never put it into practice. It’s essential to set aside money from your finances and set a gambling budget for a certain period. You can do this either weekly or monthly, depending on what works for you. This lesson is important because it’s easy to lose track of your wins and losses when you’re charging them from your bank account each time you place a bet.
Keep Detailed Records
Monitoring your wagers and sports betting money management are convenient ways of tracking your betting history. Having a detailed record helps you review your previous wagers. That way, you have an idea of where your failures and successes came from in your sports betting performance. You may record the details in an Excel document or if you’re old-fashioned enough, a journal.
Set a Stop Loss Limit
Not all sports bettors use a stop-loss limit, and it’s a recipe for falling into a big hole fast. By predetermining an amount you’re comfortable to lose in a gambling session, you’ll know when to stop. If you’re playing with cash, separate your gambling budget from your other money. Sports betting professionals either use session stop loss or stop win limit.
How Can You Reduce Your Risk in Sports Betting?
Sports betting comes with its fair share of risks, and even the most seasoned bettors aren’t immune to this. But with the right strategies and clever sports betting money management, you can minimize risk when wagering. Check out some advice below.
Pick the Best Odds
With so many bookies competing for your attention, each tries to offer the most lucrative rates. So before you commit to a sportsbook, comparison shop the different offers to make sure you get solid betting odds that help you beat the betting lines regularly. Even better, filtering out your options prevent the risk of ending up with skewed bookmaker-friendly odds.
Use Hedging To Reduce Losses
If you’re new to sports betting, hedging means wagering on alternative markets or results to minimize losses. It’s perfect for close matches with no clear winner. However, not all sportsbooks allow hedging, and you usually need to risk placing a higher total stake on different outcomes. Nevertheless, hedging may be worth your while in gambling markets with long odds or less clear-cut winners.
Give Alternative Markets a Try
Good sports betting money management involves playing smart. So, if one market is constantly throwing you into losses, then maybe it’s about time to try your luck in a different one. You can choose something pretty similar to your market or an entirely different option. The same advice goes if you’re, let’s say, betting on SU and ATS lines with no luck. You might want to change into something like parlay or total betting.
Go for In-Play Betting
Live or in-play betting allows you to tailor your bets to the games once they commence instead of having a fixed wager before the match begins. To put it simply, in-play betting lets you take your time and make smarter decisions by seeing how well or poorly the favorites and underdogs are performing. That also helps you consider other significant factors, such as injuries, weather conditions, and overall team/individual performances, which are only visible during the game.
Build a Sports Betting Money Management System
Like how many sports bettors focus on establishing profitable betting systems and strategies, paying attention to bankroll management is essential. The best thing about sports betting money management is that it helps minimize the risk of extreme losses. With a good money management strategy in place, it can be easier to be more responsible with your gambling money.
