6 Straightforward Steps For Betting Bankroll Management

Your betting bankroll is how much money you’ve allocated toward a betting account. Think of it as a betting budget. For example, you may start the premier league season with a betting bankroll of £500 that you want to last you the duration of the season, depending on your betting of course. 

The considerations when managing your betting bankroll include:

1. Size of Betting Bankroll 
2. Types of bets you place
3. Tracking your bankroll 
4. Deciding your stake size
5. Level of risk aversion 
6. Pleasure from betting 

Your betting bankroll is how much money you’ve allocated toward a betting account.

1. Size Of Bankroll 

How much money you start with in betting bankroll will influence your management of the bankroll. Deciding how much money you put into it is totally up to you. A golden rule is to only ever put in what you can afford to lose. Betting is as much of a sport as football betting. 

The ultimate purpose of betting is to enjoy winning and make money. It is not a source of guaranteed income. It is leisure. Therefore, only bet what you can afford to lose and ensure that you know your limits. Hopefully, if you’ve followed our betting guidance, you’ll be making a profit. 

We’ve curated a list of football bets, offers, and bonuses that can give extra money to certain bookmakers when you deposit or bet a certain amount. These offers tend to be for first-time bettors but can be a tidy boost to your starting betting bankroll. You can also set deposit limits with most mainstream bookmakers. The bottom line is only bet what you can afford to lose. 

2. Types Of Bets You Place

The type of bets you place falls under the umbrella of betting strategies. You can go for more advanced betting strategies when you’re comfortable, but the types of bets you place affect your bankroll and therefore, proper betting bankroll management goes hand in hand with the bets you place. If you’ve got a lot to play with you may want to go for a few punts. 

A punt is a high-risk high-return bet that is unlikely to win but will give you serious rewards if it does. 

Equally as intuitive, if you’re starting small and looking to manage your betting bankroll cautiously, you may want to go for more conservative bets that are statistically more likely to win but come with the trade-off of lower returns on your stake. 

An ACCA or accumulator is a good way of quenching the thirst for an exciting bet. This is where you compound multiple bet odds to create a bet that has decent returns for a relatively low stake. They’re great because you have a lot of decisions in creating them so they will give you that winning feeling with decent returns without having to risk a chunk of your betting bankroll. We often give out free ACCA tips here. 

3. How You Decide Your Stake Size

Without proper thought, you could decide to change your stake to how much you want back – don’t do this. To take betting seriously you should start with some beginner strategies for deciding your stake size. Two simple strategies for deciding your stake size are level staking and progressive staking. Both are derived from your bankroll balance. 

Level staking, also known as flat betting, is betting a standard amount no matter the odds or potential returns. This can be done in two ways.

Firstly, you can decide your stake as the first percentage of your starting bankroll. So if you start with £100 in your bankroll, you bet 2% each time. This means you always place a bet of £2. The advantage of this is that your stake is easy to calculate but its flaw lies in that you’re not tailoring your stake to the context of your bet. It fails to account for the current bankroll balance and the odds of the bet. 

Secondly, you can stake as a percentage of your current bankroll. This is a slightly more reactive way of betting as it accounts for how much money you have to play with. It is a percentage of how much you currently have in your bankroll. You can stick to a 1%, 2%, or 5% stake but it takes into account your bankroll.

A drawback of this method is that it can be slow to recover your losses if you’re on a bad luck streak, you’ll be getting less and less each time. 

Progressive staking isn’t too dissimilar to level staking. The key difference is that you change the percentage of bankroll you bet to how your bets are going. For example, if you were to win 5 bets in a row you’d increase your percentage stake from 1% to 2%. If your luck seems to be down, you’d consider lowering your percentage stake. 

You can check out some more advanced bankroll management strategies here. 

Two simple strategies for deciding your stake size are level staking and progressive staking.

4. Track Your Bankroll

As obvious as this may sound to some, keeping an eye on your aggregate bankroll across all bookmakers is essential for managing your betting bankroll. With so many different bookmakers around you can have a fair amount of money spread across multiple betting accounts. 

A spreadsheet may do the job for you but they take a bit of setting up and refining. When you make an account with Kick Off, all your bets will be tracked in one place. This gives you all your betting history in one place so that you can assess what’s going or not going well. 

5. Risk Aversion 

Your level of risk aversion is very subjective to you as a person. Some people can bet very freely and not think twice about it. Others find it very stressful and take losses very seriously. If you’re the latter, betting may not be for you. Most people lie somewhere in between the two but having an awareness of your risk aversion level will influence your betting bankroll management.

If you are very risk-averse, you’ll want to have a conservative approach to bankroll management. If you’re in the position to brush off losses, you can be a bit more liberal with your betting. What’s important is knowing your level of risk aversion and betting accordingly.

6. Pleasure From Betting 

As mentioned at the start of this article, betting is about fun and winning. If you find yourself with neither of these, there’s something wrong. Some betters when watching football, especially when they’re in too deep or chasing their losses, lose interest in the sport itself and are fixated with their bets winning.

While it’s nice for your bet to win it shouldn’t be detrimental to your enjoyment of the beautiful game or your overall mood. With proper bankroll management, you shouldn’t get too lost in the world of betting. However, if you do feel out of control, take a break or take a look at betting charity. 

Keeping an eye on your aggregate bankroll across all bookmakers is essential for managing your betting bankroll.

Ready to get started?

Having your betting bankroll in order is a great way to get started in betting. A strong foundation to start betting with is the best way to ensure you don’t lose all your money and have the most fun possible. Check out our other blogs for a head start in betting. 

Written by Zac Marley for www.kickoff.co.uk