Bankroll management is the least interesting subject in betting and the one that decides whether you are still betting in a year. It is three decisions, all made before you look at a market, and the whole discipline is in not revisiting them afterwards.
Decision one: the bankroll
A sum of money set aside for betting, separate from everything else, that you would be content to lose to the last pound. Not what you can afford to lose — what you would be content to. If those are different numbers, the second one is the bankroll. Deposit limits at every bookmaker you use should add up to no more than it.
Decision two: the unit
One or two per cent of the bankroll. A £500 bankroll means a £5 or £10 unit, and every bet is one unit — the pick you are certain of and the one you are curious about. The prediction we published this week on Ashford City against Northvale United carries three bars of confidence; the suggested stake is one unit, the same as the one-bar pick beneath it. Confidence chooses the bet; it does not size it.
Why flat
A losing run of ten is ordinary at even money — it will happen to you several times a year. At one unit that costs a tenth of the bankroll and the plan survives. At stakes that grew with confidence or shrank after losses, the same run ends the bankroll and usually the betting.
Decision three: when the unit changes
Once a month, recalculate the unit from the bankroll as it now stands. Up after a good month, down after a bad one, and never in between. A unit that changes after a win is a bettor chasing a hot streak; one that changes after a loss is a bettor chasing losses. Both are the same mistake in different moods.
- Write the three numbers down before the first bet.
- Record every bet: selection, price, stake, reasoning, result.
- At a hundred bets, read the results guide. Before that, nothing in the record means anything except whether you kept to the plan.
