No matter what the sports they are betting in and how much money they have, every bettor has to be conscious of their bankroll. Along with the right research and a little bit of mathematical precision, one could manage their bankroll without stressing and losing a lot of money.
It doesn’t matter how hyped up the games are or how exciting the matchups will be. A responsible bettor always treads lightly into betting for fear of losing more money than what he won. Moreover, a responsible bettor is always consistent in finding the value of each wager he bets on throughout the season.
But what is bankroll management in a nutshell? To be more precise, bankroll management is to make the most of your money by making good picks with the best value. If you are bad at bankroll management, you could end up losing more money than your margin of error despite picking winning bets all the time. That said, here are some tips on how to manage your bankroll consistently and with efficiency.
Determining the Size of Your Bankroll
The first question you should ask yourself is how much money you should put on your sportsbook. Each size of every bettor’s sportsbook depends on how much money they want to bet on the games. However, it would help if you always remember never to bet money that you can’t afford to lose.
Of course, the term “money you can’t afford to lose” has a different definition for each person because of their different financial circumstances. To decide how much money you should put on your sportsbook, you should look closely into your financial situation.
Once you’ve decided on how much money you are willing to bet, you should decide a figure that accurately reflects how much time you want to invest in every season. For example, if you’re planning to bet on at least 3-4 times during a major sporting event each year, like the NBA championship or the Super Bowl, you should bet less money if you’re regularly betting once or twice a day.
Tracking Your Bets
You can do a lot of things, like adjusting and changing bets, if you keep track of the Fanduel prop bets you placed every day. To do this, you can use a spreadsheet to keep data on the number of units in play, the units won or lost, the spread/line, etc. However, if you want to be more detailed, you can also track the weather the game played in, the time of the game, or the change of the value of the bets.
The main reason you should track your bets is to find out where you’ve done things wrong. The spreadsheet is your database, and with it, you can see the units you are losing every game, and the adjustments you should make the next time you place the same bet.
Maybe you are not looking at the value more closely, or you didn’t assess the team’s performance, or probably you didn’t consider betting on the underdogs even if they are more likely to win that particular match. Your spreadsheet will be your key to more wins by digging more into the things you’ve done wrong.
Assess and Adjust Your Results if Needed
Regularly keeping check of your results will let you see the things you should change more carefully. Generally, we all have a vague idea of how much money we want to win over the season. However, if you set one for yourself, you must regularly check the spreadsheet and see if there should be any changes you should make to meet that goal.
If you are in a situation where you should increase your bankroll, here’s a tip. If you’ve made significant money in your new bets, it might be best to invest it back on your bankroll. For example, you won $200. You can invest it in your overall bankroll (let’s say $600). Now, you have $800, and you can bet at a maximum of $40 from the previous $30 if you are following the 5% maximum.
Maintaining this ROI will enable you to reach the winning threshold more quickly and limit the amount you spend on other things. However, if you don’t have any significant winnings recently, you can add money to your bankroll from your pockets. With this, you can be more concise on how much money you want to spend on without spending your already small winnings.
Takeaway
Managing your bankroll is similar to investing in stocks- that is, they are the same type of risk. You will never know what you will get after you invest. But just like any financial circumstances, having a plan and a budget on your bankroll will make you more discreet on your winnings and losses, making you more efficient in handling your money.
