Percentage-Based Wagering

Sports betting can be a profitable business and/or recreational past time as long as you remember and adhere to strict bankroll management guidelines. There have been many good handicappers that pick winners throughout the numerous sports that end up going bust and giving up because they used poor money management. No matter how much you like a certain play on a given day, you should not be putting 30, 40, 50 or dare I say it 100% of your money put aside for sports betting on one play. Obviously winning on a big play like that is great, but when it loses you are back to square one, have to reload, and will push/force plays to try and get that money back.

As a general rule, most plays should be no more than 2% of your bankroll at any time. Here at Drock Sports I use $100 as my unit of measure and going by this rule it requires you to have a $5000 bankroll to start. Not many out there have that kind of money to put aside simply for sports betting, so boosting up your percentages a touch works as well. Nobody really wants to grind away at $20 a day with a $2000 bankroll, so there is wiggle room with what you decide to wager.

Personally, I have no problem with your normal play being 4% of your bankroll with top plays – the ones you absolutely love – topping out at 6-8%. You don’t want to be making these top plays daily because bad runs do happen and a tough 0-5 streak will have drained nearly half your account. But when you put the work in with your handicapping you’ll see your account begin to grow. Sports betting is a marathon and not a sprint and the last thing you want to be doing is reloading your account every few weeks after a bad stretch of bets and poor money management.

Limiting your plays per day

Based on your betting goals you have to figure out the best betting style for you. Limiting your plays to a number you are comfortable with (one a day, two a day etc) is important for long term success.  Bad days will happen so you don’t want to be out there betting every game on the board and going 2-8 with 4% of your bankroll on the line with each play.  A day like that would see you down over 25% of your total funds and that’s not good.

Some people prefer to take one or two plays a day and go bigger on them – the 6-8% range – and get results that way. When you are narrowing down your card to only your top two or three plays based on your research, you should be making positive EV plays as long as your research is solid. If a long losing stretch occurs that way the worst thing to do is force things and jump up the percentage. You should take a step back and look deeper into your handicapping process to see where you went wrong.

Others prefer to have five or more plays a day too and I’m fine with that as long as you have each play at a smaller %. Flat betting each play for the same amount works if your goal is to hit 55% or more of your plays, but there are always going to be some bets you like a lot more than others. If you go with the five+ plays a day like I do here, ranking your plays in terms of strength becomes important and you need to come up with a solid gameplan when wagering them. If your top play is 6% of your bankroll, make the others 3% and less. That way an 0-5 day stings but doesn’t cripple you and it’s again time to go back to the drawing board and see what missteps you took in the handicapping process.

When you stick to a percentage-based betting strategy with your plays you’ll find that success will come long term – as long as you are picking winners. Obviously picking winners is the biggest part of any sports betting endeavor, but staying at a low percentage will allow you to withstand those bad days. As the winners start to come and your bankroll grows, the money bet per game will increase by sticking with your percentage. $10 a game (2%) when you are starting with a $500 bankroll will increase to $20 per game (2%) when you have hit $1000, so as long as you are finding winners, the money will come. Even when losing streaks come about, sticking to a percentage will allow you to drop down a few dollars in your wagers until you get back on track. Ultimately the goal is to make money, but if you aren’t even in the game (depleted bankroll) that simply can’t happen.