Adjusting your betting unit size based on your current bankroll - Sports Betting

[A Confused Shoe]

I personally use 2% of my bankroll (BR) as 1 unit for me (which I feel is the general standard), though I know others are more conservative and set it at 1% = 1 unit while others are comfortable being riskier in using 5% = 1 unit.

Haven't really seen any threads on this recently and I know BR management is pretty unique to each bettor, but I'm curious when the community here decides to pull the trigger and change your betting size based on your current sports betting BR (as the title says).

I've seen betters say that change should happen anytime your BR increases or decreases by 25%, others go as conservative as requiring a 50% increase while maintaining the 25% decrease rule.

Example: If someone changes their bet size at BR changes of 25% AND 2% = 1 unit for him/her, then starting with a $10,000 BR, this individual would continue treating 1 unit as $200 until the BR was at $12,500 or $7,500, at which point he/she would consider adjusting to the new BR.

Thoughts? The first few bets after a size increase always make me a little nervous, haha.

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[Bolt Brownie]

Really nice thread, and a very important theme of discussion in my option. At least if someone is serious about sports betting, and not just betting to get more emotion when they are watching the game.

I do the standard as well. My bets vary according to my confidence on the game (that is usually expressed by the odds as well), so I go from 1% to 5% of my bankroll, depending if I really think I will win or not. The goal is to "stay in the game" for long, so that in the long run I have profit because I'm making good decisions, and since I don't bet my hole bankroll on one bet, I will be able to keep going, even if I was unlucky on that bet.

I also make adjustments on my stake on a monthly basis, and not on a bankroll increase basis. Like I said, for me it's all about the long run. So after a month I adjust my stakes to my current bankroll. Of course that if my bankroll is decreasing, then I adjust it early, but if my bankroll is increasing I prefer to give it more time before making the adjustment. It normally gives me more confidence this way.

[reactorjuno]

Flat stake, unless I have a particularly great confidence in a pick.
And of course small stake if I go for very high odds (but this is very rarely the case).

Best of luck.

[TrumpD]

For me my rule is simple one. No matter the size of my pot, I always stake 10% of what I have. This is to keep me going, and to allow me recover just in case of losses. For example, if I have a total of $100, I will stake $10 on a bet. If I win and my returns gave me an additional $20, making my total now $120, for my next bet, I will stake $12. This also happens when I losses come in to...

[reactorjuno]

For me my rule is simple one. No matter the size of my pot, I always stake 10% of what I have. This is to keep me going, and to allow me recover just in case of losses. For example, if I have a total of $100, I will stake $10 on a bet. If I win and my returns gave me an additional $20, making my total now $120, for my next bet, I will stake $12. This also happens when I losses come in to...

Not recommended, unless you bet on very low odds. You won't last long if you bet on odds around 1.80, ten percent is too high, on a small number of bets luck and back luck play a big part and you can very well lose your full bankroll after only twenty or thirty bets.
Three to five percent is alright.
Ten percent is also alright if you bet on odds below 1.50 I guess.

[Oilacris]

For me my rule is simple one. No matter the size of my pot, I always stake 10% of what I have. This is to keep me going, and to allow me recover just in case of losses. For example, if I have a total of $100, I will stake $10 on a bet. If I win and my returns gave me an additional $20, making my total now $120, for my next bet, I will stake $12. This also happens when I losses come in to...

Not recommended, unless you bet on very low odds. You won't last long if you bet on odds around 1.80, ten percent is too high, on a small number of bets luck and back luck play a big part and you can very well lose your full bankroll after only twenty or thirty bets.
Three to five percent is alright.
Ten percent is also alright if you bet on odds below 1.50 I guess.

Basing on calculations then it is right that its way too high since its 10% of the bankroll which would oppose or not sufficient into the odds you are putting on but still these kind of decisions would entirely depending still on the gambler itself as long he do know the differences when it comes to results then it shouldn't matter at all on what percentage of bankroll you are putting on.On my side I do always put up 5%.

[Hydrogen]

I've seen gamblers set unit sizes of approximately 1% to 5%. Thinking in terms of those small sums is a good method to encourage the mental discipline of betting in smaller amounts as a means of mitigating the risk of sustaining catastrophic losses, which is a real danger when betting in larger proportions of BR(bank roll). Small unit sizes are like people buying smaller dinner plates and cups to encourage themselves to eat less. Utilizing smaller container sizes tends to force someone to get into the habit of thinking in smaller terms.

For myself, I've never been savvy enough to utilize the unit method. I'll happily bet 50% to 90% of my entire bankroll on a single wager. In the past when things went well I increased my winnings to 16 times my original bankroll. When things went bad I lost everything and got wiped out. Its difficult to walk the fine line between consistency and profitability. In terms of risk versus reward, the best method could be to bet only in small amounts utilizing approaches like the unit method to protect against what could easily amount to massive losses.

[Tipstar]

I've been using 1 to 5% of my bankroll to bet on different sports and odds. But what fails me everytime is I tend to bet without rule on teams or person I believe to win. Most of the does win but when they don't, I ruin my bankroll.

[A Confused Shoe]

Hm, interesting thoughts here. Some people like (Bolt Brownie) adjust it on a per time basis roughly (like a month) and is more conservative about increasing his/her bet size secondary to a bankroll (BR) increase while more liberal in decreasing his wager in response to a decreasing BR. I like it.

Yeah, personally I think 10% is a bit much to be wagering on any event, unless maybe it's like the "lock of the century" (and even still, I had those lose before, haha). But it's up to each bettors preference, right?

[Bolt Brownie]

For me my rule is simple one. No matter the size of my pot, I always stake 10% of what I have. This is to keep me going, and to allow me recover just in case of losses. For example, if I have a total of $100, I will stake $10 on a bet. If I win and my returns gave me an additional $20, making my total now $120, for my next bet, I will stake $12. This also happens when I losses come in to...

That is very risky in my opinion, but if it's working for you don't change it of course.
I use a much more conservative approach, maybe it's because I first started with poker, and then did some forex trading, and only after that I went for sports betting, and I also prefer doing sports trading, than just "blank bets". Probably because of my background I'm always "obsessed" in limiting my losses at all cost, so I can stay in the game for a very long time, and keep adding profit.

[stomachgrowls]

For me my rule is simple one. No matter the size of my pot, I always stake 10% of what I have. This is to keep me going, and to allow me recover just in case of losses. For example, if I have a total of $100, I will stake $10 on a bet. If I win and my returns gave me an additional $20, making my total now $120, for my next bet, I will stake $12. This also happens when I losses come in to...

That is very risky in my opinion, but if it's working for you don't change it of course.
I use a much more conservative approach, maybe it's because I first started with poker, and then did some forex trading, and only after that I went for sports betting, and I also prefer doing sports trading, than just "blank bets". Probably because of my background I'm always "obsessed" in limiting my losses at all cost, so I can stay in the game for a very long time, and keep adding profit.

If you came from forex trading then most probably you will really be conservative on the amounts that you would really like to risk.Switching to sports betting will still be on the same behavior when it comes to bet size.We do always love to play safe or not risking too much even though we do have big bankrolls but having control is always a good weapon on not being busted so early.