Thu, Sep 19, 2024
By
aaosports
Your bankroll is the money sitting in your betting account(s). It’s your leverage. It’s your lifeline. Without it, you have no action.
There is no exact science in determining your initial bankroll/deposit(s). One thing is certain, don’t be that guy that YOLO’s their entire deposit on one bet in the hopes of building up a bankroll. It’s not a profitable strategy, and it's one that builds bad betting habits.
A bankroll should be big enough to support a solid duration of bet-able days and will dictate how much you’re wagering on each play. Some bettors like betting 1% of their bankrolls per bet, but even I know that is a very hard strategy to follow. A $500 bankroll can handle $25 plays which is a 5% rate per bet. That could take you through an entire season depending on your betting volume.
If we look at that $500/$25 scenario, the $25 bet is our unit size — or what our regular bet amount is. This is an important term, as we use it to value our wins/losses in a relative term such as +2.5 units or -0.35 units. Bettors who bet more per wager have bigger units. Don’t get caught in a unit-size race, though. It’s your money. Nobody except you has to deal with the losses.
Anywhere from $200 to $500 is a decent starting point for an initial bankroll, but it can also be scaled up or down if needed. The most important thing here is to bet within your means and don’t create a bankroll on money that you can’t afford to lose. When you find yourself increasing your wager size despite the bankroll not increasing, stop what you’re doing and get back to the strategy.
That strategy should also include tracking your plays so you can see where your best returns are, how to evaluate success based on the results, sourcing out tools to create better value in your bets, and risk management.