SELECT SCORE:
Here at OddsTrader, we give our users plenty of sports betting tools, including the NFL odds on all the games, but one of the most important is how to manage your money.
Let’s talk about the discipline of bankroll management and how it can help you avoid the big ups and downs of most recreational bettors.
How Big is Your Unit?
Not to get too personal here but knowing the measure of your unit can greatly assist in managing your bankroll. And to determine that, we must first determine how much you have allocated for the upcoming NFL season.
The 2021 NFL season is in our crosshairs and what you need to think about is how much could you potentially lose over the course of the season without causing you any sleepless nights? It has to be a figure that won’t make your stomach churn or your agita burn.
Let’s assume for, the purposes of this discussion, that our hypothetical bankroll is $1000, which means we need to be able to last an entire season with a G-Note backing us up. Therefore, our unit size has to be very small to make this happen. Now, remember, it’s not the size of the unit, it’s what you do with it.
So, let’s quantify just how small our per unit wager must be betting our NFL picks in this scenario. Regardless of how small or large, your bankroll is, new bettors should never bet over one percent of your beginning bankroll. Therefore, using the hypothetical $1000 stake, this unit size is equal to one percent or $10 per wager. That sounds like chump change but if you are routinely betting more than that then a few bad weeks of betting $50 and $100 will clean you out.
Let’s face it, do you really want to be going to the bar with your buddies in early November and not having any dough to wager? I mean there’s nothing wrong with wings and beer on a Sunday afternoon watching the games but having a vested interest makes it all the more entertaining.
If you noticed, I talked about new bettors when referencing the one-percent rule. If you are a seasoned bettor with a fair amount of discipline (action junkies look away) then you can make a case for the 1-to-5-unit system.
This means that the majority of your wagers will be one unit but because we have varying degrees of confidence in our wagers, we can bet two, three, four, or a maximum of five units. The larger the number of units, the less frequently you should bet them.
A five-unit max bet should be a Pick of the Month type of situation while most of your wagers should be for one unit.
However, if you want to play it cool and keep yourself in the game then keep it to one unit and don’t bet every game on the board. Limit yourself to up to four plays on an NFL Sunday because the more bets you make, the faster the vig will catch up to you and bite you in the wallet!
Don’t Chase
Pretend you’re a fat guy on a hot summer day and the vegan, tofu, smoothie truck is riding down your street ringing his bell waiting for all of the fitness fanatics and healthy-living, selfie-taking, celery eaters to wave him down.
Well, guess what? That truckload of quinoa, kale, and kohlrabi just rolled right on past you. Didn’t even see you there, panting in the hot sun with your ice-cream-stained T-shirt drenched in perspiration.
Now think about it – are you going to chase that truck down? Hell no, you’re not! And you’re not going to chase your losses this year either because chasing losses leads to more losses. And if you do happen to get lucky and eradicate your previous day’s bad beats by betting more games for bigger money, then it will set a dangerous precedent.
You don’t want to fall victim to this pattern because if you’re going to be disciplined this season then don’t take any shortcuts and make sure to follow all the steps we’ve talked about. You’ll be glad you did!
