How to Preserve Your Sports Betting Bankroll

Proper bankroll management is essential to long term-success in sports betting as well as any other type of gambling. While the ultimate goal is having fun, it is important to protect and preserve the money you have to work with. Doing so gives you a much better chance of staying in the game over the long haul and surviving cold streaks.

So, how does one go about preserving their betting account balance? Well, it entails adopting certain strategies and techniques that keep your wagers under control and minimise your losses, and using some generous US or UK betting promotions or betting bonuses offered by bookmakers from other countries is just one of them.

In this article, we will discuss some essential tips and tricks to help you preserve your sports betting bankroll, and following a few basic steps is a good start.

Establish a Betting Budget

Before we think about bankroll preservation, we have to first establish a bankroll. The reality is that some people have access to more disposable income than others. If you only have a few dollars to fund your account at some low deposit betting sites, then you simply have to work with what you have. It isn’t necessarily the size of your bankroll that matters. Instead, it’s what you do with it. Needless to say, you should only gamble with money that you can comfortably afford to lose.

Establish a Responsible Bet Size

Once you have your starting bankroll figured out, it’s a good idea to then establish a standard stake size which is commonly referred to as a unit. In a lot of cases, experienced bettors set their unit size at 2% to 4% of their total bankroll although this can vary. So, if you have $1,000 to work with, then a responsible bet size would be anywhere between $20 and $40.

While going with a seemingly small standard wager size may not be conducive to big wins, it is one of the best ways to protect your bankroll. This is because it allows you to easily survive those inevitable cold streaks. If you have a $1,000 bankroll and a unit size of $500, then it only takes a couple of consecutive losses to wipe you out. With a $20 or $40 unit, it would take an epic losing streak to put you on the ropes. A responsible unit size gives you a far better chance of longevity.

Maintain Consistency

One of the costliest mistakes that punters make is abandoning their unit sizes either out of frustration or overconfidence. If you are in the midst of a tough losing streak, it can be very tempting to significantly increase your stakes in an attempt to quickly recover your losses. A lot of bettors even fall into this trap after a single bad beat. It’s also tempting to increase your wager size when you are on a hot streak.

It can be challenging, but avoiding this pitfall is essential to protecting your bankroll. You need to maintain consistency in your bet sizes if you want your bankroll to survive.

Assess Your Bankroll Regularly

While we just touched on the importance of maintaining a consistent unit size, there may come a time in which some adjustments are prudent. Let’s say you started with $1,000 and you have diligently maintained a $40 unit. However, you have been doing very well and you now have $2,000 in your account.

This is a good time to reassess your standard unit size. You can absolutely stick with your $40 units, but it would not be irresponsible at this point to up your unit size to, say, $80 which is a safe 4% of your total current bankroll.

Conversely, you may have had a tough stretch that has seen your $1,000 betting bankroll plummet to $300. This would definitely be a good time to reevaluate your stake size and lower it to $10 or so. No, you won’t be able to make up for your losses right away, but you will be protecting what’s left which increases your chances of recovering and living to bet another day.

Use Betting Bonuses

Using betting bonuses can help to preserve a betting bankroll if used wisely. Betting bonuses provide additional bonus funds to bet with, which means that you can place more bets without risking your own money. This can help to stretch your bankroll further.

However, it is important to read the terms and conditions of the bonus before accepting it. Some bonuses come with wagering requirements or other restrictions that may make it difficult to withdraw your winnings. It is also important to only bet on games or sports that you know well and have a good understanding of because if you bet blindly, you can lose all your bankroll in one go even with bonus money.

Final Thoughts

Most punters fantasise about becoming the next Billy Walters, but the sad reality is that fewer than 5% of sports bettors are profitable over the long term. The thing is that surviving over the long term involves more than picking winners. It also requires proper bankroll management. Most folks don’t have access to an endless supply of money which is why it behoves you to protect what you have. It doesn’t guarantee profits, but it will at least increase your bankroll’s chances of survival.