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Bankroll Management

Online Betting Bankroll Management

You might think that being an expert on every sport under the sun is what gives you an advantage over online bookies. But the truth is it's the way you manage your bankroll that separates a great sports bettor from an average one. In this guide to effective bankroll management, we'll show you how having a strategy when it comes to your real money wagers, can see your profit margins exponentially grow.

Learn why setting betting limits is vital and how to approach budgeting
Discover how to build and maintain a bankroll at an online bookies
We look at why free bet bonuses can add value to your bankroll

What Is Bankroll Management?

Your bankroll is the total sum of real money you have invested at an online bookmakers. It's a combination of both the deposits you've made to your account, and the profit from any winnings you've accrued. All the stakes you make at a bookies will be drawn from your bankroll. Just as your wins will feed into it. So the value of your bankroll is in constant flux. Rising and falling with every real money bet you make.

Bankroll management therefore is about how you approach online betting to minimise your losses. It's widely regarded as the skill that divides the most successful online bettors with the rest of the pack. And for those who apply it, it can make all the difference to the amount of money you make betting on sports in the UK.

It might sound like something that only serious bettors need to worry about, but effective bankroll management is something that all grades of gamblers need to understand. Whether you're in for entertainment's sake, or to take home the biggest returns.

How To Manage Your Bankroll Successfully

Bankroll management is a skill that takes little time to learn and effectively put into practice. In its most basic form, it can be broken down into 2 steps:

Setting A Budget For Your Betting
Determining How Much To Spend Per Bet

Step 1: Budgeting

Budgeting. That dirty word that no online bettor wants to hear. Sure this might sound as dull as dishwater, but it's the only way you're going to get a handle on your spending limits and protect your bankroll levels.

A budget isn't meant to hamper your online betting. It's there to maximise it. When we talk about setting a budget in relation to sports betting we merely mean deciding on an amount to dedicate to online betting, factoring in all the overheads you have to meet in real life. Once you've allocated a sum of cash to your budget, you know this is what you have to play with for the month. So the next step is working out how you'll break that down to make it last.

Step 2: Setting Betting Limits

So using our overall budget as a guide, we know precisely how much money we have to bet with for the next 30 days or so. The key to maximising this is deciding in advance how much you can allocate to each wager you make. Otherwise known as a staking plan.

This only needs to be a rough calculation and you can always allocate more money to different areas than others. Not to mention, you can adjust the staking plan as you progress through the month. For example, if you net a nice little win early on, you might want to allocate a little more to your bankroll budget that month.

Setting betting limits is all about giving yourself a rough idea of how many bets you'll make, and the total spend you can afford for your budget. Doing this effectively will minimise your losses and protect your bankroll overall.

Maximising Your Bankroll Using Free Bet Bonuses

Some of the great things about being an online sports gambler in Britain are the free bonuses and promotions you can collect at the majority of today's online bookmakers. Used in the right way, these offers can help you add profit to your bankroll with very little, if any, financial risk on your part.

Here's how:

Open an account at a bookmaker offering a free bet
Use the free bet to place a back bet at the bookies
Log on to a betting exchange
Make a lay bet against the outcome of your back bet
Collect winnings on one of the two bets you make

Using the free bet promotions in this way is known as Matched Betting. It's when you bet on all the outcomes of an event so that, no matter what occurs, you'll be a winner. And by doing so you can add cash to your bankroll with very little risk involved.

To illustrate with an example:

At Bookmaker A you use your £10 Free Bet to wager that: Arsenal will beat Liverpool when they meet at Anfield.
At a betting exchange you wager £10 that Arsenal will not beat Liverpool when they meet at Anfield.
If Arsenal wins your bookmaker bet comes in.
If Arsenal loses or draws your betting exchange bet comes in.
Either way, you don't lose and your bankroll benefits.

Being Smart With Your Bankroll

Getting to grips with bankroll management doesn't mean you'll never lose when you gamble. It just means that when you do, it won't be catastrophic. And, if you've done your calculations correctly, and stuck to them, you should still have money to bet with, to see you through to the next payday.

Unfortunately, for those who ignore bankroll management and just bet wildly without a strategy, the stakes can be high. Not having a handle on how much you're betting can fast see your spending spiral out of control. Through history it's happened even to bettors who were once at the top of their game. But by ignoring the fundamental rules of proper bankroll management they threw their fortunes down the drain.

Bankroll management might sound boring and like something that takes all the fun and spontaneity out of gambling. But trust us, it isn't. It's a fundamental part of what safe, and sustained, online sports betting is all about. And learning how to do it can only benefit your bankroll in the long run.

Top 10 Betting Tips

How to bet smart and boost your bankroll betting online in Britain.

Set daily, weekly or monthly betting limits - and stick to them
Allocate an online gambling budget you can comfortably afford
Never chases losses - it will only end in bigger hits to your bankroll
Take advantage of the free bet bonuses online bookies offer
Open accounts at multiple bookies online
Shop around for the best odds on the bet you want to make
Never gamble whilst drunk - it clouds your judgement
Use a deposit & withdrawal method with no or low fees
Make smaller stakes following losses to protect your bankroll
Allocate some of your bankroll to in-play betting each month