You always hear that one of the best tips for sports betting or playing online casino games in the US is managing your bankroll, but this is useless if you’re not sure what that even means. Sure, ‘managing your money’ sounds easy, but it always helps to have a few direct pointers on how to do just that.
Once you understand how to manage a bankroll while gambling, you’ll find that your sessions will probably run smoother and you’ll enjoy the games a little more. This is because basic bankroll strategies will help you play for longer and avoid silly mistakes.
We’ve covered a few other guides to help elevate your casino or sports betting experience, including tips on how to place sports bets in New Jersey and a lowdown on sweepstakes casinos.
How to create and manage a sustainable bankroll
Before we jump into the best bankroll strategies, it’s important to cover the basics of what bankroll management is and why it’s so important to learn about it.
What is bankroll management?
Bankroll management is the process of keeping an eye on your money and betting appropriate amounts. It sounds unbelievably dull, obvious and something that only maths nerds would learn about.
However, it’s a bit more nuanced than that.
The real skill of bankroll management isn’t in being able to read the strategies from your sofa and understand them, it’s about being able to remember and utilize them when you’re in the heat of the moment.
Why is bankroll management important?
Good bank management strategies will help you play for longer and in a healthier way. We’re not talking about vitamins or regular exercise ‘health’, but gambling in a more positive way. If you start chasing losses or increasing wagers to offset losses, then you can end up in a lot of trouble.
Bankroll management will help you stay away from toxic gambling behaviors and steer you and your money into better waters.
Some of the best bankroll management strategies
Let’s get into it…
Establish a budget and stick to it
In the same way that when you go shopping, you might tell yourself that you won’t spend more than $30 on a shirt or $20 on a bottle of wine, you should be setting a budget for casino games and sports betting too. These are recreational activities which should be budgeted, just like the rest of them.
Once you have worked out a budget, make sure to set a deposit limit at the online casino or sportsbook. When you’re a beginner, it can be easy to forget how much you’ve deposited, so this limit is a healthy way to remind you of your spending limits until it becomes second nature.
Figure out your optimum bet size
Once you’ve established your budget, then this part is easy. You don’t want to blow all of your cash in one go, so it’s important to find out what your optimum betting size is.
You might not like to hear this, but the best bet size is 1-2% of your bankroll. This means that if you’ve set aside $100 to play with in a night, then you should be betting a maximum of $1-2 each time. By only betting 1% of your budget each time, this will ensure you can play steadily for the longest time possible.
If you’re playing online slot games, then it might be best to bet 0.1% of your budget each spin, purely because of how volatile and fast slots can be. If your budget for the night is $100, consider spins of $0.10, or if your budget is $10, then start with spins of $0.01.
Do not alter this strategy halfway through the night!
This is the most important aspect of bankroll management!
As we said earlier, it’s one thing to understand the above points, but the real bankroll management skills will be tested when you’re already playing.
It’s easy to stick to 1% bet sizes at the start of the night, but isn’t it tempting to start upping those stakes to bounce back those losses? Well, that is exactly what you SHOULDN’T do!
No matter how many losses you’ve tanked in a row, do not increase your bet size to try and offset them! This is what people warn against when they say never chase your losses.
