This is the second of three guides we've done on managing your bankroll. And if you're here that must mean you've religiously stuck to wagering a set percentage of your bankroll for each of your bets.
You've been doing that right? Because if you haven't, you're not disciplined enough to be here. You have? OK, good. Now, onto some more advanced techniques.
Variable staking
Alright, here's something meaty to sink your teeth into: variable staking strategy. This is where you deviate from your set percentage of your bankroll and instead increase your stake relative to your level of confidence in the outcome.
To dive into this more advanced bankroll management system, you first need to create a scale against which you feel comfortable measuring your level of confidence.
Some say you should have a simple scale of 1 to 3. Others like a scale of 1 to 10. Some Europeans have scales that stretch from 1 to 100.
For conversation's sake, let's keep it simple: a scale of 1 to 3, with 1 being low-confidence in the outcome, 2 mid-confidence, and 3 high-confidence.
With this scale, you'd bet 1 unit on low-confidence bets, 2 units on mid-confidence bets, and 3 units on high-confidence bets.
What does THAT mean?
So, going back to our beginner's guide, if your "unit" is 1% of your bankroll, on 1-scale, low-confidence bet, you'd bet 1%. On a 2-scale, mid-confidence bet, you'd wager 2%. And on a high-confidence, 3-scale bet you'd wager 3%.
Make sense? Your scale is sliding now, based on your confidence in your bets.
But be wary, you need to actually know what you're doing to employ this betting strategy, which, obviously, is riskier.
To put it another way, your internal calculation on what's a high-confidence, 3-level bet needs to actually be correct.
Track yourself
To check whether your internal scale is correct, you're going to want to meticulously track your bets and whether they're successful. You thought the Kansas City Chiefs on the over was a 3-level wager? Track whether you actually won that bet.
Make a spreadsheet and see how often the bets you label as high confidence are actually turning out to be winners. That's the only way you'll be able to know if the scale you're using is accurate.
Because if it's not, you're going to end up blowing through your bankroll and then - waaaaa! - you can't bet anymore. And nobody wants that.
So if you want to employ a riskier, sliding-scale bankroll management system, you had darn well better know if your scale is accurate, or at least mostly accurate.
And the only way you'll be able to find that out is if you check your wagers against the actual results.
Oh, and adjust your scale accordingly, if need be.