Bankroll Management

Most bettors who blow up their bankroll do not blow it up on bad picks. They blow it up on good picks sized too large, on chasing losses with oversized bets, or on continuing through a drawdown long after the evidence said stop. This hub is about the financial mechanics of betting: how much to risk, when to stop, and how to build a process that can survive variance long enough for your edge to actually show up.

Featured articles

• Kelly Criterion: how it works and why most people should bet half
• Flat staking vs. percentage staking: the real tradeoffs
• How to know when to stop betting a model (and how to set the rule in advance)
• The math of ruin: why most bettors blow up before the edge pays
• What to actually track (and what most bettors are missing)

FAQ

• How much of my bankroll should I bet on one game?

  Most disciplined bettors recommend 1-3% per bet. Even with a genuine edge, betting more than 5% per game dramatically increases the chance of a bankroll-ending drawdown before the edge has time to pay.

• Should I use the Kelly Criterion exactly?

  Most serious bettors use half-Kelly (50% of the recommended size). Full Kelly maximizes theoretical growth but produces severe variance. Estimation error in your win probability makes full Kelly dangerous in practice.

• When should I stop betting a model after a bad run?

  Set the rule before the bad run starts. A common threshold: pause and review if results are more than 2 standard deviations below expected over a meaningful sample (50+ bets). Do not quit; pause, reduce size, and evaluate whether the edge estimate still holds.

• What records should I actually keep?

  Minimum: date, sport, bet type, odds, stake, and result. Add closing odds if you can. That is everything you need to calculate ROI by sport, by bet type, and over time. Everything else is derived from these fields.