Money Management

Right, let’s start with the basics. The first step in money management is to assign yourself a bankroll.

What is a bankroll? A bankroll is simply an amount of money that you set aside to bet with. I would always advise setting up a separate bank account for this, so you can track exactly how you’re doing. As for the amount, the most important thing is to make sure that this bankroll does not impact your life in any significant way. You should never bet with money that is needed for rent, bills, your mortgage, etc. So start with an amount that you are ultra comfortable with. You can always add to your bankroll at a later date.

So, for example, let’s say you decide on a starting bankroll of £1000. You can then work out just how much you should be placing on each selection I provide.

Now the staking plan I use is relatively simple, I place 2% of my bankroll onto each selection.

So, let’s say you have that bankroll of £1000. This means that if I advise a selection as listed below:

Dallas Cowboys at Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Cowboys +8.5 @ 1.92 with Smarkets Sportsbook (back down to +7) 

I guess the first question you must ask, is will Tom Brady ever age? His performance in the second half of last season was nothing short of amazing. The Bucs did a tremendous job in the off-season of re-signing all their core starters so we shouldn’t see much of drop-off, if any. That being said, +8 is a big number on opening night, especially with the return of Dak Prescott to a potent Cowboys offence. With Dak under centre the Cowboys have covered an 8 point spread 32 times out of 37 road matches dating back to his rookie season in 2016. The addition of Micah Parsons on defence gives the Cowboys a solid cover line-backer to go along with decent run stuffers in Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander-Esch. They also have former Falcons safety Keanu Neal listed at linebacker, so I expect to see him take the field on 3rd down or in obvious passing situations which will help improve a Dallas secondary that struggled mightily last season. Whilst I believe the Super Bowl champs will come away with the ‘W’ I don’t think it will be plain sailing. 

You would place £20 (with £20 being 2% of £1000) on the Cowboys to cover the spread.

If you have an outstanding 12 months, and by the end of the year your bankroll is now £3000, you may wish to recalculate your 2%, so in this case 2% would now equate to £60. Hopefully you see where I’m going with this.

This staking plan allows you to sail through the inevitable ups and downs, that pretty much come with the territory when betting. However, with a current strike-rate of 60% any draw down period (losing streak) should be fairly short.

Feel free to use any staking plan you wish, this is just the one I have used for several years, and will continue to use in the future.