For the average person it may seem odd, but the knowledge about particular disciplines of sport is not enough to be a successful punter. Of course all information concerned with the players, like their health, mentality and their statistics can help us to make a winning bet once, twice or even three times in a row. But even if we win money on three consecutive bets we could lose a lot in the fourth one and in consequence, we end up bankrupt. 


That is why, proper management of the bankroll is as important as the knowledge about statistics and correct analysis of the matches. Managing your betting funds is similar to managing finances of a small company. Because, in a way, your betting adventure is a one-person company. You invest your time, knowledge and money in order to gain some profits. Even if someone tells you differently - there is no one who bets on sports just for fun. That is why, it is crucial to do it wisely and this article can help you with that.

Close your eyes for a bit and imagine that you plan to start up your own business. What would be your first move? How would you start? In our opinion, the most reasonable thing to do is to set your budget and create a business plan concerned with the operation and development of your ‘company’. Same goes for betting. Before you place your first bet, establish the amount of money that will be your betting budget and create some sort of business plan with betting strategy that would get you considerable profits.


How much money do you need to start betting on sports? There is no limits to that. Every amount that can be split into 100 parts is good (we will elaborate on this topic later on). It is important that your betting budget will be the money you are afford to lose and will not disrupt in any way your financial situation. It is absolutely forbidden to bet with your personal finances such as the money for rent, food or loans. Why? Because as we already mentioned, you should treat your betting adventure as your own company and it is common knowledge that sometimes companies go into bankruptcy. Because of the risk of losing your funds, it is important that the amount of money you could lose while betting will not significantly influence your life.

The next step should be slipping your funds into smaller units. It is thought that a 100 units is the optimal number. For example, if we pay into the bankroll €500, the value of a single unit will be €5. Why are we doing this? Because from this moment on, our money is represented by units and we will use only them. We have found a relatively certain game with pretty good odds? We bet 3 units on it. Interesting event with great odds but much higher risk? A bet with 1 unit. Using units will significantly help you with the evaluation of the risk and correct selection of the stakes. 


The most successful punters believe that it is best to put 2 - 3 % of your entire bankroll (betting budget) on a single bet. Sometimes, when there is a very promising event it can be 5% at most. If we want to be reasonable and professional in our betting we should not exceed these numbers.


I have a betting budget of €100 and I cannot bet more than €5 on a single bet? Yes, if you want to be reasonable and have long-term success it is the right path. Of course there are cases where you can make profits with betting more than this but when you will stuck in a bad series (and it happens to the 99.9 of the punters) the losses can be very significant.


Another important rule is that there is no terms such as ‘va banque’ or ‘all in’ in the dictionary of the professional and successful punter. If you want to become one, forget about such things. Even the most certain event that in theory have 101% chances of happening is not worth it to put your entire bankroll on it. Last piece of advice we can give you is to never bet with borrowed money. Getting loans to have money to bet with ends in most cases very badly.

We have set our bankroll and we have limits to what we can spend. We also have some rules, that we should stick to (bet 5% of entire bankroll at most, never bet ‘all in’ or  with borrowed money). Last thing to do is choosing betting strategy that will suit you the most and most importantly get you profits. For every punter it can be different (several betting strategies and systems are described here). In this guide we will present you the two theoretically simplest strategies that every beginning punters should start with. 

• Flat stake betting -  is a system that is advisable for the inexperienced punters at the beginning of their betting adventure. In this case, the punter sets a fixed stake (for example 2u/10u) and bet in accordance with it, regardless of the risk factor or the odds. Punters using the flat stake significantly decrease their risk of bankruptcy, and in the case of high effectiveness (at least 50%) in betting they can have considerable profits (note that single and Accumulator bets with lower than 1.70 odds are dropped and the odds for a single bet should be around 2.00).
  
  
• Proportional betting - the most frequently used system by some of the best bettors in the world. Depending on the risk and the odds for the fixture, punter decides what number of units he wants to bet (1u - 10u). Here, it is important to mention that 5% of the entire bankroll is in this case 10u. It is the most common betting system on various websites and chat rooms concerned with bookmaking and betting. Disadvantages? The inexperienced punters may have problems with picking an adequate odds for a particular event (when 1/10 and when 9/10?). What is more, they too often use the 10/10 odds, which in reality should be used only in certain cases.