Being a successful bettor isn’t just about employing the best football betting strategy or horse racing betting strategies. Here is our BettingOnline guide to help you on your way.
Why Employ Betting Financial Strategies?
There are different financial betting strategies available for all types of sports, each with different claims of helping you to successfully increase your winning chances by placing the right bets, at the right time, on the right markets.
However, when it comes to betting money strategies, it’s completely universal. Regardless of what sport you wish to bet on and when you wish to bet on it, these are different strategies that you can employ to get what you want out of your wagers. Some are much more successful than others, here are the most common and popular betting money strategies at the moment.
The Martingale Strategy
This one is so smart and so complex, the inventor of this strategy bestowed it with his very own name. Does it deserve it though? Well, that’s questionable. The idea behind the Martingale strategy is that you double your wager after every loss. This means that the first win you hit – will cover everything you have previously lost, plus whatever you would have won from your first bet.
Well, that’s the good part. The downside is that you need a pretty hefty bankroll to start off with to make this work. If you hit a long streak of losses, you’ll end up betting huge sums of money to recoup the losses, and if you don’t have the funds to cover that, you could find yourself in financial difficulties. This is great for those with virtually unlimited bankroll funds, but it’s another risky strategy for those who don’t have that luxury.
The Fibonacci Strategy
Well, this is like the Martingale Strategy for the more cautious. This is probably not a bad thing if your funds aren’t unlimited. With this strategy, your bets will increase after each loss, but not at the same rate. You will not be doubling your wager each time but increasing it by the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 etc..… each increasing by the previous 2 figures, added together.
Like the Martingale, if you suffer a long streak of losses, the stakes get much higher, but not as much as the Martingale – which would effectively be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256… much higher figures comparatively. Therefore, although this could see you out of bankroll if a win doesn’t come in quickly enough, you’ll have more time than with the Martingale strategy. On the other hand, this will also reduce your winning rate as well.
Fixed Betting
This does pretty much what it says on the tin. You simply bet the same amount on every bet. How brave you are, then, is completely up to you. You can decide whether it is a small or large fixed bet. This is a steady strategy as it ensures that you won’t lose your entire balance quickly – it will decrease or increase steadily.
On the flip side, you aren’t guaranteed to recoup your losses unless you eventually get more wins than losses. With the Martingale strategy, just one win will see you in profit; with this strategy, you need more wins than losses to see a return.
Proportional Betting
Proportional betting is a very popular method as it means you’ll never completely be out of funds – as each time you bet, you’re betting a fixed percentage of your bankroll. However, although you can never be completely out of funds, it doesn’t mean you won’t be low on funds soon. Even if you were to bet as little as 5% of your bankroll consistently – and lost consistently, you could still get down very low – even if you don’t lose everything altogether.
If you had £100 to start with and you decided on a fixed percentage of 10%, then you’d bet £10… if you won and your bankroll went up to £120, you’d then bet £12 on your next wager. Conversely, if you lost and your bankroll was down to £90, you’d bet just £9 on your next stake.
The benefits of this are clear – it’s impossible to lose your entire stake – although if you get down to your last £1, good luck making a 10p bet. However, winnings will also take time, and recouping losses on a percentage strategy will take a while too.
Proportional Betting with Odds
This is just like the proportional strategy, but this time you’re taking the odds of success into consideration. So, if you are betting 10% of your £100 on an evens bet, you’d bet that £10 – no more, no less. The way you work it out is this:
Your standard per cent (10% of £100) divided by the odds -1…
In this case, it would be £10 / 2-1
£10 / 1 + £10
However, if you decided to bet on an outsider with odds of 11, then your bet would be greatly different …
£10 / 11-1 = £10/10 + £1- you would bet just £10
Conversely – if you bet on the odds in favour, then this method would see you betting virtually your entire bankroll on that one bet. This is a great strategy for betting on the outsiders, but quite risky if you’re going for a favourite – as they don’t always come in!
The Kelly Criterion Strategy
This strategy has been doing the rounds since the 1950s, so it’s getting something right. This strategy involves understanding the probability of success and the odds offered of success. It is rather complicated, as you must work out the value of the bet, which is essentially what this strategy relies on. Working out the value of a bet is simply multiplying the % chance of winning as a decimal value) by decimal odds minus 1, subtract minus by the probability of losing and divide by the odds minus 1.
So, an example of this would be: you think that the chances of Chelsea beating Arsenal are 55%, and you are being offered decimal odds of 1.91, then you’d work out the value as follows:
(0.55 x 0.91 – 0.45)/ 0.91
(0.5005 – 0.45)/ 0.91
0.0505/0.91 + 0.055
Using this method, it is recommended that you bet 5.5% of your bankroll on this wager. This is great for one game, but your bankroll will come under heavy attack if you want to make a few bets at once. Another issue is that you must know enough about the bet to correctly predict the probability of winning. If this is out, then the whole strategy is out.
If you want to try the method, a less risky way is to apply the half of Kelly or Quarter of Kelly strategy, which involves betting either a half or a quarter of what the Kelly Criterion suggests.
Our Verdict
Well, there are so many to choose from, and your method depends on your aversion to risk and the bankroll you have. If you are lucky enough to have an unlimited – or very hefty bankroll, then Martingale is great because, eventually, you will make a profit. However, if you aren’t that lucky, then proportional betting is a good option because you will never go bankrupt, and you won’t end up chasing losses. It won’t pay out as much as riskier strategies, but it is a safer bet than many others. However, if you know your way around your betting, then the Kelly Criterion strategy has a lot going for it, but we’d recommend that more for the professionals.
Make sure you have your betting bankroll and stick with whatever strategy you use. Take a fixed amount of money you are prepared to risk and go no further. It is important that you don’t start chasing those losses by topping that up with other funds, as this will never end up profitable. Bet rationally, and be prepared to win and lose some – that’s what gambling is about. Enjoy it and enjoy it safely and sensibly.