Bankroll Management (Both DFS and Sportsbetting) and Why Coaches Preach It!

When it comes to sportsbetting and daily fantasy sports, people hear the term bankroll management a lot. Some follow it, some blow it off. But, let’s put this to a visual using a simulator to show the serious player why it’s so critical to play well beneath your bankroll. Continue reading to learn the basic bankroll strategy.

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Bankroll Management and Reducing Risk of Ruin

Fighton2016: If I had a $600 bankroll, 1 unit would be on the higher side (likely around $25). That way, all you need is a 1-2 profit every month to keep paying for a service like ours (and we tend to average between 10-12 units of gains each month over at SportsBetArmy). But like Choppodong said, the whole point is to stay in the game as long as you can. If you look at a stock chart like Apple over their 30 year history, its basically a 45 degree angle. We want to look back at our betting bankrolls in 30 years and see something similar.

Sure, there was short term volatility. We had bad weeks, or even months, and we had good weeks and months. But the good outweighed the bad, we didn’t get over our skis, and continued to climb over time. Apple is a bad example given their exponential rise the last 12-18 months, so let’s look at this Visa chart instead…

There are ups, there are downs, but in 12+ years, it just looks like gains over gains when you step back and take a helicopter view. Why? You had a long term advantage leading to growth.

Why Manage Your Units?

Fighton2016 continues: Lets throw some numbers behind it now. I created 3 different simulations. All 3 simulations assume that you are a bettor who starts with $1000 and you are a good capper (you average a 54% win rate on -110 bets). You make 1000 bets. At the end of the 1000 bets, we run the simulation 10 times to show what your ending bankroll is. If you ask us why we say to have a unit size of 3% or less is incredibly important.

First, lets look if you are just a super casual bettor throwing $100 on every play (10% of your bankroll): Even though you hit 54% of your plays, your over-exuberance of betting such a large chunk of your bankroll leads almost every simulation (9 out of 10) to you losing…busto!

Next, lets look if you do 5% of your bankroll…

At 5%, there are some simulations where you kill it, but there is also a simulation (7) where you lose everything. At the end of the day, the average shows a 2.3x return on average. Lastly, lets look at 3%…

At 3%, even though you are betting a smaller amount of money on each play, you stay in the game long enough to capitalize on your winnings. On average, you will triple your money and your unit size over 1000 bets. THIS IS WHY WE HARP BANKROLL MANAGEMENT!!

Sports Betting is a lot like DFS (daily fantasy sports) in that way. You need to be good or know people who are good at making picks, but also you need to stay disciplined in your process. Fortunately, we have those people who are good at making picks in both communities and can give us bankroll betting tips.

Learn From the Sharps!

We are a community of sharp, experienced people turned coaches. We want to help you become better, too. Through a combination of setting examples, offering picks, plays, and strategies, we also offer the feedback as you learn to build your own tickets and lineups. You like Fanduel and Draftkings? We have free trials to check us out through them. You like parlays and player props? We have deposit matches and bonuses there, too.

Simply pick your format, head in and start learning to beat these games. Gone are the days where you go it alone. Get the feedback you deserve as you educate yourself and start your journey from average joe to DFS and sportsbetting pro!!