Do you really have a betting bank?

The case for sensible money management and proper staking.
 
I do love a good quote when it comes to betting…

And the latest one I unearthed is by Shelby M.C. Davis – another in a long line of US money managers, high-rollers, and philanthropists.

Basically the kind of guy you’d like to be a dollar behind in the salary stakes.

This is what he said…

“Invest for the long haul. Don’t get too greedy and don’t get too scared”

And this sentiment rings true when it comes to betting.

Why? Because as we’ve seen time and again, the average backer can learn a hell of a lot from the savvy Wall Street operators who always seem to have the financial world sussed.

It also chimes with something that has long been a bugbear of mine. Or if not an actual cause of annoyance, something that repeatedly I’ve come back to over the last 30+ years in this business.

And that’s the theoretical, and practical, element relating to how backers treat a betting bank. Should they even have one.

Because this is often the reason why so many leave services early. Over or under-stake bets. And simply fail to fulfil their ambition of making money.

Either they don’t have a betting bank, or they fail to use it properly. Both of which can be equally catastrophic to their membership of a service, casual following of a tipster, or simply betting on their own instinct and information.

So what exactly is a betting bank?

Well, I think it can mean a variety of things, but for me it needs to have three fundamental aspects.

Firstly, it needs to be money that is free from, and not beholden to, other outgoings.

It is both money that can be lost (sadly this can happen on occasion) without critical consequences to one’s own life and well-being, or that of other dependents… nor is it capital that is required to pay the bills, or fund regular expenses of any nature. It is neither the bedrock of your household finances, nor the cookie jar to be raided whenever some day-to-day funds are required.

You use it for betting purposes, and nothing else.

Secondly, a betting bank, whether all in one account or spread over several, needs to be traceable. You need to be able to quickly and easily, at any point in time, say what the balance is – plus or minus. It’s not a gut feeling, or “I think we’re a bit up/down at the moment”. No, there should be some kind of monitoring, or dare I say it auditing, that lets the backer know exactly where they are at any given moment.

Without this, the success or otherwise of any strategy, system or service you follow will be impossible to accurately assess. Rockets don’t get to the moon on estimates, they get there on precise, calculated data – and the successful backer needs, maybe not NASA level accounting, but at least some rudimentary grasp of the figures.

In other words, keep a record of your bets.

Thirdly, however big or small your betting bank is, £500 or 100 points or whatever, understand what a betting bank is. And what purpose it serves.

With careful management, it is there to allow you to take full advantage of the investment opportunity that lies before you when used to its full capacity.

Not 10% of it, or 20% or half… a bank is a bank. 100% of it.

Point being, you may use up a chunk of your betting bank almost immediately. You could lose 25% of your reserves in the first month, it happens… but it’s the remaining 75% that gives you the capital (the betting power) to (i) recoup the lost 25% and (ii) go on to add the 20% profit on top.

And it’s these three aspects of a well-managed betting account that I apply to the words of Shelby Davis.

The concepts of sensible and structured financial accounting and bet placement.

… and this is what annoys me so much about how some backers use or mis-use their betting bank. If indeed they have one.

If you’ve got it… use it. Properly!

So here’s the thing.

Too many times I get new member asking me “what size betting bank do you recommend” for service X or Y.

And my advice to them will be based on a range of factors…

Might be 50 points, could be 100, maybe 200+. It all depends.

The idea being, with this betting bank put aside (this capital in reserve, so to speak) any member joining a service should be able to weather any storm whipped up by an initial short-term losing run, should this happen, and still have more than enough to fund all future bets advised.

And by staking according to the guidance, and not chasing any losses (not being too greedy in Davis’s words) nor decreasing stakes, say, if a few losers are encountered (too scared as Davis would say) this will enable you to make the kind of returns advertised for the particular service in question.

What I don’t want to hear from a new member, after half a dozen bets/losers is that they’ve run out of money.

Or after this hypothetical bad run, should the next bet win at 8/1 I don’t want to be told “Nice one, Matthew, but I lowered my stake on that one because I lost a bit of confidence”.

Rather like a safety belt in a car… it’s only going to protect you and be of any benefit, if you use it, and in the right way.

And just like a safety belt will enable you to live to see another day after a crash… so a betting bank will allow you to keep betting tomorrow (should you lose today).

The logic being, you’re only going to win long-term if you’re able to bet long-term. So don’t go looking to clean out the casinos of Las Vegas without any chips in front of you on the table.

Prudent management of your betting bank will enable you to do this.

Nobody wants to, or should, run out of money before that big winner comes in.

And be prepared to use it all, if needs be

Again, proper use of your betting bank would dictate that if you have a tank of say 100 points (as recommended for a particular service for example) and over the first couple of months you lose 15 points… you don’t quit.

Otherwise your betting bank isn’t really 100 points. It’s effectively 15.

Maybe not financially, but psychologically.

Remember…

The reason why those 100 points were recommended in the first place was because that service, historically, had a maximum drawdown of, say, 30-35 points… and there is perceived wisdom that a betting bank should be at least 2 or even 3 times the maximum drawdown (for added security).

Backers too often will see past results, understand the manner in which profits are made, look at the number of bets and staking levels, ask about losing runs and maximum drawdowns, get that baseline figure for a betting bank – based on all these criteria – and then totally ignore it should a number of bets go down.

They do because I’ve seen it happen. Many times!

So when it comes to betting banks they remain an integral part of a punter’s armoury.

They are , after all, the arsenal from which funds are drawn with which to ultimately defeat the enemy (the bookies).

And no army will ever win without recourse to a sufficient amount of weapons.

Be armed, at all times.

 

OPINION: Understand what a betting bank is for, and how best to use it. Because this will give you a much better chance of becoming a winning gambler. I’m not going to discuss in this article about staking plans, and how you can further maximise your funds (I do in fact talk about staking plans here), because for now the message I want to get across is a simple one – have a bank, closely monitor its rise/fall, bet sensibly according to the advice given. This way you will stay as close as possible to the advertised returns for a service, and so if that’s a winner… hey presto, so will you be!