Chapter 2: Getting Started with a Bookmaker · Lesson 1
By Cadell Griffith, Software Architect and founder of OddsFantasy · Updated · 3 min read
Your bankroll is the money you set aside only for betting, and your stake is the amount you risk on one bet. Most bettors size and record stakes in units, where 1 unit = 1% of the bankroll: with a $500 bankroll, a 1-unit stake is $5 and a 2-unit stake is $10.
By the end of this lesson, you will:
Bankroll and stake are two of the first words you meet in sports betting, and two of the most important. Get them right and a run of losing bets is a normal week; get them wrong and one bad day ends your betting.
Your bankroll is the money you set aside exclusively for sports betting: money you won’t mix with rent, bills or savings, and money you’re prepared to lose.
Three rules:
Set aside an amount you won’t touch for anything else. It can be $100, 50,000 FCFA, ₦100,000 or whatever suits your situation. Make sure you have a bankroll before you continue.
A stake is the portion of your bankroll you risk on a single bet. Every bet needs one, and it decides how much you win or lose:
Payout = stake × decimal odds
Profit = payout − stake = stake × (odds − 1)
| Stake | Odds | Payout if it wins | Profit if it wins | Loss if it loses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10 | 2.50 | $25.00 | $15.00 | $10 |
| $10 | 1.50 | $15.00 | $5.00 | $10 |
| $20 | 1.94 | $38.80 | $18.80 | $20 |
Whatever the odds, a losing bet costs you the whole stake. That’s why stake size, not the odds, decides how much a losing streak hurts.
Professional bettors don’t talk about stakes in dollars; they talk in units. A unit is a fixed share of your bankroll, usually 1%:
| Bankroll | 1 unit (1%) | 2-unit stake | 0.5-unit stake |
|---|---|---|---|
| $200 | $2 | $4 | $1 |
| $500 | $5 | $10 | $2.50 |
| $1,000 | $10 | $20 | $5 |
| $5,000 | $50 | $100 | $25 |
Units do three things for you:
Recalculate your unit on a fixed schedule, such as the first day of each month, so it grows with your bankroll and shrinks after a losing run.
How much to stake per bet, and the six ways to decide it, are covered in bankroll management. For a quick guide to how much to bet, see bankroll and stake management.
Bet responsibly: only use money you can afford to lose.
In the next lesson, you’ll open a bookmaker account: what to look for in a bookmaker, how to register and verify, and how to fund it with your bankroll.
Your bankroll is the money you set aside only for betting, kept apart from your everyday money. It should be an amount you can afford to lose completely, such as $500 or 50,000 FCFA.
The stake is the amount you risk on a single bet. If the bet loses you lose the stake; if it wins you get the stake back plus your profit. A $10 stake at odds of 2.50 pays $25: $10 back and $15 profit.
A unit is a fixed share of your bankroll used to size and record bets, usually 1%. With a $500 bankroll, 1 unit is $5, so a 2-unit bet is $10. Results in units compare across bankroll sizes: +12 units means the same growth on a $200 bankroll as on a $5,000 one.
Yes. With decimal odds, payout = stake × odds, and that includes your stake. Profit = payout − stake, or stake × (odds − 1).
Most bettors stake 0.5–2% of their bankroll, or 0.5 to 2 units, per bet. The bankroll management lesson compares six ways to size stakes, including the Kelly criterion.