Level Stakes Betting
If you are new to betting then you’ll want to understand the best and most sensible ways to help maximize your profits. One of those ways can be by betting with a straight forward level staking plan. A staking plan is one of the many aspects of sports betting that will improve your overall level of organization, and give you a far greater chance of being successful in the long run.
With a level staking plan specifically, you can avoid the ‘all guns blazing’ method, where you treacherously wander in to the unknown, ready to throw all of your money on to the first great, big, money spinning bet you lay eyes upon.
Betting is not easy. What’s even harder is making a long term profit, as it requires a great deal more than the sporting knowledge that most of us have. Something that sets apart your regular shop punter on a Saturday morning, and your well thought out online bettor, is simply discipline, and some form of staking plan is part of that discipline.
A staking plan is deciding how much money you are going to place on any given bet. There are three main ways of doing this, and today we are going to be looking at the idea of level staking. This is a method that is widely used by professionals. The idea of level staking is to place every bet with the same amount of money behind it. Regardless of odds, the chance you think it has or what someone else’s opinion is. If you level stake, you can arguably make better use of the full odds the bookmaker is offering you.
Everyone works differently, but at the top a lot of bettors will use a level staking plan, and I’ll use a US Sports Handicapper as a good example of the benefits it can bring. A suitable return for a sustainable profit as a US Sports Handicapper (bearing in mind they bet at fixed decimal odds of 1.91) is a 55% win rate. If a US handicapper can land 55% of bets in a year, he’s going to profit well. If a US Handicapper drops below this win rate, he is going to struggle to make a consistent profit.
Some people may argue by using a level stake of x amount of money also ensures that your odds of 2.50 stay full price at 2.50. The attraction of being able to win big if you do decide to vary your stakes is more winnings, but the reality is there’s just more potential for more losses.
The starting point for anyone new to betting should be the level stakes system. It’s easy to use, easy to understand and it’s the safest way to go about your betting. Also, most will tell you that if you can’t find a way to make a profit when using level stakes betting, no other system is going to help you. Level staking can often help you take advantage of the value. For example, if you were to come across two bets that you thought we’re pretty attractive in the same day, or maybe you even argue they may be overpriced, then here’s the advantage of level stakes betting.
You have your two bets. You like them a lot. Both Bet A and Bet B are priced above evens, and you think Bet B should be below evens. So what’s the best way to take advantage of that perceived ‘value’? By going big on Bet B? Not if you’re going to bet sensibly and level stake, no. The obvious risk there is you go normal stake on Bet A and it wins. Let’s say your normal stake is £10. Your then go big on Bet B and you’ve bet £25. Bet A has won, Bet B has lost. You found two bets at strong odds that if played correct would have guaranteed profit. Now however, you find yourself down £5 from your two best bets of the day – and in truth it probably isn’t because people seriously do think varied stakes is best, but a lot of the time just based on greed.
With level stakes you would place your £10 on Bet A and £10 on Bet B. Bet A wins which is great, let’s say you got odds of 2.25. Bet B losses at 2.10, but because of the value you found in the odds – and because you were sensible enough to level stake – you’ve ended up making an overall profit from your bets. Of course the above scenario is pretty idyllic and it won’t always happen in such a way, but it’s just one of many scenarios where level staking is the easiest way to increase your chances of winning and secure the best possible return from your daily bets. If you struggle with discipline, or have done in the past, then starting to use a level staking plan can really help see if your betting knowledge gives you an edge – there’s no way to chase losses to try and level the books (and potential cause bigger losses)