Sports Betting Budgeting Advice for Beginners

When you are just getting into sports betting, one of the most important pieces of advice you are going to get is to set a careful budget and follow it.  There are a lot of people who think gambling is unhealthy—but that is only true if it becomes an addiction and you do not set reasonable boundaries for yourself.  Your budget is one of those key boundaries.

There are a couple of different aspects to budgeting for sports betting.  First, you have to decide how much money to deposit in your betting account.  While UK betting sites will try to tempt you with big bonuses for large deposits, you should only deposit money you can afford to lose.  Think of how much you would be willing to spend on other forms of entertainment.  That is how much you should deposit into your sports betting account.

If you add to your betting account on an ongoing basis, set a budget for those subsequent deposits too.  Again ask yourself what you would be willing to pay each month for other types of entertainment where you had no chance of making money.  You should always regard this as money you are potentially or even likely going to lose—even if that is not the case.  And you should never pull money away from other required expenditures, like your rent or your monthly bills.

The other main aspect of budgeting is how you will manage the money which is in your account.  How much are you willing to gamble on any one wager?  Set a percentage of your account and stick with it.  A good conservative percentage would be around 3%.  Some punters go up to 5%, and others might go as high as 10%.  Remember, though, the more money you wager, the fewer bets you can stand to lose before you blow through your bankroll.  So it is best to pick a smaller number. 

What is most important to remember is not to deviate too much from the percentage that you choose.  Why?  Because if you break with your discipline, you will be tempted to wager very large sums of money when you cannot afford to.  Plus, it begs the question.  If you are truly confident about all of your bets, wouldn’t you wager the same on all of them?  If not, are there bets you are taking that you are not confident about?  If so, those wagers should be avoided.

All of these budgeting considerations are the key to managing your account wisely and making sure that you are wagering responsibly.  While it can be difficult to restrain yourself at times, just remember that if you actually get to be good at betting on sports, over time you will grow your account without even having to deposit into it.  If you do that, you will eventually be able to place much larger wagers while still keeping with your money management rules and the conservative percentage you have set for yourself.