What is a bankroll?
Your bankroll is the total capital you dedicate exclusively to sports betting. It's not your rent money, your grocery money, or your savings — it's an amount you can afford to lose entirely without impacting your daily life. Clearly defining your bankroll is the first step toward responsible and sustainable sports betting.
The size of your bankroll depends on your personal financial situation. A beginner can start with €100 or €200, while an experienced bettor might allocate several thousand euros. What matters isn't the absolute amount but the discipline with which you manage it. Without disciplined bankroll management, even a bettor with an excellent win rate will eventually lose everything.
Physically separate your bankroll from your other finances. Ideally, use a dedicated bank account or at minimum, track your bankroll in a spreadsheet. Record every stake, every result, and regularly calculate your return on investment (ROI). This traceability is essential for evaluating your actual performance and adjusting your strategy.
Flat betting (fixed stakes)
Flat betting is the simplest and most recommended bankroll management method for beginners. The principle: you always wager the same fixed amount, regardless of the bet. This amount typically represents between 1% and 3% of your total bankroll. With a €500 bankroll, you bet between €5 and €15 per wager.
The main advantage of flat betting is its resilience against losing streaks. Even if you string together 10 consecutive losing bets (which happens regularly to the best bettors), you'll have only lost 10% to 30% of your bankroll. Your remaining capital is sufficient to recover. Conversely, if you stake 10% of your bankroll per bet, 10 consecutive losses reduce your capital by more than 65%.
Adjust your fixed stake periodically (for example, every month) based on how your bankroll evolves. If your capital grows from €500 to €700, your fixed stake can increase proportionally. Conversely, if your bankroll drops to €300, reduce your stake to protect your remaining capital. To get started betting with this method, follow our beginner's guide.
Proportional staking (percentage of bankroll)
The proportional method involves wagering a fixed percentage of your current bankroll on each bet. Unlike flat betting where the amount stays constant, here the stake adjusts automatically: it increases when your bankroll grows and decreases when it shrinks. A typical percentage is between 1% and 5% depending on your risk profile.
This method offers an important mathematical advantage: it's theoretically impossible to lose your entire bankroll because the stake decreases with each loss. With a €1,000 bankroll and 2% stakes, your first bet is €20. If you lose, your bankroll drops to €980 and your next bet will be €19.60. Protection against ruin is built into the system.
The downside is that recovery after a losing streak is slower than with flat betting, because your stakes decrease as your bankroll shrinks. Some bettors use a variant where the percentage varies based on confidence in the bet: 1% for an uncertain bet, 3% for a confident one. This approach requires experience and excellent self-assessment ability.
The Kelly Criterion
The Kelly Criterion is a mathematical formula that determines the optimal stake based on the odds offered and your estimate of the true probability of the outcome. The formula is: stake = bankroll × ((odds × probability - 1) / (odds - 1)). For example, if you estimate a result has a 60% chance of occurring and the odds are 2.00, Kelly recommends staking 20% of your bankroll.
In theory, the Kelly Criterion maximizes long-term bankroll growth. In practice, it's rarely used as-is because the recommended stakes are often very aggressive. Most professional bettors use a "fractional Kelly" — they only wager a fraction (typically a quarter or a third) of the amount recommended by Kelly. This reduces variance while retaining part of the mathematical edge.
The main risk of the Kelly Criterion is that it relies entirely on your probability estimate. If you overestimate your prediction ability, the formula will push you to bet too much. This is why this method is reserved for experienced bettors who have a documented track record of their performance. Use our profit calculator to simulate different staking scenarios and compare bankroll management methods.