Unit Betting

Dec 13, 2012

We have received numerous emails asking us for an explanation of unit betting and we will try to do our best to explain it here. If you are new to wagering it may seem complicated, however, it is quite simple.

A unit represents a percentage of your bankroll that you are willing to risk on each game. Once you establish the value of 1 unit, it never changes. You may increase your units at some point but the value of 1 unit always remains the same. 

Lets assume that your starting bankroll is $500.00. Now, let's assume that you are willing to wager 10% of your bankroll on each game. Therefore, 1 unit = $50.00, or 10% of 500.00. If you are willing to wager 5% of your bankroll on each game, 1 betting unit would then represent $25.00.

PLEASE NOTE: We are simplifying this system by using 10% as an example only. We do not recommend wagering 10% of your bankroll on one game. A more practical approach and the one we use is wagering 2.5 % of your bankroll on each game.

As your bankroll increases, so does the amount of units per bet. For instance, if you doubled your bankroll to $1000.00 and are still willing to wager 10% of your money on each game then your wager would be 2 units instead of 1, or $100.00.

Simply put, all you need to do is decide what percentage of your bankroll you are willing to risk on a single game and convert that to a dollar figure. You now have the value of one betting unit. The value of your betting unit never changes. You may choose to bet 2 or 3 units on a single game but the unit value remains the same as when you started. 

When you see our record indicate that we are up 65 units on the year, the actual monetary figure is not relevant. What is relevant, is the units won on the year and that is why we track it this way.