By definition a betting bank sometimes also referred to as a staking bank is an amount or 'pot' of money set aside for the exclusive use for gambling and if you are serious about your gambling, then you most definitely need to have a betting bank. Having determined what a betting bank is and the necessity to have one, how much should the 'pot' be £50, £100, £200, £500, £1,000 or more? This is a common question which is easily answered, it's basically what you can afford to lose! If you can only afford to lose £50.00 then that's your bank. That may sound harsh but that's reality because It's not the amount of the bank (the pot), it's how you use the bank. More money does not mean more success, in fact more often than not more money incites a disregard to be disciplined (because there's plenty in the bank!).

Generally the regular every day punter will bet using money they have in their pocket, which means that not only is their risk factor high but they can also never gauge how successful they are - the two scenarios are, lose - walk out of the betting shop and suffer the loss, win - go home and treat the Mrs to a take away? This method is not a strategy but a direct debit to the bookmaker every day, every week and every month!

Staking - Points or %?

Our opinion on staking is to use a percentage of your Betting Bank and not use a point system, not everyone in the 'game' will agree with it but it is our preferred method of staking (we wouldn't mention it if we didn't think it was worth consideration). Level staking normally infers that you convert your bank into points, so for example a Betting Bank with a £100.00 staked would convert into a Betting Bank of say 100 points, each point representing £1.00 in value. You would then stake your bets to a number of points - 1pt to win, 2pts to win or 3pts to win and so on up to a maximum of 5pts, remember each way betting is 2pts per bet minimum, the win portion and the place portion (be very careful not to undervalue the actual worth of your points, as a volume number of small points will soon add up!). On face value our 100 point bank would appear to be sufficient enough to cover any long losing streak but in reality does it? Here's an example of how a points based betting system fails miserably. Theoretically you could back 20 losers and be 20 points down and in your very next bet back one 20-1 winner and be showing level stakes over the 21 bets - not for us! If you revert back to our statement about 'how much should the BB be', we said, it's what you can afford, that said if you were to stake a percentage of your BB (as opposed to points) then your loss liability reduces in losing runs and increases in winning runs, which definitely covers any losing runs. We recommend staking 1%-2% of your Betting Bank recalculated at the end of each day. 1%-2% is a reasonable percentage to base your staking on, aggressive staking would be 3% and above, not recommended! As your Betting Bank grows so will the percentage stake, therefore the amount of the bank becomes irrelevant as long as you stick to the strategy, have patience and stay disciplined - gambling is not a sprint more of a marathon. Admittedly, you will need to calculate the percentage to stake on the balance of the Betting Bank (and you will be staking some odd amounts) but rest assured it will be worth it in the long run. To increase your percentage to something like 5% and higher, would be regarded as 'extremely aggressive', and in a losing sequence, it will dramatically reduced the Betting Bank. Stay with the 1%-2% staking and persevere with it and prove that with patience you can build the Betting Bank in a positive way.