Follow @BetNHLWe had yet another winning night as we went 2-1 with the NHL Betting Tips.
Both teams we picked to win did so. Islanders won in regulation and they didn’t even have to play at their best for that win. The Flyers are just pitiful out there and their lack of shots is something amazing to see. We also had the Penguins to beat the Blues and they did that. It was a solid performance from the Penguins and in particular Sidney Crosby.
Our loss was the Lightning/Kings over. A lot of shots in that game but two solid performances by Bishop and Quick to keep it under. Although in saying that – a lot of the shots even Bernier would have saved so that’s not really saying much.
It’s Thanksgiving in the USA and that means there is no NHL today. Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers.
I thought I’d take this time to talk about bankroll management and a couple of other topics.
I won’t yammer on – I’ll get straight to the point in all of this so I’d advise reading.
Bankroll Management:
We’re running hot right now and we get a lot of messages from readers showing us their betting slips or telling us how much they’ve won. That’s awesome! What’s not so awesome is the lack of bankroll management we’re seeing.
If you want to seriously win on sports betting the most important aspect is bankroll management. Now there are a lot of ways you can manage your bankroll – I’m going to list the most simple one. One which I feel applies to most sports bettors.
Look at your balance at online sportsbooks. See if you want to deposit any more to add to it. Then set that as your bankroll balance. This bankroll is purely for sports betting and nothing else. For simplicity let’s say your bankroll is $100.
Now you break that bankroll into units. I always advise 100 units to be cautious. So what that means is each of your bets are $1. Not $20 or $30 or whatever bets you’ve been making. Yes it sucks but don’t worry you’re going to grow that amount.
Change the amount you bet as your bankroll changes. Bankroll goes up to $125? You’re betting $1.25 per game as opposed to $1. Bankroll down to $50? Yikes were you betting on Bernier shutouts or something? Either way your bet amount is now $0.50.
Now not everyones a serious sports better 100% of the time. I know I’m not. If I’m watching a game, I want to place a bet. If I go to a bar and baseball is on – I may not care about the game but I’ll throw on a bet. So you have your “serious” betting amount and your “casual” betting amount. I usually do 50% of my serious bet. So if a unit is $1, then you’d bet $0.50 for those casual bets.
This isn’t just about betting within your limits and stopping yourself from going broke etc. It’s also about distancing yourself from your money. When I first started betting online over a decade ago, I started with a bankroll of $500 and $5 bets. I worked the bankroll up and within a couple of years my betting units were in the $x,xxx range. Ever lost over $10k in a night to sports betting? I have. But you know what? It never upset me at all. Because I wasn’t thinking that I just lost that amount. I was more thinking that I lost 5 units. And it made it so much easier to deal with.
Now if your bankroll is low don’t worry – there’s another way to grow it other than winning bets.
Take Advantage of Sportsbook Bonuses:
You should have a lot of sportsbook accounts. A LOT. One reason is so you can always get the best betting lines. I mean really – do you want to bet $100 to win $105 or $100 to win $119? Makes no sense doing the former. Another reason to have a lot of accounts is so you can take advantage of sportsbook bonuses.
These are a great way to build your bankroll. I took one of my friends under my wing last year. Throughout the NHL season, he built his bankroll up from $100 to over $7,000. Some of that was due to betting, but a large portion of it was due to bonuses. He’d go from sportsbook to sportsbook claiming all of the bonuses he could. The first thing he did in the morning was check each sportsbook to see if they had a reload bonus etc.
Do that today. Don’t be lazy – get that bankroll growind and make money! Here’s a couple of options:
USA Sportsbook Bonuses:
Firstly visit GT Bets who have a 100% to $250 bonus. Nice easy one for those with a small bankroll.
Deposit up to $500 at Bovada and get a 50% welcome bonus. $500 is recommended to get the max bonus. After depositing, you get the $250 in bonus money within 30 freaking minutes! So you’ve instantly turned your bankroll from $500 into $750, and there’s only a 5x rollover. Get that now at Bovada. No bonus code needed.
Then there’s BetOnline.. They have a 25% Welcome Bonus up to $1,000. But the good thing is they give you 25% bonus on EVERY deposit. So just deposit what you can now and then once the bonus is clear – deposit again for more free money. So head on over to BetOnline. and use the bonus code FIRST to get that deposit bonus.
Canada Sportsbook Bonuses:
This one expires end of November so get there soon Canada – Sports Interaction and their $20 NHL Money Back Special. It’s very simple – deposit $125 and you will get $125 free in bonus money. But then they also give you a FREE $20 bet. You bet $20 and if it loses? They’ll refund the bet! It’s a moneyline bet so go for a riskier bet knowing you’re completely freerolling.
Ready for another one? [geocode id=5 is the place to go with a 100% bonus up to $200. Canada is seriously so lucky with all the easy bonuses they have and Bodog is another great Canada exclusive one(along with Sports Interaction). So hop on over to [geocode id=5. for that one.
Outside of North America Bonuses:
It’s a bit tougher for you guys due to country restrictions etc – some of you reading won’t be able to sign up at all these books. But I’ll cover as many as I can.
888 Sports.love to give away free money – especially with different promotions every day and free bets e-mailed to your account. They do free bet Saturdays for example. Right now they’ve got a treble the odds bet. Basically place $10 on something and if you win the odds get trebled. Nice little bankroll booster and they have the best odds often so it really pays to have an account here.
William Hill also offer a free 25 Euro Matched Bet.
There’s also Guts who have a very solid 100% deposit bonus – and you get it paid immediately into your account. So your $100 immediately becomes $200 and they’re fast becoming a top NHL book.
Just Please Remember:
Read the Terms and Conditions for every bonus okay? Every bonus will have a rollover requirement, and some may have special requirements or rules like you can’t bet lower than 1.33 etc. If you have questions then ask the sportsbook via live chat and they’ll explain it all.
Also feel free to e-mail us at betnhl.ca@gmail.com with any questions as we’re happy to help.
Parlays/Accumulators:
I’ve said it before – but betting parlays is a losing play. The odds benefit the sportsbook. It’s hard enough to get 1 game right let alone 3 or more. Trust us – we know!
However we also know why people bet parlays – for the big score. I occasionally will do a parlay as well – it can be fun risking a small amount to win 6-10x that amount.
Just don’t go crazy with the parlays/accumulators okay? If you bet $20 an NHL game, maybe make the parlay amount 1/4 of that. So $5 on a parlay.
And just please don’t bet ONLY parlays unless you have no other option.
Finally….
Track Everything in a Spreadsheet:
It’s great to track your bets. You can be as detailed as you want or just have the facts. I used to write down all of the reasons I bet, all of the odds etc. But now I leave it simple. I have a spreadsheet that lists:
Date / Bet / Sport / Amount Wagered / Amount Returned
That’s it. That covers it all. I only have sport because I have multiple sports I bet on and I have separate bankrolls for every sport. It’s a great way to keep track of everything – especially those devilish parlays that have you cheering a $100 win, not realizing you’ve wagered $130 on losing parlays just to get that win!
Alright – hopefully that helped some people and we’re always glad to help as we’ve said. If there’s any topics you ever want me to discuss about sports betting just let me know by e-mailing betnhl.ca@gmail.com . You’ve no idea how much I love talking about it. I’ve literally been thinking about writing this article all morning and it’s over 1700 words long and took me just 20 minutes to write. I love this stuff and hopefully I can help you guys out as much as possible.
Back tomorrow!
How much would allow for your bankroll to grow until you would bank some of it?
Reason I ask because you shouldn’t feel emotionally attached to the money in the bankroll but if you was to increase your stake, I know I would second guess my thoughts on how a game would go.
Understand the disciplined value betting stance though, I do it with horses and it definitely pays off.
That’s such a tough question to answer for so many reasons. It depends on the person, their financial worth, their risk, whether they want to make it a primary source of income, secondary source of income or just some extra bucks at the end of the month.
It then also depends on winrate, quantity of bets and various other factors while also factoring in the wonderful variance of sports betting.
I think for most people they’re never going to make a living betting sports. So I’d find a betting amount they are comfortable with – and once they step out of that comfort factor they decide “That’s it” – and then don’t bet higher and take everything off the top.
So if you had a $10k bankroll for example and are betting $100 per game, race etc. Then you get the bankroll to $15k, decide to move up and realize you hate betting $150 each time – then you know you’ve reached your limit(and there’s nothing wrong with that).
So then you’d sit there with a $10k bankroll betting $100 a time and just anything on top of that is always profit.
It really is such a tough question with no general answer though.
Appreciate the time taken to give me a honest answer, it’s sage advice regardless.
Great advice and post, Graeme. You can tell you love it, even without you saying so.
Not really – I rarely do them anymore. And the odd time I do it’s when I’m really confident with a bunch of bets and throw them on.
However I think if someone wants to make them a part of their regular betting – then they should have some sort of system in place yeah. Like only bet a treble if it hits at least 10.00 odds or something similar. Everythings better when there’s a science to back it up rather than just impulse 🙂
Thanks for sharing all this. I did not quite get the reason behind not betting parlays. In the long rung, wouldnt parlays be the same as single bets, because the odds are multiplied?
No. The house edge is just that much stronger when it comes to parlays. The odds they give you and the true odds are vastly different
Have been shifting around my bankroll over the last year and have doubled my initial amount due to bonuses from the books. One thing I wasn’t impressed with was withdrawing from Bet365 in the fact they say they don’t charge for a wire transfer however the 3rd party that sends the money does and it added up to $20-$30, not a huge amount but still something to be aware of and will likely be a hidden cost with most books I would assume.
Yeah unfortunately you see that often – I’ve seen a few threads popping up the past week over at Reddit due to bank charges from 5Dimes and Bovada on wire transfers. The problem isn’t that there’s a charge – it’s that the sportsbooks are never clear about it. And even when questioned they can be vague.
I don’t think I’ve ever had to do a wire transfer thankfully. I’d use Neteller way back in the day, then Moneybookers/Skrill primarily and now most places accept Instadebit. On the odd occasion I do Moneygram or Western Union. Most sportsbooks are cool with the first withdrawal of the month being free.
Thanks for taking the time to write this G. They say experience is your best teacher and we’re very lucky we have your experience to learn from and give tips to help us make money the smart way and save us from making costly mistakes. Good luck tonight!
Hi there! First of all thanks for all these great tips you’re sharing. You said you have separate bankrolls for every sport and I was wondering is it possible to make more than one account with the same info on the same betting site, or do u have to make these different bankrolls on different betting sites. Hope u get what I mean :p
Sportsbooks won’t allow that – it’s strictly spelled out in their T&C that you can’t do that.
I have money at over 25 online sportsbooks and accounts at probably 50 more. But I don’t do that for separate bankroll reasons – I do it so I can get the best odds.
For keeping track of my separate bankrolls I just use a spreadsheet and update it daily.
Got it, thanks for the answer!
Hey Graeme,
and thanks for this. Been looking around for a good explanation on bank-roll etc. My question to me is; How many units is a regular bet for you?
Most “good” betters i know bet out of a 1/10 units system where 10 is a “max-bet” and 1 is often a longshot. They often lie around 3-6 units per bet. Do you bet only 1 unit ?
1 unit is 1% of my bankroll and that’s what I bet for serious bets. For the less serious bets I bet 0.5% of a unit.
I’ve did multiple unit systems before – betting 1-10 unit depending on my confidence levels etc. But I’m glad I don’t do that anymore. I like going 2-1 and having a winning night. Keep it nice and simple.
One other thing to note is on certain days I’ll have a large chunk of my bankroll in play. Like last Wednesday for example I had bets on NBA, NHL, the week ahead NFL, the golf, some soccer, OHL, CFL etc. (Truth be told – my actual bankroll is probably about 150-200 units as I keep a lot in reserve due to the quantity of my bets, and that I’m not too concerned with moving up in dollar amount anymore).
Thank you four the reply. Your tips sound very sound, and i must admit that i didn’t really have any interest in “bank-rolling” until i read this.. Thank you again 🙂