Whatever limit you choose, do not raise it to make up for losses. But one thing that you should consider is the damage that might be done to your business if you risk more than 5% of your bank. You may want to be ultraconservative and use less than 5% or you may want to go high-risk and use 10% or more. If you think of the event as one big bet, then you may certainly apply the 5% rule and use 5% of your existing cash. So first, you have to decide what your bankroll will be for a given event. What other investment pays like that? Additionally, even if you ran off a string of 45 wins, the most you’d make on a basic point spread wager of $11 would be $10, giving you a total of $945. You may have thought by making 45 bets, you could have turned that $500 into $2,000! Consider this, you started with $500 and have increased that original amount by almost 23%. You may be thinking that’s not very good. Also, they will have $5.00 left in the bank that they have not risked, giving them $614. After all is said and done, they’ll have $609 in the bank. If 45 point spread bets are placed and the bettor manages to win 65%, here’s the way it works: they will win 29 bets and lose 16.
Why that percentage? On average that’s the winning percentage over time of successful professional sports bettors. Also, you’re trying to win 60% to 65% of your bets. With $500, you’ll be able to do that, allowing you to make some mistakes and make adjustments in order to win.