What Is A Unit In Sports Betting? How To Build A Bankroll

The first question you may have asked yourself when you dipped your toes in the sports betting pool: How much money am I going to win?

The first question you should’ve asked yourself: How much can I afford to lose? Because the reality is, losing is as much a part of the sports betting equation as winning. After all, even the most successful sports bettors are “F” students—their sustained hit rate rarely touches 60%.

So before tackling the various nuances of units, you first must decide how you intend to fund your sports betting hobby. If, for instance, you plan to redirect discretionary dollars from one activity—say, traveling or dining out—to sports betting, then fire away.

However, if you plan on wagering regularly with the goal of turning a profit, it’s crucial to settle on a definitive bankroll.

That bankroll can be $100 a week, $1,000 a month, $100,000 a year—whatever amount that is within your means. Which brings us back to that important question: “How much can I afford to lose?”

Answer it honestly and once you do, make sure to bet responsibly.

Once you’ve determined your bankroll, the next step is to establish a per-unit dollar figure. This amount varies from one bettor to the next, but generally ranges from 1% (novice bettors) to 2% (experienced bettors) of your overall bankroll.

So let’s say you’re relatively new to the game and have set aside an annual sports betting budget of $5,000. Your unit size—at least at the start—should be $50 (1% of $5,000). Someone with the same $5,000 budget but a track record of success (and/or perhaps a higher risk tolerance) might be comfortable with a unit size of 2% of their bankroll (or $100).

The key to selecting the ideal unit size is to honestly assess your sports-betting acumen and your risk tolerance and understand bankroll management.

By now, you’re likely ready to race down to your nearest sportsbook and begin putting your bankroll to use (probably by wagering two units against the New York Jets). Not so fast. First, you need to select the optimal betting-unit method to deploy.

Here are the four most common:

Fixed-Unit Model

This is the most basic (and conservative) approach, the go-to for most novice sports bettors. Essentially, fixed-unit bettors risk exactly one unit on every single wager—no exceptions.

So if you’re the $50-per-unit bettor, you would wager $50 on Alabama -10 over Auburn; $50 on the Chicago Bulls +5 over the Milwaukee Bucks; $50 on the New York Yankees -170 over the Seattle Mariners; and $50 on a +225 underdog in a UFC fight.

Regardless of your confidence level from bet to bet, the amount you risk never fluctuates.

The upside to the fixed-unit model: It’s extremely easy to track your daily/weekly/monthly results and monitor your evolving bankroll. Also, by keeping your wagers consistent, losing streaks are easier to absorb. The downside? When you get on a hot streak, you won’t capitalize as much as you could using a different unit strategy.

Variable Model

Bettors who spend hours doing deep research before placing a wager usually gravitate to this model. That research often yields data that increases (or diminishes) a bettor’s confidence in certain plays. As such, the variable model bettor will risk multiple units on high-confidence wagers but play one unit (or less) on lower-confidence wagers.

Those who successfully execute the variable model can boost their bankrolls considerably.

Example: If, in a given week, you go 2-0 with three-unit wagers and 0-5 with one-unit wagers, you’ve still turned a profit of +1 unit despite that 2-5 record. The flip side, of course: If you go 6-1 with one-unit bets and 0-3 with three-unit bets, your 6-4 overall mark puts you down seven units.

As such, this model should be left to experienced bettors.

Another component of the variable model is centered around risk/return. For instance, some bettors never budge from their unit size, regardless of the betting odds. So let’s say a $50-per-unit bettor likes the San Diego Padres as a -140 favorite. They’re going to risk one unit ($50) at -140 odds to win $35.71. Total payout: $85.71.

Conversely, a $50-per-unit bettor who wants a return of exactly one unit on the same Padres bet must risk 1.4 units to get back one full unit. In this scenario, the bettor would wager $70 at -140 odds to win that one unit ($50). Total payout: $120.

The same theory applies to point spreads in sports like football and basketball (which generally have -110 juice on both sides). If, say, two $50-per-unit bettors like the Kansas City Chiefs -6.5 against the Denver Broncos, they could have two different wagers. One could risk exactly one unit ($50) to win $45.45 (for a total return of $95.45), while the other could risk $55 to win $50 (for a total return of $105).

Percentage Model

As the name suggests, this wagering formula is directly tied to the percentage of your existing bankroll. Let’s look at it in practical terms.

If your initial bankroll is $5,000 and your unit size is 1%, then your first bet is going to be $50 (assuming even-money odds). If you win that wager, your bankroll jumps to $5,050. So your ensuing bet would be 1% of that amount (or $50.50). Win that one (again, assuming even-money odds), and your bankroll would be $5,100.50.

So the primary benefit of rolling with the percentage model is your bankroll increases incrementally the more you win. The big drawback? It takes longer to recover from losing streaks. Here’s an example:

Let’s say the first two bets from your $5,000 bankroll are college football wagers at -110 odds, and you’re looking to win back one unit (so each wager is $55 to win $50). If both bets lose, your bankroll dips to $4,890.

Two more one-unit wagers the next day would be risking $48.90 (1% of your remaining bankroll) to win $44.45 each. If you won both bets, your bankroll would be $4,978.90—so you’re still down $21.10.

Kelly Criterion Model

Let’s take a trip to Fantasyland. You’re looking at placing two NFL wagers. You know there’s an extremely high probability that Wager X is going to hit—not a stone-cold lock, but close to it.

As for Wager Y, you like the play a lot, but you know the likelihood it cashes is much lower than Wager X. The betting strategy is simple, right? Risk a higher percentage of your bankroll on Wager X and a lower percentage on Wager Y.

This, in a nutshell, is the Kelly Criterion model, a mathematically intricate wagering (and investment) strategy that requires bettors (or investors) to accurately assess win probability. That, of course, is hardly an exact science.

However, sophisticated bettors who are skilled at assigning probabilities to wagers with some degree of accuracy can plug numbers into the Kelly Criterion formula and determine the expected value of those wagers.

The pros of using Kelly Criterion: You can maximize profits and minimize losses, thus preserving your bankroll—if you’re good at that whole “accurately assigning probabilities” thing.

The cons: Well … that’s a big if. Also, the complicated formula isn’t for the faint of math.

Units and Parlay Betting

Sports betting myth: Anyone who bets parlays is a sucker.

Sports betting truth: Anyone who risks a sizable chunk of their bankroll on parlays will quickly go broke.

We’ve already established that even the most successful sports bettors fail at least four out of 10 times (if not more). So it stands to reason that pairing multiple sides/totals/prop bets on the same ticket won’t pay off in the long run. That said, betting the occasional parlay not only is fun but can be a smart investment if you truly believe the odds are in your favor.

Take, for instance, an NFL game in which Team A is clearly superior to Team B. And let’s say Team A’s defense resembles the 1985 Chicago Bears while Team B’s offense resembles the 21st-century New York Jets. A two-team parlay of Team A and the Under makes logical sense.

So how do you incorporate unit strategy into parlays while maintaining smart bankroll management? Fractional units. Generally speaking, you shouldn’t wager more than one-half unit on any parlay. And the more legs you add to your parlay, the smaller that fraction of a unit should be.

Again, parlays are fun to bet—and even more fun to hit. But consistently relying on them to build your bankroll will surely earn you a one-way ticket to the poorhouse.

If you’re a casual sports bettor who wagers about as often as Bill Belichick smiles, there’s probably no need to create an intricate spreadsheet to track your success.

But if you’re in it to win it? Time to put those Excel skills to good use.

Beyond the obvious (monitoring the ol’ bankroll), maintaining a meticulous spreadsheet just might make you a better bettor. By plotting your one-unit, two-unit, three-unit, etc. plays, you’ll easily be able to identify where you’re succeeding and failing.

As the data accumulates over time, your strengths (say, two-unit college basketball underdogs and three-unit MLB totals) and weaknesses (say, one-unit NBA first-half wagers and two-unit NFL moneyline bets) will begin to crystallize.

Why is this important? Because the more you capitalize on the former and steer clear of the latter, the bigger your bankroll balloons. And in the end, isn’t that the ultimate goal?