Level Stakes - Level Head

Moving on from last week’s ‘Money Matters’ post, I will now develop that idea and look at the level stakes staking plan. There are numerous staking plans out there that are so complicated you won’t know what day of the week it is. A staking plan is a way of controlling how much money you place on each of your bets over a period of time; level stakes betting is the most basic of these and the most suitable for the betting novice.

Most people new to football betting will first bet on accumulator coupons. The lure of a big payout from a small stake is the reason for this and there is minimal risk involved, with high rewards possible. Casual gamblers are actually using the level stakes without knowing in most situations. For example, if a £2 accumulator on a Saturday afternoon is your only bet of the whole week, then this is an effective level stakes system.

As you may have gathered by now, level stakes means you bet exactly the same amount of money on every bet you place. This way you cannot lose control of your betting, and you are restricting yourself to how much you can lose. The other main advantage of this is when you do win, your profit is secured and there will be no reason to put it back into the betting system, instead it can go into your back pocket (or the wife’s)!

As mentioned level stakes is as simple as betting the same amount on every bet. This is not to say it is restricted to accumulator betting, you could place any kind of bet on a football match e.g. first goal scorer, correct score etc and as long as you stake the same amount, you are using the level stakes management system. Level stakes requires discipline and before the season starts you should ensure you have enough money available to you to bet the same each week on each bet. For example, if you plan to have one £2 accumulator every Saturday of the football season (about 40 weeks) you would have a betting pool of £80 (40 x £2). That way, every time you make a bet your pool will drop by £2 but any profit you make does not go back into that pool, it is now your money. The more complicated system would tell you to put any profit back into your pool and increase your stakes accordingly. This is very risky, especially for the beginner.

It is important not to be tempted to increase your stake at any point, whether it is to try and increase winnings from a bet or even worse try to recoup losses from a previous bet. Doing this will only cause anomalies in your betting pattern and makes the level stakes betting plan useless. If you do want to increase stakes because you think your original £2 is not enough, then review your staking every couple of months but remember you have to commit to the new stakes for the whole season otherwise the staking plan will be rendered useless. 

Andy Clark

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