If you don’t bet on soccer year round but are drawn to the major international events – the World Cup, Euro, Confederations Cup and so on – then you really need to focus on your bankroll before the event starts. If you don’t effectively choose how big your bankroll needs to be and what your bet size should be then you are increasing the risk in your betting beyond what it needs to be. Here are six factors to consider when determining what your soccer tournament bankroll should be:
Consider types of bets – There are several different ways sports bettors can wager on a major soccer tournament. The moneyline is the most common, but you can also bet on the point spread or the total. There are countless props offered for each game, and sportsbooks get more and more creative with these with each passing tournament. You can also bet live on the games. In order to effectively plan your bankroll and give it the best chance of growing, you need to consider what type of bets you are likely to make and what you need to bet on those effectively. If you are betting on favorites you are likely to win more often so you might not need as deep a bankroll as you would if you were betting longshot prop bets that you are likely to lose far more often than you will win, for example.
Look at the maximum number of games – When you are first looking at a soccer tournament you need to look at the format and number of games that will be played in the tournament. Once you know that then you know the maximum number of games you could bet on, and you can set up your bankroll accordingly. If there are there are 31 games, for example, and you are not likely to bet more than one different bet per game then you could get away with just 31 units as long as you accepted that you could go broke if you lost all of your bets. If there were that many games and your bankroll was only 15 units deep, or if you like to make several bets per game or bet several units on games in which you have a bigger edge, then you likely don’t have a deep enough bankroll to survive the ups and downs of betting while minimizing your risk of going broke.
Rank games by quality – Before the soccer tournament starts handicappers should rank the teams that are scheduled based on how likely they are to appeal to you as a bettor. If you like close games between well matched teams, then you could rank all the mismatches lower than those games. Once you have the games ranked you know how many games you are likely to bet on – or have the strong potential to bet on anyway – and you can set your bankroll accordingly. It’s quite possible that you are likely to only bet on half of the games in a tournament, so that can allow you to be more aggressive with your bankroll.
Consider risk willingness – Before the tournament starts you need to look at what you want to get out of the tournament, and what amount of risk is acceptable to you as a sports bettor. If you want to slowly and cautiously grow your bankroll and viewing this tournament as just a part of your ongoing betting activities, then you’ll likely want to be very conservative with your bankroll and your bet selection. If you just want to take a shot at making some nice money and you don’t really care if you lose the money you have put aside to bet on this tournament then you will likely be more aggressive in your bet size and bet selection. The closer your bankroll strategy is aligned with your betting strategy the more likely you are to profit in the long term.
Look at the size of your bankroll – Sports bettors need to be realistic here. How much money do you have to bet on sports overall? How important is betting on soccer compared to other sports? If you are a committed football bettor who only has a passing interest in soccer, then it wouldn’t make sense to risk a large portion of your overall bankroll on the soccer event because if you lost and were unable to bet effectively on the upcoming football season then you’d likely feel silly. If soccer betting is your biggest passion, though, then you might be more comfortable risking a much larger portion of your bankroll.
Honestly assess your edge – Every bettor has an ego – if they didn’t they wouldn’t bet on sports because they wouldn’t assume they can predict what will happen better than the oddsmakers. When you are betting on a special event like this, though – especially if you aren’t a full time bettor of the sport – then you need to put your ego aside and be really honest about how strong your soccer handicapping is and how much of a chance you really have of picking winners. If you are lying to yourself about your edge then you aren’t going to be making the best decisions about bet size and bankroll strategy, and you are making financial ruin more likely.
