How Should You Stake a $1,000 Betting Bank?

Kingsley on SEN radio with racing.com. Segment courtesy of SEN x racing.com.

The most common question I get is how to stake a bank. Say you have $1,000 to bet for the month. Is it 10 per cent a bet? Is it 5 per cent? My answer starts somewhere else. The key to any staking plan is staying in the game if you strike a bad run. Everything else, the percentages, the bet sizes, the way you scale up on longer-priced horses, comes after that.

Split the bank across your betting days first

Before you work out a bet size, work out how many days you are actually betting. If you have $1,000 for the month and you only bet on Saturdays, break it into roughly $250 for each Saturday. That is your day's bank. Now you know what you are working with, and you know that a bad Saturday does not touch the other three.

Bet to win an amount rather than a flat stake

I bet to win a certain amount, and that decides how much I have on the horse. With $250 for the day, I might bet to win $50. So the stake changes with the price. A ten-to-one chance gets $5 to return that $50. A shorter-priced horse gets more. You can move that number to suit your own bank and to suit how much you want to win on favourites compared with roughies. If you would rather win $100 when you land a longer-priced winner, lift your bet-to-win figure to $100 and the stakes follow.

The maximum bet and maximum race amount keep you honest

A bet-to-win figure on its own can get you into trouble on short-priced horses, so I also set a maximum bet amount. Using that $250 day, my maximum bet might be $20. That is the most that goes on any single runner, no matter what the bet-to-win number says. I also set a maximum race amount, and it is usually the same as the maximum bet. So if you are on two runners in the one race, the race is still capped.

Here is how the two numbers work together. If your bet-to-win amount is $50 and your maximum bet is $20, a ten-to-one horse gets $5. If you push your bet-to-win amount up to $100 but leave your maximum bet at $20, you are still capped at $20, so a shorter-priced runner might get $10 instead of the $20 you would have had otherwise. The bet-to-win figure sets the ambition. The maximum bet stops the ambition from running away with your day.

Staying in the game is the whole point

The reason for the caps is simple. You do not want to knock yourself out halfway through the day, especially when you have good bets coming up later. A staking plan is not there to make a good day better. It is there to make sure a bad run does not end your month in the first hour.

Pick your day's bank, pick a bet-to-win amount, then set a maximum bet and a maximum race amount you are comfortable with. Write them down and stick to them, and adjust the numbers to your own bank rather than copying mine.

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More from Kingsley

• "Should You Bet Against a Jockey Who Is Out of Form?"
• How to Line Up Tote, Betfair and Corporate Bookie Prices
• "Why Does a Short-Priced Lay Mean Value in the Race?"

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