The vast majority of the very best sports bettors, horse racing bettors and poker players have one trait in common, they are disciplined. In today’s Fantasy Stars strategy piece we give you 5 Tips For Effective DFS Bankroll Management.
1. Bet more on Cash games
From a simple mathematics perspective, 50/50s, double-ups and multipliers give you theoretically the best chance of winning.
If you only have to beat 50% of the field you’re going to win or ‘cash’ a lot more than you are in a GPP where normally only the top 20% is in the money.
With that in mind, focus in on the smaller and or easier kills with the majority of your capital to combat variance and keep your bank ticking over on a semi-stable schedule.
Even though the likelihood of you cashing in a double-up are much higher than a GPP you are still vulnerable to variance. You’re lineups and strategy might be rock solid but you will encounter downswings. We suggest in 50-50’s at absolute max risking 5% of your bank across a slate. Even then it’s a pretty aggressive bankroll push and we’d rarely be outlaying that much or anything close to it.
Remember what Pro Player Sean Koerner told us – “Don’t get lured into the ‘big win’ so much early on. Grind your way in smaller stake 50/50s, double-ups, single entry tournaments.”
2. Bet less on GPP games
The big GPP victory is what we all dream of, but the reality is even for the very best players the perfect game only occurs every so often.
A good way to protect your bank is to only bet a small portion on GPP or big tournaments. We suggest at absolute max, 2% of your given bank on any one slate. You can perhaps scale from 0.5% to 2.0% based on confidence.
Remember, it’s a grind. Stick to limits and don’t go chasing the hail mary beyond your means. Variance is unavoidable and you must put yourself in a position to handle it when it inevitably occurs.
“I look at it much more like managing a stock portfolio where you allocate a certain percentage of your bank in safer “cash” games and a smaller percentage in riskier “GPP”s and treat it as a long-term money maker as opposed to a get rich quick operation.” Pro DFS player Sean Koerner told us.
** One disclaimer here is that GPP’s will often present overlays. If the overlay is big enough then you can consider outlaying slightly more GPP capital than usual.
DFS Overlays: How to find them and when to capitalise
NFL comes around and I lose all my bankroll management skills pic.twitter.com/MYbSyROv06
— Tommy Nooooooooo (@TooMuchMortons) September 6, 2016
3. Record EVERYTHING
How many DFS players can tell you how much they’ve spent on contests this year? How much they’ve won or lost and where they’ve won or lost that money. What about the types of contests they are most successful at?
We asked these questions last week in our piece on common DFS mistakes. What we didn’t
What we didn’t ask though, are they keeping an updated record of their bank.
If you are playing contests on a daily basis it means that your bank will be fluctuating quite a lot. If that’s the case and it’s trending down you should be risking slightly less than you would have with your starting bank.
Update figures on a daily basis and if you can’t, do it every second day. But make sure you know what your bank size is at all times.
4. Put time into winning
It might sound obvious, but bankroll management will only help if you’re winning and beating the numbers more times than you are losing. Otherwise, by managing a bank you’re simply limiting your losses and you’ll steadily run out of cash instead of losing it all in one big hit.
Sound depressing? Well put time into winning.
Read, research, study. Identify what you’re good at and where you need to improve.
Visit our Strategy section, maybe we can help!
Related: Five common mistake made by DFS players
5. Identify your strengths and weaknesses
Once again this comes down to reporting and recording results and as much relevant information as you can.
If your win-rate is considerably higher on a certain sport then perhaps you can increase your percentage of bank you bet there.
Conversely, if you are struggling with a sport or just starting out with one. Consider playing at half-stakes until you are fully comfortable
You’ll also probably find that some sports and even some websites are more prone to providing variance, identify these spots and once again, lower your stakes.
