How Much Should You Bet? Understanding Stake Size and Betting Units
General27 August 2026
Picking a bet is only half of the equation. You also have to decide how much money you're willing to put on it.
That sounds simple, but stake size can have a huge effect on your results. A bettor can have a profitable strategy and still put too much money at risk. On the other hand, betting extremely small amounts can make it difficult for a genuine edge to have much effect on the bankroll.
This is where bankroll management and betting units come in.
There isn't one stake size that everyone should use. The right amount depends on your bankroll, your tolerance for losing streaks, and the staking method you choose.
Start With Your Bankroll
Your betting bankroll is simply the money you've set aside for betting.
It should be money you can afford to lose. Rent, bills, food, emergency savings and other essential expenses should not be part of your betting bankroll.
Keeping betting money separate from your normal finances also makes your results much easier to understand. If you win, the bankroll can grow. If you lose, it goes down. Either way, you know exactly what you're working with.
The size of the bankroll itself isn't what matters here. Someone might have €200 while someone else has €5,000. The important thing is that the amount is affordable for that person.
What Is a Betting Unit?
A betting unit is a standard measurement for your stakes.
Let's say you have a €1,000 bankroll and decide that one unit is 1% of it.
That makes one unit €10.
A €5 bet would be 0.5 units, a €10 bet would be 1 unit, and a €25 bet would be 2.5 units.
The useful part is that you can describe your bets in units instead of constantly talking about euros. If your bankroll changes, your unit can change with it if you use a percentage-based system.
There isn't a universal rule saying that one unit has to equal 1% of your bankroll. That's simply one common way to define it.
How Large Should a Unit Be?
This is where you'll find plenty of different opinions.
You might see bettors using 0.5%, 1%, 2%, or even more of their bankroll as one unit. There isn't a magic percentage that guarantees the "right" level of risk.
A smaller unit gives you more room to absorb losing streaks. A larger unit means bigger swings in both directions.
For a €1,000 bankroll, the difference looks like this: 0.5% = €5, 1% = €10, 2% = €20, 3% = €30, and 5% = €50 per unit.
A 5% stake doesn't necessarily look frightening when you're looking at one bet. The problem becomes obvious when several bets lose in a row.
Five consecutive 5% losses would already put a significant dent in the bankroll. And losing streaks happen even to bettors who have a genuine edge.
That's why stake size is mainly about managing risk. It doesn't make the underlying bet any better.
Flat Staking
Flat staking is probably the easiest staking system to understand.
You choose a stake and keep using it.
For example, you could decide that one unit is €10 and put €10 on every bet. It doesn't matter whether you think one selection has a small edge and another has a larger one. The stake stays the same.
One advantage is simplicity. You're not changing your stake after every result, and a bad run doesn't automatically make you increase the amount you're betting.
The downside is that the €10 remains €10 even if your bankroll changes significantly.
If you turn a €1,000 bankroll into €500, that same €10 stake is now 2% of your bankroll rather than 1%.
Percentage Staking
Percentage staking works differently. Instead of keeping the euro amount fixed, you keep the percentage fixed.
Suppose you use 1% of your current bankroll:
€1,000 bankroll → €10 stake
€900 bankroll → €9 stake
€1,200 bankroll → €12 stake
Your stake therefore falls when you're losing and increases when the bankroll grows.
This can make a losing period less damaging because you're automatically risking less money as the bankroll gets smaller.
It works in the other direction too. If the bankroll grows, your stakes increase.
Whether that is preferable to flat staking depends on the bettor and the strategy. Neither method is automatically the correct choice.
Which One Should You Use?
The biggest difference is what stays constant.
With flat staking, the amount of money stays constant.
With percentage staking, the percentage of the bankroll stays constant.
Imagine you start with €1,000 and use €10 flat stakes. If the bankroll falls to €500, you're still putting €10 on each bet.
With 1% percentage staking, the stake would have fallen to €5.
That doesn't mean percentage staking will produce better betting results. It simply changes how much of your remaining bankroll is exposed to each bet.
Should Stronger Bets Get Bigger Stakes?
Some bettors don't want every bet to have the same stake.
They might use 1 unit for an ordinary bet, 2 units for a stronger one, and perhaps 3 units for a bet they consider particularly good.
There's nothing inherently wrong with having different stake sizes, but there is an obvious danger: your confidence isn't the same thing as your actual edge.
A bet can feel extremely strong and still lose.
If you're going to vary your stakes, it helps to have a clear reason for doing so. Otherwise, "2 units" can easily turn into "I really like this one" and then "I'm putting 5 units on it because I don't see how it can lose."
The latter is no longer much of a staking system.
What Is the Kelly Criterion?
The Kelly Criterion takes a more mathematical approach.
Instead of simply saying "I'll bet 1% on everything," Kelly uses your estimated probability of winning and the available odds to calculate a stake as a fraction of your bankroll.
For decimal odds, the formula is:
f = (bp − q) / b
Here, p is your estimated probability of winning, q is 1 − p, and b is the decimal odds minus 1.
For example, suppose you believe a selection has a 55% chance of winning and the bookmaker offers decimal odds of 2.00.
The full Kelly calculation gives a 10% bankroll stake.
That sounds aggressive, and it can be. More importantly, the calculation is only as good as your probability estimate.
If the true probability isn't 55% and your estimate is wrong, the recommended stake can be very different from what would actually be appropriate.
That's why you'll often hear about fractional Kelly, where only a portion of the full Kelly stake is used. Half Kelly, for example, would use half of the calculated Kelly stake.
Kelly is therefore not a magic formula for finding the perfect bet size. It is a method that depends heavily on having a reasonably accurate estimate of your edge.
Losing Streaks Are Normal
One thing that is easy to underestimate when looking at betting results is variance.
Even if your bets are profitable over the long term, you won't win every week. You can have a series of losses without the underlying strategy suddenly becoming worthless.
That's one reason sensible stake sizing matters.
If you're risking 1% of your bankroll per bet, a losing streak is unpleasant but leaves you with plenty of bankroll to continue.
If you're regularly risking 10% or 20%, the same losing streak can become a serious problem.
Your staking system should therefore be something you can actually stick with during a bad run, not something that looks great when everything is going well.
Don't Increase Your Stake to Chase Losses
One of the worst reasons to increase a stake is because the previous bet lost.
For example:
€10 lost → €20 next bet → €40 → €80
This is a form of chasing losses. The idea is that one bigger win will recover everything you've lost.
But the next bet doesn't know what happened to the previous one. Losing three bets in a row doesn't make the fourth bet more likely to win.
Increasing the stake simply means you're putting more money at risk.
If you have a staking plan, stick to it rather than trying to win back losses immediately. Responsible gambling guidance also recommends setting limits and avoiding chasing losses. Gambling Help Online – Chasing Losses
Don't Confuse Stake Size With Confidence
A bigger stake doesn't make a bet more likely to win.
This sounds obvious, but it's an easy mistake to make.
You might be 60% confident in one bet and 80% confident in another, but unless those numbers come from a meaningful probability model, they're still subjective judgments.
A useful staking system should be based on something you can explain and repeat.
If your stake changes every time you feel particularly confident, it becomes very difficult to tell later whether your staking decisions actually helped your results.
Track Your Stakes
Whatever staking method you choose, tracking your bets gives you something that memory can't: actual data.
Over time, you can see your total profit and loss, ROI, average odds, win rate, stake sizes and results by sport, league or bookmaker.
You can also see your performance in units.
For example, a bettor might discover that their overall win rate looks good, but their larger "high-confidence" bets are actually costing them money. That's difficult to notice if you're only looking at whether individual bets won or lost.
This is one of the reasons keeping a complete betting history is useful. You can look back at what you actually did rather than what you remember doing.
Or, you know, you could just use BetTracker. 😉
There Is No Perfect Stake Size
There isn't a universal answer to "How much should I bet?"
A person with a €500 bankroll and a person with a €10,000 bankroll obviously shouldn't be thinking about the same euro amount.
More importantly, two people with the same bankroll may have completely different tolerance for risk.
Flat staking, percentage staking and more advanced approaches such as fractional Kelly all have different characteristics. The important thing is understanding what your chosen method does and being consistent with it.
Start with money you can afford to lose, choose a stake size that allows you to handle losing streaks, and don't increase your stakes simply because you're trying to recover a loss.
Most importantly, keep records.
You can't control whether your next bet wins. You can control how much you risk on it and whether you're honest with yourself about the results.
At the end of the day, bankroll management matters more than the staking strategy you choose. Don't take unnecessary risks, don't let emotions decide your stake, and make sure you're never betting more than your bankroll can handle.
Ready to improve your betting strategy?