Betting with a staking plan

Most conversations I have with punters these days usually involve a question or two about their staking plan. All too often I get bowled over by the lengths that punters go to with their form analysis and race risk assessments, while hearing little of substance in response to the staking question.

'It depends how much cash I have got on the day.' or 'I bet more than usual if I am feeling good' are just two examples from recent discussions with two seriously smart punters who had shared some very intelligent thoughts about punting just minutes before. It's a bit like the 'driving for show and putting for dough' golf analogy really. You do the form, select your horse, get great odds then apply little to no thinking about how much cash you will bet on your selections. So why is staking such an after thought with so many punters?

Stake with confidence

A lot of social punters believe staking is for professional punters with no application to them other than if they're winning, at which time they are inclined to 'load up' and increase their bet amount for subsequent races. That in itself is a staking plan but if that's all you use, there are a lot of opportunities to get more from your form analysis and make a better return. An easy example is using a stake that best represents your confidence in a race or if each-way or place betting is your thing, take one of those more conservative bet types for races where you are least confident.

Staking on value

Professional punters who have the skills to price their own betting market will typically let value drive their stake. The more value in the bet the higher the stake. This thinking is simple really - if you were getting $3 for heads and $2 for tales for the flip of a coin, you would load up on heads all day.

Staking for return

Another approach punters can use for staking is to put a return objective on each race. As an example you might set yourself an objective to win $100 on the race by betting on several horses that you think have a reasonable chance of winning. This approach requires a sophisticated wagering calculator that considers your profit objective, the current odds of each horse you have short listed, and the potential race outcomes to produce the amounts to bet on each horse. This approach usually involves returns which are a small percentage of turnover.

Bank staking

One of the most common bank staking methods is to simply use a small percentage of the bank for each bet. For punters to work out the percentage that is right for them, they need to establish how much they bet, how often, and the profit on turnover that they expect to make. Together these figures will give them their weekly cash profit amount.

If that calculation leads to a figure that is less than what you expected, then you'll need to increase the bank percentage that you use for future bets. There are many other derivatives of Bank Staking which I plan to discuss in future articles.

If you have a staking plan that you would like to share with other punters, please email us through our "Contact Us" page. If your staking plan is published you will receive a $25 bet.

Mike Steward