How big should my starting bankroll be?

When it comes to bankroll management for sure betting and value betting, time is just as crucial as the amount of money you have to invest. How you allocate and manage your time can significantly influence your profitability and success.

Arbitrage betting

If you're sports arbitrage betting, a small bankroll and plenty of time may very well generate a profit equal to what you can make using a bigger bankroll, but with limited time.

As a guideline, we recommend that you spend on average 20 hours per week monitoring for arbitrages. Please note that we don't mean 20 hours of active trading time, just that you're able to monitor Sure betting for new trades as they arrive. If you work in front of a computer, you can have RebelBetting running in the background, alerting you of arbs that meet your filter criteria. The actual placement of the arb only takes a minute.

If you have limited time you should focus your arbing to evenings and weekends when most games are played.

Value betting

The same applies to Value betting as well. When value betting you will have to focus on the volume of bets. It is all about making profit over time, and you need to place as many bets as your time and bankroll allow. You have to build confidence in the value betting process and put trust in making money long term.

Another factor is how many bookmakers you use. The more capital you have, the more money you can use to fund bookmakers. More bookmakers mean more arbs and value bets – which in the end equals more money!

It's a combination of these factors that determines your total profit.

For sure betting we recommend using a minimum bankroll of around €1.000 Euro.

The ideal scenario though, would be to start with €5.000 to €10.000 Euro. Having a larger starting bankroll means that you can fund more bookmakers and still have funds left to balance the accounts if some of them run out of money.

For value betting, we recommend a minimum bankroll of around €500 Euro. The same idea applies here though, the more money you can start with the higher the potential profits will be.

Note that the ideal starting bankroll for some isn't ideal for others. For instance, if you reside in a country with high gambling taxes or other applicable fees you may want an even bigger bankroll to start with.

We have a full easy-to-grasp guide on how you can grow your initial betting bankroll FAST, check it out to learn all the best tips! Read the full post here or watch this video

Less than €1.000 bankroll

A bankroll smaller than €1.000 would not be suitable for sure betting in the long run. If you have a lack of starting capital you should first take advantage of bookmaker bonuses by using Matched betting. This is a good entry point to the sure betting world and will help boost a small bankroll. RebelBetting is focused solely on finding arbitrage opportunities. If you have less than €1.000 you could first use MatchedBetting and move on to RebelBetting once your bankroll is bigger.

Another option is to use Value betting. This is the easiest way to make money on sports and is great for you who can handle risk. Value betting is taking advantage of the bookmakers overpriced odds, where you only bet on a single odds at a time. This means that you will lose bets as well, but you will always have an edge over the bookmaker and profit over time.

Small bankroll €1.000-2.000

When arbitrage betting with a small bankroll, you have to be clever and manage your money well. You may have trouble to keep your bookmaker accounts funded. This depends of course on how many bookmakers you use, but ideally, you would use at least 6-8 bookmakers when starting out.

You want to have enough money deposited at your bookmakers to be able to cover your next couple of bets, even when some of your money is 'locked in' while waiting for the bets to get graded. If you have a small bankroll, we recommend you to use Value betting.

Medium bankroll €2.000-10.000

When arbitrage betting, a capital of 2.000-10.000 would be enough to cover many bookmakers and still have money left to balance the accounts if some of them run out of money. With a capital this size, you should use Sure betting or Value betting. The good thing is – both are included in a RebelBetting subscription!

Large bankroll €10.000-25.000

With a sizeable bankroll, you will not have any trouble keeping your bookmakers balanced when arbing or value betting. However, if you have a big bankroll you'll likely want to play with higher stakes. This could be a bit tricky due to the bet-limits bookmakers have on their odds. The top bookmakers accept bets of a few thousand euros, but usually not more. This means that there is a realistic "cap" of the amount of money you can make per month.

Ready to get started?

Here are some helpful tips to know of – no matter how small or big bankroll you have:

• An e-wallet is good to use when balancing your accounts. You should strive to have around 10% of your total bankroll in your e-wallet for easy deposits if some accounts run out of money.
• When you open up accounts at new bookmakers, make sure you take advantage of all bonuses first.
• If you are curious to get started with arbitrage betting, the full Ultimate Guide to Sure betting will teach you everything you need to know about bankroll management and sports arbitrage.

Both sure betting and value betting is included in RebelBetting. No need to choose a specific method right away. Contact us and we'll help you if you have questions!