subject: Horse Racing Betting, How To Use A Profitable Staking Plan. [print this page] To really make long term profits through horse race betting you need a plan. A staking plan. To just lumber from bet to bet with a stake you think you can afford is a strategy for disaster. Although you may come across many exotic variations in staking plans in truth there are three basic possibilities that really work, depending on your attitude to risk.
The first two options can be calculated on a simple piece of paper, whilst the third and most sophisticated requires specialist software.
So let's cover the essentials of what makes a good staking plan.
Firstly, if you've been in regular betting for any length of time I hope you are, at the very least, using a betting bank of multiple 'points' and level stakes. That is to say you first decide on the total amount of money you are prepared to put aside for betting, then divide that by a figure such as 20, 30, 50 etc.. You then put exactly the same stake on every bet you make, regardless of the odds offered to you.
IF - and only IF - your bet selection method or the tipster you use provides selections that have average odds and a strike rate that more than breaks even over the long term, then this is the simplest and safest way to ensure you stay in the game.
You may be amazed, however, at the number of people who randomly vary their stakes and will bet more on a short priced favourite (because they think it has greater chance of winning) and less on a higher priced horse. This is false logic and always leads to smaller returns and losses in the long run.
The second simple staking method, which works well if you KNOW your selections will bring a profit over the long term, is to use a fixed percentage of your bank for each bet.
e.g. you start with a bank of 1000 and you bet 10% on the first race. If that wins at evens then your bank will now be worth 1100. You then bet 10% on the next race which will be 110.
As your bank increases in value then so do your stakes and your profits will shoot up exponentially.
However, if you lose, then your stakes will decrease. This way, you can never actually lose all of your betting bank. It may get pretty low if you have lots of losses but you will always have something left to come back with.
On NO account be tempted to just "double up" your stakes after a losing bet to regain your losses. This is the fast road to ruin that has caught many a beginner in betting.
The final option I would recommend uses sophisticated maths to vary your stakes according to several parameters you can choose according to your strike rate and attitude to risk. Within limits it really can have the effect of boosting profits and saving you from short losing runs. The maths is really too complicated to explain in this short article but the easiest way of employing this strategy is through the use of software such as SafebetPlan.
A staking plan, however, is only one part of a full, winning money management plan for professional betting. I'm happy to give you my full money strategy when you visit my web site at www.freehorseracingsystems.com .
