Level Staking Plan

Level Staking Plan is the most basic and the most common staking plan. It is also known as Flat Betting Plan.

As its name suggests, punter bets the same stake all the times. Experienced punters usually determine the size of the stake according to their starting bank roll. If you, for example, have £1000 as your starting bank roll, and you split this amount into points or units, let’s say 100 points/units, than £10 would represent 1 point or 1 unit. Depending on how often you expect to win your bets and average winning odds, you can than determine your stakes as 5 points, 10 points, or whatever you think it’s appropriate, but it’s bad practice to bet more than 10% of your bank roll on one single event.

Formula for Level Staking Plan is quite simple:
S = (SB /PR)* PPS,
Where:
S=Stake
SB = Starting Bank Roll
PR = Points Ratio
PPS = Points per Stake

So, if starting bank roll is £1000 and you decide to split it into 100 points or units, and decide that size of your stake is 5 points/units, than according to previous formula level stakes would be:
S = (£1000 / 100) * 5 = £50

Percentage Staking Plan

Percentage Staking Plan is some kind of additional rule to your existing staking plan. Main goal of this staking plan is to avoid bankruptcy when you hit long losing streak or sequence.

According to this staking plan, punter should recalculate his stakes whenever his betting bank reaches some predefined level - for example, if your bank roll increases by 30% or downgrades to 70% of its starting value.

Let’s say starting bank roll is £1000 and you bet level stakes of £50 per bet.  If bank roll grows to £1300 than you could consider increasing your level stakes from £50 to £60. But, if your bank roll downgrades to £500 after losing sequence, than it would be wise to downgrade your stakes too, because you are facing bankruptcy if losing sequence doesn’t end soon.

Secure Staking Plan

Secure Staking Plan is also quite simple staking plan, but also very effective in protecting your bank roll.

It is usually used in betting on horses, where you could be tempted to bet on horse which is priced 5/1 or 6.00 to win the race. In other words, you are tempted to bet on horse which is less likely to win. And in situations like this Secure Staking Plan is quite useful.

Secure Staking Plan suggests that you should protect yourself of betting large amounts of money on less likely outcomes. If you use Level Staking Plan and your level stakes are £50, than you should reduce your stakes to let’s say £25 if you plan to back horse priced @6.00 or if you maybe want to back Stoke @35.00 to win at Old Trafford against Manchester United.

Kelly Staking Plan

The Kelly criterion or Kelly strategy or Kelly Staking Plan is a formula used to determine the optimal size of a series of bets.

Kelly Criteria was developed in 1956 by John L. Kelly and was designed to maximize the growth of your bank roll over the long term.

Main problem with The Kelly Criteria is estimations of percentages for certain event which are should be better than the bookmakers’ estimations.

Formula for determining optimal size of stakes is:
Stake = ((Odds *Perc) - 1) / (Odds - 1) * 100
Where:
Stake = Optimal size of stake
Odds = Odds offered for certain event by bookmaker
Perc = Estimation of percentages for certain event

For example, your bank roll is £1000, and you decide to bet on football team who is priced @2.20 by your bookmaker. You also estimated chances of your team to win the match and probability for your team to win is 50%. According to Kelly formula, optimal size of your stake would be:
Stake = ((2.20*0.50)-1)/(2.20-1)*100 = 0.833 = 8.33%

So, the optimal size of your stake in this example would be 8.33% of your bank roll, or 8.33% * £1000 = £83.

The Kelly Criteria is popular with many professional bettors, but as mentioned above, the main problem is to precisely estimate percentages in certain betting event. If you think you are able to estimate percentages of a football match better than your bookmaker, than Kelly Staking Plan is for you, and it will help growth of your bank roll in long run.