Units
A standardized way to size bets relative to your bankroll, so you can track and compare results no matter the dollar amounts.
A unit is a standardized way to measure bet size, set as a fixed percentage or dollar amount of your bankroll. Instead of talking about results in raw dollars, bettors use units to describe how much they stake and how much they win or lose. This makes it easy to compare performance between people with very different bankrolls. Someone with a $500 bankroll and someone with a $50,000 bankroll can both say they’re “up 15 units” on the season, even though the actual dollar profits look nothing alike.
The usual approach is to set one unit at 1% to 2% of your total bankroll. Once you’ve fixed your unit size, you express every bet as a multiple of it. A normal play might be one unit, while a higher-confidence pick might be two or three units. This keeps bet sizing disciplined by pushing you to think in proportions rather than chasing random dollar figures.
Example
A bettor has a $5,000 bankroll and sets one unit at 2%, or $100. Over a week they place four wagers: a one-unit win at -110 (profit of $90.91), a one-unit loss at -110 (loss of $100), a one-unit win at +140 (profit of $140), and a one-unit loss at +100 (loss of $100). The net result is +$30.91, or about +0.31 units. Tracking in units lets this bettor stack their week up against someone betting $20 per unit on a $1,000 bankroll, since both measure results against the same proportional yardstick.
Key Points
- Enables fair comparisons: Units let bettors compare records and strategies without knowing each other’s bankrolls, making them the common language of betting performance.
- Promotes responsible sizing: Setting a unit at a small slice of your bankroll keeps you from risking too much on any one bet, which limits the damage of big losses.
- Results should be tracked in units: Logging every bet in units instead of dollars gives you a cleaner history that deposits, withdrawals, and unit-size changes can’t muddy.
- Confidence-based scaling: The unit system handles different confidence levels by letting you bet one, two, or three units while staying inside a clear structure.
- Beware inflated claims: When you check someone else’s record, see whether big unit plays are being used selectively to pump up the numbers, since regularly betting five or ten units carries a lot more risk.