The biggest sports betting event of the year is right around the corner, as the NCAA Tournament is right around the corner, with dozens of games set to unfold just in the first week of action.
Because of the rapid and voluminous nature of the NCAA Tournament, it also represents one of the most dangerous events for regular gamblers, prospective gamblers and individuals who may deal with problem gambling tendencies. While sports betting and gambling will always be activities that come with serious risks and dangers, individuals will do it either way. The best way to bet is to do it in a regimented manner with controls that you can put in place yourself.
One of those strategies is appropriate bankroll management, a vital factor in ensuring your NCAA Tournament wagering stays in control and remains fun.
What is Bankroll Management?
Bankroll management is the practice in gambling of setting and following a budget/standard unit size. The goal is to ensure that you will never lose more than you can afford to, and it is crucial for all successful bettors.
Setting your bankroll is the first step towards ensuring a successful tournament (and for gambling in general). As a general rule, each wager you make should be 1% of your bankroll, so 100 times your wager size is your total bankroll. If you're a $10 bettor, you have a $1000 bankroll and so on.
This isn't a hard and fast rule, but it's a good guide to follow.
Why is Bankroll Management Crucial?
Proper bankroll management can protect you against some of the most difficult psychological factors that contribute to making sports betting difficult. The primary example would be in chasing losses.
One of my favorite courses from college was taught by Prof. John Bullock, who discussed loss aversion. The basic principle is that for humans, the emotional impact of losing is twice as great as the emotional impact of winning. While research has been done that challenges this exact ratio, the psychological principle helps to explain why many bettors are often trying to get back to zero, or "just win my money back."
By operating with proper bankroll management, you will be able to handle the good stretches and bad stretches while knowing that you're wagering a comfortable amount of money that will not cause too much of an emotional impact on yourself, even if you lose 20 wagers in a row.
Without solid bankroll management, you allow yourself to become vulnerable to chasing losses in addition to other psychological forces that could turn the NCAA Tournament into a very frustrating experience – or worse – quickly.
