Glossary
Bankroll
A bankroll is the fixed amount of money you set aside for betting, kept separate from the money you live on. Managing it means deciding in advance how much of it any single bet can risk, so that a bad run cannot do damage beyond the limit you chose.
Your bankroll is the money you have decided you can afford to put at risk, and nothing more. Keeping it separate from rent, bills, and savings is the first rule of betting with a clear head.
The point of a bankroll is not the number itself but the discipline it enables. Once you have a set amount, you can size bets as a small, fixed fraction of it rather than by how a game feels. This is what a unit is: a consistent slice of the bankroll, often 1 to 2 percent, used as the standard bet size.
A guardrail, not a target
A bankroll is a boundary you set while calm, so decisions made in the heat of a losing streak cannot cross it. If betting stops feeling optional, it is time to step back and use the tools sportsbooks and helplines provide.
Good bankroll management does not promise any result. It simply makes sure that variance, which is unavoidable, stays survivable.
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