Unit System in Sports Betting and How It Works

We bet you’ve heard about Units in sports betting before but perhaps you haven’t given it too much thought.

Here in this article, we’ll try to explain why you definitely should think units through, as we attempt to describe what a Unit actually is and how the unit system is used in betting.

What is a unit?

A unit is used to measure the size of a bet you place on a game.

Needless to point out, punters across the globe boast bankrolls of different sizes for sports betting as not everyone can afford to spend as much money as the next person. Therefore, the units are used to express profit or loss in somewhat universal terms which make it a widespread phenomenon, recognized by almost all betting tips sites which use units in their match evaluations.

Units are normally designed through a scale system going from 1 to 5, with 5 being the maximum bet which you are advised to use only if you find an extremely good-value bet you don’t want to miss out on.

How does the unit system work?

The unit system will vary between players so the first thing you should do is to determine the share of your bankroll used on each individual wager.

It’s a commonly accepted fact that a single unit should not exceed 1% of your bankroll. Note that you are free to determine your own value, but this amount makes it easy to calculate what a single unit is worth.

That being said, punters with £1,000 in their bankrolls would use £10 for a single unit, whereas a player with $20,000 bankroll would be investing £200 per unit. Using the premise found above that says you should use somewhere between 1-5% of the total bankroll on each bet, you are basically looking to invest anything from 1 to 5 units on each bet.

Given the fact that units are determined by the amount you have on your account, any increase in your betting bankroll – after a successful patch for example – will influence the unit value. Let’s assume you managed to grow your account from £1,000 to £1,500 with a 50% increase, the size of your unit will correspond with an increase of the same value pushing it from £10 to £15.

Why should you use units in sports betting?

Unit system is a good way to put a break on potential excessive spending and control your wagers which you will learn to appreciate in the long run.

Applying the unit system to betting can be a positive indicator and a way to determine that one is a responsible bettor who likes to take care of their money. Unit system will make sure to bring more stability to your money management and help you create a sound financial strategy to follow.

And while units will help you get a clearer view of your betting record, they will take your eyes of the money and prevent you from making rash decisions for a potentially low-value bet.  To illustrate it in more detail, betting 3 units, for example, means the same for every punter. But your £10 unit will never mean the same for punters that can’t afford to place that much at a single unit, or for those whose units are somewhere around £100 or even much higher.