Units
A standardized way to measure bet size against your bankroll, so you can track results and compare performance no matter the dollar amounts.
A unit is a standardized way to measure how big a bet is, 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 wager and how much they win or lose. This handy convention lets people with wildly different bankrolls compare notes. A bettor with a $500 bankroll and one with a $50,000 bankroll can both say they’re “up 15 units” on the season, even though their 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 nailed down your unit size, every bet gets expressed as a multiple of it. A typical wager might be one unit, while a higher-confidence play could be two or three units. This setup builds discipline into your bet sizing by nudging 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%, which works out to $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 weekly performance against someone betting $20 per unit on a $1,000 bankroll, since both measure outcomes against the same proportional yardstick.
Key Points
- Enables fair comparisons: Units let bettors compare records and strategies without ever knowing each other’s bankroll sizes, which is why they’ve become the common language of betting performance.
- Promotes responsible sizing: Setting a unit as a small slice of your bankroll keeps you from risking too much on any one bet, lowering the odds of a crushing loss.
- Results should be tracked in units: Logging every bet in units rather than dollars gives you a cleaner performance history that deposits, withdrawals, or unit-size changes won’t distort.
- Confidence-based scaling: The unit system makes room for different confidence levels by letting you bet one, two, or three units while staying inside a structured plan.
- Beware inflated claims: When you’re sizing up someone else’s record, check whether big unit plays are being used selectively to pump up the numbers, since regularly firing five or ten units carries a lot more risk.