Why I stake in units, not money
Tue, Jul 28, 2026 · Jones
If you follow the picks here, you'll notice I never post stakes in euros or dollars. Everything is measured in units. It's a small change in language that completely changes how you manage risk.
What a unit is
A unit is a fixed percentage of your total bankroll — usually 1%. If your bankroll is 1,000, one unit is 10. That's it. When I post a "3 unit" pick, I'm risking 3% of the bankroll on that bet.
The point is that a unit scales with you. Whether you're betting with 100 or 100,000, the discipline is identical, and the picks translate directly to your own bankroll.
Why fixed staking beats "feel"
The fastest way to blow a bankroll is to bet big when you're confident and bigger when you're chasing. Fixed unit staking removes that emotional swing:
- Most bets get 1–2 units. Standard confidence, standard stake.
- A rare bet gets 3 units. Reserved for spots where the value is clear.
- Nothing ever gets 10 units. No single result should be able to wreck a month.
Surviving the downswings
Even a profitable strategy will have losing runs of five, eight, ten bets. Flat unit staking is what gets you through them with a bankroll intact. If you're staking 20% a bet, a normal cold streak ends your season. At 1–3%, it's just noise on the way to the long-term number.
Boring? Completely. But bankroll management isn't supposed to be exciting — it's supposed to keep you in the game long enough for your edge to matter.