Keeping Your Betting Results Organized

The differences between those who make money from betting and those who don’t are often quite subtle.

Ask any losing gambler if he keeps a record of his betting profit and losses and they will no doubt give you a funny look.

The losing gambler thinks of gambling as entertainment and views tracking their profits and losses as unnecessary work.

A winning bettor takes their betting seriously and will treat it as they would a business.

Most successful businesses will record a total of their profits for the day at the close of business that day.

If you want to be a successful bettor you should treat your betting seriously and emulate the practices of a successful business.

Some people might say that this is a waste of time and that tracking your gambling profit and losses will not magically make you a more profitable gambler.

I however disagree. By knowing how much money you are either winning or losing and being forced to acknowledge this number each and every day will make you think about your gambling and consider whether or not you need to change anything.

If you can see that you are consistently losing money or just breaking even you will be more likely to try and figure out how you can improve your betting than if you didn’t have to look at your profit/loss every day.

Conversely if you are making a profit from your betting you will be encouraged by this to continue doing what you are doing and not have any daft impulsive punts that may hinder your profits.

Another excuse people will have for not doing this is “I know how much I’m winning.”

Unless you only place a couple of bets a week and placing all your bets at the one bookmaker then I can guarantee you do not know how much you are winning or losing.

You may have a rough sort of idea based on how much money is left in your accounts but you’d be surprised at how far off most peoples rough estimates tend to be.

How to record your profit/loss

Gone are the days where you would have to record your profits and losses with pen and paper. (although you could still do so if you wished)

The easiest way to keep a record of your betting is on a spreadsheet. If you are going to go down this route there are a couple of options.

Microsoft Excel

This is what I currently use to record all my bets. It’s by far the most user friendly spreadsheet program I have used but Microsoft’s pricing for this software is a little extortionate setting you back £69.99.

Microsoft Excel

Free Alternative – Open Office

If you don’t fancy paying for excel and are looking for a free alternative then I would recommend using Apache Open Office.

Open office is completely free and does practicality the same thing that excel does.

I have always found the program to be slightly clunky whenever I’ve used it in the past but it gets the job done.

I’m also pretty sure that clunkyness was more to do with me not being used to using the program rather than the program actually being poorly designed.

Apache Open Office

Spreadsheet for Download

I’ve created a simple blank spreadsheet that you can use to record your results. You can download it here.

The spreadsheet contains various columns most of which are self explanatory but I’ll quickly go over each of them.

Date – The Date which the bet will settle
Bet Source – Either the tipsters name who advised the bet or whether it was your own selection or system etc.
Bookmaker – The bookmaker or exchange where the bet has been placed

Stake – How much money you bet on the selection
Selection – The selection which you bet on
Event Name – The name of the event you are betting on

Event Time – The time the event starts which you are betting on
Profit/Loss – The profit or loss that resulted from the bet settling
Running Bank – Your total profit/loss of all your bets to date (I have set this to auto calculate once the profit/loss has been entered)