Hi Guys
A short article on a simple principle that plenty struggle with. There are plenty of accounts shouting about “how much we won”, but yet they neglect to let you know what they invested to get those winnings.
In short, “Winnings (Returns)” is the total cash you walk away with from your bets. That in itself is not a true indicator of how well you are doing, you could be winning 10 points a day, but if you are betting 30 points to get those 10 points you’ll soon go broke.
What you really want to measure is true profit. Let’s take an example of a punter who has a £30 a day bank.
Punter 1
£10 win on a 5/1 – win – £60 returns
£10 win on a 3/1 – win – £40 returns
£10 win on 18/1 – loss – £0 returns
He has “won” (returned) £100 on the day, but that was after staking £30 to get those returns, so his profit, what we want to achieve, is £70 on the day.
So converting that into points where his point is £10 (his normal stake), he has staked 3 points and returned 10 points, therefore giving him a +7 point profit on the day.
It really is not about how much you “win”, it is all about the profit as follows;
Punter 2 £60 daily bank;
Bet 1 – £20 on a 2/1- win – £60 returns
Bet 2 – £20 on evens – win – £40 returns
Bet 3 – £20 win on a 9/1 – loss £0 returns
Punter 2 has also won £100, but it cost him £60 to get those returns so his profit is £40. Even though they have both won the same amount of money, Punter 1 is £70 richer whilst Punter 2 is just the £40 richer.
It works the other way too with losses, if you stake £30 and return just £15 you are down by £15, if you stake £60 and return £15 you are down by £45.
Each way bets – £5 each way on a 7/1 shot. So that is £5 on the win and £5 on the place. Let’s assume 1/5th of the odds for the place in this example. It doesn’t win, but is places. Your £5 on the win is lost so zero returns on that. The £5 on a place wins, so that is (Stake multiplied by the odds and multiplied by the 1/5 place pay out + stake back) which is £5 x 7 x 0.2 + stake = £12
Yes you won £12 in the above example but the bet cost £10 overall so you are up just £2.
Hope this helps some understand the difference between returns (winnings) and profit.
As always I am happy to talk through and discuss so let me know if you have any questions.
Stay Lucky
Mark