The Martingale Betting System
Using a betting system is essential to becoming a successful sports bettor. A betting system does not necessarily mean an advertised system online.
There are many people out there that claim to have a fool proof system to maximise your winnings.
These claims have been made by people for literally hundreds of years. A betting system in fact can refer to any structured betting style that a player uses to his benefit.
An example of a betting system can be for instance flat betting, where you only wager a certain percentage of your bankroll each time you wager. This system over time should be lucrative if applied correctly.
The Basic Idea
The martingale system is possibly one of the oldest betting systems in existence. It started development in France in the 18th century as gambling became immensely popular.
The principles of the martingale theory eventually went on to play an important role in probability theory.
The Long Life Of The System
The system is still alive and well today and advertised by many sites as a great way to play.
While the theory of the martingale system is sound, in reality it is not such a perfect picture.
How The System Works
The idea of the martingale system is that the odds of a specific event happening multiple times in a row are very low. In other words the odds of a long win streak or a long losing streak is very low.
The martingale system aims to have you prepared for each eventuality with a simple approach to placing your wagers.
With every bet you place you simply need to double your wager. The original idea was explained using a coin toss. The toss can either be heads, or tails. If you bet 1 on the first toss and lose, you bet 2 on the next toss. You simply keep doubling your wager until you win.
Since you are doubling the wager each time, the idea is that when you do win your reward will recoup previous losses.
Limitations Of The System
The biggest limitation is that this is a theoretically sound idea. In practice however players have betting limits and resource limits. Not to mention time constraints.
In a theoretical world of infinite money, this strategy will work. In reality there is no reason why players can’t bankrupt themselves before they see any payback.
Additionally this system works best when you are offered even money odds like in the case of a coin flip or for instance betting on red or black in roulette. Sports betting odds are very rarely even money.
The Anti Martingale
The Anti Martingale, or the Reverse Martingale uses the same basic idea of the martingale but flips it around.
In this system, players will double their wager after every win, while decreasing their stakes after any loss.
The main idea behind this system is to capitalise on your rewards during winning streaks while minimising losses during a losing streak.
This system can be a bit reckless for new sports bettors as the main principle of this system is steeped in the gambler’s fallacy.