What Size Bank Can You & Should You Begin Trading Betfair With?

An interesting question that I often get emailed to me is what size bank is required to trade Betfair with.

The beauty of trading Betfair is that your bank could be as little as £10 if you liked since that is the minimum deposit available and it is not like other trading platforms that require 3 or 4 figures just to get started.

However, you certainly would not want to start with a bank of only £10 as the minimum stake is £2 which would give you only 5 bets.

What Amount Precisely Then?

I would say that if you are a beginner to Betfair Trading and looking for your first bank then your minimum should be a £200 bank. This would then give you 100 bets/trades at £2 a time which should be more than enough to start learning the markets with. If you have been struggling on Betfair and regularly blowing banks then I would always ask big your bank is first of all. If you have a bank smaller than £200 then maybe that is why you keep blowing your bank. That and a combination of overstaking.

I would be hesitant to suggest depositing anything less than £200 since you are not going to have a bank big enough to deal with the swings and variance that all traders experience. If you are always just one bad run away from blowing your bank then you are not going to trade to best of your ability. Trading with “scared money” is the biggest disadvantage you can ever give yourself.

It is fair to say that with a £200 bank you are not likely to be making enough money to be able to quit your day job with anytime soon. I often get emails from punters who are interested in learning sports trading but they have this “lottery win” or “accumulator” mindset of betting a small amount and winning something life- changing. This simply does not happen in the world of Sports Trading and much more patience is required.

What size bank to go professional with?

The second question many ask is what sort of bank size is enough to go full time with.

Well, the quick answer is that it “depends”. Largely on how much money you need to make per month since the living cost in somewhere like Romania is quite a bit of a difference when compared to London.

However, I can help in saying that those who I know who are professional do not have banks smaller than £5k at least. Naturally those with 5 figure banks are making more and it is no secret that the bigger the bank you have, the more you can expect to make.

One thing worth pointing out is that you should really learn the ropes with a small bank of around £200 before depositing a bigger bank. If you can profit with a £200 bank then you should be able to do the same with a 4 figure bank, depending on the liquidity in the market.