Your bankroll grows. Your unit size should grow with it. But most bettors either increase too fast and give back all their winnings, or never increase at all and leave profits on the table.
The right approach is systematic. Recalculate your unit size regularly based on your current bankroll, not your starting bankroll. This lets you capitalize on winning streaks while protecting gains during losing streaks.
Every week, calculate your total available bankroll. If you're betting 2% per game, multiply your current bankroll by 0.02. That's your new unit size.
If your bankroll grows from $5,000 to $5,800, your unit increases from $100 to $116. If it drops to $4,600, your unit drops to $92. You're always betting a consistent percentage, which keeps your risk of ruin low regardless of whether you're winning or losing.
You win seven in a row. You're up $700. Your instinct is to start betting bigger because you're hot. Don't.
Hot streaks are variance, not skill. If you start betting $200 per game because you won $700, and then you hit a normal losing streak, you'll give it all back faster than you earned it.
Increase your unit size based on bankroll growth, not recent results. The weekly recalculation handles this automatically—your unit grows as your bankroll grows, but it does so gradually and systematically.
The biggest mistake winning bettors make is getting overconfident and increasing unit size too aggressively. They go from $100 to $300 per game after a good month, then lose it all in two weeks when variance swings the other way.
Some professional bettors only increase unit size after they've sustained profitability for an extended period. They might wait until their bankroll has been at the new level for a full month before adjusting units.
This prevents you from increasing units during temporary upswings that reverse quickly. The downside is you leave some profit on the table during genuine growth periods. The upside is you protect gains more conservatively.
If you double your bankroll, consider withdrawing a portion and treating it as realized profit. Some bettors withdraw 25-50% of gains above their starting bankroll and only bet with the remainder.
This means if you start with $5,000 and grow to $10,000, you might withdraw $2,500 and bet with $7,500 going forward. Your unit size increases because your betting bankroll increased, but you've locked in real profit that variance can't take back.