A bettor must win 52.4 percent of his wagers to break even. Some bettors who win more than 52.4 percent of their bets still end up losing money. Why? The answer is because they do not use proper money management. Money management is just as important as picking winners. Here are some simple (yet sometimes difficult to follow) tips on proper money management.

My first piece of advice is to have money set aside for sports betting. This should be an amount you can afford to lose. It should not be money you need to pay your mortgage, car payment, utility bills or any other money you need to comfortably run your household.

My second piece of advice is you should never wager more than five percent of your bankroll. There are going to be losing streaks, which are unavoidable. It’s the law of averages and it happens to everyone. By keeping your bet percentage low, you are keeping yourself in the game until your luck turns around.

My third piece of advice is you should wager the same amount on each game. At most, have two levels of plays. Maybe you decide to bet two percent on regular plays and four percent on what you feel are really strong picks. But whatever you do, stick with the percentages you choose.

That brings me to my fourth piece of advice, which is do not chase your losses. That means if you lose four percent on today’s game, don’t bet six percent on tonight’s game. This is the quickest way to bankrupt yourself and the bookies are counting on you to fall into this trap.

My last piece of money management advice as it pertains to sports betting is you should never drastically increase your bet amounts. For example, you went 3-0 today. You bet $100 on each game, so you’re up $300 going into tomorrow. Tomorrow rolls around and you pick three more games, but this time you bet $200 on each game. You end up going 0-3 today. Because you doubled your wagers, you lost $660 today, which makes your two-day total minus $360. This also ties into betting the same amount on each game, but the temptation to double-up is very strong when you’re hot.

Sports betting is not just about picking more winners than losers. Money management is extremely important if you want to steadily profit in this arena. Your chances of success are much greater if you can follow the aforementioned money management tips.