What Does Bet Tracking Mean
Bet tracking means to keep tabs on every bet you place, and record this data somewhere. If you have an account at any of the top US sportsbooks, you may ask – why do I need to track my bets? The sportsbook has a My Bets or History portal where you can check all your bets. Also, they have a portal in your account where you can check any ongoing bets, active bets (where the games have started), and recently settled bets. While that is all good and well, it is only a small part of what bet tracking actually is.
If anything, these are just starting points where you can collect data, and then fill it into a more comprehensive software or spreadsheet for further analysis.
Top US Sportsbook Bet Trackers
The top sportsbooks that we have reviewed have bet trackers, that typically display each of your wagers – with type, odds, and result. They are highly detailed, but you only see these individually listed under Settled Bets, and alone there is not much you can really read out of them.
But you can use those figures to work out percentages, trends, and other important metrics. Don’t think of bet tracking as keeping a diary on your previous wagers. It should be a library of data and comparison charts, that show you where your efforts have been most successful, and which elements of your strategy need to be rethought or changed.
Below are some of the best US sportsbooks, all of which have premium bet trackers. You can plug those figures into bet tracking software or into your own spreadsheets to get the valuable bet tracking metrics and trends that complement virtually all betting strategies.
Key Aspects of Bet Tracking
Members of any of the aforementioned sportsbooks have half the job done for them. You don’t need to write down your bets, stakes, outcomes or even the betting odds elsewhere, just open My Bets and check out your results. Though this is really just the first step of bet tracking. The next is to compile all that data into spreadsheets or bet tracking software, and then use it.
The more detailed your logs, the more in-depth the analysis. Instead of just looking at overall returns or total wins and losses, you can break up your bets by types, risk level, expected value, and loads more. This gives more context for your historic bets, and valuable insights into your betting strategy.
Recording Win/Loss
Sportsbooks show you your wins and losses in lists under Settled Bets. You can browse them individually, but the figures become more valuable when you compile them into charts or tables. Make a figure that shows you the wins and losses over a period of time.
With the context, these wins and losses can show important trends and patterns in your betting, and give you a point of reference when planning your future bets. It is one of the key ways to learn about how variance can impact your results – especially in the short term.
Assessing Your Bankroll
Sportsbook bet trackers are not designed to show you the impacts of your bets on your bankroll. Sure, you can set win/loss margins with the responsible gambling tools offered, but these will only notify you when your bankroll reaches a certain threshold.
The data you should be interested in is how much money you have left on your bankroll after each bet, and check the fluctuations in your balance over time. Don’t be one of those bettors who blindly tops up their account every time they go bust, or until they reach a significant amount. Instead, assess the metrics and see how your bankroll changes in time.
With this knowledge, you can space out deposits and withdrawals, to make a more consistent framework for your betting strategies, and more realistic future targets.
Track Bets By Type
The Bet History at a top US sportsbook will include the type of bet you place (moneyline, spread, total, etc), AND the betting odds. Those are two vital pieces of information that can show how much you generally risk, and the markets that you prefer or place more often.
Instead of tracking all your bets in a table, if you use bet tracking software or a smart spreadsheet that has filtering options, you can break up the overall results by market and by the level of risk. These can play a direct role in helping you determine which bets to place next.
If your track record indicates you are better at calculating spreads than picking player props, then it may be an area where you can explore further. Risk levels, such as betting only on favorites, on equal money bets (point spreads/totals official betting lines), or on underdogs, can change your staking strategy entirely.
Bet Tracking Parlays/SGP/Round Robins
Different types of single bets are easier to track than parlays or multiples bets, because you only record 1 bet with 1 set of odds and 1 result. You can treat parlays, SGPs, teasers, round robins and other multiples bets as a single wager, with longer odds and more conditions. But if you want a more accurate record to analyze in the future, you should write in each leg of the parlay too. What you get, then, is a sheet with your previous parlays and you can measure loads of intriguing little quirks and details about these wagers.
How many legs do you place in your multiples bets? What parlay/SGP odds do you typically aim for? How often do you lose 3/4/5/6+ leg parlays? How many legs typically lose in these parlays? The questions go on, but you get the idea. You can check out the metrics on your parlay bets, looking for potential pairings that you have historically had more success with, and settle for an amount of legs in your bet that you don’t lose as often.
All of these aspects can be taken into consideration when shaping up your bankroll for your future parlay bets.
Weighing Value
This element of bet tracking is directly connected to value betting and CLV betting strategies. The idea for value betting is that you measure the value of your bet at the time you place it, and for CLV betting you also log the odds of the bet at the time the market closes (for pregame bets only).
How do you value the bet? Well it is not an exact science, because you have to make an assumption on the probability of that bet winning. The odds themselves give you an Implied Probability – a measurement that is the sportsbook’s estimation on the winning probability – but they add juice. Now you can aggregate the betting odds at different sportsbooks, devig those odds, and then get a Fair Odds price. Convert the fair odds from American to Decimal odds, and then take the reciprocal to find the Expected Value. This is the value as determined by the overall market.
Or, you can find a formula for calculating the Expected Value by crunching the stats and data from historical results. This is a trickier way to go about assessing value, as there are thousands of datapoints that you can integrate into your formula. But there are betting tools that can calculate value for you, using either of the methods (or a mix of both). The point is, you come up with a probability of winning on your bet, like a 60% chance on an LA Lakers moneyline, and then record this value in your tracker.
The CLV is much simpler to find, it doesn’t require any calculations. All you need to do is get the closing odds on your wager, right before the market closes. Easier in theory, it is quite annoying in practise. Imagine you have to track your bets and quickly open your sportsbook before the game start, and scribble in the last offered price on your bet. If that was a parlay bet, you need to check the odds on every single leg. And those are just the prices at your chosen sportsbook – if you want a more accurate figure you should aggregate the odds at numerous sportsbooks.
Weighing CLV and EV are strategies that betting software do automatically and can make your job far easier, and more efficient. There are tools that automatically track these figures, so you don’t need to log the stats yourself.
ROI Measuring
This relates directly to arbitrage betting and hedged betting strategies. You track the ROI figures on your arbitrage bets. This is easier than EV recording, as you need to calcualte the potential ROI on your arbitrage bets, and then enter this figure into your bet tracker. No need for last minute rushing or making any assumptions.
In time you can check out the ROI on your different arbitrage bets and find important metrics like which markets yield the best arbitrage ROI, which sportsbooks have the best odds, or whether there are specific betting market/sportsbook pairings that have brought higher ROI together.
Bet trackers will automatically calculate the ROI on your arbitrage bets, and as they have near real time access to betting markets on a 24/7 basis, there is a better chance you will get higher ROI arbitrage bets. Track these, measure how your bankroll grows, and it can open the door to more efficient and potentially frequent arbitrage betting opportunities.
How Bet Tracking Ties to Strategies
Looking for patterns and metrics in your sports bets can be extremely valuable data inputs for your betting strategy. It gives you a rough idea of your preferences, fluctuations in your bankroll, and your overall success with any betting strategy.
Bet tracking is key to bankroll management. From simple bet budgeting for a week or a month, to EV stake sizing strategies, and projecting arbitrage or matched betting ROI, your bet tracker has important information that you can use to plan:
- How often you make deposits
- Allocating your funds and stake sizing each bet
- How to deal with variance
- Cutting your losses
- When to cash out your money
As you adapt your strategy, you will see the results in your bet tracker. Your strategy and your bet tracking have a cyclical relationship, but you do require input to have metrics to feed on. So be patient with any strategy, and don’t make big or sudden changes when tweaking your strategy.
That way, you can enhance your plan organically and get the most out of your sports predictions and bankroll.
Bet Tracking Software
There are loads of different bet tracking software out there, each of which has its unique design, betting features, and functionality. If you are on a tight budget, there are free tools that have all the basic bet tracking charts and tables, assessing your data input and giving you the important information you need. At the other end of the scale, there are tools that come with line shopping software, EV+ bets, hedged bet pairings, and even CLV line movements to give you a bigger edge.
The quality of the bet trackers can range greatly, and there are lots of important little details to take into account. Sportsbook syncing, bankroll optimization strategies, CLV and EV data, and even deposit optimizers are just a few of the additional features that can elevate a bet tracker’s efficiency. Not all bet tracking software goes into EV, CLV, and breaks down your bets by odds/bet type. In our betting tools and software reviews, we analyze the bet tracking functionalities of top betting tools, so if ever in doubt, just check out our reviews and see how each bet tracking tool measures up.
