Sep 23, 2011 Why Players Don't Keep Records. The number one reason why people do not keep a log is because they feel it is inconvenient. Most players who keep a gambling log have it on a computer spreadsheet or in a notebook at home.

Guide to Organising your Sports Betting Results

Keeping detailed records of all your sports betting will give you a very useful database of all your betting, meaning that you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly where you are the most profitable. Spreadsheets are the only way to go for this, and a correctly set up spreadsheet will actually make this job much easier for you.

In this article you will find the best way to keep your betting records, starting with a simple spreadsheet which will suffice for one type of betting. Next extra columns and sheets to cover different types of bets are introduced, as well as adding in an important extra statistic. I finish by looking at the advantages of record keeping and explain why setting up your own spreadsheet is best.

A Simple Betting Spreadsheet

As you can see from the above spreadsheet, it has a number of columns, starting with the bet number and the date. Then you have the actual event, the selection in the event and the odds you place the bet at (decimal odds work best on a spreadsheet). You’ll then see the stake, the result of the bet and the financial result of the bet. The next column shows your overall P and L. The final column is entitled ‘note’ and this is where you might want to add any extra information that might be relevant to the market – maybe if you feel a bet was particularly lucky or unlucky.

This spreadsheet will suffice in many cases, although it doesn’t give you too many options if wanting to zoom in on certain aspects of your betting. For example, if you find yourself placing a large number of soccer bets, you have no option here of zooming in and checking out the soccer bets as a group. You could easily add in another column entitled ‘sport’ and typing in the sport name, and simply use the ‘sort’ option to group the sports together, but this isn’t the ideal solution.

How To Keep Good Tax Records For Gambling

A Multi-Sport Spreadsheet

The ideal way to build a spreadsheet when gambling on a number of sports is to use a separate sheet for each sport. There is no reason why you can’t use the same spreadsheet as above for each individual sheet – but you’ll want a ‘homepage’ which brings all of the information together, as follows:

Of course, on the home page you might want to divide the individual sports into sub-categories. For example, gamblers on the NFL might want to have three separate sheets for the money-line, point spread and totals bets, each of these having their own category on the home page.

More Important Gambling Information

Of course, you might want some more detailed information on your bets – one important stat which many gamblers like to make use of is the ‘ROI’ (return on investment).

As you can see I’ve added two extra columns to the spreadsheet to work out the overall ROI. Firstly you’ll need to add a ‘cumulative stakes’ column. Then add the ROI column, in which you’ll simply divide the ‘cumulative P/L’ by the ‘cumulative stake’. You can even add the ROI figure to the home page for each sport, and this will show quickly which sports are actually making you the most profit.

If having money in more than one sportsbook, it can be advantage to have an extra sheet detailing the amounts in all of these accounts – this will make it much easier to track the size of your bankroll.

Advantages of Organised Record Keeping

Having a well-organised spreadsheet is very important in gambling, and it will actually gain importance the longer you use the spreadsheet, as every time you use it, it will contain more information. You’ll be able to use this information to work out exactly where your strengths and weaknesses are - perhaps leading you to cut out a number of sports or bet types altogether, and making a more aggressive approach on the sports or bet types where your record is the best.

In some countries or jurisdictions record keeping is actually needed for tax purposes, so being organized will stop the need for that end of tax year dash to assimilate your betting results.

There are sites out there that will produce ready made spreadsheets or other types of software that you can use to record your gambling results. However, everyone will gamble in different ways and a spreadsheet tailored to your own gambling style is the best way to go. Of course, you could also add graphs or charts that show your progress, or set it against the backdrop of your favourite team.

Gambling Record Keeping Logs

How To Keep Gambling Records Search

More Practical Sports Betting Articles and Guides

• Profit Through Value Part 1 (first of a multi-part series on value betting)
• US Sports Betting Sitemap Page (links out to the key articles covering US sports)
• International Sports Betting Sitemap (same for international sports)