Kelly Criterion is a mathematical money management strategy that is aiming to calculate the most efficient stake to use when placing value bets. The fact that Kelly Criterion is a mathematical strategy explains why it involves many calculations and some punters find it challenging.
How to Use Betting.com’s Kelly Criterion Calculator
In order to help you with all the manual computes, we’ve decided to develop a completely free and automated Kelly Criterion Calculator, which will significantly ease your betting. If you are not sure what exactly is Kelly Criterion strategy and how to use our calculator, take advantage of the detailed information below.
Here are the steps that you have to follow in order to use our Kelly Criterion Calculator:
- Add your current betting balance in the cell called “Current Betting Balance”.
- Add your expected win probability for the selection you have chosen in the cell called “Win Probability”, using values between 0% and 100%
- Add the odds quoted by the bookmaker in the cell called “Bookmaker Back Odds”. We advise you always to use the highest possible odds because they will help you to boost your potential winnings.
- Optionally add a fractional kelly betting in the cell called “Fractional Kelly Betting”. The standard Kelly betting is 1.0, but if you want to wager less than the stake recommended you can add for example 0.5 to stake only 50% from what Kelly recommends.
- Once you enter the details, our Betting.com Kelly Criterion Calculator will do the rest. It will show you in details whether the bet is with value and the amount that is needed to be invested in order to make an overall profit. Keep in mind that based on the data you enter, the calculator might detect that you can’t make an edge over the bookies. In this case, it will warn you about that and it will advise you to miss the bet.
The main goal of the Kelly Criterion strategy is to maximise your profits and minimise the downside (risk associated with your betting). To avoid complicated equations and accurately compute the betting stakes for your strategy, we recommend you use our automated Kelly Criterion Calculator.
As same as each of our bet calculators, which we’ve developed so far, our Kelly Criterion Calculator is very simple to use.
All the computations are done automatically in just a few seconds, so you do not miss the betting opportunity. Furthermore, it explains in details whether the opportunity for a bet includes value, which is very important for those who follow the strategy entirely.
What is The Kelly Criterion Strategy?
In order to apply the Kelly Criterion strategy you have to ensure that you have an edge over the bookmaker (identified value bets) as otherwise according to the Kelly Criterion strategy, you shouldn’t place any bets. In order to identify value bets you may use our football predictions who are designed to specifically find value bets.
To calculate the optimal stake, you have to apply a mathematical formula and use a few variables to do the calculation. If you are not that much into maths, there is a chance that the formula will be slightly difficult for you. However, you can always use our automated Kelly Criterion Calculator above, which will ensure that all human errors are avoided.
For the once that love doing the calculation manually here is the Kelly criterion formula and a real-life example of how it works. For instance, the odds of the event are 3 with an implied probability of 33%, but we have calculated our own probability of 39%. The formula is –
[(Your probability * by the odds available) – 1] divided by (odds available -1)
Let’s now use the above numbers and calculated the Kelly Criterion suggested stake
[( 0.39*3 ) – 1 ] / ( 3 – 1 ) = [ (0.39*3) – 1 ]/2 = [(1.17 – 1)]/2 = 0.17/2 = 0.085
0.085*100 = 8.5%
Meaning we have to risk 8.5% from our betting bank and back the selection where we have identified the value bet.
We realise that applying this formula manually all the time is time-consuming and certainly there will be many people that would not bother to do it. This is why we developed an easy to use Kelly Criterion Calculator that will automatically compute the numbers for you. Above we have described in a few easy steps how to use it.
If you are a keen punter and want to find out more about the topic Kelly Criterion money management, feel free to read our extensive article – here. It includes many examples, details, and explanations of what exactly is Kelly Criterion strategy.
Why is it Beneficial to Use Betting.com’s Kelly Criterion Calculator?
If you are about to start with the Kelly Criterion strategy, you might face many difficulties in calculating everything by yourself. Even many tipsters that already have adopted the approach use the Kelly Criterion Calculator before posting their suggestions in order to optimise the stakes advised.
Here are a few more reasons why Betting.com’s Kelly Criterion Calculator is beneficial:
- Free – Yes, even if you use it a dozen times, the calculator will works entirely free for you.
- Automated – It works with high-tech algorithms and replaces any manual calculations that might lead to errors.
- Devices – The Kelly Criterion Calculator is developed to work on any device – PC, mobile phones, and tablets.
- User-friendly – Even the fact that it combines many computes, the calculator is very simple for use, and everyone can take advantage of it.
- Fast – The calculator works really quick, and it will show you the results within a second.
- Time – It will save you precious time that you can spend to find a bookmaker on which you will place your bets.
We hope that with these few lines, we introduced the Kelly Criterion Calculator to you in its best light. However, although the Kelly Criterion strategy raises in popularity nowadays, and has already become the favourite of many punters, we understand that it may just not be your thing. If this is the case, don’t worry, we got your back with many more betting strategies, useful tools, and informative articles. Don’t miss to check them out!
