The Martingale Betting Strategy
The Martingale betting strategy is arguably the most famous betting strategy that people use today, but what is it and does it work? In this article, we’ll be analysing the strategy, showing you some working examples and discussing the pros and cons of it.
What is it?
The Martingale strategy is believed to have originated from France and dates back to the 18th century. The simplest way to explain it is using the classic example of a coin toss, where you win your stake if you guess correctly and lose your stake if you are wrong.
Using the Martingale strategy, every time you guess incorrectly you would double your stake. So if you bet 10 and lost, you would bet 20, then 40 if you lost again and so on, so forth until you won. Even if you had lost 10 times in a row, if you won on the 11th go, you would win back everything that you had bet so far.
It was seen as a fool proof strategy for gamblers with infinite wealth as eventually it is almost certain that you will guess correctly in a 50/50 scenario. The Martingale strategy has become extremely popular in games such as roulette where the gambler will continually bet on either Red or Black and keep doubling their bet every time they lose in the belief that eventually they will guess correctly.
Does it work?
The issue with the strategy is that it relies on the gambler having an infinite bankroll, which in reality is not the case 99.99% of the time. That means that eventually a gambler will bankrupt themselves with the exponential growth of the bets causing them to lose their entire bankroll.
It is also important to note that the result of any individual bet is not influenced by previous results, so no amount of past results can truly be used to predict the outcome of each bet. Another thing to consider when using the Martingale system on games such as roulette is that there may well be a table limit and if you reach it without winning then you will never have the chance to regain your stake and the strategy will have failed.
Can you apply it to sports betting?
It is a risky strategy if you do not have an unlimited bankroll, but if you bet within your means it may produce a profit in the long term. You need to find games where the odds are around 2/1 each time, so that you always guarantee yourself enough of a win.
Obviously the same problems as with the simple coin toss are relevant with even more variables added in with sports betting. Betting on Virtual Football could be a way to test this method and websites such as Ladbrokes offer you the chance to try your hand at betting on virtual football.
Final thoughts
As with all betting strategies, this is not a fool proof method and there are huge risks involved with it. So bet within your means and only bet what you can afford to lose. But try it out and let us know how you get on!