Building your bankroll is an important part of slot gameplay. The best slot sites may offer bonuses to their players, but wagers still need to be completed for most slot games.
Therefore, players must manage their bankroll when playing on slots. But what is your bankroll, and how do you build it?
In gambling, your bankroll is the total amount of money that you have available for betting.
One of the key ways to build your bankroll is to be careful how you bet. High-volatility vs. low-volatility slots have different betting requirements, and recognizing these differences can help you build your bankroll effectively.
While building your bankroll is not easy, there are a few tips you can use to speed up the process.
1: Set A Budget For Your Bankroll
Before you open your favourite slot, set a clear budget for your session. Setting a budget for slots is important because life could change within one spin. However, it is important to remember that within slots, odds don’t usually change within each bet, because of random number generators, so what you bet doesn’t increase or decrease your chances.
Make sure you set aside a budget and stick to it when playing. If you need to make qualifying bets, ensure you understand the costs associated with them and whether the game is worth betting on.
2: Split Your Bankroll Up
When we say split up, we are not talking about divorcing the slots; we are talking about splitting up your sessions! It is better to quit while you’re ahead in slots, because your bankroll can be gone within one spin. That’s why it is better to split your bankroll up into sessions.
Slots operate on volatility, so wins can change very quickly. To avoid getting stuck in a losing streak, you should split your games up into different sessions. Let’s say you have a budget of £20 for slots that you have worked out and set aside, and you’re playing, make sure you split it up into sessions, let’s say £50 each.
This will help keep you focused and motivated, rather than leave you downtrodden if you blow your budget all in one session.
Additionally, trying the slot out with one game first can help you see how you like it. If you try a slot with specific mechanics and volatility, you can see if it offers you value for your money and bankroll.
3: Work Out How Much Each Spin Costs
On the slots, each spin is worth a certain amount of money. You should make sure that with your budget, you are not spending too much per spin, as this is the fastest way to run out of money. For example, if you have a small budget and the spins are costing you a lot each time, you are getting less for your money, because you’re spinning less and paying more.
However, if you can pick a slot where spins are not expensive, then go for it!
Having a rule where you wager a percentage of your bankroll is a good way to start. You will never want to wager too much of your bankroll, so stick to a low percentage. Between 3 and 5% is a good rule to follow because this is easy to work out and means you still have enough money for lots of spins.
Let’s stick with the £200 bankroll budget. If you use 3 to 5% of your bankroll to wager, you’d spend between £6 and £10 per spin of your bankroll. If you opt to spend £10 per spin, you’d play 20 spins. Whereas if you stuck to £6, you’d have 33 spins.
Although when you are considering your bet size, you should also consider the slot volatility because high volatility slots, for example, require higher bets, but have a lower frequency of rewards. So for high volatility slots, bet as low as possible so you can survive winning dry spells.
With low volatility slots, you can be riskier and bet more of your bankroll, because rewards are small but frequent, so you’re likely to get some of your money back. If you want to go harder, see if you need to meet wagering requirements to unlock the bonus round or qualify for free spins.
Bankroll Tips Takeaways
Your bankroll is important in playing with slots because it shows how much you can afford to bet and suggests how you should play. Slots are based on luck and RNG technology, so your bankroll has no bearing on how successful you are playing them.
With that being said, your bankroll can boost your chances if you unlock bonus features, so building it could help you to unlock bonus rounds to increase your win chances. However, you should control how much you bet by setting a budget and playing per spin.
By doing this, you will have a stress-free experience and get used to playing through the bad periods even with a few bucks left to your name.