What is Level Stakes?

How Level Stakes Works

Level stakes is straightforward: you decide on a fixed stake before you begin and apply it uniformly to every selection. That stake is typically expressed as a percentage of your starting bankroll or as a set monetary amount. A common approach is 1 point per bet, where 1 point might equal 1% of a 100-point bankroll, so £10 per bet on a £1,000 bank. Because the stake never changes based on the odds or your level of confidence in a tip, the method removes subjective decision-making from the equation entirely.

The key advantage is consistency. With level stakes, your bankroll moves up and down in predictable, measured increments. A losing run of ten bets costs you exactly ten points, and a winning run of ten bets returns ten points plus profit at whatever odds were achieved. This makes it straightforward to track performance over time and compare results across different tipsters or betting services without the distortion introduced by variable staking plans.

Worked Example

Suppose a tipster issues 20 bets in a month, each staked at 1 point. The selections win at an average of 2.50 in decimal odds. Of the 20 bets, 8 win and 12 lose. Total staked: 20 points. Returns from winning bets: 8 × 2.50 = 20 points. Profit: 20 − 20 = 0 points. Now adjust the win rate slightly upwards: 9 winners from 20 bets. Returns: 9 × 2.50 = 22.50 points. Profit: 22.50 − 20 = +2.50 points. Yield for the month: 2.50 ÷ 20 = 12.5%. These calculations are only possible in a clean, comparable form because the stake was identical on every bet.

If instead the tipster had staked 2 points on some bets and 0.5 on others, the profit figure would be influenced as much by the staking decisions as by the quality of the selections themselves. Level stakes strips that variable away, letting you judge whether the tipster is genuinely finding value or simply winning money by loading up on short-priced favourites.

Why Level Stakes Matters When Judging a Tipster

When evaluating any tipster, you should always check whether their published results are recorded to level stakes. A service that reports profit in points to level stakes gives you a neutral, reproducible baseline. You can calculate yield and ROI directly, compare the record against other tipsters on an equal footing, and decide whether to apply a different staking strategy on top, such as the Kelly Criterion, once you are satisfied the underlying edge is real.

Be cautious of tipsters who only report profits using variable staking, particularly where larger stakes coincide with winning bets. This can inflate headline figures significantly and mask a poor underlying strike rate or negative expected value. Reputable proofing services record tips to level stakes precisely because it prevents this kind of distortion. At TipsterCheck, all reviewed tipsters are assessed on their level-stakes profit and yield figures as the primary performance metric.

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