ROI – Return on investment
The term ‘Return on Investment’ actually comes from the finance world and is basically a strategy that is used to measure the efficiency and overall success of your investment - basically the return on an investment relative to its cost.
This expression is now used extensively in the betting world and basically acts as a yardstick to gauge how good you are at betting.
Return on investment (ROI) is probably the best way for someone to assess how good each bet they place is. Using ROI is a much better way of assessing how well you bet than by looking at how much money you’ve won, how many units you’ve gained, or even judging yourself on how much accuracy you have on your bets.
A player who wagers £10 per bet can be considered a much stronger punter than someone who wagers £500 per bet
Why do different punters choose to bet different amounts of money? Someone who wagers £10 per bet can be a considered a much stronger player than someone who wagers £500 per bet. Even if one of the aforementioned punters has brought in more money in the last year, it all depends on how much return you get on your investment for each penny you wager.
What does ROI mean?
ROI means how much money you win or lose from your total turnover, i.e. the total amount you have wagered. ROI will show you how much your average winnings are per bet. Let’s say you’ve made 500 bets in total, with £10 per bet and you come out with total winnings of £300 - then you’ll have a ROI of 106%. That means that for every £10 you put down, you get £10.60 back in return. You have an average winnings of 60p per bet on a deposit of £10.
ROI can be written differently depending on the context it is used in. On the continent you're more likely to see it written as RIO 106%, but it can also be expressed differently. For example it can come in a decimal form of 0.06, which the equivalent would be 106%.
International ROI is usually only expressed in winnings, for example 6%. Whatever form you choose to use doesn’t really matter. It’s only important that you know what it means.
Examples of ROI
Example 1
Total amount wagered: £5000
Total number of bets: 150
Total net wins/losses: +£1000
ROI = 120%
Example 2
Total amount wagered: £75,000
Total number of bets: 1250
Total net wins/losses: +£1500
ROI: 102%
Example 3
Total amount wagered: £25,000
Total number of bets: 2150
Total net wins/losses: £1000
ROI: 96%
How do I work out ROI?
ROI is quite simple to figure out and there a number of ways for you to do it. The simplest way is to divide your net winnings with your overall amount wagered. See below!
£200 (net winnings) / £10,000 (total amount wagered) = 0.02 = ROI 102%
-£200 (net losses) / £10,000 (total amount wagered = -0.02 = ROI 98%
What would you consider to be a good or bad ROI?
Basically, anything over 100% ROI is good, as it means you’re winning. Anything under 100% will be counted as losses. But you should expect to have different ROIs for different odds markets that you choose to bet in. For a player who’s betting on smaller markets with a lower limit they’ll have a higher ROI than a person who is betting on larger markets with higher limits, such as the Premier League for example.
If you maintain an ROI of over 100% over a longer period of time only playing in larger markets then you should be very pleased. After all when it comes down to it, very few people are able to consistently win over a longer period of time.
As we mentioned earlier the amount of bets that have been placed is crucial in being able to calculate a player’s ROI. A player with an ROI of 102% after 2000 bets can (in a way) be considered more successful than a someone who has an ROI of 120% after 200 bets. That’s why the shorter term and longer term perspectives are important when we consider volume of bets placed.
