What is a ladder in sports betting?

There is no shortage of betting strategies that can be used when taking part in online sports betting with arbitrage, Dutching and value betting three of the most widely-used ones. Though not quite as widely-used and or even as well-known, ladder betting is another strategy and one that can produce good results and appeal to certain types of punter.

The idea behind a Ladder Bet

But what is a ladder in sports betting?

The idea behind ladder bets is that you keep using profit from previous bets to fund your next bet. As long as your bets keep winning, you keep going up the ladder.

As you ‘go up the steps’ of the ladder, you keep increasing your stakes.

Players normally choose in advance how many steps there will be in the ladder (how many bets in a row they’re looking to win) and stop when they reach that number. 
Or they can quit while they’re ahead and ‘jump off the ladder’ before reaching that number, pocketing all profits accumulated up to that point.

How to Place a Ladder Bet

Before you place your ladder bet, it’s a good idea to decide a) what your starting stake is b) how many steps there are in your ladder and c) by how much you’re going to increase your stake by ahead of your next bet. 

•    You decide you want to start with a stake of 1-unit and that you have a target of 5 stages in your ladder betting. 
•    You place a bet at odds of 1.5 on the horse BillyBob to win a race. 
•    BillyBob wins so you now have 0.5 units in profits. By the way: if BillyBob lost, your ladder betting would end, and you’d go back to the bottom of the ladder and start again. 
•    For your next bet, you can use between 1 and 1.5 units to fund it. 
•    Some punters who are ladder betting may decide to go with the full 1.5 units for the next bet. Others may decide to go with a fixed percentage of the profits from the previous one. For example: 50%. If that’s what you were doing, then your next bet would be for 0.25 units (0.5 units divided by 2) + (the initial) 1 unit = 1.25 Units. 
•    Let’s say you were going with the 50% (of previous profit) strategy. You place a 1.25 unit bet on Manchester City to beat Everton at 1.4. 
•    If Man City win, you’d then use the profits from that bet to fund the next one, and so on. 
•    Strictly speaking, you’d stop after your fifth bet won (if you got that far) and walk away with the profits. But you could also choose to jump off the ladder after four bets. Or alternatively, add a few more steps to your ladder if you felt confident, and keep going.

Ladder Betting Strategy

Ladder betting has some rules to it, otherwise it wouldn’t be a betting strategy at all. But they’re somewhat flexible, meaning you can change them slightly if you wish. Here are some strategies to consider:

•    Make your best bet your first bet- Given ladder betting is based on using profits from your first (winning bet) to fund the next one and it makes sense to try to make sure that your first bet wins; so, pick your best bet as your first bet. 
•    Bet at short odds- Ladder bets are a gradual process of accumulating money, so you don’t want to be taking too many risks on each bet. So, you’re better off having short-priced selections, or at least at odds of under 2.0, or else you’ll ‘fall off the ladder’ pretty quickly. 
•    Quit while you’re ahead- Even if you’ve previously established that you’ll quit after five winning bets, there’s nothing to stop you from doing so after three or four winners. You’ll still have guaranteed a profit by that stage rather than risk losing all (or most of your profit) on your next bet.

Image Credits: Unsplashed

Advantages and Disadvantages of Ladder Betting

And now to some ladder bets pros and cons.

Pros:

•    There are no restrictions on the sports or markets within those sports on which you place your bets. Or when you place them. So, lots of flexibility. 
•    Because your bets can be on anything rather than restricted to a particular sport, you can use free bets or other bonuses to place them (or at least the first one), rather than your own money.

Cons:

•    One losing bet could see your accumulated profits disappear pretty quickly. 
•    Because the idea is that you gradually accumulate profits by betting at short odds, you’ll need patience as big wins won’t occur out of nowhere.