Martingale

What is Martingale strategy

The Martingale strategy is one of the most popular sports betting strategies. Its essence lies in increasing the next bet amount by a certain percentage in case if the previous bet was a losing one. The strategy allows you to cover the losses caused in a short time and climb into positive territory.

Martingale strategy is not a win-win strategy that guarantees to bring only positive results. If your personal stock exchange trading strategy is fundamentally flawed due to incorrect selection of markets, selections and other parameters, then Martingale will exacerbate the situation. Increasing the bets amount will only speed up the entire pot loss.

The “Martingale” should be used if there is a potentially winning stock exchange trading strategy that shows positive results over the long period of time. In this case, “Martingale” becomes an indispensable tool that allows you to quickly cover losing periods and keep the winning streak.

In the BetDriver program, the Martingale strategy is implemented in two versions:

1. An utility function with facilitated capabilities for the AutoBookmaker and AutoBets automatic strategies;
2. A full-fledged automatic strategy with an extended array of settings, with which it is possible to work independently of other strategies.

Martingale strategy as an addition to the main strategies

Within the AutoBookmaker and AutoBets automatic strategies, you can select Martingale betting strategy parameters in the corresponding strategy settings. They are located in section 8 (“Martingale”) where the following options are available:

Increase percentage – the percentage by which the next bet is increased on the basis of market, day or hour recalculation.

Recalculation period:

• Market. If it turns out to be negative after the market recalculation, then the program increases the bet amount by the specified percentage on the next market (related parameter: “Increase percentage“). If the market turns out to be zero after recalculation, then the bet amount does not increase (default setting);
• Day. The decision about the bet amount increase by the specified odd is made at the end of the day.
• Hour. The decision about the bet amount increase by the specified odd is made at the end of the hour.

A limiting martingale odd – the maximum odd by which the bet amount will be increased.

We see the obtained results during the process of the Martingale strategies operation on the “Statistics” tab in the “Martingale” section:

Current odd (1 as default).

Period / Series result:

1. the result of the current day of the week, etc;
2. until the result is positive.

Maximum loss in a series – a maximum drawdown based on the strategy operation results in a certain period.

Maximum negative periods in a row ­ – number of negative periods took place before reaching a positive result.

Current day / hour and the number of negative periods in a row – current indicators during the strategy operation.

Martingale trading strategy as a full-fledged automatic strategy

The Martingale strategy has its own settings tab which includes 6 sections:

1. Market Search;
2. Market processing;
3. Betting parameters;
4. Martingale parameters;
5. Betting filters;
6. General.

Markets search and processing These sections contain standard settings for all automatic strategies. A detailed parameters description can be found on the website in the AutoStrategies section: Market Search material.

Martingale betting parameters

Bet types: Back or Lay. You can read more about the types of bets on the website in the Back and Lay Bets article.

Bets amount is set in account currency. The bet amount depends on the selected option:

• Bet Amount – Bet amount = Specified amount;
• Payout – Bet amount = Specified amount / Odd;
• Liability – Bet amount = Specified amount / (Odd – 1).

Set of bets. BetDriver Martingale trading strategy implements the following options:

1. All selections at the specified odd. Bets with the specified amount are placed on all selections with the fixed odd. Related parameters: “Bet types”, “Bets amount”, “Betting odd”.
2. All selections with a margin. Bets are placed on all selections with a specified margin from the current odd. Related parameters: “Bet types”, “Bets amount”, “Margin (%)”.

Example: If we choose a margin of 10% and Back bets, then 10% are added to the current odd on the right, bets are placed on all selections in accordance with this. If we choose the Lay bet, then the current odds are reduced by the selected margin percentage, after which the bets are placed on all selections.

3. All selections at the current odd. Bets are placed without reference to a margin. The current market odds are taken into account. Bets are set before these odds. This is done in order to be ahead of everyone on the market and get the accepted bet as quickly as possible.
4. One selection at the current odd. The bet is placed on one selection. How will this selection be chosen? This is specified in the related parameter – “Sort selections (when one bet)”. Sorting is carried out by:

• Odd. The selections are sorted by odds and a bet is placed on the lowest (Back bet) or the highest (Lay bet) of these odds.
  
• Ascending/Descending matched amount. A certain amount of money is matched at each selection. The program will choose the maximum or minimum value (according to the user’s choice) and place a bet on only one selection.

Transpose unmatched bets to better odds – is valid when the “All selections at the current odd” or “One selection at the current odds” parameters are selected. If the bet is not accepted, and someone joined the line in front of you, the program will again transpose the bet ahead of everyone else in the market.

Betting odd / Betting odd 2 – these parameters play an important role if the “All selections at the specified odd” setting is selected in the betting set. If the value is chosen only for “Betting odd”, then bets will be placed at this odd. If the values are chosen both for “Betting odd” and “Betting odd 2”, then the program places bets in this range. So the user sets the range of odds in which the program places bets.

Example: for “Betting odd” the value is 5, and for “Betting odd 2” – 10. The program will place bets in the range from 5 to 10 randomly. 

Margin (%) – margin value combined with “All selections with a margin” betting set.

Minimum odd = number of selections X 2 – when this parameter and the “All selections at the current odd” parameter are chosen, the program will not places bets at odd 2 if there are more than two selections on the market. 

Example: Basically, dog racing in Great Britain has 6 selections. If we enable the “Minimum odd = number of selections X 2”, then the minimum odd on which the program will place bets will be 12.

Minimum visibility amount – the odds on which the amounts are less than the specified parameter will be ignored. If it is zero, then the program is guaranteed to place bets ahead of everyone on the market. If we set a number, the program monitors the market situation and places a bet in front of the odd, the bets amount on which is greater than or equal to the specified number.

KeepInPlay – allows to leave bets in InPlay and wait for them to be matched.

Connect existing bets – valid when starting/restarting the program. The program connects the previously placed bets in accordance with the Martingale strategy in the selected markets to the strategy and considers that they are placed in accordance with the strategy. The program will ignore such bets if the parameter is disabled.

Martingale strategy parameters

 

Bet amounts recalculation method. After each calculated market, the bet amount is converted. Three recalculation options are available::

1. Simple. A bets amount increase either for a specified “Increase amount” (adds the amount), or for “Increase percentage” (multiplies by percentage);
2. By target profit. The desired target profit in the series or from the market (related parameters: “Target profit in the series”, “Target profit from the market”).

Target profit in the series. As soon as a minus is accumulated in one or several markets, the program selects the bet amount on each subsequent market, so that it turns into a plus as a result of the accumulated minus. For example, if we want to get 10 $ profit, then the program places bets in such a way in order to have a 10 $ profit at the end of the series.

Target profit from the market. The markets number is multiplied by the target profit from the market. If we place $ 1 from the market through 10 markets, then the program seeks to get a 10 $ profit based on the results of these 10 markets.

3. Combined. Both methods are taken into account during the bets amount recalculation: “Simple” and “By target profit”. The related parameters of each of the specified conversion methods must be specified for correct program operation.

Number of wins to reach target profit – shows how many times in a row it is necessary to win to have a specified target profit. If it is 1 (by default), then the target profit should be obtained from one market. If 2, 3, 5, etc. – then from two, three, five, etc. markets respectively. In accordance with the specified value, the program selects the bet amount which will allow to gain profit through a series of wins in a row.

Maximum bet amount – the maximum bets amount that the program can afford to place on the market.

Maximum loss in a series – the amount that we can lose in one series of bets. It allows us to limit losses.

Start a series from scratch after reaching the maximum loss – BetDriver program “forgets” about the losses incurred in the previous series and starts a repeated bets series. If the option is not selected, then the program stops operating in accordance with Martingale strategy after reaching the maximum loss.

Increase the maximum loss with a profit increase – allows to potentially lose more in case if the chosen strategy shows an increase in profit. This helps to take into account the strategy peculiarities that can operate wavily: plus or minus, plus or minus, etc.

Example: the maximum loss in the series is limited to $ 50. At the same time, the strategy makes a $ 100 profit at a certain stage of operation. If this option is enabled, the maximum loss in the series will automatically increase to $ 150. However, in the end, the losses of the entire series will be the same $ 50. 

One series – all markets in the strategy are considered as one large series. The positive or negative result does not matter in this case. Each time the program adjusts the bet amount in such a way as to get the target profit from the market. 

Example: the target profit from the market is $1, and it should be at least $ 10 after 10 markets. However, the Martingale strategy is ahead of schedule and the target profit is $ 50 after 10 markets. If the “One series” parameter is selected, the $ 50 won are taken into account, and the next bets are placed with the specified minimum amount until the total target profit is equal to the actual amount for all markets since the start of BetDriver Martingale trading strategy operation. If the option is not selected, then the counting starts from zero on each next market. 

Recalculate target profit from the market – provides the opportunity to increase target profit from the market when the winning streak is ahead of schedule.

Betting filters

Selection number to bet – if it is zero (by default), then bets are placed on all selections. If a number is indicated, then bets are placed on the corresponding selection. 

Example: On the Over and Under markets, the Under selection comes first. Therefore, if the entered value is “1”, bets are placed only on the Under selection. 

Maximum markets with bets – if it is zero (by default), then bets are placed on all markets without any restrictions. If we enter any number, then the program will bet the maximum on such number of markets. With that, it does not matter how many markets are shown in the search results. This parameter is helpful if the consistency is needed when placing bets (for example, to bet on the next market only after calculating the previous one).

Minimum/maximum overround – if it is zero (by default), then bets are placed on all markets without restrictions. If values are specified, then bets on the markets are placed within the specified limits. Overround is a reverse market odds amount multiplied by 100.

Minimum/maximum spread – if it is zero (by default), then bets are placed on all markets without restrictions. If values are specified, then bets on the markets are placed within the specified limits. Spread is the difference between the market Back and Lay odds.

General parameters

Autostart – BetDriver Martingale strategy trading is launched at a certain time interval. Related parameters: “Start time”, “Stop time”. If the default values (00:00:00) in the parameters are left, then the strategy will work constantly.

Start time –beginning of the strategy operation with the selected “Autostart” option.

Stop time – stopping the strategy operation with the selected “Autostart” option.

After launching the Martingale strategy, you may open the “Statistics” tab, which displays information about the “Martingale” automatic strategy operation.