It's my opinion that units are severely misunderstood by the masses. When you take into account the very definition of a unit you realize that anyone that plays, let's say, 10 units on their P.O.Y. is either incredibly misinformed or simply ignorant to the intended use and meaning of what a unit is and does for, you, the bettor.

In short units are a percentage of ones bankroll.

This means units are dynamic - they change with your bankroll.

This is why I shake my head at bettors that throw around large unit plays because frankly it's just wrong. Now I'm not telling you how to spend your money gambling (at least I hope it's your money. lol) but what I'm saying is that making those kinds of plays flies in the face of the very definition of a unit - a percentage of ones bankroll. Setting a unit to a fixed dollar amount is not applying the unit to ones bankroll properly.
Why?
Because utilizing a small percentage of ones bankroll protects the bettor from going bankrupt when he/she hits the inevitable losing streak. For example, if you have a bankroll of $500 it is suggested you play no more than $10 (2%) to $25 (5%) per play. Now I know that immediately you're thinking,"$10 to $25 bets with a $500 bankroll? How am I supposed to make money that way?". The short answer is - it's a marathon not a sprint. That's something I'll touch on shortly but for now lets go back to percentages. Although the percentage a bettor uses varies the standard or suggested percentage is 2% with a maximum of 5%. So let's say you use 5% to define your unit. With a $500 bankroll you would have to lose 20 plays in a row to go bankrupt. No matter how bad you may run you minimize the possibility that you'll go bankrupt by adhering to unit play as it's defined. If you used the suggested 2% you would have to lose 50 in a row before you had to reach for your wallet. Understanding that bad runs are inevitable I believe it's safe to say that no one has ever lost 50 in a row (and if you have you may want to consider another hobby) so what does that mean? It means never going bust. Never going bankrupt. Never reaching for your wallet. It means a lot. This is why you should dismiss any "pro" (tout) that suggests you tail his G.O.Y. and bet 10 or any exorbitant amount of units on it. That bettor (tout) isn't using units properly. He can't be. That is beyond horrible money management to bet half your bank or even 1/4 of your bankroll on one play. Those kind of moves will have you reaching for your wallet regularly.

After you determine your bankroll and the percentage of that bankroll you will use per unit you need to decide whether to flat bet or rate your bets. Flat betting is placing one unit per play and no more. Rating your bets is using a variance of 1 to (X) number of units for a play based on the "strength" of that play. Ideally you want to keep each play on the lower end of the scale and keep the higher end of the scale plays for those plays in which the planets seem to have aligned. Although the scale a bettor uses varies I use a scale of 1 to 3 units per play with the occasionally rare 4 unit play (that's because using 2% of your bankroll for a unit means a 3 unit play is 6% of your bankroll while a unit at 5% means that 3 unit play becomes 15% of your bankroll.) I used to flat bet in my early years of gambling but have since switched to rating my plays and have been happy with the results. From what I've read most winning bettors flat bet. I don't disagree with them but the reason I made that switch from flat betting is that I got frustrated seeing that the plays I LOVED would win while my, let's say, 'regular' plays that lost would cancel them out. Just like the amount of your bankroll and the percentage per unit you'll use, determining whether to flat bet or rate your bets is up to what you're comfortable with.

Remember the "marathon/sprint" comment I made? Well the article below uses the "battle/war" analogy and delves into the concept in further detail. This article is one of a few I copy/pasta'd to a text file some years back when I was researching the subject of units and money management and I believe it might be of some help.

Having said all that, regardless of your approach GL with all your gambling endeavors! See you in the forums

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Money Management – The Amateur’s Downfall
By William D. Foote
Does anyone know why so many people lose at sports betting? Most think it is because of poor handicapping. While this can be true, it is not why most people lose. We know hundreds and hundreds of folks that are excellent handicappers or have access to winning picks that still lose their shirts year in and year out.

Quite simply, the vast majority of all gamblers maintain poor money management skills. That simple reason above all others is why they lose money. There are those that manage money poorly because they are uninformed and there are those that manage poorly because they are undisciplined. Unfortunately most often times, gamblers are uniformed and undisciplined.

We could write an entire twelve Volume Encyclopedia length case study on this subject. Given our space and time, we are going to summarize and hopefully you will get the gist. We want to talk about betting discipline and bet size. They actually go hand in hand.

If you are serious about success, it is imperative that you make a plan and remain disciplined. Your plan must entail proper bet size per unit or per game. You should never risk more than 5% of your bankroll on any one play with an average play being roughly 2% to 3% of your bankroll. We would guess that 99.9% of gamblers are wagering too much on each game and we strongly urge you to not fall into the same trap.

Most people will wonder, 2% of bankroll? How the hell am I going to make any real money that way? Our answer is very simple. Exert a little patience and a little discipline over a period of time. If you do this, 2% of a growing bankroll can earn you a full time living no matter how small your bankroll is to start. Not too long ago, we wrote an article showing how a $2,000 bankroll could turn into $7,000,000 in twenty years playing 4% on each game and picking only 55%.

It is imperative to bet a low percentage of bankroll to achieve success. Over the course of any season, and especially in the daily sports, you will encounter winning as well as losing streaks. If you are betting too high of bankroll percentage, one losing streak could eat up your entire bankroll and put you out of business. We cannot stress enough how important this concept is to your success.

A typical example would be a player that has a bankroll of $1000 and bets $100 on each game. One of two things will happen to this player. He will either hit a cold streak and be out of the game before he knows it, or he will hit a hot streak, up his bets to $200 or $300 per game and then hit a losing streak and be forced out of the game. Quite simply, there is no way to win if you are betting 10% of your bankroll on each game. Losing streaks will happen, as simple mathematics dictates this fact.

The next area we need to focus on is discipline. This is where most folks fail miserably. We have been betting full time for nearly many years. In the beginning, we were unsuccessful because we lacked discipline. We always could pick winners, but sticking to a very strict plan was the problem. If there is any one piece of advice we could lend amateur sports bettors it is this; you are not going to win every day or even every week. Do not concern yourselves with the battles and focus on the war.

Do you know how often we get emails from clients that sound like this, “I was wondering about the free service I am entitled to because of the losing week we had”. We will read this, scratch our heads for a moment and reply back. “Losing week? You should have gone 7-3 and picked up 9 units. We went 1-0 on Thursday, 1-0 on Friday, 4-0 on Saturday and 1-3 on Sunday. How did you lose money going 7-3?” To which the client replies.

“Well, I was betting $100 per game Thursday, Friday and Saturday and made $600. On Sunday I decided to up my bets to $300 a piece in the morning and went 1-2 and lost $360. Since I was down over $300 dollars for Sunday, I bet $700 on the Sunday Night Game. This way I could win back the $360 lost earlier in the day and still show a Sunday profit. Well, the Sunday Night Game lost and now I am in the hole $530 for the week and you all said of I did not show a profit I would get free service.”

Basically, this person had turned a 7-3 weekend into a lose money proposition. In other words, the picks he bet went 70% and he lost money. Day in and day out we receive similar emails with similar type circumstances.

The difference between professional gamblers and amateur gamblers is 20% the quality of picks they are playing and 80% the way they manage money. In the case we had described above, the individual failed to accept that Sunday was not going to produce a net profit for him (the battle). Instead of realizing that Thursday through Sunday was a great success that netted a significant profit (the war), they chose to lose site of the overall plan.

We wish we had more time and more space to help you all understand these concepts, as they are extremely valuable. It pains us to see folks lose over and over because they do not understand money management and the concept of long term profit as opposed to near term foolishness. Make a plan, establish a bankroll, stick to the plan and you will make money. Don’t do those things and you will not. [superiordaily.com]