A useful bet tracker records each decision, its price and timestamp, and its final settlement—including losses, pushes, and voids.
Record the bet before the result
Log each bet when you place it, not after it settles. A record written after the fact drifts toward the results you remember. These fields cover almost any analysis you’ll want later:
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Placed at | 2026-10-18, 11:42 a.m. ET |
| Sport and league | Football, NFL |
| Event | Away team at home team, with the game date |
| Market | Full-game point spread |
| Selection and line | Home −3.5 |
| Odds | −110 |
| Stake | $25.00 |
| Book | Where the bet was placed |
| Reason | Model probability, or a one-line note on why |
| Closing line | Home −4.5, −110 |
| Result | Win, loss, push, or void |
| Profit or loss | +$22.73 |
Calculate profit and ROI
For a win at a plus price, profit is the stake times the odds divided by 100; at a minus price, it is the stake times 100 divided by the odds. A loss is minus the stake, and a push or void is zero. In a spreadsheet with the result in L2, the odds in F2, and the stake in G2:
=IF(L2="W", IF(F2>0, G2*F2/100, G2*100/ABS(F2)), IF(L2="L", -G2, 0))
Return on investment (ROI) is total profit divided by total staked. Someone who has placed 120 bets of $25 has staked $3,000; a net profit of $84 is a 2.8% ROI, or +3.36 units at a $25 unit.
Don’t judge by win rate alone
A win rate means little without the prices behind it. Ten $100 bets at +200 that win four times is a 40% win rate and a $200 profit: four wins of $200 minus six losses of $100. Ten $100 bets at −200 that win six times is a 60% win rate and a $100 loss: six wins of $50 minus four losses of $100. Report profit, ROI, and the number of bets together.
Handle pushes, voids, and cash-outs the same way every time
Keep pushes and voids as their own results instead of folding them into wins or losses. Decide once whether their stakes count toward total staked for ROI, and apply that rule to every bet. For a cash-out, record the amount received and treat the difference from the stake as the profit or loss, so the record matches the account balance.
Reconcile the tracker against your sportsbook balances regularly. If the two disagree, the tracker is missing something.
Review the record honestly
Split results by sport, market, or price range only when each group has enough bets to mean something; 30 bets in a segment can’t separate skill from luck. Record the closing line beside each bet so you can measure closing line value, which shows whether you are getting good prices long before profit can. And keep every entry, including the embarrassing ones. A record with the worst bets removed can’t answer any question worth asking.
Does this topic predict the next result?
No. A definition, historical statistic, market price, or model output is not a guarantee. Treat estimates as conditional on their data and assumptions, and keep the uncertainty visible.