How to Keep a Betting Log: Stakes, Profit and ROI

You remember the winner. You remember the bad beat. But can you say how much you actually staked last week—or whether your “good night” made money?

A betting log answers those questions without relying on memory. It can be a simple spreadsheet. The useful part is recording every ticket the same way, including the ones you would rather forget.

Research checked October 13, 2026, at 8:05 a.m. Eastern (EDT). All stakes, odds, returns and records below are hypothetical examples, not real results or live offers.

1. Start with one row per ticket

Give each ticket its own identifier. Record the sportsbook, date and time placed, event, exact market, accepted line and odds, currency, cash stake and any promotional amount. Then leave room for the status, settlement date, actual cash returned, fees and net profit.

A parlay is one ticket with several legs. Keep the leg details in notes or separate linked rows, but count the stake once. A $10 three-leg parlay does not become $30 wagered because you wrote down three selections.

Keep currencies separate unless you choose and document a conversion method. Ten Canadian dollars and ten US dollars are not interchangeable entries. Save the accepted bet confirmation so you can check a line or price later.

Use the sportsbook record as your settlement reference. bet365’s Canadian history guide, for example, separates betting history from deposits and withdrawals and provides access to account statements. Other books have their own menus and records.

2. Record profit, not just the payout

For a fully settled ordinary cash bet, this guide uses:

Net profit = total cash returned − original cash stake − any separately charged fees.

If a $10 bet returns $19.09, the profit is $9.09. The other $10 was your stake coming back. If the bet loses and returns nothing, profit is -$10. Do not label the entire return as money earned.

That is a 2–2 record and a small loss. Win count alone misses the stake sizes and prices. For a refresher on how the prices work, see our odds guide.

3. Keep pending bets out of settled results

A bet that looks likely to win is still open until it settles. Leave its realized profit blank. Track the money tied up in pending bets separately, rather than marking every open stake as a loss or counting a possible payout as a win.

bet365’s UK settlement guide distinguishes open, live and settled bets and says settlement follows its sport rules. That page illustrates the distinction; it does not establish a universal settlement deadline or the rules for your account.

Choose a consistent reporting period. This guide groups results by settlement date: a ticket placed Sunday and settled Monday belongs in Monday’s settled report. Keep both dates so you can also review when you made your decisions. Do not mix placement-date and settlement-date totals without explaining the difference.

4. Calculate ROI with a visible denominator

For this log, define cash-bet return on investment, or ROI, as:

ROI = settled cash-bet net profit ÷ settled cash stakes × 100.

Using the four-ticket example: -$0.91 ÷ $50 × 100 = -1.82%. It means this group lost about 1.82 cents for every dollar staked. It does not mean 1.82% of your bankroll disappeared; bankroll size is a different denominator.

Our convention includes settled wins, losses, cash-outs and cash pushes in the stake total, excludes fully voided refunded tickets, and keeps pending bets and promotional-only tickets outside this cash-bet ROI. Other reports may use different conventions. Label yours so the percentage can be reproduced.

Show the dollars and the number of tickets beside the percentage. A tiny sample can produce a dramatic ROI. It is a description of past results, not a forecast or proof of a betting edge. Our sample-size article explains why short streaks can mislead.

5. Handle refunds, cash-outs and promotions explicitly

Push or fully voided refund: if a $10 cash stake comes back as $10, net profit is zero. Label the status correctly rather than giving yourself a win. Under the convention above, a cash push stays in the stake denominator; a fully voided refund is excluded. Check the actual receipt—refunds can have different terms.

Full cash-out: a $10 ticket closed for $7 has a realized loss of $3, before any separate fees. What the original selections do later does not change the money you accepted. Save the cash-out confirmation.

Partial cash-out: keep the original ticket open until the remaining portion resolves. Add the cash returned at each stage, then subtract the original cash stake once. Do not treat the partial payment as a finished ticket while also counting the original full stake again.

Promotional bets: record the cash actually used, the promotion’s face value and any cash paid separately. Read the offer’s payout and withdrawal terms. Do not silently treat promotional credit as your own cash stake or a withdrawable deposit. Keep promotional results visible in a separate summary; they should not disappear from your overall account review.

Log any fee or account adjustment separately and reconcile it. A correction is not a new bet. Preserve the original row and add a note when a sportsbook revises a settlement.

6. Reconcile the log once a week

Compare your rows with each sportsbook’s settled history. Look for missing losses, duplicate tickets, cash-outs, refunds, fees and pending bets accidentally marked complete. Depositing $100 is not a $100 betting loss; withdrawing $100 is not automatically $100 betting profit.

Account cash flow also includes money moving into and out of open wagers, promotions and adjustments. Check those items before expecting your settled-profit total to explain every movement in the available balance. The account-history guide gives a concrete example of where deposits, withdrawals and adjustments are recorded.

Then ask one practical question: did your actual stakes match the limits you intended? An honest log can help you notice a pattern. It does not require you to place more bets, chase a loss or prove yourself with a bigger ticket.

After placing a supported bet elsewhere, BetSlip Live can help you import the slip, review the detected legs and follow supported live progress. Keep the sportsbook confirmation and settlement record for your log. Coverage varies by market and event. The app tracks bets; it does not accept wagers.