Flat stakes versus percentage stakes
One keeps the bet size still while the bankroll moves, the other keeps the risk still. They fail in opposite directions, so pick your failure.
Flat staking means every bet is the same size. Percentage staking means every bet is the same fraction of what you currently hold. They sound like small variations on each other and they behave very differently.
What flat staking gets right
It is honest. A fixed stake cannot be quietly increased because a bet feels good, and the record it produces is directly comparable across a season because the unit never changed. Anybody presenting results in units is implicitly assuming flat stakes, and the moment stakes vary, a units figure stops meaning anything.
What it gets wrong is that it does not respond to a shrinking bankroll. Ten units is 1% of a thousand and 5% of two hundred, and the scheme cannot tell.
What percentage staking gets right
It cannot reach zero. Each bet is a fraction of what remains, so losses shrink the next stake and the sequence approaches zero without arriving. In practice it arrives at a stake below the minimum the book accepts, which is the same thing wearing a better suit.
What it gets wrong is recovery. After a 40% drawdown the stakes are 40% smaller, so the same run of wins that would have restored a flat bankroll restores much less of a percentage one. It protects the downside by taxing the climb back.
The choice underneath
Flat staking is right if you are confident in the edge and the bankroll is a sum you have decided to risk. Percentage staking is right if the edge is uncertain, because it automatically stakes less when the evidence has been going against you.
Given that an edge published here is an estimate rather than a measurement, the uncertain case is the usual one.
What this does not tell you
Both schemes assume you follow them. The most common staking failure is neither of these; it is a flat staker who doubles up on a bet they like, which is a third scheme nobody chose and nobody has modelled.
Common questions
What is flat staking?
Betting the same fixed amount every time regardless of bankroll or confidence. It is the simplest scheme and the easiest to follow honestly.
What is percentage staking?
Betting a fixed fraction of the current bankroll, so stakes shrink after losses and grow after wins. It cannot mathematically reach zero, though it can reach an amount too small to bet.
Which one is better?
Neither in general. Flat staking risks ruin during a bad run; percentage staking slows recovery after one. The right answer depends on whether your edge estimate is trustworthy.