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A written record of every stake and every return is a reliable way to see what betting costs you, because memory can keep the wins and let the small losses fade. Add them up and you have profit and loss, ROI and a view of how far results have fallen from their best point; what you do about it is your decision.
People tend to tell the story of a past experience in its best light. In a 2008 paper in the Journal of Consumer Research, Elizabeth Cowley describes "retrospective hedonic editing": people combine events to frame a previous experience in its most positive light, and in her first study potentially irresponsible gamblers used this to recall their past as more positive, which supported their wish to keep playing (Cowley, 2008). That is one set of experiments, not a measurement of any particular person.
This one is arithmetic, not opinion. A bookmaker's prices imply probabilities that add up to more than 100%, and the excess is the margin. If a market adds up to 105%, then across everyone betting on it, every 100 staked returns about 95.24 on average. Individuals vary a great deal around that average, and some lose much more. The betting cost calculator turns your own stakes into an expected yearly cost with the working shown, and bookmaker margin explained walks through the numbers.
Zort can read a photographed or screenshotted slip for you to check and save, or you can type a bet in. A notebook or spreadsheet does the same job if you keep it complete.
Here is why. Suppose you place 20 bets of 10 each, and 8 of them win at odds of 2.20. The win rate is 8 / 20 = 40%, which can feel respectable. Money returned is 8 × 10 × 2.20 = 176 against 200 staked, so the result is a loss of 24 and an ROI of minus 12%. At odds of 2.20 a bet has to win about 45.45% of the time (1 / 2.20) just to get the stakes back.
Drawdown is the fall from a high point of your running profit and loss to the lowest point after it. If your total reaches +50, then falls to minus 20, that is a drawdown of 70, even if the final figure is better. It shows how much of a swing the record has contained. Zort shows streaks and maximum drawdown. A streak of losses happens in any record, so a short run says little by itself, but a long fall is worth looking at squarely.
A loss limit is a number you choose in advance: the most you are willing to lose in a period. A limit means little unless you compare it with a record. In Zort you can set a loss limit goal for yourself. Zort does not stop a bet, block a betting site or send spending alerts, so the limit is a promise you keep, not a barrier. If you want a barrier, betting sites have limit tools built in and you can ask to be self-excluded, which the Gambling Commission explains.
A record cannot tell you whether your betting is a problem, and nothing on this page is a test or a diagnosis. It can show signs that are worth taking seriously:
If any of these is true, talk to someone. The services in the boxes on this page are free, and GambleAware and Gambling Therapy both have self-assessment and information pages. Stopping is a decision you can make at any point. You do not have to do it alone, and a record shows you the numbers behind it.
This page does not say that, and Zort does not claim it. A record shows what you staked and what came back. What you do with that is your decision, and if betting is causing you harm the services in the boxes on this page can help.
The date, the stake, the odds, what you backed, the result and the amount returned. Record every bet, including small ones and ones you would rather forget, because a record with gaps flatters the result.
Win rate is the share of your bets that won. ROI is profit divided by total staked, multiplied by 100. A bet can win often and still lose money if the odds are short, so ROI and total profit and loss say more than win rate alone.
Drawdown is the fall from a high point in your running profit and loss to the lowest point that follows it. The biggest such fall in your record is your maximum drawdown.
Zort is a bet tracker for iPhone and Android. You photograph or screenshot a slip for a bet you have already placed, check what Zort read, and save it. Zort then shows your profit and loss, ROI and win rate. It is not a betting app: it takes no bets, gives no tips and links to no bookmakers. It is free to download, and this page lists exactly what it does and does not do. For adults aged 18 and over.
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More: Betting cost calculator · Margin calculator · The Zort bet tracker