See how the required stake grows after consecutive losses and how much bankroll is needed to continue the progression.
| Bet | Stake | Result | Cumulative Loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calculate to see the progression. | |||
Martingale does not remove the house edge or guarantee recovery. Losing streaks can cause required stakes to increase very quickly.
The Martingale is a betting progression built around increasing the stake after a loss.
The traditional version is usually explained with even-money bets: lose one bet, double the next stake, and continue until a win theoretically recovers the previous losses plus the original profit.
That sounds simple at odds of exactly 2.00, but the required stake changes when the betting odds are different. This calculator therefore calculates the actual recovery stake rather than blindly doubling every bet.
After one or more losses, the next stake must cover the cumulative losses and the target profit.
At decimal odds of 2.00, this produces the familiar doubling pattern.
Start with a €5 bet at decimal odds of 2.00 and target €5 profit.
If all six bets lose, the accumulated loss is:
The next required stake would then be €320.
To survive those six losses and still place that next bet, the progression requires at least €635 in total bankroll.
Every loss creates another amount that the next winning bet must recover. At even-money odds, this leads to exponential stake growth.
This is the central risk of Martingale. The target profit can remain very small while the amount of capital required to continue becomes extremely large.
A common mistake is assuming that simply doubling the stake works at every price.
At odds of 1.80, a winning bet returns less profit relative to the stake than a bet at 2.00. The next stake therefore has to be larger than a simple double if the goal is to recover all previous losses plus the same target profit.
That is why this calculator uses the actual odds in the recovery formula.
Suppose the initial bet is €10 at decimal odds of 1.80.
A winning €10 bet would produce €8 profit. If that first bet loses, the next stake needed to recover the €10 loss and still make €8 profit is:
Simply doubling from €10 to €20 would not fully recover the loss and achieve the original €8 target profit.
The calculator shows both the money already lost during the selected losing streak and the next stake required to continue.
This number makes the progression risk much easier to see than looking only at the size of the next bet.
Martingale relies on the assumption that the bettor will eventually be able to place a large enough stake and then win before bankroll or betting limits stop the progression.
In reality, bankrolls are finite and sportsbooks or casinos may also impose maximum betting limits.
A sufficiently long losing streak can therefore reach a point where the next required stake cannot be placed.
No. Changing stake size does not change the underlying probability or mathematical edge of the wager.
If the original bet has negative expected value, increasing the stake after losses does not turn it into a positive expected value bet.
The system changes how wins and losses are distributed across the bankroll, but it does not remove the underlying house edge.
Martingale often produces many small completed cycles where one eventual win appears to erase several previous losses.
Psychologically, that can make the system feel extremely reliable. The problem is that the occasional long losing sequence can require a stake many times larger than all of the small profits accumulated before it.
This is why looking only at successful Martingale cycles can hide the real risk in the progression.
Independent betting outcomes do not become guaranteed simply because several previous bets have lost. A losing streak can continue longer than expected, while the required Martingale stake keeps increasing.
The most useful part of a Martingale calculator is not showing how much to bet next. It is showing how quickly the progression can become difficult to sustain.
By displaying the cumulative losses, next required stake and total bankroll needed, the calculator makes the risk visible before the numbers become too large to calculate mentally.
It also demonstrates why Martingale should be understood as a stake progression system, not as a method that changes the underlying odds or guarantees recovery.