Once limited to dark alleys, backyards, and dark rooms, bookies have risen to glory across the country. This comes to aver the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Professional Amateurs Sports Protection Act (PASPA) of 1992 in 2018. Becoming a bookie has become one of the most lucrative business ventures.
Yet, there is still so much to learn about bookmaking. That is why we have created this bookie guide to help you understand everything there is to know about it. With these tips, you can move from being a bettor winning one bet once in a while to a bookie that always makes a profit no matter which team wins.
Understand the Laws
Even after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled PASPA, the country, and individual states still have several other laws restricting illegal gambling. For example, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 prohibits businesses and banks from processing illegal bets as described under U.S. laws.
These laws do not target players. They target bookies and try to coerce international sportsbooks to reject players from the USA. However, this is one of the most complex areas to regulate.
If you want to operate a bookie in any state, you must understand the laws and follow them. For example, you need to apply for an operating license and meet the regulator’s conditions.
If it is impossible to get a license, probably because you cannot afford millions of dollars for the permit, you can skirt around the regulations. How?
Already, many U.S. players play at offshore sportsbooks and casinos, as evidenced by the amount of revenue moving from the country to the offshore gambling market. So, you can circumvent the law by taking your services offshore or using a pay per head solution.
Running an Offshore Bookie
Most offshore bookies operate in a legal gray area. Usually, they host their bookies in foreign countries with lax gambling regulations.
They are also registered and licensed in specific jurisdictions such as Costa Rica and Central America but accept clients worldwide. That way, they avoid various laws, including UIGEA, and have an excellent customer base.
Pay Per Head Solution
Another option is to run a pay per head bookie. This business setup allows bookies to use an established gambling company to offer betting services. For example, you can gather your clients and transfer them to a pay per head bookie.
Then, you will pay an agreed fee for each player that places a bet. Meanwhile, the pay per head solution provider handles all bookmaking issues, including website administration, customer service, setting betting lines, and adjusting lines.
Today, this business setup has improved dramatically. Most of these pay per head providers now allow bookies to control the betting platform. Bookies get log-in credentials and can move lines, manage players, and generally take complete control over operations.
Thus, they have become the preferred easiest, and cheapest way for bookies to get started with their services. One of the top pay per head solution providers is Power Pay Per Head.
Licensed Sportsbooks
Lastly, you can decide not to skirt any law by running a fully legal and licensed bookie. For starters, look for a state with legalized betting. Remember, you can only serve clients living within the state’s borders.
Running this type of bookie will restrict you to a few clients. But, you are assured that the authority will not close your website.
Continually Finding New Clients
Who will you offer your betting services to? Your answer is clients. But, very few bookies sign up new clients and retain them.
Most players sign up with new sportsbooks to get bonuses and other rewards. They will bet for a few weeks and then forget about it. However, there is a way of keeping your clients playing, as we will discuss below.
For now, you need to realize that you must continually find new clients. A traditional bookie has difficulty finding new clients because they are busy with bookmaking.
But, a pay per head bookie has enough time to find new clients. The pay per head solution streamlines the bookie operations. Thus, bookie operators have time to manage players, build a player base, and do everything about acquiring new clients.
You can start by convincing your friends and family to join your platform. Then, entrust a few people to refer to their friends. You can give a referral bonus to every player who signs up and places one bet.
Another way to find new clients is by marketing your sportsbook online. Players already have one reason to choose your platform as an online platform. So, package all the other great features on your platform to entice players to create accounts and wager.
Keeping Players Engaged
Another tip we have to add to this bookie guide is engaging players. You can sign up as many clients as possible. However, motivating them to wager continuously is another thing.
Fortunately, there are several ways of ensuring that players are active. First, you can add new sports betting options. Players are always looking for the next thing to wager on.
A useful bookie guide would suggest making it your priority to introduce new betting options every few weeks to keep your players engaged with fresh markets on your platform. At the same time, it’s important to ensure that you offer competitive odds and different types of odds to cater to the diverse preferences of your clients.
Another way you can encourage players to bet is through bonuses and promotions. When you scroll through several sportsbooks, you will see they have several prizes. These bookies use these offers to encourage players to bet.
So, if you cannot offer the same, your players will find an alternative. But, you can always offer something like cashback, deposit bonus, boosted odds, and similar rewards. This will make your clients loyal as they will always login to find new offers.
But, before you give promotions, ensure you can afford them. Otherwise, you will not last long in the industry. If you cannot afford any promotion, you can arrange for faster payouts.
Remember, you have to package your offer in a way that entices players to claim them. If you go too hard on promoting your offers, you might turn your clients off.
Offer Vast Betting Markets
There are two types of bet markets, large and small. Large markets comprise those sports that most people wager on. For example, American Football, Basketball, and Baseball are some of the largest markets in the USA.
Big leagues such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) get huge media attention. They have a huge fan base who watch and wager on these games. Therefore, you should consider offering bet markets in these sports.
On the other hand, you will find small bet markets such as esports, female leagues, cricket, and soccer. Remember, soccer is a large market internationally. But, if your focus is the USA, then soccer is not a big market.
But, there is still a significant number that wagers on soccer and other small markets. Also, more people are learning about these markets and love them.
Apart from sports betting, you can consider offering bets on horse races. You will be surprised by the numbers logging in to place bets on horses. Alternatively, you can offer casino games and live dealer titles.
Whatever you do, ensure that your platform hosts only the best slot machines, roulette, blackjack, and other table games. As for the live dealer titles, quality should be your top focus.
Offer 24/7 Customer Service
Another tip worth mentioning in this bookie guide is about offering customer service. We cannot stress enough how important customer service is.
So, create a team of customer representatives and train them in customer support. Make them understand every aspect of your bookie. That way, they have all the answers when your clients call or message an issue.
Operating 24/7 customer service is expensive. A new bookie might not have this budget. But, there is a solution; you can use the Power Pay Per Head solution.
Here, you will get pay per head bookie software and customer support. The support is available to bookie operators and bettors. Interestingly, you do not have to pay extra to get customer service for your clients.
Track Your Profits and Losses
This bookie guide would be incomplete without a tip on tracking your profits and losses. A successful bookie must track where his profits come from and lose money.
When you identify where most of your profit comes from, you can give that area a little more attention. For example, if players are betting more on baseball, you can consider adding more events to wager on.
Also, you should find the holes into which your money is sinking. For example, if your book is not balanced, you will dig deep into your pockets to get money to pay your clients.
So, pay extra attention to balancing books for every game. That way, you can eliminate all the ways you are losing money.
We have come to the end of this bookie guide, sharing six essential tips that will benefit your business operations. You can find other great tips at the Power Pay Per Head blog.
