Bookie Living

Submitted by C Costigan on

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C Costigan

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Bookie Living

The life of a bookie can be overwhelming for some individuals initially. When you’re a one-man show, the majority of the tasks need to be completed by you, which can take up a lot of time.

As you grow your betting sheet and increase revenues, things start to get much easier, as you’ll now be able to outsource the mundane tasks that you’re not interested in completing yourself.

What the Typical Day Looks Like for a Bookie

A typical day for a bookie isn’t overly exciting, but here’s what to expect.

  • Dealing With Clients: Are you a people person? Can you deal with disgruntled clients on a regular basis? Losing sports bettors aren’t the easiest bunch to get along with.

As a bookie, you need to be approachable and fair, but also firm. Set expectations with your clients early on and if they can’t follow through, then you may want to cut them loose.

  • Processing Money: A local bookie will generally have one collection day per week, but once you start accepting online clients, you’ll need to process money effectively.

The good news for bookies is that cryptocurrencies make moving money extremely easy. You can send and receive money from anywhere in the world using cryptos with very low transaction costs.

  • Following Your Bet Ticker: As a pay per head bookie, you’ll have a team to help with certain tasks and one of those is managing the betting odds, but you still need to follow the action.

You know your players better than an odds manager in Costa Rica. If you’re getting heavy action on a specific betting market, you may need to manually adjust the betting odds on your own.

Shading the line a bit can help balance the action. If you still have lop-sided action, it’s your job to balance your book by laying off some of your action with a PPH layoff account.

  • Studying Reports: As you start to grow, studying reports will become a daily task. You need to stay on top of how much you’re winning or losing on a per player basis.

A sharp player (long-term winner) can wipe out months of profits in a single weekend if you allow them to go unchecked. You need to be willing to cut limits or restrict action quickly if required.

The only way to identify a sharp bettor is by studying the reports provided by your pay per head.

  • Sourcing New Players: A bookie never has enough clients. Bookies are constantly looking for new clients, which will become more difficult over time as you exhaust other avenues.

As a pay per head bookie is essentially homeless without clients, so always be trying to find new players to add to your betting sheet. The more players you have, the more profits you’ll make long-term.

Have Fun

At the end of the day, make sure you’re having fun as a bookie. If you’re not enjoying the day-to-day grind of being a bookie, you’re unlikely to turn your new side hustle into a full-time career.

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