Bookie Betting
According to a study by the American Gaming Association, 38 million American adults planned to bet on the 2019 NFL season. That’s 15% of the adult population, betting only on professional football. That’s a huge potential client base.
It’s nice to win bets, but the guaranteed money is in bookmaking. Once you see the profits from betting explained, you won’t want to be a gambler anymore. You’ll want to be a bookie.
What Do Bookies Do?
Before looking at how bookmakers, or bookies, get paid, it’s worth considering what bookies do. In other words, why should bookies get paid at all?
A bookie is someone who facilitates gambling. They make it possible for people to place bets by:
A bookie is someone who facilitates gambling. They make it possible for people to place bets by: Setting the odds (and sometimes changing them, but more on that later) Accepting and placing bets.
Bookie Betting Meanings
A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. A 100% transparant comparison of the best bookies offers to bet online in 2021. Sign up offers reviewed and selected by our team of sports betting experts. Bookie is the first truly global betting exchange. Using a decentralized blockchain foundation, Bookie has been built to address three key challenges in sports betting today. If they suspect that you are using strategies such as arbitrage betting or matched betting, you could potentially find yourself getting banned. Try to keep a low profile. Keep going back, and try not to stake too much when you make a bet. Make multiple accounts. If a bookie bans you, don’t fret. There are so many other bookies you can sign.
- Setting the odds (and sometimes changing them, but more on that later)
- Accepting and placing bets
- Paying out winnings
In popular culture, bookies are often shady figures. There are countless movies where a bookie sends some goons to break some problem gambler’s knees after he can’t pay.
Real bookies are nothing like that, especially now that sports gambling is legal in many places. Even with legal gambling, most bettors still place their wagers with local bookies. If these bookies broke knees, they would quickly lose all their customers.
In reality, a bookie is just a person who makes it possible for you to gamble. Like anyone else who provides a service, they exact a fee for it.
Betting Explained: The Vig
The fee that bookies charge is called the vigorish, or the vig. People also call it the juice, the take, or the margin. Because bookies usually don’t place bets themselves, they make their money from this extra fee they charge on every bet, win or lose.
The place you can see the vig the clearest is in the moneyline for a particular game. Let’s use a football game, Eagles versus Bears, as an example.
Suppose the Eagles are the home team and are the favorite to win the game. The point spread for the game might be Eagles -6.5. That means the Eagles must win by at least seven points for you to win your bet, or to “cover” the spread.
But, the betting line will also include the moneyline. As the favorite, the Eagles are probably sitting at -110. That means if you bet $100, you would only win $90 (in addition to receiving your original bet back). If you wanted to win $100, you’d have to bet $110.
The easiest way to think about the moneyline is the amount you would have to bet to win $100. In this case, that extra $10 is the vig or the fee for the bookie.
There is no standard vig. The most common one is -110 (in other words, an 11 to 10 advantage for the bookmaker), but that varies depending on the game, the teams, and the bookmaker.
The moneyline could even go the other way. If the bookie wanted to encourage more people to bet the Bears, they could set the moneyline at +110. That means for every $100 you bet, you would win $110.
Balancing the Book: Betting Lines Explained
Because bookies make their money from the vig, they want to encourage equal numbers of people to bet on each side of a game.
From our example, they want the same number of people to bet the Eagles and the Bears. The bookie will not have to cover any winning bets himself and can pocket his 10% profit.
With sports gambling, there are two ways a bookie can adjust which side people bet on: shifting the point spread or shifting the moneyline.
Suppose after the bookmaker set the point spread at Eagles -6.5, most people placed their bets on the Eagles. The bookmaker, seeing this, would move the spread to Eagles -7.5 or higher to encourage people to bet the Bears.
Again, the bookmaker wants to get the bets on each side close to even to avoid an unbalanced book.
On the other hand, if the bookmaker did not want to move the spread, he could shift the moneyline down to -120 or -130. Then the payout for winning a bet on the Eagles would be lower (which is the same as having fewer bets).
Bookmakers want a balanced book, so it’s imperative that they set the right line, or adjust it as more bets come in. The volume of bets helps too: the more bets that come in, the more likely the bookie will adjust the line correctly.
Because the line is so important, the biggest bookmakers will have teams of statisticians helping them create and adjust their lines. They also recognize strong, or “sharp”, gamblers and respond to those bets by shifting the lines.
Most neighborhood bookies do not set their own lines. Instead, they rely on bookmaking services or copy lines from larger bookmakers.
What the Vig Means for Gamblers
People placing bets should never lose sight of the vig, especially if they hope to make money over the long term and not just on single bets. It changes the break-even point for betting.
With a -110 Moneyline, each time you lose a bet, you lose $100. But, each time you win, you only win back $90. Your wins are insufficient to cover your losses if you are betting the same amount each time.
In other words, the break-even percentage for winning is no longer 50%. Instead, it’s higher, maybe around 53% or 54% depending on the exact vig. Given bookies set betting lines to encourage equal play on both sides, it’s actually pretty easy to win 50% of your bets.
But, a sports gambler who wins half their bets will soon run out of money. Gamblers must win enough to cover the vig, hopefully with some profit left over.
For the Bookie, It’s Not Really Gambling
The nice part about being the bookie is that so long as you set the right lines, you’re no longer gambling. It’s just math: the winners and losers cancel each other out, and you pocket your fee, every time. That’s betting explained for bookies.
But, just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. Otherwise, everyone would do it. Luckily, the right pay-per-head sportsbook service can help you start and grow your sportsbook as an independent bookie.
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You need more than one Sports Bookie
To make money betting on sports, you must to do three things: first, find your game; two, look around and get the best value for that game; three, make sure you follow a solid money management system.
Most people think of the first and the third. But not enough people “shop” for the best value for their money. Here are six reasons why you MUST have more than one sportsbook account:
Value – You need to shop multiple sportsbooks to find the line you need, and the only way you can do that is to have accounts open with various sports bookies. Having more than one ´out´ helps to improve the chances of finding variances in a particular line.
My Bookie Betting
For example if you know that you are looking to bet on the Red Sox and you can get them 5 or 10 cents cheaper with one book over the other, then you take the line that provides you with greater value. It might just be half a point on a game, but getting the line you want in terms of both the spread and the odds will make you more money over time. No question.
Also, any bookmaker that allow the buying or even selling of points, or give you better odds on parlays and teasers also should be considered in the sports bettor´s stable.
Diversification – Just as in the investment world, you need to diversify and not put all your eggs in one basket. In the past few years, various sports bookis have gone under, and taken many a gamblers’ money with them. Some of these ‘books you could have predicted, but other such as Aces Gold caught most off guard. Always choose your sportsbooks wisely. But if you have $10,000 in play, it’s better to have $2,000 with five books than all your money with one, just in case that one goes under. It’s better to lose just $2k than $10k.
Bonuses – Every sportsbook offers various types of bonuses, depending on the type of gambler they are looking to attract. All sportsbooks offer the same signup bonuses, with the focus on the initial deposit varying from 10% – 20%. But it’s the ongoing “retention” bonuses that differentiate one sportsbook from another. Some offer little or no “re-up” deposit bonuses, but offer a Cash Back from losses bonus. Others have great deposit bonuses during key times throughout the year. You need to find out what is important to you, and then match that need with the sportsbook that will fulfill it.
Product Variety – Some bookies specialize in providing a type of bet on various sports or sporting events, depending on the strength of the software and the expertise of that sportsbook’s bookmaker. Again, you need to shop around and find out what sportsbooks offer what type of bets on what sports, and the type of lines they run (especially for hockey and baseball).
Phone vs Internet – Some sportsbooks are better at running its business over the phone, while others that have very good software, and loads of servers do a better job taking bets via the Internet. However, the Internet focused books usually have lower limits in place than those taking bets by phone. Again, you need to find out whether or not the limits in place by a specific sportsbook fits your money management system.
Cut Down on Account Limits or Closures – You can do this by setting up accounts with multiple sportsbooks. When you want to play a bet of $5,000 for example, you might want to play $1,000 at five different books. This helps to keep a low profile for yourself, as all sportsbooks have key indicators that throw up red flags for weeding out “wise guys” or “sharpies.” When that happens, you get the “VIP” treatment by having your limits reduced, access to certain sports limited, or simply having your account closed. But by winning at multiple bookies, you can more easily stay under the radar.
Bookie Betting Definition
So the message is clear: you must have at least three to four sports betting accounts to help ensure making money over the long haul, and lessening your risk overall.