One of the biggest questions we get from those who want to learn how to be a bookie, is how they earn money from sports betting. With sports betting itself, its easily understandable- you win the bet, you collect the money. But when you are the bookie, earning money is a bit different. After all, you are the one collecting the bets now.
As a bookie, you take in bets from people, and they make wagers on both sides of a wager. When learning how to become a bookie, you are taught to balance both sides of the wager as much as possible. This is very crucial to your success as a bookie. We’ll go into that later.
Earn Money from Sports Betting
The first, and main way a bookie earns money, is through the Vigorish, which is mostly called the “vig” by everyone. The vig is basically your cut as a bookie. You get a cut out of every wager that your player makes on your sportsbook. This guarantees that you get something from each player, regardless of what side they bet on.
The second way, is from what we mentioned earlier, is by balancing your lines. Let’s say, for instance, Side A of a wager has more wagers than Side B. If Side B wins the bet, then you have to collect the wagers from side A, as they lost. You use that to pay off the winnings of Side B. If there is extra money, then you get to keep the difference on top of the vig. But, if the opposite were to happen, they you will have to bankroll the loss. Meaning, if there are more winners than losers, then you pay the missing payouts of the losing bets from your own pockets to pay off the winners.
Your Expenses and Your Revenue
Your bookie software will be able to help you figure out how to document all the wagers. MyBettingDirectory.com has a good directory of bookie pay per head providers that offer this in their software. You pay them a weekly fee based on the number or players you have. This is one of the most affordable ways to run an online sportsbook.
So, let’s say that your pay per head fee is $5 per player. This means that for every week your player places a bet, you get charged $5 each week. That’s $20 a month. If your player is active, then you will be collecting a lot of wagers, and you can take the $20 from the vig, or the juice you get from your player. Its usually around 10% of the wager. So any vig exceeding $20 that you get from your player is yours to keep. So are any excess winnings from your wagers. Assuming, of course, that you balance your lines properly, and avoid paying out losses from your very own money.
