How To Start A Sports Book

• How To Start A Sports Bookie Business
• How To Start A Sports Bookie Business
• How To Start A Local Sportsbook
• How To Create A Sport
• How To Make A Sport
• How To Start A Sports Booking Website

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Finding the right sportsbook can be just as important as some of the bets that you choose to make. In this guide, we’re going to walk you through everything you could ever want to know about how to pick the best online sportsbook for you. If you don’t feel like sifting through all of the options, you can always use one of the top-rated sportsbooks that we recommend. If that’s you, here is the list you’re looking for. We are sure that you’ll have an incredible time with the action and experience you deserve at any of these books.

For those of you that want to take the time to find the perfect sportsbook for you, we’ve put together a lot of information and resources below to help you out. We’re going to show you the exact steps you should take to pick out a sportsbook, what criteria you’re going to want to look at, pitfalls of bad sites you’ll want to avoid, and a few special tips to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have all the tools and information you need to make an informed decision about which sportsbook is the best place for you to take your action. This is an important decision, especially if you’re looking to take your sports betting seriously, so please take a few minutes to read what we’ve put together for you here.

Steps to Picking Out a Sportsbook

All right, so you’re ready to start betting sports online. Awesome! Welcome to the club. The fact that you’re here shows that you know two things. One, you need to pick out a sportsbook to take your action. And two, you know you’re not just supposed to take the first sportsbook that pops up in Google. The fact that you’re willing to take a little time to research this already shows you have the right mindset to be a winning sports bettor.

Below, you’ll find the steps needed to pick out the best sportsbook for you. We recommend reading this section as well as the sections below before getting started. The “Criteria You’ll Want to Look at,” “Pitfalls to Avoid,” and “Tips to Find the Best Sportsbook” all go hand in hand with these steps. Let’s take a look at the steps.

1. Decide What You’re Looking For

You need to have a general idea of what you’re looking for and what you’re hoping to get out of your online sports betting experience. Are you looking to bet one or two events, and that’s it? Are you looking to bet full-time and make sports betting an income source? Are you planning on betting one sport or betting an array of different games?

By knowing what you hope to accomplish with the online sportsbook you choose, the process of finding the right fit becomes very easy. If you aren’t completely sure what you’re looking for, that’s okay, too. In the next section below, we are going to talk about the criteria we think are important for a great online sportsbook. The list should help to inspire your thoughts of what you’re looking for.

2. Make a List of Your Deal-Breakers

Once you have a general idea of what you’re looking for, you need to nail down your specific deal-breakers and the things you must have. These are the things that you can’t stand to have or can’t possibly live without. Knowing these will help you to quickly cross off sportsbooks that don’t make the cut.

For example, maybe being able to bet on every single Division I college football game is extremely important to you. This is probably a deal-breaker. You’ll want nothing to do with an online sportsbook unless they are offering you action on every college game.

Or maybe you only want to use PayPal or Neteller to fund your account and withdraw money. If this is the case, you’re not going to be interested in a sportsbook that doesn’t offer these payment options.

There’s no need to force things here if you’re really not that picky. But there is also no reason to settle on something that is important to you. There are thousands of sports betting websites to choose from and some that are extremely high-quality. You should never feel compelled to settle for anything less than the perfect site for you.

3. Find a Short List of Candidates

Once you’ve clearly figured out what you are looking for, it’s time to create a short list of potential candidates. If you need a starting point, start with the sites we’ve recommended at the top of the page. If none of these work for you, check out our sportsbook ranking page where we break down the books by location, type, and sport. If none of those are to your liking, you can always check out our sportsbook reviews page where we have reviews of pretty much any sportsbook worth looking at.

Look through these pages and find 4 or 5 sites that you’re interested in. If one grabs you right away and is perfect, then go for it. But we do recommend doing a little shopping around to make sure you do end up with the best site for you and what you’re looking for.

4. Read Reviews and Test Each Site Out

Once you have your short list of potential sportsbooks, it’s time to make a decision. First, make sure none of them violate any of your deal-breakers. If they do, cut them from the list. Next, take some time and read through reviews of the site. The link we’ve provided above has some awesome reviews of some of the top online sportsbooks.

Then, we highly recommend testing each site out. No, we don’t mean actually depositing and making bets. If one of the sites is terrible, you don’t want to have money stuck on there you have to worry about getting moved off. But most online sportsbooks will allow you to click around every section of the site and do just about everything except place a bet without an account. This is what we’re recommending you do.

See how the interface feels. See how easy or difficult it is to make a bet. Look at the sports and bet types they’re offering. Is the site smooth and somewhere you’d be comfortable spending a lot of time? In the next section, we’re going to go over a whole list of things that you can take into account when doing your own test of each potential sports betting sites.

5. Make a Decision

Once you’ve done all of your testings on your short-list sites, it’s time to make a decision. Pick the site that you like the best and get to it! Remember, you’re not signing a year-long lease or anything like that. If you start betting with a site and don’t like it, you can always withdraw your money and start over somewhere else. In the tips section at the bottom of the page, we will cover a few more things that will make this decision a little easier on you as well.

The Criteria You’ll Want to Look At

Some of you here might be brand new to sports betting altogether. Some of you might be avid sports bettors in physical locations but are looking to make the switch to betting online. Regardless of which of those categories you fall into, you’re going to want to know what makes a great sportsbook online. Without a lot of experience, it might be tough for you to know what’s good and what’s less than desirable.

Our team of experts has spent years betting online and has made tens of thousands of bets. As bettors ourselves, we know what you should be looking for and what you should be avoiding. While it’s always going to come down to your personal preferences, we can certainly get you pointed in the right direction. The following list is the criteria that we feel is the most important for you to look at when you’re picking out a new online sportsbook.

While not all of these might be important to you, we’re sure that a large chunk of them will be. The point of this list is to help you figure out what criteria are important to you and what great, good, and awful look like in each of them.

Sports Covered

One of the first things you’ll want to know about an online sportsbook is which sports they offer action on. If you’re betting something major like the NFL, MLB, or NBA, you can expect to find coverage of some sort at pretty much any sportsbook. But if there are other sports you like to bet, you’re going to want to check and see what level of action they offer.

Additionally, you’re going to want to look at how many different games they offer for each sport. For example, a majority of online sportsbooks offer action on college football. But not all sites offer action on all of the games. Some sportsbooks online only scratch the surface and only offer action on the marquee games. Other sites, though, offer action on every single game every single weekend. These are some of the things you’ll want to check out in our reviews or for yourself when you test out a potential site.

Bet Options Available

Taking the above criteria one step further, you’re going to want to make sure the sportsbook offers the types of bets you like as well. For example, what if you’re someone who likes to bet a lot of NFL props? While most sites are going to offer moneylines, totals, and spreads, not every site is going to offer prop action on every game. Some sites will only offer it on the marquee games, while other sites will offer extensive props on every single game, including the preseason.

If you are brand new and don’t know what types of bets you’re going to be making, this probably isn’t a big deal. But if there is something specific that you’re a big fan of, we recommend taking the time to look for this in a review or on the site yourself. Coverage of a game means nothing if you can’t make the exact types of wagers you want.

Timeliness of Lines

This is more of a “checkmark” type feature that we’re looking for, as most online sportsbooks these days are good to go in this category. But we still mention it because if a book isn’t with the program, they have no business being in the business. What we’re talking about is the timeliness of when they put out their lines.

Some people like to start making their bets early in the week. If you aren’t getting NFL lines until late in the week, that’s garbage. This is the same with pretty much any sport. We want to get the lines as soon as they’re put out and not behind any of the other online sportsbooks.

Again, most online sites are great about this, but there are a few out there that seem to always be behind the ball.

User-Friendliness

A lot of online sportsbooks can seem pretty much the same in all categories except when it comes to user-friendliness. What we’re talking about specifically is how easy it is for you to create an account, find the bets you’re looking for, and make those bets. If it causes you physical pain to try and figure out where things are, there is a problem.

One of the biggest perks of betting online is the convenience. But if things are challenging, all of this convenience is lost, and you might as well just hop in your car and drive to the sportsbook. For this reason, this is one of the most important criteria that we take into account when racking and stacking online sportsbooks.

We look at the big picture with user-friendliness, but we also get pretty picky with small details. For example, if you want to make a bunch of individual bets for the same dollar amount, we think you should be able to select your bets and only have to type in that dollar amount once and select it to apply to all of your bets. This might not seem like a big deal, but it can save you a couple of minutes, and it’s a feature we look for. This is just one of the many features that we’ve discovered we love over the years.

While there is an element of user-friendliness that relies on personal preference, most of it can be realized by someone who understands the industry and what should and should not be there. Our expert team specializes in this, which is part of the reason we’re so high on the online sportsbooks that we recommend.

Mobile Betting Options

Continuing with the convenience trend, you should be able to place your bets from anywhere in the world where you have a phone or internet connection and a smart device, whether that’s at a bar with your friends or while you’re stuck waiting in the doctor’s office.

All online sportsbooks have a desktop version that you can use from your home computer. However, not all sportsbooks online have a mobile betting option for you. To be clear, we’re not talking about a standalone app that you have to download. We’re talking about having a mobile-friendly website that automatically adapts to whatever device you are using.

A good online sportsbook will set up their product to work on the computer, a tablet, or a mobile phone without the need for any sorts of downloads. The site will automatically recognize your device and change to the version that best fits your device. You’ve probably seen this with a ton of websites before on your phone or tablet and never even realized it.

While we think this should be industry standard for any online sportsbook these days, some sites are still behind the times. Some of them also claim to have a great mobile betting option and just have a garbage platform that is difficult to use unless you are on a desktop computer with a big monitor.

We want to be able to do everything we can on desktop from our phone or tablet just as easily. We understand it’s a challenge to fit all of that information onto a smaller screen, but here’s the deal. We know it can be done, and we know that it can be done well. Once we’ve seen that it’s possible, we expect it from everyone else.

Live Betting Options

One of the most fun and fast-paced ways to bet sports these days thanks to technology is live betting. Sometimes referred to as in-game betting, this is where you can place wagers after a game or match has already started. Sometimes you have options every single play, or sometimes it’s periodically throughout the game. The odds change fast, and you have to be quick and sharp to jump on value when you see it.

This is certainly not suggested for beginners, but if you’re an experienced bettor or a complete action-junkie, this might be something important to you. If you’ve ever seen a stock day trader’s screen or something similar, this is kind of what live betting feels like. As events happen in the game, the odds will change. This creates opportunities for you to bet game trends and capitalize on things you see within the game.

Additionally, in-game betting forces the sportsbook to make decisions very quickly. Sometimes this is done with a computer, and sometimes it’s an actual person monitoring the game and changing the lines. If it’s a computer, it is going to struggle to see the intangibles that aren’t showing up on the stat sheet that you are seeing. This creates opportunities. If it’s a person, people are not flawless. No matter how sharp of a person they have on the game, they’re not going to be perfect. This also creates some fantastic value opportunities.

If you aren’t interested in live betting, you don’t have to worry about this when you’re picking out a sportsbook online. But if it’s something that might be important to you, weigh it when you’re making your pick. Remember, as well, that you can always have a sportsbook you use for “normal” betting and one that you use for your in-game if you like different platforms at different locations. It’s all about finding what you like the most and what makes you the most comfortable, giving you the best opportunity to make the most money.

Banking Options and Quality

How bettors are going to fund their accounts and how they are going to get paid is what we lump under the major header of banking. Basically, when we’re analyzing the banking options and quality of an online sportsbook, we are looking for a few things.

First, we are looking for the number of options. Are there different ways for us to fund our account and get our winnings off in case we have an issue with one option? If a sportsbook only has one way to get money into your account, and it doesn’t work for you for one reason or another, then that sportsbook is worthless to you. But if they have multiple options to help in case you do have issues, that’s a win for us.

We also want to see quality options when it comes to getting your money and winnings offline. How long do they take to pay you? What options do they have? Do they charge fees for taking your money off? Are their options reliable? These are just a few of the questions that we ask and feel you should be asking when you’re trying to choose an online sportsbook.

Their limits also matter. For most recreational bettors or those just starting out, you shouldn’t ever really have any issues with limits. But when you start getting more serious, and your bankroll grows, you’ll want to know that you won’t have any problems withdrawing or depositing the amounts of money that you want to.

The one time that smaller bettors will want to look at banking limits is with withdrawals. This is very rare, but we have seen some sportsbooks online with some rather high minimums for withdrawal. This usually results in a big no way Jose from us when we see this, but we still wanted to bring it to your attention in case you are looking elsewhere for an online sportsbook.

Bonuses, VIP Programs, and Rewards

Whenever we talk about bonuses, VIP programs, and rewards, it comes with a pretty big disclaimer. Do not sacrifice a great sportsbook for a mediocre sportsbook with some great promotions. Yes, free stuff, perks, and cash back are awesome. But we don’t love that stuff if it comes at the expense of our profitability because we’re betting with a subpar sportsbook. You should only be looking at these things as a final decider between two great sports betting sites.

Now that we got the disclaimer out of the way, what are we looking for here? First, the promotions need to be lucrative. If all they are doing is giving away some free jerseys, stuffed animals, or t-shirts, we’re probably not that interested. We like promotions that give away free cash or free bets. Second, the promotions need to be attainable. If we have to bet $100 million to get a $10 free bet, that is not attainable. We understand that we have to work to get some freebies, but we want it to be something that we can feasibly attain.

Lastly, the promotions need to be laid out in a clear and easy to understand fashion. It shouldn’t take a legal degree to figure out what we’re going to be getting and how we need to go about getting it. We understand the sportsbook needs to have limitations and rules for each promotion, but they don’t have to be so confusing that we don’t even want to participate. If you have to make 14 bets on Tuesdays while wearing a raincoat and 3 more bets on days with full moons on sports that begin with a B in order to get your free $10 bet, there is a problem.

All of that being said, given the option of free stuff at a great sportsbook versus no free stuff at a great sportsbook, you can bet your bottom dollar that we’re going to take the freebies.

Location Availability

Something that people often fail to pay attention to is the availability of where they can place their bets from. If you’re someone who doesn’t travel a whole lot outside of your home location, this isn’t going to be that important. As long as you find a site that offers betting in your location, you’ll be good to go. But if you’re someone who travels a decent amount and still likes to bet when you’re on the road, you’ll want to look into this.

For example, let’s say you live in Nevada and choose to bet with one of the state-regulated sites offered by the casinos. If you’re within the state limits, you can bet all you want. But the second you step foot outside of Nevada, you are no longer allowed to place any bets. This is obviously not an ideal situation if you are traveling a lot. You could always make your bets before you leave, but you lose the ability to change or add anything the second you step foot outside of the allowed boundaries.

If you don’t travel a lot, don’t even worry about this. If you travel a lot and don’t bet when you travel, ignore this. But if you travel a lot and still like to be able to bet while on the road, pay attention to what regions of the world the sportsbook allows you to bet from. It’s important to note that there is a difference between sites that won’t allow customers from a different area and sites that block all betting from that area. A site might not let new customers join from a particular region, but if you’re an existing customer who lives elsewhere, you might still be able to access everything just fine.

Industry Reputation

What’s the first thing you do when you’re thinking about trying out a new restaurant? You probably ask your friends or check out some reviews to see what people think. If the restaurant has a reputation for not being that great or for being dirty, do you go there? Nope. This should be the same approach you take when looking at online sportsbooks.

If the book has a bad industry reputation or a bad reputation amongst mass numbers of its customers, you might want to steer clear of them. One caveat to this, though, deals with customer reviews of online sportsbooks. When customers don’t win their bets based on their own bad picks, they like to blame the sites and bash them to oblivion in reviews. We’re not saying not to read reviews, but keep this in mind when you’re reading them.

We tend to pay attention to mass trends where we see the same issue repeatedly in complaints. We also weigh the quality of the review based on the sniff test. If the person is talking about how they hope the site dies and that the site is cheating and yada yada, we usually assume they’re just a hot head mad about losing a bet. But if the review is calm, collected, and presents evidence of the issue well, we will take it seriously.

With so many great options out there, you don’t need to settle for a site that is hated within the industry by the experts and the customers. There are great online sportsbooks that have great reputations and have earned their customers. These are the books you should be placing your action with.

Security

How seriously sports betting sites takes security is key. Are they protecting your money properly? Are they using site encryption? Are their banking practices up to industry standards? Are they updating the site constantly to patch any vulnerabilities or threats? Do they have a team in charge of security?

We’re really looking for three things. One, is their technology and software being kept up to date to keep your money safe? Two, are their practices and procedures proper to keep you safe? And three, do they seem to take security seriously, or is it an afterthought?

The answers to these three questions will tell you if an online sportsbook is worth you investing your time and money into it. Unlike the other criteria on the list, this is somewhere that you should have no wiggle room. If there is any sort of security issue, it should be an instant no from you. You don’t need the added stress of worrying about the safety and security of your money when you’re not betting.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Besides just lacking in one or more of the above categories, there are some additional pitfalls that we think you should be aware of and look to avoid. Below, you’ll find several site characteristics that should instantly get you to walk away and look elsewhere for a sports betting home.

Blacklisted Sites

When an online sportsbook has been naughty, they aren’t going to tell you about it; that would be bad for their business. Instead, you have to rely on outside sources to bring this stuff to your attention. If you Google a site’s name and the word “blacklist,” you can see if anything comes up. Always be wary of the source you use, though, because some sites like to engage in some aggressive negative marketing against their opponents.

What we recommend instead is checking out our reviews. If we think a site is garbage or needs to be blacklisted, we’ll certainly let you know about it. We have no problems hurting someone’s feelings if they aren’t someone we think should be welcomed in the industry. We aren’t in anyone’s pocket, so we have no shame letting loose and unloading on garbage sportsbooks.

Sites That Don’t Pay on Time

We talked about this briefly in the banking section above, but we wanted to talk more in depth about it. If sports betting websites have issues with how quickly they are paying their customers, that is one of the worst red flags you can see. Sure, we understand that from time to time, there will be a one-off where there is a delay of a couple of days. But if a site is habitually late with their payouts, it’s usually a sign of bigger problems.

The problem here is that shady sportsbooks aren’t going to advertise on their site that they are having payout issues. You’ll usually need to dig a little further into gambling forums and any other resources you find on the web. When we’re analyzing this, we utilize any and every piece of information we can get our hands on. The good news is that this information usually spreads pretty quickly throughout the industry when a site is having problems. If you have a nice pulse on the industry, you’ll know who is doing it right and who is having problems.

Sites with Questionable Management Teams

When reviewing an online sportsbook, we look at who is on their management team and what company is behind the scenes. We look for shady characters with bad reputations from their existing company or from sportsbooks or casinos they have been associated with in the past. From time to time, we’ll catch shady folks that have left the company they got in trouble with and started their own sportsbook or joined another team.

While we do think people are capable of changing, we don’t need to be taking those risks in this industry. There are too many great options out there being run by reputable people and companies to waste our time with second chances. While our mom might not be happy we aren’t giving second chances, we have to stick by our guns here.

Sites with Blemishes on Their Record

Our lack of second chances continues on past the management team and to the site itself. While on extremely rare occasions, we might make exceptions, most of the time a blemish on an online sportsbook’s record is enough for us to give them the permanent no. It all really depends on the severity of the event, how long ago it happened, and if it was an isolated event or is habitual.

Tips to Find the Best Sportsbook

The last resource that we want to give you today to help you choose an online sportsbook is our expert’s list of tips. These are things you should keep in mind throughout the selection process.

It’s About What You Like

We can give you all of the tips and criteria in the world to look for, but what it always comes down to is what you like. Just because we say something is important doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily important to you. The only exception should be security and anything that deals with the safety of your money. Other than that, though, it’s all about the experience you are looking for and what is most important to you.

So, basically, listen to what we have to say to help you out, but at the end of the day, you can completely ignore it if you want and do your own thing. All we care about is that you find the right sportsbook that gives you the experience and results that you’re looking for.

Join Multiple Sportsbooks

Who says you have to pick one? It’s actually strategically smart for you to have several different sportsbook accounts that you can use to shop your bets around. Shopping your bets just means checking different books for the best line on a particular bet. If one sportsbook is paying +125 and another is paying +135 for the exact same bet, you’d be nuts not to bet at the place offering the better odds. The only way you’ll know about these better odds, though, is by looking around (line shopping).

So, if you’re on the fence on a couple of sports betting sites, go ahead and just create an account on them all. You certainly don’t need any more than three, but even two will give you opportunities to get some better spreads and better payout odds from time to time. Every little inch counts.

Don’t Sacrifice Quality for a Promotion

We’ve touched on this already, but it’s important enough that we want to drive it home again. Promotions and free stuff are awesome. But don’t let them cloud your vision and get you to join a less-than-great sportsbook. Sometimes terrible sites will use flashy promotions to distract you from the things they’re doing wrong.

A great promotion does not mean the sportsbook has something to hide. But you should focus on the order in which you look at certain criteria. Promotions and bonuses should be looked at last once you’ve already decided on the overall quality of the book.

You Can Always Change Sites If You Need To

You don’t have to sign an exclusivity contract when you join an online sportsbook. If you join a site and bet for a few days or weeks and realize it’s not for you, withdraw your money and try somewhere else. They’ll be sad to see you go, but you have the right to take your action wherever you want to. Once you start betting with a site, you aren’t forced to stay there forever.

This should help make the initial decision easier. As long as the site is safe and reputable, the little bits and pieces that make one site greater than another will be small details. You can always choose to take your action elsewhere no matter how short or long of a time period you have been betting with a particular online sportsbook.

The Final Word

The only thing left for you to do now is get out there and find the sportsbook or sportsbooks that are right for you. Follow the steps we laid out for you, and you should have no problems picking out a site and getting to betting right away. Remember, if you happen to join a site you end up not liking, it’s totally okay. You can just withdraw your money and move on to try somewhere else you might like better.

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If you place bets on sporting events you’ve probably at least had a fleeting thought about starting your own sportsbook or bookie service.

Instead of paying vig on your bets you’d get to charge vig and be the one making money every week.

If you’ve had this thought and decided to start gathering more information about the possibility of starting your own sportsbook, I’ve put together some things to get you started.

Operating a sportsbook can be a profitable business, and if you do it in the right way with enough money behind you it’s one of the safest investments you can make.

But it isn’t for everyone, and it isn’t legal in all areas.

You need to answer several questions before you start, including:

• Do you have enough money?
• What are the legal issues where you live?
• How do you set your lines?
• How much vig do you charge?
• How do you handle growth?
• How do you keep track of everything?
• How do you recognize and handle sharp sports bettors?

Many of these questions can be answered by getting a good feel for what a reputable sportsbook looks like. If you’re interested in seeing an excellent site first hand, Sportsbetting.ag is a great place to start.
Visit SportsBetting.ag and Get a Free $1,000 Bonus »
Read my “How to Start Your Own Sportsbook Guide” below to learn the answers to these questions and more.

How Much Money Do You Need?

The answer to how much money you need depends on many factors.

You need enough money to cover any fees and licenses involved where you live and you need enough capital to cover all of your bets from the beginning. A properly run sportsbook always has enough cash reserves to cover every outstanding bet, no matter what the outcome.

The good news is if you set your lines well and adjust them as bets come in you can balance out your exposure.

Here’s an Example:
If you offer lines on six games for the day and receive the following bets on each game, all at 110 to 100.

• Game 1: $1,100 on team A and $990 on team B
• Game 2: $550 on team C and $990 on team D
• Game 3: $660 on team E and $660 on team F
• Game 4: $2,200 on team G and $1,650 on team H
• Game 5: $220 on team I and $0 on team J
• Game 6: $110 on team K and $550 on team L

The opposite bets cancel each other out, so your total exposure on each game is as follows:

• Game 1: $220
• Game 2: $440
• Game 3: $0
• Game 4: $550
• Game 5: $220
• Game 6: $440

So your total exposure is only $1,870 on a total handle of $9,680.

The worst case scenario is that all six games go against you. But the realistic expected outcome is three games go your way and three go against you.

This also doesn’t take into account the vig on the bets you win, which reduces your exposure further. Because remember that you keep the 10 extra of the 110 on the games you win. On game three you’re balanced so you’ve locked in a profit of $60.

If game one goes against you the $1100 goes back to the winners and you pay $1,000, but you collect $990 on the other side so your true exposure is only $10, not $220.

Here are the true exposure numbers when you consider the vig for each game.

• Game 1: $10
• Game 2: $350
• Game 3: No exposure – locked in $60 profit.
• Game 4: $350
• Game 5: $200
• Game 6: $390

So your actual total exposure including the vig if all the games go against you is $1,240. This is only 12.8% of the total handle of all bets placed.

Your sportsbook will have up and down times, with more bets on some days than others and in some weeks than in others. The big events bring out more betting action, and some sporting seasons are more popular than others.

How To Start A Sports Bookie Business

This means you need to plan ahead to have enough cash reserves to cover larger exposure periods.

In the beginning, you probably won’t take tons of bets, but as your business grows – your handle, or the total amount of money wagered, will continue climbing.

If you’re able to set good lines and keep enough cash reserves the vig will consistently provide a nice profit. As your handle goes up your profits will follow.

• Do you have any idea of how many customers and how much they’ll bet when you open?
• Are you willing to turn away business if you take too many bets because your cash reserves are low?

These are the types of things you need to know in order to understand how much money you need.

It’s easy to say you need $50,000 or $100,000 or $1,000,000, but the truth is I have no idea how much you need. I’ve given you the information you need to figure it out, but every situation is different.

If you’re starting a local bookie operation that takes in $10,000 in bets a week or less you can probably start with $10,000. I suggest more, but it’s probably enough.

If you’re launching a sportsbook in a busy part of town with a full media blitz and grand opening you might need a half million or more.

A minimum amount for each day that I suggest is 20% of your expected handle for the day. Unless you’re very unbalanced on the schedule this should be enough to cover all of your exposure.

But you really need to have enough cash reserve to stay in business for months without much profit.

You’re going to be profitable with good lines and management, but it’s always better to have too much cash than to not have enough.

This doesn’t mean you’re going to be profitable on every game, every day, or even every week. A sportsbook is a long-term game, so you have to ride out the swings.

Over the long run, you’ll find that almost exactly half of the bets you take win and half lose. But sometimes the short term will be quite wild.

If you see that over time your results aren’t close to 50 / 50 (and you must track these numbers religiously), then you have a problem with your lines that must be fixed.

Well over 90% of sports bettors are no better than coin flippers when picking winners over time. Some estimates are over 95%.

If your business doesn’t show this to be true then something is wrong and you have to figure it out as soon as possible.

Another major consideration is the size of bets you’re willing to take. If your average bet is $110 are you willing to take a $5,000 wager, or a $10,000 bet?

The larger the spread of bets you’re willing to take the faster you can get too much action on one side of a game.

You need to think long and hard about the bet sizes you accept. You might accept bets from $20 to $200 to start and expand your limits as your business grows.

Only you can make this decision, but accepting larger bets means you need to have higher cash reserves.

If you have a normal daily handle of $10,000, a single $5,000 bet can put you in danger.

How Do You Set Your Lines?

Setting good lines is the most important thing you can do for a profitable sportsbook after having enough cash reserves.

You have two options when it comes to setting lines. You can set them yourself or you can steal them from someone else.

This may sound harsh, but setting your lines yourself is a huge mistake. Unless you have the resources to hire professionals who have years of experience setting lines like the biggest sportsbooks in the world, you’ll lose money setting your own lines.

Today, you can log onto the internet and have the lines from the top bookmakers around the world in a matter of minutes. You can compare dozens of lines quickly, so why wouldn’t you simply use the one for each game that seems to be the consensus?

Once you set your lines and start taking bets you need to watch the action that you have come in. If you get too much money on one side you can adjust the line to start pushing bettors to the other side.

As your business grows you may eventually reach the point where you can consider setting your own lines. But even when you reach this point you need to make sure you find the best possible people to do it.

Know your strengths and weaknesses so you can capitalize on your strengths and find the best available talent to cover your weaknesses.

I’m going to share a secret used by local bookmakers to increase their profit on a consistent basis.

When you find the lines from the big sportsbooks they’re set with a national or global audience in mind. These books are good at setting lines that encourage close to equal action on each side.

Though most lines set by professionals do an amazing job of predicting final score differences on average, they aren’t set to do this. They’re set where the experts predict they’ll split the bets.

Local teams are always bet more heavily than other teams, so when you offer contests with the local teams you should always move the line against them.

Most of your bettors are locals and most of them will have the local teams as their favorites. This leads many of them to bet on the local teams because they can’t judge the games logically. I know seasoned sports bettors who still always bet on their favorite team every week.

You’ll need to learn how much you can get away with over time, but most local sportsbooks don’t move them as much as they could.

The Alabama NCAA football team has been a contender every year for a number of years. They have one of the largest fan bases in the US and are favored in almost every game they play.

If you owned a sportsbook operation in Alabama you should adjust the lines against the team every week.

• If the national sportsbooks had the following line:
  • Georgia Tech + 19 at Alabama
• You should set your line at:
  • Georgia Tech +21.5 at Alabama

You may lose a few bets from bettors who compare lines and have another option for placing a wager, but you won’t lose many. And the ones you do lose would only unbalance your exposure on the game anyway.

Even with the extra 2.5 points, the odds are strong enough that you’re going to have too much action on Alabama anyway. You might even end up moving the line more as bets come in.

This same thing can and should be done for your local teams no matter where you’re located.

How Much Vig Do You Charge?

The standard vig charged depends somewhat on the sport involved, but 110 to 100 is probably the best place to start.

Most sports bettors are familiar with this and it’s not so much that it runs off business.

It also locks in a solid profit margin if you can balance your bets.

If you take $11,000 on both sides of a contest at 110 to 100 you lock in a $1,000 profit. On the side that you lose the punters get back their $11,000 and a $10,000 profit. You collect the $11,000 from the other side and use $10,000 of it to pay off the side you lost, leaving the extra $1,000 for profit.

If you only charge 105 to 100 the same amount of bets mean $10,500 on each side, and you only have $500 in locked in profit.

It’s rare that you’re able to have an exact split on games so you have to use the long run to make a profit. Some games you lose money and some you win.

The higher vig gets you into profit quicker and protects you to some degree on your losses.

You can run specials from time to time offering lower vig, but I don’t recommend doing so often. The best time to do this is when your action is lower than normal. The week after the Super Bowl is a prime example of a time when you might experience a lower handle than other weeks.

Laying Off Bets When You’re Overbooked on One Side

As you learned earlier, if you can keep the amount of money bet on both sides of a game close to even then you can lock in a profit.

But what happens if almost all of the action is on one side of a contest?

Of course, the first thing you do is move your lines, but sometimes even this doesn’t work.

The secret until you get big enough to ride out these problems is to have somewhere that you can lay off bets to bring your books closer to even.

When you lay off bets you basically place bets with another sportsbook. When you do this it basically reduces your risk, but you give up potential profit by doing so.

You’ve taken $11,000 worth of bets on a contest, all at 110 to 100, but $8,800 of it is on one side. That leaves only $2,200 on the other side.

Of course, the perfect scenario is if you had $5,500 on each side.

You have enough reserves and are comfortable carrying a $3,300 difference on your books, so you need to figure out what to do with the other $3,300.

All you have to do is place $3,300 worth of these bets at another sportsbook or group of sportsbooks at the same line or better than you took them.

The perfect situation is if you can place them at 105 to 100 and/or at a better line. But even if you can only place them at 110 to 100 and at the same line you offered you’ve made a break even play and reduced your exposure.

You need to make sure you aren’t breaking any laws when you do this, but it can be beneficial to form an agreement or two or three with other sportsbooks that makes it a mutual practice to check with each other when this happens.

No one needs to take bets they can’t afford to hold, but often you can find others who may be able to help. If you can work together you could even offer each other reduced vig in a scratch each other’s backs type of agreement.

The goal is to eventually get to a point where you have enough money behind you that you can rely on the long-term edge of your vig and accurate lines to make money. But until you reach this point you need to find a way to lay off bets when you get too much action on one side of a contest.

How Do You Keep Track of Everything?

The easiest way is to use a computer system to track all of your bettors and all of the bets and payouts. You can find a number of systems available.

You can back up all of your data on a flash drive that fits in your pocket and you can quickly track profits and losses with just a few clicks of the mouse.

One thing that some sportsbooks do is use a computer that isn’t attached to the internet in any way. When the computer isn’t connected to the internet it can’t be hacked or accessed by anyone who isn’t sitting at the actual computer terminal.

Remember That It’s a Business

This may seem like a strange thing to include, but you must remember at all times that a sportsbook is a business. You need to run it like a business if you want to make money.

This means that you need to track every penny that comes in and goes out of the business, know every expense that you have and are going to have, pay your taxes, and keep complete control of everything.

If you’re willing to run your sportsbook like this and operate in a smart and safe way then it’s one of the safest investments you can make. Sportsbooks don’t go under unless they make big mistakes. The biggest one is being under-capitalized like I mentioned in the first section.

If you have enough money behind you, set good lines, and keep your action fairly close to balanced you’ll make money consistently.

But if you start getting lazy and stop running it like a business you can quickly lose control.

When you start making money it’s easy to let things start to slide and enjoy some of your profits. But smart business owners keep up on what’s going on in their business.

You can hire good people to help you, but you should know your numbers at least on a daily basis. And you should never let go of writing all the checks. If you have to write the checks you know exactly how much is going out and where it’s going.

If you see something that doesn’t look right you can take action. If someone else takes care of the checks they may never notice a problem.

I’m not talking about payouts made to winning punters. This should be systemized and made as automatic as possible. But you should also check it often to make sure that a leak hasn’t happened.

But every other payment made from your sportsbook for anything should come directly through you. If you aren’t willing to make this commitment you shouldn’t be in business.

Always Collect Up Front – No Credit

If you want to open a bank you should open a bank. It happens to be one of the most lucrative businesses you can own.

But if you run a sportsbook, you aren’t a bank.

Banks loan money and give credit.

You might think that you’ll lose customers if you force them to always pay for their bets up front, but the truth is that the only customers you lose are the ones that you don’t want.

If you start accepting bets on credit you’re going to end up chasing down money, attracting more of the wrong kind of bettors, and losing money.

The profit margins are good in a sportsbook that’s run the correct way, but they’re also small in comparison to the amount of money that gets run through the business. So even if you can’t collect as low as 1 or 2% of the credit you give it can put a large dent in your profit.

Don’t ever make an exception to this rule.

Always collect up front and never let anyone place a bet on credit.

How Do You Handle Growth?

You may think this is a strange question, but you need to have a plan for growth.

Of course, when you start your own sportsbook you want to grow, but you need to ask yourself the following questions.

• Do you know what you need in your business as you start to grow?
• How do you take bets and make payouts?
• If you have employees at what point will you need to hire more?
• As your amount of bets grows you need to plan on having more cash reserves. Are you tracking your numbers so you know what percentage of bets you need in reserve?

Growth is a good thing as long as you plan ahead. If you grow too fast it can cripple your business if you’re not prepared.

You can do things that control growth, but if you limit the number of bets you take you may drive away customers. But you have to keep a healthy balance of control in order to keep your financial footing safe.

I mentioned the size of bets you’re willing to take in an earlier section. It’s one of the best ways to regulate growth.

Don’t make the mistake of expanding your accepted bet amounts too quickly. As a rough rule of thumb, you don’t want any single bet to be more than 10% of your daily handle. 5% or less is even better.

As you grow and understand your average handle you can use it to adjust your maximum bets.

Lower minimum bets may be a pain because they don’t offer the same profit as larger ones for the same amount of work, but the punters who make small bets are some of the worst at picking winners.

I’m not saying you should take $1 bets, or even $5 bets, but your minimum bet should be no bigger than $20. You want to encourage bad punters to place bets with you. Collectively they’ll make up a good share of your long term profits.

What Do You Do About Sharps?

The fact is that a small percentage of sports bettors are able to win consistently. These are often called sharps or sharp sports bettors.

They usually make up less than 5% of your customers, but it’s important to track your bettor so you can figure out which ones might be sharps.

Once you learn which one are consistent winners you need to decide what to do with them.

It’d be nice if you simply didn’t take their action, but depending on their influence this can hurt your sportsbook. Of course, it’s your book so you don’t have to accept a bet from anyone you don’t want to.

If you decide to continue taking wagers from sharps you can do a few different things.

1. When they make bets consider adjusting your lines because they found a reason to think that the line had value.
2. Reduce the maximum bet you accept from them.
3. Lay off a large portion of their bets as often as possible to protect the rest of your handle.

One mistake many sportsbooks make is deciding a bettor is a sharp too quickly. If you have enough bettors flipping a coin a few of them will show profits for a long time.

Consider the following example to see why you shouldn’t label someone a sharp too quickly.

If you start with 1,024 people flipping a coin to pick a contest, 512 will win.

If those 512 flip a coin for the next contest 256 of them will win.

When those 256 flip a coin, 128 win the following contest.

If those 128 flip a coin, 64 of them win the fourth straight contest.

64 flip again and 32 are winners.

Of these 32, 16 are winners for a sixth straight time.

When these 16 flip, eight are winners.

At this point, you have eight punters who’ve won seven straight bets and all they’ve done is flip a coin. They don’t have any skills, but the nature of each contest being effectively a 50/50 proposition makes it look like they’re sharps.

How To Start A Sports Bookie Business

If you continue with the example, four people win eight straight, two win nine straight, and one wins 10 straight games.

You need to evaluate every bet they made, especially in relation to how everyone else bet the same contests. If they make up a large percentage of your handle on their side of the games they bet you may want to consider taking action.

The top 2% or so of sports bettors are extremely smart and understand that sportsbooks are trying to figure out who they are and work to make this difficult.

They often employee other people to place bets; sometimes using many different ones across a range of sportsbooks in order to get large amounts of money down on a game.

This can make it almost impossible to figure out, especially because even the best sports bettors still only win less than 60% of the time.

The only thing you can do is track the results of every sports bettor you service and try to get an idea over time of their profitability.

The Biggest Challenge

Your biggest challenge is the same as most nosiness; finding customers.

You need to have an effective marketing plan that directly leads to new customers.

Word of mouth is still the best way to attract new customers, so what can you do to get your current customers to bring you more business?

The first thing is to take good care of your current customers. Process payouts quickly, make it easy to place bets, and do anything else you can think of to offer the best customer service as possible.

You could offer a referral bonus to your current customers when they introduce a new bettor to your service. This could be a free bet, cash, or a reduced vig on their next bet.

You could run advertisements offering a free bet or reduced vig on their first bet for new customers.

Advertisements can be run in the local newspaper, on radio and TV, and using direct mail. You might use an ad in a magazine about sports that local people read.

One big thing you can do is help every bettor and potential bettor feel that their money is safe. Bettors don’t want to worry about being paid when they win.

It’s important to find out about the local banking laws so you don’ get into trouble, but one unique trick you can use is to offer a small amount of interest on any amount bettors leave in your sportsbook to bet on future games.

If you offer a half percent per month on their average daily balance you’ll be amazed at how many of them leave more money with you.

Another way to do something like this without needing to be worried about banking regulations is to offer a rewards program based on the total amount bet per month.

How To Start A Local Sportsbook

You could offer a quarter percent back on total bets, not including the vig, every month, or offer 1% back on monthly total losses.

Recognize that this is the same as offering a lower vig, but it sounds better. It sounds like they get a loss rebate every month.

And you can even force them to use the money to place more bets. Even if you don’t make the bet with the rebate, almost all of them will.

Anything that you can do to increase the bets and spread goodwill can help you get new customers and keep the ones you currently have.

Is It Legal?

This is a question that only you can find the answer to. It depends on where you live for the most part, and in some areas whether or not you can qualify for a license.

You can find legal and licensed sportsbooks in many countries and in some places online.

To learn more about the legalities of operating a sportsbook where you live you should contact an attorney, preferably one that works in the gaming industry, and see what you can learn from the government websites.

You’ll find in most places that sportsbooks are legal the process has more to do with the fees to get started and the taxes than anything else. In some ways, this is good, because it means if you’re not a criminal you can probably just throw money at the situation and be in business soon.

The bad news is that the easier it is for you to get started, the easier it is for your future competition to get started.

How To Create A Sport

You can also find thousands of small sportsbooks, often called bookies, operating around the world seemingly with impunity even where it is illegal.

The reason so many people are willing to take bets where it isn’t illegal is that it’s such a profitable business and most of them operate for years without being hassled by the authorities.

This doesn’t mean it’s safe, and it doesn’t mean that they won’t eventually serve jail time.

My advice is if you want to start a sportsbook to do it somewhere that you can do so legally and acquire the proper license and whatever else you need. This can be expensive to get started, but the bottom line is if you run a sportsbook the right way it always makes money in the long run.

But only you can decide how you want to operate.

Should You Start Your Own Sportsbook?

Now that you know how to start a sportsbook you need to decide if you should.

A sportsbook is a business competing in a competitive marketplace. But if you follow the advice on this page it can be a profit generating machine for years and years.

How To Make A Sport

If you have the cash and can get into business without legal issues and are willing to work the business the right way there’s little reason to avoid it.

I assume you don’t have any ethical reasons that may stop you from starting a business like this or you wouldn’t be reading about it.

How To Start A Sports Booking Website

But you do need to be aware that a certain percentage of the population will consider you evil and some of them may even attempt to hurt your business.

At the end of the day, only you can decide if you should start your own sportsbook. You have all the information you need to make an educated decision.

Conclusion

Owning a sportsbook isn’t for everyone, and it can’t be done legally in all areas. But if you have the resources and can get one up and running it’s a great way to make money.

Well run and properly funded sportsbooks don’t often fail. They represent as close to a sure thing as you can find in the business world.

Use the information on this page to learn how to start your own sportsbook and see if it’s the right thing for you. Or, if you’d rather learn by doing, we recommend visiting sportsbetting.ag.