Part of being a bookie is managing the finances of your sportsbook. Given that you are using a sportsbook pay per head, you are already saving money by having your sportsbook software do part of the bookie’s workload. But it is your job to make sure that you have enough money to pay off your players, and that you are earning a regular profit throughout the year. This is why its important that you are managing your sportsbook’s cash flow, and that you always make sure that you are planning ahead, by at least 1 calendar year.
Managing Your Sportsbook’s Cash Flow
The first financial aspect we mentioned, is having enough money to pay off your players. Your primary source of income comes from the vig, which is the cut you take from your player’s bets. Your pay per head service will only charge you per player per week, so you should be able to generate enough income from each player to pay off the relatively low overhead pay per head fee. This is especially easy if your players place bets multiple times over the week.
Now, when becoming a bookie, you are taught to always try to balance your books. Ideally, you want the money from losing bets to pay off the winning bets of your other players. That way, you don’t pay out of pocket. And, you get to keep the vig untouched, minus your operating expenses, of course. It is, of course, a great bonus for you if there are more losing bets than winning bets, as you get to keep any extra winnings.
So if your players tend to heavily bet on one side, and they win, the losing wagers won’t be enough to cover you, and you will need to pay out of pocket, and you will most likely take a loss on that wager. Basically, you should always keep enough money to float your sportsbook’s action- and the worst-case scenario should be something you consider well.
Your Year-Round Cash Flow
Next, is making sure that you have enough money readily available for payouts. Keep in mind that throughout the year, you will have fluctuating betting action, mostly due to the schedule of available sports events each month. For example, the NFL Super Bowl is February, so expect the first couple of months to get busy. The NBA, another popular league people bet on, will have its finals in June.
For this, all you have to do is plot a calendar to track all of the sports events you can earn money on. Study which months will be slow based on your betting product, and make sure that you’ll have some profit from other months available to cover you on those slow months.
Learning how to be a bookie is not as easy as we think, neither is it as hard as we expect it to be. But by having money available to cover any possible situation, you can guarantee a smooth running sportsbook.
