How do you become a bookie?
To become a bookie you need players, a bankroll to pay them when they win, and a way to take and grade their bets. These days the last part is rented from a pay-per-head shop. Whether you may do it at all depends on where you live, and in most places taking bets requires a license.
The law comes first
Taking bets is a regulated business almost everywhere. In most places you need a license, and booking without one is a crime whatever the size of the book. The rules differ from one country and one state to the next, so find out what applies where you live before you do anything else. I am not a lawyer and this page is not legal advice.
What the job is
A bookie posts prices, takes bets, pays the winners and collects from the losers. The first two are the easy half.
Most independent bookies work on credit, where a player is given a figure he can bet up to and the two of you settle at the end of the week, so the real skill is not the numbers at all but judging people: who gets credit, how much, and who gets cut off. I'd say that is most of the job. A player who loses $2,000 and disappears has cost you money.
The software is rented
Nobody builds his own. A pay-per-head shop supplies the lines, the betting site, the phone clerks, the grading and the weekly reports, and charges you a fee for each player who bets that week. You set the limits and the credit for every account. The shop does not carry your risk and does not handle your money. You can compare them in the pay-per-head directory.
The bankroll
Say you have 30 players and each puts $550 through in a week. That is $16,500 in bets, and at the theoretical 4.55 percent your cut is $750, before the per-head fee.
That is the average. No single week is average.
Players win in bunches, and a week where the favorites all cover can cost you several times that figure, all of it due on settling day, which is exactly when a new bookie finds out whether he had a business or a hobby. A bookie who can't pay once is finished.
Before you take the first bet
I'd learn how a book manages risk before taking a dollar, and risk management is where to start. Set a bet limit and a credit limit for every player and keep to them, including for the friend who swears he's good for it. And hold enough cash to pay a bad month, not a bad week.
Anybody can take a bet. The business is paying the winners and getting paid by the losers.
Related questions
What is pay per head?
Pay per head is a service for bookies. An offshore office gives the bookie a betting site, the lines and the phone clerks to run his players, and charges him a fee for each player who bets that week. The bookie keeps the players, the risk and the money.
How do bookies make money?
A bookie makes money by charging for every bet. The charge is built into the price: you lay $110 to win $100, and across thousands of bets that extra $10 is his living. He does not need to pick winners. He needs volume.
What is a bookie?
A bookie is a person who takes bets. He sets a price, takes your money or your word on it, pays you if you win and collects if you lose. The word is slang for bookmaker, and it usually means a local, independent one.