Many betting agents would tell you that it’s OK to bet if you’re a bookie because you’re gambling all the time with your sportsbook anyway. So what’s the difference?
Mechanically, it’s the same. You’re trying to get the biggest reward for the least amount of risk. As a bookie, you should focus more on lowering your risk. As a player, you might be swinging for the fences sometimes, but to be a success, you’re also focusing on the lowest risk or the best bargain.
If you want to bet while being a bookie, you should create a specific divider between the two endeavors, so they don’t mix. And this is no different from most businesses. If a business owner uses it as his personal ATM, he’ll either go broke or have the tax department coming after him. If a doughnut shop owner uses the dough to experiment with new types of doughnuts all day, he probably won’t be in business for long. And if he tastes them all, it might cut his life short from all the sugar and carbs.
Luckily, betting won’t cut your life short, but it can affect your business. If betting on the side while running your bookie business is something you want to do, then here are some things to keep in mind, so your sportsbook continues to thrive.
Start From a Strong Position
Make sure your business is running well first. If you don’t first have a thriving, profitable bookie business, you’re just going to add more stress, confusion, and risk to it. Yes, you have to be comfortable managing risk as a bookie, but you don’t want to be making bets from the position of “I have to win or else…” Give yourself a rule that you can only bet when your business is making a profit. If you’re struggling, you probably don’t have the right mindset to be placing bets.
Find Ways to Separate the Two
You could set up an agreement with another bookie that likes to gamble. Place your bets with him so you can only use the funds you have on account. He can do the same, so you’re not really losing on the juice.
If you don’t want to use another bookie, you can try other methods, but they don’t work as well. If you use the money from your business, it’s too easy to spend all your profits.
Beware of Rationalizing Your Losses
If you see losses in your business that come from your gambling, you might try and tell yourself that it’s because of a bad outcome of a game. You could blame your players or anything but your gambling. If you see anything like this happening, stop betting until you can get the business back to normal.
A Different Way to Look at It
If you’re struggling with this, let’s look at your business another way. All the bets you manage are a gamble unless they are completely balanced, and that’s not possible with every type of bet. So you’re gambling all the time with all kinds of bets. The difference is that they aren’t generally the bets you would make.
If you think about it, if your bookie business is thriving and growing, then you’re already a successful gambler. The only difference between a bookie and a player is that you have a bit more going for you. Both are gambling, but as a bookie, you get to keep the vig if you can balance the bets. If you can’t balance them, you have some tools to improve your odds or lower the risks.
- You can move the lines to bring both sides of the bets closer
- You can lay off any bets you can’t balance.
- You can see which players are more successful by using reports so you can “bet” with them if needed. See what other trends you can find in your reports that can give you better odds.
More than likely, you became a bookie because you love to gamble. But once you’ve been a bookie for some time, why would you go back to gambling where the odds aren’t as good? Use your betting skills and tools to grow your business.
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