Getting Customers As a Bookmaker

The most important aspect of any business is customers for the products or services it offers. Without them you really do not have a business, rather just a concept or plan for trying to make money. When it comes to bookmaking, you can take this one step further by stressing the importance of having and finding the right customers. 

In the old days, most bookmakers made their living by working hands-on with their customers whether it was in the local bars, pool halls or other social gathering places. They took sports wagers by hand and met their customers personally to either pay them off or collect on a lost bet. While that type of interaction still goes on today, a new-found level of sophistication has been interjected into the bookmaking business with the advent of the Internet and all the technological advances in both hardware and software that have taken place over the past several years.

Most individual bookmaking services rely on a third party pay-per-head service that handles all of the administrative tasks that go into taking bets. While these types of companies have been a life-saver to the industry considering how complex managing this whole process has become, it still comes down to the bookmaker to build their client base from the ground up. The majority of individual bookmakers probably got started in this business by offering their services to family and friends who did not want to deal with the big offshore sportsbooks that sprung up all over the place during this technological explosion. Even if you are just starting out today, friends and family are an ideal way to build a customer base.

This sense of familiarity helps to develop a sense of trust between both parties in a very volatile financially driven industry. You might be able to build a nice little business catering to just friends and family; however you will eventually need to add new customers if you want to develop any type of long-lasting success. The best way to do this is through direct referrals from your existing customers.

It is always better to have some background information on someone that you are going to do business with, especially when there is money involved. The last thing you need is to add a player that is a potential credit risk that will only end up costing you money down the road. Chances are you are still going to get burnt on a bad bet here and there, but you do not want to go out looking for trouble by adding customers sight unseen.

The other reason that referrals are such an important part of building your customer base is the ability to access information on what kind of sports gambler this person might be. While the reward of adding some high rollers to your list might be a boon to your financial bottom line, so is the risk if you cannot handle the potential financial liability of paying off their bets when they get hot. Slow and steady is always a much better approach to growing a self-sustaining business than trying to make a couple of big scores.

Another risk you run of adding players sight unseen is the potential of having a few sharps sneak onto your list. The last thing you need is professional sports gamblers placing bets with your service as most of the time you will lose over the long haul.

Your ideal customer should be a recreational bettor that tends to stay on the conservative side when it comes to wagering on the games. These type of players become very predictable in their betting patterns over time, which is exactly what you need to add stability to properly managing your bankroll as well as your overall financial picture. They also tend to be the right type of customers that can supply similar type of referrals that will help to continuously grow your business in the proper fashion.