Bookmaking, Bookie, Sportsbetting

A bookmaker, bookie or turf accountant, is an organization or a person that takes bets and may pay winnings depending upon results and, depending on the nature of the bet, the odds.

How Does Bookmaking Business Work?

Usually in every sports match there is a favorite team and an underdog team. Sports line-makers are people who are expert at predicting the outcomes of the games. They (who usually work for Las Vegas casinos) determine the lines of a game. A line is the number of points that a team is favorite to win over the other game. For example if Eagles are favorite to win the Red Skins by 5 points, their line (spread) is -5. The minus sign always accompanies the winning team.

Once these lines are made, people can bet on either one of the teams. For example one can bet $100 on Eagles for the above mentioned game. If the Eagles win by 6 points difference or better, the bettor will win $100 and if the Eagles win by 4 points or less or Red Skins win the game, the bettor will lose. In case that the Eagles win by exactly 5 points, it would be a push (no one wins or loses money). The way a bookie makes money is through the juice. The juice is usually 10% of the betting amount. If a bettor bets on a game and loses, he/she has to pay the losing amount ($100 in the above example) plus the juice (10% * $100 = $10) for a total of $110.

Usually a bookie tries to take equal amounts of bet on both sides of the match so no matter who wins the game, the bookie collects the juice, and uses the money made from the loosing team to pay the winners.

A bettor does not have to bet only on the spread. He can bet on pretty much anything - Ex. who wins the game, who scores the first touchdown, who wins the first half, etc. However the payouts will not be 1-1 anymore. For example if one bets $100 on who will win the game (not considering the spread) and you bet on the favorite team, the prize money will be less than $100. Also if one bets on the losing team to win the game, the prize will be more than $100.

You can learn more on how to bet in the How to bet on sprts page.

Is Bookmaking Legal?

Bookmaking can be legal, illegal, and/or regulated. Bookmaking is illegal in most states of United States (it is legal in Nevada, however it is regulated and requires a license).

Sportsbetting and book-keeping is legal in United Kingdomn.

In Canada, sportsbetting is legal, but is operated by the government.

Online Sports Betting

Nowadays there are many online websites who take bets on sports. Some offer poker games, sporsbetting, and online casino together. The main difference between online bookie and local bookie is that you have to pay the online sports before the end of the game, where you usually pay the local bookie after you lose.

Online sports betting can be both more dangerous and safer. It can be more dangerous if the website is not well-known and end up stealing player's moneys (and it is very hard to pursue them as they are all based outside U.S), but also, in most states of U.S sportsbetting is illegal, so online sportsbetting won't give you in trouble with law (however, some states even ban online gambling).
Check your states laws to be sure.

Reference

Last Updated - December 18, 2007