Fancy yourself as a bookmaker? Starting your own online gambling business is not as far fetched as you may think it is, although there are many important steps you need to take to ensure everything is above board and you have the biggest possible chance of success.
All around the world, new sites are emerging and giving punters alternative options and places to put down their wagers. These new bookmakers are standing out from the crowd with competitive odds, big welcome offers and a huge range of betting markets as they look to get their slice of the market share and become a well-known, profitable bookmaker.
Being an Online Bookmaker – The License
The first, and most important step for you in your quest to become an online bookmaker is to get a license. This will come from the UK Gambling Commission if you are based in the UK, or if you want to offer your service to UK players.
Having a license is a big part of your business, but it also makes you look like a professional outfit, and this is vital when you are trying to attract custom without having a big name behind you.
Becoming an Online Bookmaker – Website & Software
The whole of your service will rely on your website and the software used to run it, this needs to be quick, easy to use and it needs to offer as much choice in terms of betting markets as possible. We are currently seeing an arms race between bookmakers to try and offer as many betting markets on as many leagues and competitions as possible, and to succeed you need to be up there.
It is also vital to offer your players a safe place to play, and following security measures will ensure you limit the chance of encountering a problem, either yourself or your players. Trust between punters and bookmakers is vital, and any website issues will ring alarm bells with your customers so it is important that these do not happen.
Starting Your Own Online Bookmaker – Traffic & the Competition
With the biggest online bookmakers posting profits into the hundreds of millions, it is no surprise to see people wanting a piece of the action. However, with so many big games already in the field, competition is tough and you will have to go above and beyond to attract people to your website. Many punters already have their favourite website, some may have more than one and you will have to offer something good to get them to switch allegiance and bet with you.
Traffic can be one of the hardest things to get right, and trial and error is probably the best way to move forward with this. Social media will play a huge part in any success you have, while blogging can get your name out there. Punters all over the world search for tips on the big events on a regular basis, and some bookmakers have a blogger to give them and write about the events as a way of gaining traffic for their site.
