How To Open A Sports Betting Account

The two most important activities that you should do when learning on how to become a bookie are learning how to acquire players and signing up with a pay per head service like Realbookies.com to take your players’ bets automatically with our betting software.

To start placing bets at your sportsbook of choice, you’ll first have to make a deposit. Minimum deposit amounts vary between books, but the required amount often also varies depending on the method used to make the deposit. For most sports bettors, credit cards and eWallets are the most appealing option. After you have found the best online sportsbooks that satisfy your requirements, you can proceed to the sportsbook's page and open an account. On the sportsbook's page you will find a link to the 'sign up' or 'join' or 'register' page where new accounts are opened.

If you are in college and thinking about becoming a bookie, click here to see how a student took bets to pay off his college debts

The bottom line in bookmaking business is:

The more action you write, the more money you make. You will always want to add what you believe are solid players, not only to expand your business, but also to replace those customers who have proven to be bad debt or simply have been worn down by the house advantage.

Understanding that the customer who wagers only $100 a game will lose $3,000 to $4,000 over the course of any given season should give you plenty of incentive to hit the bricks. If you use your time wisely, reaching a customer base of 200 or so (a little better than average) should be no problem.

Getting new players is not as simple as advertising in the newspaper or sticking fliers on the windshields of cars when becoming a bookie. Nor can you just go out to the backyard, shake the customer tree, and watch them start falling to the ground.

Steps to become a bookie:

  1. Learn about the business from blogs and experienced people
  2. Find players
  3. Partner with another bookie so that you both win
  4. Get a great Pay Per Head Bookie Software
  5. Start running and managing your business

What you have on your side, however, is word of mouth.

“I won $3,000 from my bookie this weekend, and he paid me in full at 10:00 A.M. Tuesday.” If enough co-workers and room mates and drinking buddies hear that, they are sure to say, “Hey, you think you could get me on with your bookie?”

The best thing you can do to expand your client list is continue to treat the customers you already have with respect, courtesy, and professionalism-and to always pay in full, on time, and in cash.

People like to talk, especially when they just spent their lunch break picking up a sack of money, and if all the talk about you is similar to that above, you will have no problems adding new players.

What if you are starting out with no customers? There are still ways to maximize returns on your efforts. The first step to becoming a bookie is to understand the basic truth that gamblers know other gamblers.

Think back to the first time you talked to a bookmaker. Didn’t you know somebody who was gambling and he set you up’? Or were you in the employee break room when one of your co-workers had a sports page out and was checking the lines? Nothing has changed since that time, except that gambling has become more popular than ever.

Should you open shop?

If you are considering opening your own sportsbook operation, odds are you know people who gamble on sports. Some of them are probably looking for a new outlet to wager. I always told potential customers who already had a bookie that if they would try me just one weekend, they would never go back to their previous bookie, and in the 8 1/2 years I was in the business, none ever did.

If you follow the guidelines on this page and conduct your business based on the information here, you will create many ex-customers for other bookies around your city.

You can start a football season with as few as 10 customers, and by the time bowl season has arrived, word of mouth recommendation should swell your pay sheet to 50 or 60.

At that level, even if the customers are small time, you should be employing an office clerk and a fax clerk while still leaving yourself a profit of $100,000 or so for six months of semi-work. Another way to increase customers as a bookie is to spend your leisure time where gamblers spend their leisure time.

Station Casino Sports App

But… Is It legal?

Here is a list for places where land-based Sportsbooks are legal. Also, remember that some states have started to loosen up regulations as well.

  • Aruba
  • Australia
  • Bahamas
  • Belgium
  • Canada
  • China
  • Costa Rica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ecuador
  • France
  • Guatemala
  • Honduras
  • Hong Kong
  • Indonesia
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Macau
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • Nicaragua
  • Panama
  • Portugal
  • Spain
  • South Korea
  • Switzerland
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • US
  • Turkey
  • UK
  • United Arab Emirates

Basic truth number two:

Golfers love to gamble.

Whether it is a $1-a-hole or $500-for-closest-to-the-pin wager, money changes hands when buddies get together on the links. Visit a golf warehouse or discount store, and the clerk there should be able to provide you with the names of several local private clubs you can join.

Many have stipulations that you have to be sponsored by a current member of the club, but some don’t. Find one where the membership fee is only $1,000 or so, plus monthly dues, and join. Besides improving your golf game (never a bad thing), being a member of the club will allow you to meet the other members of the club. Whether it is on the fairway or in the clubhouse, most of these men will enjoy a friendly wager from time to time.

You should be discreet when divulging how you make your living, but a cell phone call from a cart while the other three are deciding which club to use will start the conversation. Being proficient at spades, hearts, gin, etc., will also provide you the chance to meet other gamblers at the club.

Many older gentlemen go to the club every day to do nothing other than sit in the pro shop or locker room playing poker for eight or ten hours. Be friendly, be discreet, and, before long, you will be taking action.

The same basic truth (loving to gamble) applies to most guys who play tennis, but many actually participate in that sport for health benefits, and that is not our focus here.

BARS

Looking for more customers? Select a few bars in different parts of your city and become a regular. This does not mean you also become an alcoholic, as ginger ale or cranberry juice is usually what I order. (Trust me when I say that getting a DUI is not a fun thing, and it is even less so when the arresting officer sees that you have a hundred copies of the official betting schedule in your backseat. That’s what law enforcement refers to as a “clue.” But back to bars.)

When we say select a few “bars,” I am not talking about a T.G.I. Fridays or Chilis. I am talking about real bars. You know, the kind where when you walk in you can’t see anything for a minute or two until your eyes adjust. Real bars don’t have 143 televisions. They usually have one above the bar and one in the back room where the card tables are.

Find a few establishments like this and you have also just found a couple more customers. Go in, sit at the bar, and begin watching television. When you curse a basketball player for missing a free throw when his team is up by 17, the gamblers in the joint will know why you are upset. Most likely, they will be the ones to bring up sports wagering. “Who ya’ got?” is a common opener. When you reply, “I’ve got something on every team,” the conversation is started, and pretty soon you have another reason to visit the bar.

Partnering With Another Bookie

Probably the best way to get a lot of customers on your ledger in one motion is an arrangement where another bookie becomes a “sub-book” to you. It works like this:

Almost without exception, small to mid-size bookies will shut down after the NCAA basketball tournament is over and not reopen until football season starts in August. You should have no problem finding a player who, toward the end of basketball season, is looking for a new place to play so that he can bet on baseball.

The truly amateur bookie will think only of adding one new customer and, while taking on the new guy, will promise not to tell his regular bookie that he has gone somewhere else. What you should be doing in situations like this is not only have him tell his regular bookie about you, but ask that he put you in touch with his regular bookie.

At this point, you can present a no-risk offer to the bookie who is planning to stop taking action for a while. What you propose is that he tell all his current customers that he will be shutting down for baseball, but that if any of them want to get action on the games, he can recommend someone who is staying open.

Explain to the bookie that you will keep a separate record of whatever money, as a group, his customers wind tip collecting as a net winner or paying as a net loser. If they finish the season on the plus side (they won’t), you will pay out every penny. If they finish the season on the negative side (they will), you and he will split the profits 50-50.

All he has to do is meet with you each Tuesday morning to get the figures and then go pay or collect from the guys he put on. It will cost him nothing. He will have to do almost no work. He will make money.

Make sure the bookie realizes that in no way are you trying to snake his customers, just make money for both of you. He is planning on being closed anyway and, if he does it his way, he makes zero dollars for the summer.

Do it your way and he makes many dollars for the summer. Abiding by that agreement will, at the very least, be a money maker for a few months for you and the other bookie (now a “sub-book” to you). What normally happens is the bookie (a lazy creature by nature) will realize that he made a bucket of money for working one day a week, and when August creeps over the hill, will suggest that you two continue the arrangement.

Do this once a year and you will be extremely wealthy. You know the best part of this deal? With the extra money you get from this sub-book’s customers, you will be able to more than pay for another clerk, and now you won’t be working every day, either.

Becoming a member of a VFW or Eagle’s lodge or similar organization is another fantastic way to grow your bookie business. I had been a bookie for seven years when I joined one just north of Atlanta, and within two days, they had taught me new ways to gamble on sports. The bartender was the guy at the lodge who organized all the betting there, and he was confused by it, more than anything else.

He was happy when someone came along offering to help. “Helping” quickly turned into I had 53 new customers as a result of paying my $200 initiation fee. Besides being served semi-warm beer and having to listen to much more Hank Jr. than I ever knew existed, there was little downside to it.

Finally, I have acquired customers in a variety of other ways. Bookies have died, gone semi-legit, gotten married, gotten scared, or gone to jail (nongambling-related charge).

Hell, one buddy of mine decided that having to work three hours a day was just too much for him. For whatever the reason, if you can beat the bushes and open with even 10 or 12 guys, you will have 50 before you know it.

At that point, you are making a decent enough chunk of change to hire a clerk to work with your pay per head software service. You can then justify making him work all the shifts by himself, as you are out “recruiting new customers”.

How To Open A Sports Betting Account

Once you have built up a list, the next move is to acquire the correct software to automate taking the bets and the other every stuff that comes with being a bookie. For that please read on the best sportsbook software to use and the advantages of using a PPH service like RealBookies

If you are a beginer, right now you are wondering where to start acquiring the knowledge that will allow you to thrive in the Bookie Business, start with the Bookmaking Essentials course at Bookie Academy.

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So you want to know how to supercharge your profits and start matched betting with multiple accounts?

Great – You’ve come to the right place! I have been successfully matched betting under THREE different accounts for just under 5 years at this point.

Whilst matched betting with multiple accounts (aka gnoming) isn’t difficult. You MUST follow the below strategies in order to do it successfully.

What Is Multi-Accounting/Gnoming

‘Multi-Accounting’ as it’s referred to means having more than one account with the same bookmaker.

I personally have THREE accounts with EVERY bookmaker. One under my name, and two accounts under different family members names.

Benefits Of Matched Betting With Multiple Accounts

The main benefit is being able to attack the same offer, multiple times over.

An offer worth £10 to someone with one account, is worth £30 to me as I’m able to do it on THREE different accounts.

As you’ve probably guessed, this makes it far easier to earn considerable amounts of money through Matched Betting.

The signup offers alone on Profit Accumulator are worth around £1-2000, and I’ve been able to do them three times over! As well as the long term benefit of being able to do the same reload offer multiple times.

The second benefit is that if you are unfortunate enough to have one of our accounts restricted, you still have the use of that bookmaker through one or more of your other accounts.

Check out my Mug Betting Guide which is full of tips on how to keep your accounts open, long term.

How To Open A Sports Betting Account

The Risks Of Matched Betting With Multiple Accounts

As you can imagine Multi-Accounting does come with risk.

I would NOT recommend Multi-Accounting if you are new to Matched Betting or until you have completed most of the signup offers.

Multi-Accounting is a clear violation of a bookmaker’s terms and conditions and If you don’t have the documents and criteria I set out in this article in place, then you are at risk of having your accounts closed, and any money in them potentially withheld.

How To Matched Bet With Multiple Accounts

Firstly you’ll need the permission of someone you know to let you Matched Bet under their name. This can be anyone, a relative or a friend.. as long as it’s someone you trust!

Nothing between your account and this new account should be connected in any way – You need to look like two entirely different people.

So in order for your account and the new account to be unconnected you MUST fit each of the below criteria:

  • Separate Postal Addresses
  • Separate Bank Accounts
  • Separate IP Addresses

Address

Some Bookies are what is known as ‘Partner Friendly’, meaning that you and your significant other can sign up to the same bookie under the same address and both take advantage of their offers – But not many bookies allow this.

So the person whose name you’ll be Matched Betting under (a family member for example) will need to have a different postal address to yours.

Bank Account

You will need to get this person to set up a new bank account under their name, but which you have control over, and have possession of the Debit Card.

Essentially this will be your bank account as you’ll be the only person with access to it, making all the deposits and withdrawals, (it just won’t be in your name).

Even when setting up a bank account online be prepared for the fact that they may request for you to come in and show them ID.

I set accounts up for my two family members online very quickly and easily. In one case they asked for the account holder to come into the bank to show ID. They then posted the debit card out within a few days.

For the other account they didn’t ask for this and they simply posted the debit card within a few days.

IP Address

If you were to log onto each of your accounts with the same Wi-Fi connection, then the bookie will see that those accounts are logging on under the same IP Address.

This will flag to them that these accounts are being operated by the same person, and your accounts will be shut down.

The way to get around this is by using a VPN. Using a VPN is an inexpensive and safe way of changing your IP Address.

Email

You will also need to create a new email for each new account – But this is obviously very quick and easy to do

Verifying Your New Bookie Accounts

If a bookie requests that you verify your account (and they definitely will at some point), you will need:

  • A scanned copy of their ID. (Passport/driving licence).
  • A copy of a utility bill or bank statement to verify their address (typically no more than 3 months old). Since you have a bank account under their name, just use a bank statement.
  • Scanned copies of the Debit card used to deposit (you should have ownership of the Debit Card anyway, so that isn’t a problem)

Failure to not meet all of the above criteria will eventually result in your account(s) being shut down.

Look.. No-one said this was gonna be easy! But the payoff is worth it.

The hardest part of this entire process is being able to convince a friend or a family member to let you do all this (family members work better in my experience).

So, now you’ve convinced someone to let you matched bet under their name, you’ve opened a new bank account, and you’re ready to go. What next?

Changing Your IP Address

As I stated earlier when you matched bet under your new second account, this will have to be under a different IP address.

There are a couple of ways you can change your IP address which we will discuss below. I’ve done both – they both work completely fine and which method you choose will be down to whichever best suits your needs.

Purchase a Monthly/PAYG WiFi dongle

When I first started multi accounting I bought a pay monthly dongle from EE (A dongle has it’s own IP Address).

So whenever I did offers on my account I used my home wifi as normal. When I did offers on my second account – I switched to using the wifi dongle.

The Wifi/dongle method works completely fine but I switched from this method to a VPN because:

  1. It’s cheaper
  2. I eventually opened a third matched betting account and it wouldn’t be practical (or cheap) to have 2 dongles!

This now brings us to the second method used to change your IP address, and the one that I currently use:

VPN/Virtual Private Network

How To Open A Sports Betting Account Bonus

There are a lot of VPN providers out there but the VPN that I use for Matched Betting is called Private Internet Access (PIA).

It’s a paid service although it’s not very expensive – $40 per year. I’ve been using it since 2015 and I’ve never had an issue with it, so I highly recommend it.

There are many other VPN for matched betting out there, which includes FREE VPN providers – However I don’t have any experience with anything other than PIA, so am unable to comment on those.

Creating And Using Multiple Bookie Accounts

Now you’ve got a second matched betting account it’s time to start all over again and go back to the beginning of the Profit Accumulator offers.

Step 1

BEFORE you open up the bookies website – Make sure that your VPN is switched on, or you are now using your wifi dongle.

Step 2

Once your VPN is switched on you can then go to the bookmakers website and signup/log in under your new account details and begin matched betting.

The rest is self explanatory from here. Just always remember to switch the VPN on or off as needed as you switch between your accounts.

An [almost] Costly Mistake

My experience of multi accounting has mainly been plain sailing. I have only made a mistake once but it was VERY time consuming and STRESSFUL to get it rectified.

I logged into one of my additional matched betting accounts and had forgotten to switch my VPN on.

I was caught.. instantly.

Unfortunately for me I had close to £300 in that account at the time and it took about 2-3 months of none stop complaining to get that money back from the bookie.

I DID eventually get the money back and the worst that happened to me was that they banned that account.

But let this serve as a lesson to you that multi accounting does come with risks, and although a lot of the steps above may seem too tedious or time consuming for you.. they are essential.

A Final Caution…

These are my own personal experiences, and I have only ever had one problem (which was my own fault). But with that being said IF you decide to start multi accounting please note that you do so at your own risk.

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Still Have Questions

How To Open A Sports Betting Account Manager

If you have any questions about Multi-Accounting please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m happy to help!​

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