You may have heard the term “bookie” in the context of sports betting and gambling in general. The term bookie is a short form of the term bookmaker. A bookie is someone who accepts wagers for sporting events, sets the odds of different sporting events, and pays out winnings to bettors who have predicted and wagered on the correct outcome of an event. Bookies make money by charging a vigorish, vig, or juice, which essentially serves as a transaction fee for placing a wager.

Bookies have a history of being associated with illicit or illegal gambling. Especially in parts of the world where sports betting was once or still is illegal, bookies act as an underground means of facilitating sports betting for people who want to wager on sports events. They can operate on their own or be part of a wider network of oddsmakers who work together. The first recorded history of a bookie was in the late 1700s, when Harry Ogden first opened a sportsbook or bookmaking operation in the United Kingdom. However, the negative connotation of the word bookie is slowly starting to lose its hold. Today, many people can refer to their trusted, regulated sportsbook as a bookie or a bookmaker. After all, that’s what a bookie is – someone (or something) that facilitates gambling on sporting events.

Fortunately, people who want to become bookies to operate in an online gambling market worth nearly USD $71 billion have the means to do so today legally. You can now operate as your own type of bookie by running an online sportsbook using bookmaker’s software. Sports betting software, bookie software, and oddsmaker software are terms that can be used interchangeably to describe the technology that allows online sportsbook to operate. White label sportsbook software is highly regarded as one of the easiest ways that bookies today can start a legal sports betting operation online.

The two main advantages of choosing white label betting technology to power your sports betting operation are cost savings and speed to market. Compared to developing your own online sportsbook and bookie software from scratch, sportsbook software providers can save you hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. At first glance it might seem like developing your own bookie software is a better option than choosing a white label solution, but when you factor in hiring computer engineers, lawyers, and compliance experts to make sure your software is compliant with gambling regulations, costs associated with salary and compensation alone can run you into the high six-figure range. Plus, those costs don’t include the ongoing costs associated with upgrading your software and paying computer engineers a regular salary.

The second advantage of white label solutions is the speed at which you can have a fully functional online sportsbook up and running. Developing your own bookie software requires thousands of hours of work done by software engineers and lawyers to have a minimum viable product, let alone an advanced sportsbook that bettors enjoy using. With Lion Gaming’s online sportsbook software, you can start accepting wagers on your online sportsbook in just a few weeks. To read more on why white label sportsbook solutions are better for bookies than developing software by themselves, check out our article titled The Case For Outsourcing Your Betting Technology.

As previously mentioned in this article, the term bookie often has a negative connotation associated with it due to the history of underground gambling activities run by bookies. For all intents and purposes, every bookie, online sportsbook, or online casino needs to have a license to operate legally. In addition to protecting yourself as a bookie and your online sportsbook operation, gaming licenses give you additional benefits. They signal to your bettors that your sportsbook is trustworthy, that payouts and winnings are assured, and gives them the confidence to know that their money is safe when interacting with your online sportsbook for the first time. For more on gaming licenses and why they are essential for any iGaming operation, check out our article titled Gaming Licenses: What iGaming Operators Need To Know.

If you’re ready to start your own online sportsbook, contact us here or email us at [email protected] to request a demo of our bookie software. We’ll show you why Lion Gaming’s advanced technology is the right choice for your online sportsbook operation.