Sports betting has long been a part of British society but in recent years, the growth of online betting has opened new opportunities for budding bookmakers.
Online sports betting does not require the maintenance of a chain of retail premises and can deliver a range and variety of sports betting options to customers that a betting shop cannot match. A quick check at a site like Match.Center which analyses the best betting platforms shows a huge number of betting options out there for sports betting fans. In fact, there are over 500 online betting platforms available to UK customers, ranging from famous old brands to newer betting sites. But have you ever wondered what it takes to get into the sports betting business?
Getting Your License
To operate a betting business in the UK, you need to be licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) which is recognised as one of the most reputable and strict gambling authorities in the world.
The amount that you will pay for your licence varies according to the size or likely size of your betting operation. For instance, a betting platform that expects to make profits of less than £500,000 would pay a yearly fee of £4000 and an application fee of a little over £4200. You may need to apply for multiple licences, however, depending on how many of these categories are applicable:
· Betting on virtual events
· Betting on live sports events
· Bingo
· Pool Betting
· Casino Betting
Of course, the UKGC apply stringent tests for anyone who wants to buy a gambling licence and you will be required to submit extensive paperwork to pass their approval.
Setting Up Your Site
Go back a few decades and the bookmaker business was relatively simple. Bookies compiled their own odds, employing expert odds compilers and adding in a small margin on each market. A bookmaker depended on the quality of their odds, and shrewd punters would soon cash in if the odds were wrong.
In the modern sports betting world, odds compiling is a fading occupation. The business of compiling your own odds and setting up, testing and improving an online site takes time and money and that’s why most modern bookmakers opt to buy in a complete package.
Some bookmakers prefer a white label solution when they pay a hefty fee to operate a betting site that has already been created, on a model similar to a franchise business. The other main option is to pay a specialist company to create a site for you, which is often cheaper and enables a greater degree of customisation, but depends on the quality of the operator’s vision.
The end result is that very few modern bookmakers will set their own odds, which explains why there are so few discrepancies across the modern sports betting industry.
Beating the Competition
Since it is now relatively straightforward for betting sites to obtain competitive odds on a huge variety of markets, the focus has shifted from odds compilation to branding and attracting customers.
Almost all new online sports betting sites will have a profitable betting model so success increasingly depends on the ability to attract customers away from your rivals. This is why you will often see very generous odds available for some of the big sports events. In fact, on some events, such as golf Majors, bookmakers can take a loss by offering generous each-way terms to attract new customers.
Branding and market share are the key factors in sports betting success in 2023, and this is where long-established brands like William Hill, Coral, and Ladbrokes have a huge advantage over the hundreds of smaller betting sites struggling for attention.
Reputation and the Future of Sports Betting
Setting up a sports betting business is hard enough, but sustaining it is an even tougher challenge. UKGC-licensed sites have to adhere to the rules laid down in an enormous rulebook known as the LLCP, which covers everything from anti-money laundering policies to player
protection and data security. You can check out the list of the best currently running betting sites at Match.Center.
With increasing focus on the risks of problem gambling, sports betting sites are also likely to face a growing list of new rules and regulations to ensure that they properly protect their customers. In the old days, all you needed to be a bookie was a wad of betting slips and a satchel to keep your money in.
Setting up and running a sports betting business in the 21st century is a lot more complicated!
