The bookmaker. In general terms this term refers to a professional bet taker who calculates odds and pays out winnings. In non-general terms, a bookmaker, also referred to as a bookie, is successful based upon their ability to offer odds that counter actual probabilities. While some see this profession as a dying breed, there are still exponential opportunities to modernize the bookmaker position such as utilizing the internet to establish and expand your market, networking with larger organizations, and relying heavily on customer service. 

3 Steps to Becoming a Bookmaker

1) Start-Up

When venturing into the bookmaker profession, it is important to start by acquiring players as well as investing in betting software designed to automatically take players best. This type of software is generally referred to as a “pay per head service” and there are various online companies, such as Realbookies.com, that offer these services to entrepreneurial bookmakers.

In acquiring players, it is beneficial to deduce if they are trustworthy, solid, smart individuals. These types of players will not only help build a loyal, returning client base, but they offer a breadth of revenue leniency for lost players. The average goal for a successful player-base should be around 200, give or take. 

Grow your client base using marketing tricks such as word-of mouth. Gamblers know gamblers, factor in the knowledge that we as a society enjoy talking, and add in a high-level of customer service experience. A great reputation will help advance the number of players opting to place their bets with you.

There are other tactics such as targeting specific gambling types such as golfers, known for their express enjoy of the gambling game, becoming a regular at bars in different neighborhoods to network, or even partnering with another bookie.

2) Regulations (UK Specific)

While a majority of the bookmaker profession centers around networking and bookkeeping, a large responsibility falls upon the bookmaker to be aware of legal regulations.

In the United Kingdom specifically, gambling is regulated via the Gambling Commission, a relatively new regulatory body coming into full power in 2007, established under the Gambling Act of 2005. While the Gambling Commission regulates casinos, bingo, arcades, betting, slot machines, and lotteries, most importantly it oversees all remote betting including online and telephone. As a bookmaker entrepreneur, online resources will most likely be the lifeblood of your business, therefore becoming intimately familiar with the Gambling Commission’s guidelines is key.

Above all else make sure to have acquired an appropriate gambling license. All licensing information as well as the applications for licenses can be obtained via the Gambling Commissions website. The website also offers personal licenses which are required for betting as well as remote services.

Once a license is obtained, a bookmaker must become familiar with legislation and regulations that match their specific license, this is often referred to as compliance.

3) Challenges vs. Benefits

Bookmaking is an exceptionally difficult, yet rewarding career. There will be endless challenges and overwhelming benefits, some of which have been outlined below.

• Costs and Turnover

The costs of running a bookmaker business are not overly abundant, yet still substantial for a start-up. Taking into consideration upfront that a start-up runs in the red for the first few years and planning accordingly can help alleviate issues.

Going hand-in-hand with initial costs comes loss of income due to turnover. Players will come and go at all times, therefore working to build your client base to a comfortable level will make turnover an easy burden to bare.

• Stress

This profession comes with varied and overwhelming amounts of stress at times. Managing player bets is a full-time job, therefore organization is key. This is also a very personal job, dealing with many clients face-to-face who may have been dealt bad luck in recent bets. Lastly, there are the players who have bad debt and refuse to pay.

• Constant Evolution

While the business of betting is somewhat stable and slow changing, the bookmaker profession must constantly evolve. In order to keep up with the larger betting companies, other individual rivals, and the constant flow of turnover, it is the bookmaker’s job to find new avenues of reaching players, networking, and providing excellent customer service.

While there are many challenges in this line of work, there are also excellent benefits. 

• Building Professionalism

Once a client-base has been built, the fun part begins. Reputable relations with players can be extremely rewarding. Building healthy relationships that successfully benefit both bookmaker and player are business alliances in their own nature. Professionalism in the bookmaking industry is key and will lend advantageous support, loyalty, and trust to your business. 

• Travel

For some this is one of the best benefits. As a bookmaker, travel is a key aspect of the job. Being organized in your travel design, avoiding traffic and making sure to be present for appointments, will turn what could be a challenge into a point of interest. Not only do bookmakers get to see new cities or learn old ones, it also provides the access to new players and networking opportunities.

• Discover New Markets, Growth, and Success

If you decide to become a bookmaker, then your personality is most likely curbed to this type of work. Therefore, seeing the growth of your business, reveling in the successes, and facing the challenge of identify new markets on a continual basis will be a rewarding experience.

Any conversation about great race horses has to begin with Eclipse, the undefeated Thoroughbred who has set the standard for elite racing since the 18th century. The Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, France’s Prix Eclipse and the US Eclipse Award are all named in his honour. His dominance of the track led to the famous phrase “Eclipse first and the rest nowhere”.

He was foaled at the Cranbourne Lodge Stud during the solar eclipse of April 1, 1764, and was a grandson of the Godolphin Arabian, one of the three foundation studs (with the Byerly Turk and the Darley Arabian) for the English Thoroughbred. Today, 95% of Thoroughbreds trace their lineage back to Eclipse.

Recent studies by the Royal Veterinary College  (RVC) and University of Cambridge have tried to determine what made Eclipse such an unparalleled racehorse. Hisskeletonis on display at the Royal Veterinary College, so scientists have been able to study the exterior parts for centuries. The hooves are missing from the skeleton as they were re moved to make inkstands, but as there are five in existence there is some doubt as to their authenticity).

But DNA testing, with DNA from one of the horse’s molars, allows researchers to map the genomes of the great British racehorses–they also are using DNA from Hermit, a descendant of Eclipse and winner of the 1867 Derby. The RVC is working to determine the genetic traits that have come down through more than 30 generations of horses so they can understand what traits make the animals susceptible to certain diseases and how to avoid their breaking down during training. They’re also interested in the physics of the gallop–how do these animals at maximum speed with only one leg on the ground 805 of the time. 

Eclipse, grandson of the Godolphin, was asmall horse by modern standards–half an inch over 16 hands. He had a large and unfashionable head, and was chestnut, with a big blaze down to his nose and a sock to his hock on his right leg. He was notoriously high-tempered, to the point that he was lucky to escape gelding when he was a colt. He routinely carried heavier weights in an apparently futile attempt to slow him down. His rump measured an inch higher than his withers, an anatomical peculiarity which probably contributed to his ability to gallop at a pace of 83 feet per second, or a stride of 25 feet. 

So what made Eclipse able to run so incredibly fast? The genetic testing is ongoing, but the skeletal resource offers some interesting clues. The Structure and Motion Workshop at the RVC is using CT scans of his skeletal measurements, detailed accounts of his races, and copies of paintings to recreate his movement patterns. Eclipse was ultimately very average–not unusually tall, nor deep chested, nor with long “Thoroughbred” legs. In fact, his legs are average length–which contributed to his speed because he was able to bring his legs forward quickly–an impossible feat for an animal with really long legs–but a crucial component for rebalancing with each stride. Dr Alan Wilson, who led the RVC study said:

“Rather than being some freak of nature with incredible properties, he was actually just right in absolutely every way.”

Eclipse’s career as a racehorse began when he was five, an age that modern Thoroughbreds have retired. He won nine races, often by 10-20 furlongs. The distances were much longer than today’s courses, ranging from two to four miles per race. The following year he won nine races again, and retired in 1771 as there were no owners willing to run their horses against him. His stud career didn’t match his brilliant racing career initially, as Herod and Highflyer sired more winners during his lifetime. But as the progenitor of Secretariat and Phar Lap, he ultimately proved to be the more successful at stud. 

Eclipse lived to the ripe old age of 24, when he was felled by colic. An autopsy found his heart weighed 6.3 kilos–quite large for a 16 hand horse. His descendants continue to rule the racecourses today–particularly from the Pot-8-os and King Fergus lines. 

In the annals of professional gamblers, Australian Zeljko Ranogajec stands very high—perhaps the largest bettor in the world, responsible for $1 billion annually, primarily on horses. The bets have made him a multibillionaire.

In the ranks of people with identifiable markers of fame, though—like a recognizable face or public appearances—Ranogajec (whose first name is pronounced Jelko, according to the Sidney Morning Herald), wouldn’t rank among the top 100, anywhere. Perhaps not even among the top 500. Indeed, as The Daily Telegraph notes, he has never appeared on any “Richest Australian” list either, although he is thought to be one of the country’s richest.

Ranogajec is said to be ferocious about guarding and maintaining his privacy. Indeed, one of the nicknames he goes by is the “Loch Ness Monster”, in a reference to the extremely rare sightings that have made him virtually unseen and unknown by the public.

The most frequently reprinted photographs of him show him in profile, with a baseball cap perched on his head—which ultimately makes him look much like many other youthful looking middle-aged men with brown hair.

And unlike many of the world’s famous gamblers, who are larger than life (fellow Australian Kerry Packer, say, who was a huge force in Australian business as well as the gambling world), very active in their communities (American Bill Benter, who leads the gambling community in Hong Kong), or talk openly (if sparingly) to the press (Alan Woods, who invited a reporter to his compound for drinks and dinner), Ranogajec actively maintains his secrecy and his privacy. Indeed, one of his associates told The Daily Telegraph “If he knew I was talking to you about him, he’d never talk to me again.”

Early Days

Well, let’s get to know him a bit. As a person, first. Ranogajec was born in 1961 to Croatian parents who had immigrated to Australia. He studied at the University of Tasmania and the University of New South Wales. However, like Benter and Woods, he was a math whiz AND bitten by the gambling bug. As a student, he hit the casinos intent on using sophisticated mathematics and a photographic memory to memorize blackjack cards.

He won big. And the casinos didn’t like it. He ended those early days tossed out of at least two Australian casinos and one in the U.S.

But he liked it. He ended his college days and became a gambler full-time.

Betting on the margins to win

What is the secret of Ranogajec’s gambling prowess? It may lie in a conspicuous early success. He bet on a A$7.5 million pot in Keno in the mid-1990s, at that time a world record. He won. Several stories say that he likely bet A$7.5 million to win—but also had a number of smaller bets placed in a number of places, so rather than his winnings just pulling even with the amount of his bet, he ended up winning a nice amount handily.

He then switched to, and still bets primarily in, horse racing.

People who speak on the record about his method note that he bets massive amounts on small margins (the old Keno experience, writ larger) and searches relentlessly for liquidity. Ranogajec is believed to scout the betting world for large pools of cash—as much cash as possible. He and his associates then place bets on the small margins—and bring in, the Sydney Herald thinks, 1% to 2%.

His team is anything but intuitive—they use sophisticated math programs, computers, and videos to scout the gaming world.

The system has made both Ranogajec and his associates rich. David Walsh, one of his closest partners, has an art fortune of A$100 million, and Ranogajec has bought real estate worth at least A$21 million in Australia.

The purchases are not done through his name, but through a name that The Morning Telegraph speculates is a pseudonym using his wife’s maiden name. When caught and confronted by The Daily Telegraph, Ranogajec said “I’m not interested in talking to a reporter . . . no offence but it doesn’t do any good at all.”