Often misused, making wagers in your layoff account can help you cut significant betting risk. It can also provide a way for you to ensure the health of your pay per head book.
Keep reading to discover why BossAction offers you a layoff account and how to use it in the most effective possible way.
Vegas sportsbooks make money hand over fist. They do this by taking massive action on sports games. Sports books in Vegas also make money by utilizing an often misunderstood wager, the layoff bet.
By laying off money on bets, sportsbooks can ensure they keep their bookmaking fees as profit. As a BossAction bookie agent, you have access to a layoff account. Check out what it is and how to use it.
A refresher on how sportsbook betting works
Bettors look to make wagers on games or events. Most bettors are sports bettors. Sports bettors wager on sports events. But because all bettors don’t make wagers on sports exclusively, we prefer the term player in the pph sportsbook industry. A player makes bets on various events.
Some of those events can be on sports games like those that the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball produce. Others prefer to wager on horses, which makes those players “horseplayers”. Still, others are casino players who bet on games like blackjack or play slot machines.
Your layoff account only applies to sports bettors. A pay per head agent can only use their layoff account to mitigate risk on sports wagers. We’ll get to the mitigation risk part in a moment.
Before doing so, though, we must return to how sportsbook betting works. Let’s say a sports bettor wants to bet on Los Angeles against Denver. The player notices that Los Angeles is -6 ½ against Denver.
- Los Angeles -6 ½
- Denver +6 ½
The player logs onto his wagering account that you maintain on your sportsbook platform. Then the bettor finds the wager, chooses it, inputs the bet amount, and hits confirm.
Let’s say the bettor wagered $1,000 on Los Angeles at -6 ½. Remember that this example includes an against the spread, or ATS, wager. The player’s bet must qualify against the spread. If the player wagered on Los Angeles at -6 ½, Los Angeles can’t just beat Denver for the player to win. Los Angeles must beat Denver by at least 7 points, against the spread, for the player to win.
The fee that you, the bookie, charges the player to facilitate the wager is usually 10%, which means you make $100 off the $1,000 stake. How do bookies make money? They make money off juice or vig, 10% from each against the spread wager.
Sounds great, right? Oh, but wait, there’s a catch. What happens if the player’s wager wins? What happens if Los Angeles wins by 8 points?
In betting on sports, players get back their risk. What they risk, the $1000 in this example, is an investment. If the investment hits, you take your fee, but you, the sportsbook software agent, must return the investment and the player’s winnings.
In this case, the player gets back $1,000 and $900 of your money. That’s $1,900 to the player and $100 to you in bookmaking fees, or juice.
Why sportsbooks layoff bets
You can probably already guess why BossAction provides you a layoff account. Let’s go a bit deeper to make sure we understand the precise reason.
We went over what can happen if a player wins a bet, the bookmaker must pay back the investment and the profit from the investment. We also know that the profit from the investment comes from the sportsbook, your sportsbook. Now we can turn our attention to why your agent per head operation has a layoff account.
The profit for the player comes from your company. You must pay your player whenever they make a winning bet. You can do that through your agent payment solution. But what will you use to make the payment?
Sportsbooks make layoff wagers to mitigate risk. Because bookmakers profit from juice, the 10% fee on ATS wagers, they must ensure they can pay off bets.
They do this by making the same wager with a different sportsbook. Let’s say the MGM Grand accepts a $1 million bet on Boston to beat Los Angeles in Game 7 of the NBA Championship. Vegas sportsbooks accept massive wagers like this all the time.
To mitigate their $1 million risk, the MGM may off-load, or “lay off “some or all of the million dollars to Caesar’s Palace, the Bellagio, or Circus Circus. It doesn’t matter the name of the sportsbook. What matters is that the sportsbook accepts the layoff wager.
Why would a sportsbook accept the layoff wager? Let’s say the Bellagio says, “Sure, no problem, MGM. I’ve got your back!” Why would the Bellagio say this? You may have already guessed the answer to the question.
The Bellagio accepted a $1 million wager on the other side, on the Lakers to beat Boston. So, if Boston beats the Lakers, the Bellagio takes the money they won from their player and uses it to pay off the MGM. If the Lakers beat Boston, the Bellagio takes what they won from the MGM and pays off their player.
In Vegas, making layoff wagers like this is easy. Be sure that before accepting huge wagers, bookies in Vegas call around town securing a layoff bet.
Managing your sportsbook layoff account
You can call the Bellagio or MGM and find a Vegas sportsbook to accept a layoff bet. BossAction provides you a layoff account, which allows you to mitigate some risk. Here’s how you most effectively use your layoff account.
Don’t lay off every dollar wagered – In the million dollars MGM and Bellagio example, those two massive sportsbooks have a reason to layoff bets. They don’t want to lose $1 million. Also, they want to keep the $100,000 juice they make off each wager.
Most individual bookies work with smaller wagers. Create layoff rules and keep things in perspective. You make $10 on every $100 against the spread bet. Is laying off $100 to ensure you earn $10 smarter than not laying off and hoping the player loses? It’s your call.
You don’t get juice on moneyline bets – You don’t get juice on moneyline bets. Manage moneyline bets by capping how much players can wager.
You can use your layoff account as a betting account – This one is tricky. Yes, you can use your layoff account as a betting account. Some gamblers are successful at this. But, it’s also a slippery slope.
You are a sports betting bookie. That’s your profession. You can easily get caught up making more wagers than managing your business, which can lead to way more problems than trying to figure out when and when not to use your layoff account.
If you’re a bookie with us, fantastic! If you’re not, you should consider importing your players. We provide top sports betting software for bookies. You can use our software for $3 per head for $3 months. We also offer a referral program where you get $100 for every friend referred once they start a sportsbook with us.
