How Does Horse Racing Work With a Pay Per Head
If you’ve been researching pay-per-head (PPH) services you’ve likely seen the term “racebook”.
All PPH providers have a racebook as part of their software package. A racebook allows your clients to wager on horse racing from tracks around the world, every single day of the year.
Should PPH Bookies Utilize the Racebook?
Bookies are always looking at new ways to increase revenues and profits. The racebook is just one more way for bookmakers to make more money, but you need to understand how things work.
It’s possible to lose your shirt if you don’t know how to run your online racebook.
How to Run an Online Racebook
First off, you need a PPH service for all your horse racing needs. It’s not possible to run a racebook without the necessary software and the only affordable way to access the software is with a PPH.
One thing to keep in mind when running a racebook is risk vs. reward. Do you want people betting on $10 exotic bets that could payout $10,000+? No. You can either restrict certain bet types of you can cap winnings on certain bets, which means your exposure is limited.
Here are some tips to help you run a successful horse racing betting site:
- Track Selection: In order to compete you want a large track selection. Horse handicappers love variety and you should make sure your PPH provider offers 75+ tracks to bet on.
- Win/Place/Show Bets: Your bread and butter will be win/place/show bets. Your best bet with these wagers is to pay track odds. You can set your own odds, but if you’re paying out less than track odds, you’re not going to entice anyone to bet with your racebook.
- Exotic Bets: This is where you need to be careful as a PPH bookie. Your bankroll is limited and you can’t afford paying out a 5-figure sum to one lucky punter. This is why you need caps on how much a single bet can payout in your online racebook.
- Rebates: Most online racebooks offer a daily/weekly rebate of around 5%-10%. Do you need to offer a rebate? No, but PPH services give you the option to set a rebate percentage.
You should keep in mind, most of your players aren’t likely to bet on many races.
However, there are some big races annually that everyone will want to bet on. The Kentucky Derby is one of the most widely bet on sporting events every year and can be a huge moneymaker.
Leading PPH providers have tracks from around the world. Horse racing is popular in a lot of countries around the world, including the USA, Canada, UK, France, Australia and Hong Kong.
Is your online racebook revenue going to outperform your sportsbook revenue? That’s very unlikely, but you should be doing everything you can to increase revenues per active player. If you can get a handful of your players betting on the horses, you can add some extra profits to your bottom line.
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