Bookmaker

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This article is about bookmaking with respect to gambling. For making books, see
Bookbinding.
Bookmakers on a greyhound race course, Reading, UK
A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporti
ng and other events at agreed upon odds.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Range of events
* 2 Operational procedures
* 3 Legality
* 4 United Kingdom gambling industry
* 5 Internet gambling
* 6 See also
* 7 References
[edit] Range of events
Most bookmakers in the United States bet merely on college and professional spor
ts, though in the United Kingdom and Ireland they offer a wider range of bets, i
ncluding each-way betting on golf, football and tennis, and especially horse rac
ing and greyhound racing. They also specialize in novelty events such as betting
that there will be a white Christmas, the outcome of political elections and re
ality television contests.
[edit] Operational procedures
Main article: Mathematics of bookmaking
By adjusting the odds in his favor or by having a point spread, the bookmaker wi
ll aim to guarantee a profit by achieving a 'balanced book', either by getting a
n equal number of bets for each outcome, or (when he is offering odds) by gettin
g the amounts wagered on each outcome to reflect the odds. When a large bet come
s in, a bookmaker can also try to lay off the risk by buying bets from other boo
kmakers. The bookmaker does not generally attempt to make money from the bets th
emselves, but rather profiting from the event regardless of the outcome. Their w
orking methods are similar to that of an actuary, who does a similar balancing o
f financial outcomes of events for the assurance and insurance industries.
[edit] Legality
Bookmaking may be legal or illegal, and may be regulated; in the United Kingdom
it was at times both regulated and illegal, in that licences were required but n
o debts arising from gambling could be enforced through the courts. Now, since t
he inception of the National Lottery, not only is it completely legal in the UK,
it is a small contributor to the British economy, with a recent explosion of in
terest with regard to the international gaming sector industry. However, gamblin
g debts still remain unenforceable under English law.[citation needed]
Bookmaking is generally illegal in the United States, with Nevada being a notabl
e exception.[citation needed] In 2009, one of the co-founders of BetOnline was a
rrested on bookmaking charges.[1]
In some countries, such as Singapore, Sweden, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan, the o
nly legal bookmaker is state-owned and operated. In Canada, this is part of the
lottery program and is known as Sport Select.
In the United Kingdom, trusted legal bookmakers are members of IBAS, which is an
 industry standard organization which resolves to settle disputes.
[edit] United Kingdom gambling industry
Traditionally, bookmakers have been located at the racecourse, but improved TV c
overage and modernisation of the law have allowed betting in shops and casinos i
n most countries. In the UK, on-track bookies still mark up the odds on boards b
eside the race course and use tic-tac or mobile telephones to communicate the od
ds between their staff and to other bookies, but, with the modernisation of Unit
ed Kingdom Bookmaking laws, online and high street gambling are at an all-time h
igh, with a so-called Super Casino having been planned for construction in Manch
ester prior to the government announcing that this plan had been scrapped on 26
February 2008.
In 1961, Harold Macmillan's Conservative Government legalised betting shops and
tough measures were enacted to ensure that bookmakers remained honest. A large a
nd respectable industry has grown since. At one time there were over 15,000 bett
ing shops in the UK. Now, through consolidation, they have been reduced to about
8,500. Currently there are four major "high street" bookmakers in the United Ki
ngdom: William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral, and state-owned ToteSport, with Sky Bet,
Bet24, Betfred, Victor Chandler, Stan James, Sportingbet, Mansion and Bet365, ra
pidly emerging, in terms of turnover and event sponsorship.
[edit] Internet gambling
With the arrival of the World Wide Web, many bookmakers have an online brand, al
though independently owned bookmakers often still maintain a "bricks and mortar"
only operation and others operate a "skin" or "white label" operation which the
y purchase from one of the large firms as is the case with BetDirect and Betterb
et . The main websites only accept bets from countries where Internet gambling i
s not prohibited, and from people over 18 years old. Often these websites are li
nked to online casinos. Controversially, the explosion in Internet gambling is b
eing linked to an increase in gambling addiction, according to the UK's help and
advice organizations for addicts, GamCare and Gamblers Anonymous.
Increasingly, online bettors are turning to the use of betting exchanges such as
Betfair and BETDAQ, which automatically match Back and Lay bets between differe
nt bettors, thus effectively cutting out the bookmaker's traditional profit marg
in also called an overround.
These online exchange markets operate a market index of prices near but usually
not at 100% competitiveness as exchanges take commissions on winnings. True whol
esale odds are odds that operate at 100% of probabilistic outcomes.
Betting exchanges compete with the traditional bookmaker. Not only are they gene
rally able to offer punters better odds due to their much lower overheads, but a
lso in giving opportunities for arbitrage: the practice of taking advantage of a
price differential between two or more markets, although traditionally arbitrag
e has always been possible by backing all outcomes with bookmakers (dutching) as
opposed to laying an outcome on an exchange. Exchanges do, however, allow bookm
akers to see the state of the market and can set their odds accordingly.
Some bookmakers have even taken to using betting exchanges as a way of laying of
f unfavorable bets and thus reducing their overall exposure. This has led insecu
rity from some TABs in Australia, state-run betting agencies which attempted to
deny Betfair an Australian license by running unfavorable ads in the media regar
ding the company. When Tasmania granted Betfair a license despite these efforts
the Western Australian state legislature passed a law that specifically criminal
ised using betting exchanges from within the state, however that law was later r
uled to be unconstitutional.
Bets are also taken via phones, using SMS text messages, though poker and other
sports are more suited to other mediums. As technology moves on, the gambling wo
rld ensures it is a major player in new technology operations.
Most televised sports in the United Kingdom and Europe are now sponsored wholly
or partly by Internet and high street bookmakers, with sometimes several bookmak
ers and online casinos being displayed on players' shirts, advertising hoardings
, stadium signs and competition event titles, although Werder Bremen are current
ly fighting the German courts for the freedom to continue featuring bookmaker Bw
in on their shirts, as Germany and France take action against online gamers.
With the recent banning of tobacco sponsorship, and the significant commercial b
udgets available to the gaming industry, sponsorship by car manufacturers, alcoh
olic drinks, soft drinks and fast food marketers is being rapidly replaced by sp
onsorship by gaming companies in the Far East and Europe.
The United Kingdom Gambling Act 2005 introduces a new regulatory system for gove
rning gambling in Great Britain. This system includes new provisions for regulat
ing the advertising of gambling products. These provisions of the Act came into
effect in September 2007. It is an offence to advertise in the UK, gambling whic
h physically takes place in a non-European Economic Area (EEA), or in the case o
f gambling by remote means, gambling which is not regulated by the gambling laws
of an EEA state.[2]
The situation is more confused in the United States, which has attempted to rest
rict operators of foreign gambling websites accessing their domestic market. Thi
s has resulted in a ruling against the US Government by the WTO.[3]
[edit] See also
* Bookies - film
* Famous bookmakers
* Fixed-odds gambling
* Glossary of bets offered by UK bookmakers
* Match fixing
* Mathematics of bookmaking
* Numbers game
* Off-Track Betting

* Organized crime
* Parlay
* Point shaving
* Problem gambling
* SP bookmaking
* Sports betting
* Sportsbook
* Vigorish
[edit] References
1. ^ Gary Craig (7 February 2010). "Rochester region at center of online gamb
ling arrests". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. http://rocnow.com/article/local
-news/20102070361. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
2. ^ UK Advertising of gambling regulated
3. ^ WTO rules against US protectionism