recently there seems to have been quite a bit of interest from people wanting to get in the business of booking either on a local or offshore level.....so i thought this would be a good time to share my "think long and hard about this" story.
i grew up in the business, in the beginning my people never once suggested that i book for a living, when i was a teenager i ran routes, and did the meanial stuff, getting the kind of education college cant give.. but it was assumed and expected that i would get a "regularjob".. "you need to go to college, get an education, ect." was what i heard growing up.
when it became obvious what i planned to do, my dad told me, son this isnt always fun and games
its alot harder than what people realize.
it still didnt matter i had my mind set.
i didnt expect alot of help from dad, his way of helping was letting me get "first hand experience" in the beginning his only advice was "in this business your word is your bond, always pay your players on time and in full always, always, .....he didnt mention anything about how to actually run a book, even though i had been around it all my life i was still very green.
the first year i opened shop was during baskets, (he did suggest that i wait until foots next year, now i know why). but i just couldnt wait.
my first customers were a few friends and people they had gotten the word out to. in all about 30 people total. i was ready to do business, dad kept me up to date with the lines and moves.
this is how my first year went. i had one guy that played every nba game for 200 a piece, for the first couple of weeks he couldnt miss, he was killing any chance of a profit. i was convinced he was a "wise guy" so i asked dad if he would fade half the action. pops said ok.....well you can guess what happened next..all of a sudden he cant win anything, finally i think to myself i get to collect from him, he blew about 3dimes that week
(hed already been paid about 5dimes previously).
even though he blew, it wasnt a good week everyone else was plus for the week. i had 25k to use for a bankroll (thought it was more than enough, wasnt even close) that week i was paying the winners damn near 15k, so i really needed the 3k from my "sharp". i call him, and call, and i can still call him to this very day and get the same result, nada i got stiffed.
while i was stewing over this prick, dad calls and wants to know when im ready to settle (i forgot all about him fading half).
this is when class started....i told him i couldnt get a hold of the guy, dad says so...YOU CALLED THE BETS IN TO ME.. i said yeah but he.....YOU CALLED THE BETS IN TO ME....he repeated. then he proceded into an hour long lecture, during which my only response to him was yes sir or no sir..end result i get stiffed and still have to pay dad 1500 on top of that..
then things really got bad. it turns out that the majority of people on my book were "rejects or stiffs from other established books" slow pay, no pay, claims, you name it. one week guys would win 2k, the next week blow a dime and come with three hundred stuff like that.
this shit wasnt any fun at all....
i manage to lose almost my entire bankroll, and with baskets over,( not enough interest in bases)and no real chance to recover until football season...i was broke and depressed...and actually scared..what am i going to do? bills still have to be paid.....i asked pops if he had any work i could do. so its back to delivering scratch sheets and racing forms, (no gas allowance either)and if the lawn needed to be mowed that too.
i beat the bushes for more customers, weeded out the stiffs, and dad said he had a few players that hed turn my way..turns out that these were very old and senile 2 dollar horse players and 10 and 20 dollar sports bettors, and dad spread the word quickly amongst the other books that i would gladly take any of the "small" players they didnt want anymore.. hey beggors cant be choosers..
i still had one major problem.. with football season gearing up i had no bankroll, pride kept me from asking dad for money..
that first football season one of the lowest points was when i had to sell my car so i could pay people the next day. the following week made a trip to the pawn shop...maxed all my credit cards out on personal bills... yep this bookmaking thing was really starting to take off. but eventually things started to turn around, the third season was good (didnt have a losing week in foots).
when things started going good, i assumed i knew it all then, but actually i was just a different shade of green. i can say one thing about this business, it isnt for everyone...
i grew up in the business, in the beginning my people never once suggested that i book for a living, when i was a teenager i ran routes, and did the meanial stuff, getting the kind of education college cant give.. but it was assumed and expected that i would get a "regularjob".. "you need to go to college, get an education, ect." was what i heard growing up.
when it became obvious what i planned to do, my dad told me, son this isnt always fun and games
its alot harder than what people realize.
it still didnt matter i had my mind set.
i didnt expect alot of help from dad, his way of helping was letting me get "first hand experience" in the beginning his only advice was "in this business your word is your bond, always pay your players on time and in full always, always, .....he didnt mention anything about how to actually run a book, even though i had been around it all my life i was still very green.
the first year i opened shop was during baskets, (he did suggest that i wait until foots next year, now i know why). but i just couldnt wait.
my first customers were a few friends and people they had gotten the word out to. in all about 30 people total. i was ready to do business, dad kept me up to date with the lines and moves.
this is how my first year went. i had one guy that played every nba game for 200 a piece, for the first couple of weeks he couldnt miss, he was killing any chance of a profit. i was convinced he was a "wise guy" so i asked dad if he would fade half the action. pops said ok.....well you can guess what happened next..all of a sudden he cant win anything, finally i think to myself i get to collect from him, he blew about 3dimes that week
(hed already been paid about 5dimes previously).
even though he blew, it wasnt a good week everyone else was plus for the week. i had 25k to use for a bankroll (thought it was more than enough, wasnt even close) that week i was paying the winners damn near 15k, so i really needed the 3k from my "sharp". i call him, and call, and i can still call him to this very day and get the same result, nada i got stiffed.
while i was stewing over this prick, dad calls and wants to know when im ready to settle (i forgot all about him fading half).
this is when class started....i told him i couldnt get a hold of the guy, dad says so...YOU CALLED THE BETS IN TO ME.. i said yeah but he.....YOU CALLED THE BETS IN TO ME....he repeated. then he proceded into an hour long lecture, during which my only response to him was yes sir or no sir..end result i get stiffed and still have to pay dad 1500 on top of that..
then things really got bad. it turns out that the majority of people on my book were "rejects or stiffs from other established books" slow pay, no pay, claims, you name it. one week guys would win 2k, the next week blow a dime and come with three hundred stuff like that.
this shit wasnt any fun at all....
i manage to lose almost my entire bankroll, and with baskets over,( not enough interest in bases)and no real chance to recover until football season...i was broke and depressed...and actually scared..what am i going to do? bills still have to be paid.....i asked pops if he had any work i could do. so its back to delivering scratch sheets and racing forms, (no gas allowance either)and if the lawn needed to be mowed that too.
i beat the bushes for more customers, weeded out the stiffs, and dad said he had a few players that hed turn my way..turns out that these were very old and senile 2 dollar horse players and 10 and 20 dollar sports bettors, and dad spread the word quickly amongst the other books that i would gladly take any of the "small" players they didnt want anymore.. hey beggors cant be choosers..
i still had one major problem.. with football season gearing up i had no bankroll, pride kept me from asking dad for money..
that first football season one of the lowest points was when i had to sell my car so i could pay people the next day. the following week made a trip to the pawn shop...maxed all my credit cards out on personal bills... yep this bookmaking thing was really starting to take off. but eventually things started to turn around, the third season was good (didnt have a losing week in foots).
when things started going good, i assumed i knew it all then, but actually i was just a different shade of green. i can say one thing about this business, it isnt for everyone...
