THE LIFE OF A BOOKIE – HOUSTON

When you talk about Houston, you are talking about an area that has really rejuvenated itself from the standpoint of sports and the culture it has created. And it is also a city that had united over Hurricane Harvey and has been recovering from it.

It is also a big city indeed. We wonder if you realize that this is the fourth largest city in the United States. So naturally you have a huge population to draw from.

And there are going to be a lot of potential benefits for bookies who are enterprising enough, especially if they know how to make use of the PPH software that is available through Real Bookies.

• In recent seasons the Houston Astros have really brought baseball back in a big way. They had not won a World Series since their inception (as the Houston Colt .45s) back in 1962. Then they hired Jeff Lunhow, a former St. Louis Cardinal exec who embarked on the most analytics-driven program in baseball history.
• The Astros lost big early, as a lot of people were either laughing or even angry at their approach. But they wound up hitting a grand slam home run, capturing the World Series title in 2017, as a lot of skeptics ate their words. And all indications are that they’ll be formidable for quite some time.

So there’s been a revival of baseball “action” in the region for bookies. When you are dealing with people who bet Astros games, you’ll need to be very familiar with run lines; i.e., lines where a team is laying at least a run and a half on a game. That’s because they often bludgeon opponents with their considerable offense.

• So keep in mind that when you make use of the PPH software, you can adjust the prices on these things, or if you think it is to your advantage, to take them out of the picture entirely. Again, it depends on what your clientele’s action dictates.

• The Houston Rockets have won a couple of NBA championships, when they had Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler in the starting lineup, along with current NBA pundit Kenny Smith at the point guard spot. And in recent seasons, under coach Mike D’Antoni, they have become a dangerous team with the likes of James Harden and Chris Paul.

That the Rockets are not an afterthought is good news for you as you move on with your bookie business, because the NBA, celebrating a new and lucrative TV deal, is big business. Yes, football is a “bread-and-butter” proposition, but basketball is something that can carry you through all the way to the summer.

• Remember that with the Price Per Head software, you have the ability to offer a number of things that you wouldn’t normally be able to if you were doing things the “old-fashioned” way. These include both player and team props, not to mention first, second, third quarter odds, halftime lines, and live in-game betting as well. So there’s an opportunity to accelerate the action, if you so choose.

• If this is Texas, you know that football is going to be big. This was the home of the Astrodome, the first indoor stadium, and the Oilers plied their trade for years until they left for greener pastures in Tennessee. An expansion team replaced it, and the Houston Texans have had kind of a strange history. They have experienced much success, but seem to always disappoint in the playoffs.

They are playing in the palace-like NRG Stadium, which dwarfs the Astrodome right next to it – a sign of how far things have come in the NFL.

• The Texans may not be on everyone’s radar, but they certainly are in Houston. And you will want to know how to handle the action once you get it. You realize that there is going to be some bias toward this home team. Remember that you can always move the line half a point or so if you need to. The management tools in the software suite allow you to do just that. And if there is a possible injury to, say, DeShaun Watson or JJ Watt, you can take the lines down on your own until you have a lot more information to go on. It’s nice to have these options.

You don’t have to go to a lot of rodeos to round up players for your bookie business. Chances are, you are going to run into people who are alumni of all these Texas-based institutions who play major college football.

We’re talking about Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Houston, North Texas, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas State, UTEP and UTSA. That’s 9% of all the schools currently playing Division I (FBS) ball. And that covers a lot of conferences – the SEC, Big 12, Conference USA, American and Sun Belt.

Be ready for college football, because you can guarantee that alumni are following those schools and those leagues, and will bet on them. Are they “sharps” or “squares”? Track them through the back-end to find out, and keep in mind that you can take games off the board or adjust lines yourself if you need to.

You may not be a Lone Star among bookies, but you can be an All-Star!