THE LIFE OF A BOOKIE – LOS ANGELES

When you have a city (actually a county) as large as Los Angeles, it is inevitable that for any bookie business that is enterprising, there are going to be endless possibilities.

By its very nature, Los Angeles is a place where sports stars want to be, and therefore the face of the sporting scene is going to be ever-changing, because deals are invariably made to bring these stars into the fold. A recent example was the trade that brought Anthony Davis to the Lakers, to join LeBron James.

Well one thing to understand right away is that, for the most part, that which makes up the structure of the sports atmosphere in Los Angeles consists of ingredients that came from somewhere else.

• The Lakers’ name isn’t indigenous to the city, but rather to Minneapolis, which is where they originated and became an early NBA power. The franchise became a magnet for some of the league’s best, including Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain. Still, they were largely identified as a team that lost championship finals to the Boston Celtics.

The Lakers finally broke through in 1972, behind an NBA-record 33-game winning streak. Later editions of the team featured the combination of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, led mostly by Pat Riley. The rivalry with the Celtics continued, and the “Bird vs. Magic” showdowns brought the league to a whole new level.

There was yet another era of greatness when Phil Jackson led the team to five titles, as Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant became the superstar combo. In recent years the Lakers have fallen on harder times, but there are hopes of building another “super-team” with LeBron.

• The Clippers have always been considered “red-headed step-children” to the Lakers, since arriving from San Diego. And they’ve been through the rather ugly Donald Sterling scandal. But with Microsoft mogul Steve Ballmer taking charge, there could be better days ahead.
• When you are taking basketball action as a bookie in Los Angeles, you need to understand that there has always been a bias toward the Lakers in this city. And now, not only with LeBron but with Anthony Davis as well, they are likely going to be overvalued by recreational bettors. So if you know your clientele (and there’s no reason you shouldn’t), you can take advantage of this. That’s what possible with the controls in the PPH software and what they allow you to do.

• The Dodgers, of course, came from Brooklyn, and they are one of the three most valuable franchises in Major League Baseball. Since they own and operate their own stadium, they aren’t likely moving anytime soon. The Angels are really not an L.A. entity.
• This is a Dodger town, obviously. And they’re winning. As a bookie, baseball is not going to be the most prominent part of your action. But you’ll have to be watching out for a bias in Dodger activity. When you log into your back-end tools you can see who the heaviest bettors on the hometown team are. And if you need to shift the lines, that’s what you should be doing. The software allows you to do that; it is state-of-the-art.

• The Rams and Chargers have just moved back to the area. And they’ll share a state-of-the-art stadium in Inglewood, which is going to be a showcase for the NFL and will host the Super Bowl in 2022.
• While it is true that Los Angeles hadn’t had a football team for a long time, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been as much interest in the sport – not by a longshot. You need to capitalize on the action that is not too “sharp.”
• It will be interesting for you as a bookie to track what kind of action you get on these “home” teams. Neither of them has established much in the way of roots yet, although the Rams, with their recent Super Bowl appearance, have an inside track.

It may depend on where you live. People in L.A. County tend to be different in they live in the valley than if they live in West Hollywood or West Los Angeles or Beverly Hills. etc.

There is some “roller’ action in places like that, and remember that there is no shortage of networking opportunity. There may not be any city in America with more poker games than Los Angeles, and poker players often like to bet sports.

Sure, in a metropolis such as this, you’re going to find a lot of sharp players, but if they become customers, you have ways to decipher all this with the management tools you have as part of the Real Bookies PPH software.

At the same time, you have a lot of squares who think they’re smart, who like to gamble, go to Vegas and are always looking for an “out.” As long as they can be relied upon to pay their losses (get recommendations), your bookie business can really take off in LaLa Land.