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Just out of curiosity, what do you think is the required opening minimum capital one needs to open a sportsbook offshore? Software required, licensing fees, employees, overhead, etc....What do you think is the ballpark figure?
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I hope whoever answers doesn't forget to include operating capital to pay winners (books can actually lose over a short period of time).
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We will spend over $1 million in advertising this year and have invested in the most state of the art technology
This comes off the FAQ section of V-Wager's web site.
I quess the answer is at least a million!Comment
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A few years ago, when we first got involved with advertising, the Internet and offshore, we were contacted by numerous books starting out and one or two that were already out there (WWTS).
Some of them went out to the islands with pocket change (couple of hundred thousand). Others went out there intent on doing well.
One of the books we dealt with was WSEX. They had "a plan"....and they did well. Specifically because everything they said they would do, they did. Jay was top notch and his cohorts (Hayden and Steve) are still doing a jam up job!
Cost.....then it was no less than $750,000. Now, you better plan on over 1 million to get off the ground. Costs are higher, acquisition of customers is harder and you are competing with many established books. Of course, if you can't handle at least three or four losing weeks in a row, you better not go out there to begin with!
Football season is where everything is determined each year. Books come and go at that time. The ones that advertise and keep a presence during baseball are the ones that will be around for the long haul.
Okay, nuff said. Have a great weekend all!
Karol :cool:Comment
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This is a question with MANY answers and price ranges......
In the early days, it was possible to do it on a shoe string. Global Sports Connection. which became betmaker.com and then eventually Sportingbetusa was started for about $150,000 or less.
But, of course, they started when there were only 3 or 4 other online sportsbooks.......they also came very close to going under......but eventually sold the business for something like 12 million.
There are several others from the early days that were started with 300k or less.
These days, you have several options if you want to get involved with owning an offshore book.
Option A) The least expensive, is to go in as a sub licensee with one of the licensees of a company like starnet. You could get a piece of a book for 50k or less going that route. You would have your own url, do your own marketing, and get a piece of the profits. You would have no control over running the book, ie, lines etc.etc.
Option B) You could become a licensee of a one of the cookie cutter operations like starnet. You would have to invest a minimum of 300-500k. Again, you would only be responsible for marketing and maybe some customer service. You would have no control over lines, or the day to day operations of the book/casino.
Option C) Start your own joint from ground zero. This way, you'd have to find office space, get all kinds of equipment, bandwidth, hire help, advertise, and on and on and on. This is a significant chunck for a start up IF YOU DO IT RIGHT. Doing it right would require well over a million. Unfortunately, many don't do it right.
Then there's all kinds of other possibilities, depending on your connections in the industry.
For example, if you know other operators offshore, you could get them to write your business for you, and pay them to do so. This way, you don't have to worry about office space and day to day customer service. You just need to have the money to pay the book and the customers, and of course to market.
So as you see, there are many ways to get involved on many levels. But it's much more difficult today than it was a few years ago.
Fact is, some of the biggest most well known books have had a tough time recently. More than a few books have had there share of cash flow problems. The new operation, unless funded to the gills, will have a tough time making it, especially if they don't have the know-how and conncetions to get out of a tight spot should one arise.
[ 07-07-2001: Message edited by: Jeff ]Comment
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