02 July 2012
Do a search online for price per head services and you will see thousands of different companies show up. How can you tell them apart? Is one company operating under different names? What should I look for when trying out the different services? These are all questions we are about to answer to make sure you are confident when choosing a price per head service like www.RealPricePerHead.com.
The first thing you should look for is a test account and free trial period. The test account is necessary so you can visit the site to see what your players will be dealing with as well as the features for the bookie. Some sites are cheap, but their programming is weak or very common. You want something that stands out from the competition and provides you with the controls and features you need in order to run your operation.
A very common challenge for many bookies moving their operation to a pay per head service is in providing payment. Many companies will only use Western Union or MoneyGram and while these are both trusted providers, it can be inconvenient and you run the risk of having your operation shut down if payment is not received on time. A company that offers secure and discreet credit card payments might be a better option.
Moving lines is something all bookies want to be able to do, but it is not a feature all price per heads actually offer. Bookies that live in areas with heavily bet teams know how often they can get burned if they are unable to move the line, especially if they know the locals will all be on the side of the local team. This can create a significant advantage for the bookie and it is why you MUST be able to move lines on the chosen PPH.
Poker and casino action are must have features as well. The reason for this is that they offer the bookie a risk-free way to make money from their players. You are either collecting a commission from their casino loss or a portion of the rake from the poker room. At the very least, you should have poker access, especially with such a limited selection of sites for US players these days.
The features listed above are probably the biggest variables of all the pay per head services. You may initially be able to survive with a cheaper service that does not offer these features, but eventually your players are going to inquire about things such as poker and casino action. If you expect to hold their business, you had better be able to say, "Yes, we have that!"