College Student and Bookmaker

When you are first entering college, you may be intimidated by the possible student debt that you have to take on. You know from working minimum wage jobs in high school that a job like that is not going to pay off your student loans quickly. 

So, you might be reading this to see if there are any good side hustles for college students? Allow us to introduce the idea of being a sports bookie. 

You may have seen an older friend or relative place a sports bet and see all of the odds displayed on TV for the games. Well, the sports betting industry is taking off, and it is reported to be worth at least $150 billion. 

The question you may have after reading that is, does being a sports bookmaker make for a good college side hustle? Here are the pros of taking this on in college. 

Work Flexibility

For a lot of students, working can take up a lot of their time, especially if they have a job off-campus. This report reveals that 71% of part-time college students are working 20 or more hours a week. 

It may not be an ideal situation for you if you are looking for something that is not going to get in the way of your schoolwork. Being a bookie for sports betting allows you to have all of the flexibility in the world for your job. 

The first thing that is flexible for you is where you are working. To manage a sportsbook, all you need is an internet connection. So, with that in mind, you could really keep an eye on your sportsbook without even having to leave your dorm. 

All you would have to do is make sure that you get a consistent internet connection from your dorm and that your laptop is up to date. 

The second thing that would become flexible about this job for you in college is the hours that you can work. Unless you have an emergency come up for your sportsbook, you can work on other basic tasks whenever you want to. 

If you are worried about having time to work on the sportsbook in between classes, you would have the option of not having to work on it until the end of the day. You can do things on your terms and by doing that, you would increase the chances of you succeeding academically. 

This not only makes it easier for you to maintain a job while you are completing a college degree but also makes it easier on your time management and stress levels as well. 

Getting an Experienced Team 

So, you may be interested in the idea of becoming a sports bookie but you may have not feasible ideas on how to turn that into a reality. Well, another benefit for you is that you do not have to go about this project alone. 

In fact, you will get an experienced team of people behind you that will not only help you get your sportsbook up and running but also help you operate and maintain that sportsbook as well. The catch is that it is a pay-per-head system and for these services, you would have to pay a third-party $10 for every new bettor that places a bet on your platform. 

This third-party service can help you with the graphics of your online sportsbook, give you the hardware that you need to keep your sportsbook secure online, the software that you need to keep the sportsbook operating the way that it was designed to, and the customer support that you will need for issues that are due to come up. 

Let’s say that your software is supposed to change the Steelers from a 10-point underdog to a 9-point underdog. If you do not have the right software to update that line fast enough, that could be money that you are losing out on if the Steelers were to lose by exactly 10 points. 

Every line change can make or break you, plus bettors want the benefits of user-friendliness without their personal information being at risk. That is what a pay-per-head system can do for you and having the option to have a team like this behind you can put you ahead of the game. 

Making Real Money 

Let’s face it, if you are fresh out of high school, there may not be a lot of well-paying jobs that you can qualify for. The minimum wage in the United States can be as low as $7.25 per hour in some states. 

That is just over $1,000 a month and in that situation, you would be lucky to be making $13,000 per year. If you think about how much college tuition can cost you when paying the entire thing out of pocket, you realize that working a minimum wage job can make you take over a decade to pay your money back. 

Taking this job on as a side hustle allows you the chance to greatly expedite that process. Of course, your actual income will depend on how well you operate your book and if you have a little luck on your side with some games. 

However, let’s say that you have 1,000 bettors in a week and most of them bet about $100 each in that week. In total, that is $100,000 on the line. 

Then, let’s say that the house (your sportsbook) takes about 60% of the handle as profit while only having to pay out about 40% of the bets that were made on your platform.

That would leave you with $10,000 in profit after paying your $10 per head service fee to the third-party platform for your sportsbook operations. Even if you were to make that much in profits for a month, you would be making six figures annually in no time.  

Gaining Experience 

If you want to enter the professional sports betting field, becoming a sports bookie in college can be a great experience to put on a resume for you. It teaches you responsibilities such as keeping track of profits made for a business, problem-solving, how to handle daily business operations, and how to delegate tasks to a team. 

When you are in college, you may be looking for extra things to put on a resume besides the degree that you are working towards. Now, instead of putting a regular minimum wage task where you are doing menial labor, you can put down real experience to use towards your future resume. 

It may either put you on the track towards upper management positions or career positions where it is required for you to run daily operations. Plus, there is the fact that you can make enough of your own money to perhaps invest in more businesses in the future. 

Starting this young also allows you to grow into the position of sports bookie at an early age and get settled into a career path that only looks to be having more money in the field for the foreseeable future. 

With you being your own boss, you have the chance to gain confidence and leadership skills that you can use to complete tasks for the rest of your life. 

Networking Opportunities 

Finally, starting this in college has a unique for you to earn networking opportunities. A lot of colleges have tens of thousands of people on their campus daily, with almost half of them being of legal age to gamble on sports. 

So, you can practice your networking skills and let a big group of students that are old enough to bet know that you have a platform that they can use to bet on games. You can find these students just by walking around campus, joining local social media groups, joining other organizations on campus, or just by talking to the friends that you have on campus. 

Being in college, you may have other people reaching out to you as a contact to be a voice for the college audience. You have extra time to build up contacts and learn through trial and error in more of a bubble space about how to network properly. 

You do have access to perhaps the largest group of people that you will ever be surrounded by at one time, so it would be wise to take advantage of that opportunity.

Stop Looking for Side Hustles for College Students

After reading this article, your search for side hustles for college students should be over. Being a sports bookie is a very unique opportunity to earn some extra income while building a career and having flexible working conditions. 

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