Acquiring a sportsbook?

[InterestedParty]

Any ideas on how to go about purchasing a preexisting sportsbook?

I could just inquire to individual books directly but I was wondering if anyone has any other ideas.

[SSLP]

you must have connections to do this , else anybody with a few hundred k would buy .

Which mind you in this business any pre existing book worth buying with a good rep , solid client base and good processing will run you at least $1 million plus

[InterestedParty]

As to your second point I had in mind a smaller and more marginally profitable type book, more for it's infrastructure than for its client base. Actually a book near bankruptcy would be ideal for this purpose. Maybe this is a bad idea and it would make more sense to just start from scratch.

As to your first point I don't really follow. Money is money. If an owner is interested and selling and I can meet his price, what's the problem?

[flyingillini]

SSLP is an industry legend and hero to most in CR. He knows what he is talking about.

[InterestedParty]

Not second-guessing, was just trying to understand his point.

[InTheHole]

You need at least 300k in my opinion to carry a "small" client base.

[GELATINOUS CUBE]

I have no idea. Never tried it. You would need millions. But of course, once the sale goes through, it's yours and it would cost quite a bit to get it back..

T-bell was ok tonight! Hopefully it will stay down. Coors time! Why are the rockies not turning blue though, thangs been n the fridge for a day.

[Karla]

Looking for a book that is near "bankruptcy" would be a disaster. Unless you will be modifying the name.

[head_strong]

Call them up and ask them how much to buy their book.....

[GoodOldTed]

Looking for a book that is near "bankruptcy" would be a disaster. Unless you will be modifying the name.

Only if everyone knew... plenty of low-budget operations out there that could be close to the wire without anyone knowing.

[GoodOldTed]

Any ideas on how to go about purchasing a preexisting sportsbook?

I could just inquire to individual books directly but I was wondering if anyone has any other ideas.

Go to trade shows and conferences, meet a few people, pick up a few business cards. There are always firms willing to sell at the right price and if you establish connections with the 'people who know people', your ear to the ground will be in place.

[SSLP]

As to your second point I had in mind a smaller and more marginally profitable type book, more for it's infrastructure than for its client base. Actually a book near bankruptcy would be ideal for this purpose. Maybe this is a bad idea and it would make more sense to just start from scratch.

As to your first point I don't really follow. Money is money. If an owner is interested and selling and I can meet his price, what's the problem?

Only if everyone knew... plenty of low-budget operations out there that could be close to the wire without anyone knowing.

How would changing the name help ? they would just turn into a Goto Ent platform with many books who dont pay.

[katstale]

PLEASE call Lenny at Cascade and give him a few hundred dollars for his book (minus the cockfighting part). Then email all the clients he ripped off and tell them you will pay them 50 cents on the dollar if they will rollover their balances 10x.

This should get you to D+ in a hurry with SBR and lots of favorable free press.

Good Luck.

[InterestedParty]

Go to trade shows and conferences, meet a few people, pick up a few business cards. There are always firms willing to sell at the right price and if you establish connections with the 'people who know people', your ear to the ground will be in place.

Do you have any specific trade shows in mind?

Also for those who asked regarding a near bankrupt book, the primary reason is simply that it would be cheap and we would likely be running the book substantially differently anyway (so the goodwill or lack thereof might have limited carryover).

The ideal would be a book that's about to stiff its customers but hasn't yet...it's possible a book that actually has stiffed would work if we did something like what the last poster suggested with Cascade, plus a name change.

We're not interested in buying anything for full "retail" price because this would be a speculative venture (not so much whether we could make the book profitable but whether we could make the book profitable enough to be worth the time + criminal liability). So a book with a big problem that is fixable (especially with a capital injection) would work nicely.

[AimingHigh]

Do you have any specific trade shows in mind?

Also for those who asked regarding a near bankrupt book, the primary reason is simply that it would be cheap and we would likely be running the book substantially differently anyway (so the goodwill or lack thereof might have limited carryover).

The ideal would be a book that's about to stiff its customers but hasn't yet...it's possible a book that actually has stiffed would work if we did something like what the last poster suggested with Cascade, plus a name change.

We're not interested in buying anything for full "retail" price because this would be a speculative venture (not so much whether we could make the book profitable but whether we could make the book profitable enough to be worth the time + criminal liability). So a book with a big problem that is fixable (especially with a capital injection) would work nicely.

Sounds like Heroes Casino might make the ideal purchase for you. They've been working on a capital injection for months, and just last week went offline, so pretty much fit your definition. I don't think they had any problem other than a "run on the bank" after a weird dispute with a casino player, which caused their casino provider to pull the plug, and the software provider paid the player themselves. Once the casino was gone, they had no way to bring in the money for all the players wanting to cash out.

[JELLYBEAN]

PLEASE call Lenny at Cascade and give him a few hundred dollars for his book (minus the cockfighting part). Then email all the clients he ripped off and tell them you will pay them 50 cents on the dollar if they will rollover their balances 10x.

This should get you to D+ in a hurry with SBR and lots of favorable free press.

Good Luck.

Lenny wouldnt even take any money. He thinks he is still in the business