Pay Per Head bookmaking: tips for choosing your provider

For any bookmaker who takes his business seriously the time comes when he needs to take the decision of moving his players to an offshore pay per head company, this is one of the most important decisions he will have to make, not only this means an extra investment, but also it represents an opportunity to increase his operation and expand almost unlimited. By using this type of service the bookie is able to move aside one of the most overwhelming tasks that any bookmaker faces: keeping all players balances, including wins, loses, and credit limits, in a clean and organized way to make sure your operation runs smoothly.
But what exactly is the 'pay per head' service that these companies offer? By signing up with one of these services the bookie gets access to software that takes care of tracking all players’ activities through a series of reports that are later made accessible to the bookie. The bookie will be able to keep track of essentially every aspect of his players’ gambling activity. Even though these bookmaking management software solutions are at their root glorified accounting software, because of their offshore nature, they bring to the table a very and essential aspect to the business: legality.
The most important and reliable pay per head companies are located offshore (most of them in Costa Rica, or Panama), in places and countries where they are fully licensed under territory laws to provide this type of service. They essentially act as data management and processing centers, which in turn allows the bookie to no longer keep important records and information about his players hidden in his computer or another insecure location. When the bookie first signs up to start using one of these services he is given an username and password for each of his players, which means he is not required to exchange any personal player's information, all this adds an extra layer of privacy to the entire bookie-PPH relationship.
Pay per head companies are nothing new to the gambling industry, because of this there is already a plethora of offerings out there that vary in not only quality(website design, sportsbook look and feel, website accessibility)  but also on reliability(lines movement, grading time, server redundancy, etc.); this is the reason why it really pays off to apply some of your time in doing some research on these companies to find out what they are really all about and what differentiate one another. Of course is almost impossible to do this if you first don't know what factors to look and ask for when comparing; next up we will guide you on the right direction mentioning some of the aspects that you should consider:

• Make sure you have a solid idea of what you are looking for:

Remember, you are signing up to these services for a reason, make sure this is a priority and find out which of the companies you put your eye on best cover this request. There will always be a PPH that offers the information that you are interested in, establishing a balance between price and service is key in guaranteeing your success.

• Demand customization:

You should have the right to get your own website and be in the liberty of making any changes to it that you want; (you wouldn't want your site to look the same as the next bookie on the business right?). Some of the top Price per head companies even give you the option to have your own domain name or URL, the most reliable ones even offer to purchase this name for you at no extra cost (with the only condition that they keep the name if you ever decide to no longer do business with them), or you can purchase the URL and use it on one of the sites they give you.

• Get a firsthand experience of the software:

Any respectable pay per head software provider will be able to give you some player test accounts (logins and passwords) for you to access the sportsbook software and see the lines and the interface your players will be seeing when putting a bet; you should also ask for test accounts for the agent back-end and be able to also see the reports you will be using to monitor your players and keep track of their betting activities.
When using the player test account you would want to ask the PPH to keep it active for a couple of days and then monitor the lines for the sports you are interest, place some 'fake' bets and see how fast these are graded once the game finishes. We also recommend signing up for a trial period in places like DonBest.com or SportsOptions.com (both of them free) so you can compare the lines from different sportsbook companies to the ones you see on the PPH test account, see how fast they move, when second half’s lines are open to the public, and what game lines are available for your players, if you see any game missing, give the PPH provider a call and ask him to enable that game for your test account.

• Look for top-quality datacenter offices:

No matter how good your player's website looks or how many lines you sportsbook handles if things are not up and running all the time, because of this take the time to give the bookmaking software provider some questions about the data management offices and servers quality. Even though you might not be an expert on networking and servers administration, the PPH should be able to give you some basic information about the server redundancy and protocols used.
Server redundancy refers to a backup server; the task of this second server is to take over if any problems occur on the first and primary server. Some of the most established bookmaking service providers secure your players information and their ability to put in any wagers at any time by having both, the primary and secondary servers running all the time, this practice of sharing duties among servers highly increases the overall throughput and guarantees a smooth experience for your clients.

• Final thoughts:

When you are doing your research, calling and reading reviews for the top-rated Pay per head providers out there keep in mind that there is a big amount of companies that offer this service, these companies differ from each other not only in the options of the service they provide to the bookie, but also in the 'per player' price they charge. Signing up with one of these companies only based on the fact that they offer the lowest price per player can be a bad decision if you don't consider your particular requirements and the factors just explained. Make sure to go back to this article from time to time and use it as a guide to point you in the right direction on your quest to find the Price per head bookmaking provider that truly meets your needs.