At Least a Couple of Online Ways to Go in Betting World Cup

With the World Cup coming up, we are mindful that there plenty of people who are going to be placing bets on their favorite teams, which, in the case of this event, which is the biggest in the world, means that they will be wagering on their respective countries. There are 32 of them involved, with eight groups of four teams apiece.

The teams will gather in Brazil, a hotbed of soccer (of football, as it is known in most places). The best players involved are international superstars, which may be strange for most Americans to understand, because the sport still hasn't really arrived in the U.S. yet - not to the degree it has nearly everywhere else, including New Zealand to a considerable extent. Thus there will be a high profile. And even casual players will be throwing down a wager.

When that happens, they will sometimes be betting with an online sportsbook, and if they do that, they are going to have a chance to take advantage of some bonuses for signing up, just like in an online casino, as well as "free bets" that are awarded to them when they open up an account. Of course, the whole thing is designed for the bettor to make a deposit.

If you were to wager on the World Cup with a "neighborhood" or "private" bookmaker (experienced people in this business don't call themselves 'bookies'), you may be logging into an online account as well. But that is only because the bookmaker will be utilizing a service known as PPH, which could either stand for "Price Per Head" or "Pay Per Head."

A PPH company, more often that not, is an online sportsbook operation, which may or may not be still operating a "post-up" business (where bettors deposit money up front and play off that). What they do is literally make the whole infrastructure available for the private bookmaker (which in PPH parlance is called an "agent") so that the business of placing wagers can be conducted online (or by special arrangement, through an offshore call center). The customers can have an entire menu, like an online sportsbook, as his or her disposal, which hundreds and hundreds of betting options. It operates just like an online sportsbook, except that your "man" settles up with you outside of this setup (maybe face-to-face).

The bookmaker is, in effect, leasing the software from the sportsbook company, on the basis of a fee charged for every customer who used the interface in the course of a week - hence the term "Price Per Head." There's a lot more to it, but in effect it allows the bookmaker/agent to automate the business of taking bets and concentrate on other things, while putting a very professional face on things for the player. Isn't that interesting?