Today, more people participate in online soccer betting in Singapore and other southeast Asian countries. Comes as this activity provides them with a fun and thrilling experience and enables them to earn extra money, even without leaving the comforts of their homes.
But before bettors engage in football betting Malaysia by creating an account on an online sportsbook platform, they must first learn which one is more advantageous for their betting career. While online sports betting websites share many similarities, such as offering a wide variety of sports betting markets and great bonuses and promotions, these bookmakers also have differences that set them apart.
Online sportsbooks are categorised into two: sharp and soft, and they differ in various aspects: target market, business model, betting odds, betting limits, and marketing efforts.
Key Characteristics of Sharp and Soft Bookmakers
Sharp bookmakers are aimed at professional sports bettors, modelled on a low margin from higher turnover. They use a more sophisticated system to efficiently create and adjust their betting lines, spend less on marketing, and provide their customers with higher betting limits. This enables them to provide their customers with betting odds that are much higher than their counterpart bookies and accurately reflect an event’s probability. Additionally, they can offer better odds and prices by spending less on marketing efforts.
In contrast, soft bookmakers aim at the betting public, who generally consider sports betting a form of entertainment and gamble for fun. These bookies model their business on higher margins – taking about five to ten per cent on the odds of a game – and they are also slow at changing their odds, as they use manual systems to adjust their lines.
Furthermore, soft bookies operate on higher margins to have enough money to spend on active marketing efforts, which helps reach more square bettors and increase their customer base. And this type of bookmaker is quick to restrict or ban sports bettors who bet big on their offered betting lines – they deem such gamblers a significant risk to their business.
Here is an infographic from 88ProAsia, which details the differences between sharp and soft bookmakers.
