What is Bookmaker? Bookmaker Explained in 2 minutes
Mike Goodpaster Last Verified
19/04/2026
A bookmaker is the general term for the place where a punter or bettor makes a bet, be it online or on a high-street shop. betting.net™ has a list of the best legal online bookmakers available in your area.
This can also refer to an individual who accepts and pays-off bets on sporting events (and often other markets such as politics) at an agreed set of odds.
A bookmaker may also be known as a sportsbook or turf accountant, (mainly in horse racing) and offer a wide variety of sports to bet on from popular sports such as football, golf, tennis, and rugby, to the less common such as kayaking and curling.
A bookmaker will offer punters numerous offers in order to entice a raft of new punters to their book price offerings meaning plenty of selection for a bettor to seek out the right bookmaker for them. It used to be that bettors had to go from bookmaker to bookmaker in order to compare bets. Nowadays tools like our Odds Comparison Page allow bettors to see odds from multiple sportsbooks all in on place!
How is Bookmaker used in Sports Betting?
A Bookmaker is the vital component for any sports bettor as it enables the platform for betting to be able to take place.
The Bookmaker will offer up the odds on sporting events such as the World Cup and it is up to the punter to decide whether they are happy to accept the book price from a bookmaker.
However, a bookmaker reacts to where the money is being placed.
For example, in a World Cup match between Brazil and Morocco, one would make Brazil heavy favorites whilst Morocco may be priced at 10/1.
If Morocco were to see a large volume of bets, those odds would reduce dramatically to, for example, 3/1.
This is in order to protect the bookmaker from large losses and also discourage match fixing.
Did you know…
At the beginning of 2018, there were over 75 British bookmakers registered, and that does not include a host of online bookmakers in their early throes of life.
It is a far cry from the first bookmaker, who was housed at Newmarket race course in 1795.
See also
