Overall, it will depend on how big you want your betting to be and if it will be a physical sportsbook or just an online one. If you do a physical betting shop, you will have to include that in your budget and it will also depend on whether you are renting or buying the location. Please give more details.

I would say at a minimum at least $500,000.

I think it would range from around $300,000 to $500,000 for an online sportsbook.

The thing is, you also need to understand that the cost is just to open the business itself, get the necessary licenses, software, etc. You also need to look at the monthly operational expenses you will be making. This would be:

• utilities
• labor/salary (don't forget to include benefits like medical, dental, social services etc)
• rental cost
• taxes
• and a certain amount set aside for miscellaneous business expenses.

Will your projected revenue be more than that? Because if that is the case and you have the money, then go for it. That is, however, a full fledged business so you can't quit or leave any time you want to.

I found this article, https://priceperplayer.com/how-much-money-do-i-need-to-be-a-bookie/, helpful when researching this topic. The article states you need at least 30% of your maximum handle for payouts. Also, you need to put aside money for expenses, such as PPH fees. 

@3rd_will I agree on the cost here. You need to be able to release payouts for your players. So the money you need will largely depend on how much you can bankroll.

Also, a pay per head service significantly cuts down your OpEx. You can get a really good provider for $5 per player per week. $250 per week for 50 players is not bad at all. Assume that's $1,000 per month, then you have minimum $12,000 for software fees each year for 50 players. That's not bad at all, and certainly more affordable than hundreds of thousands of upfront fees and maintenance costs.

Posted by: @gimpy

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I am considering breaking away from running a sportsbook with a pay per head and just opening one from scratch. I appreciate that a PPH is cost efficient but want to know if it might be better on the long run to just buy or hire some programmers to make me a sports betting software.

I was wondering what your reasons are for wanting to open a sportsbook from scratch instead of using a PPH solution. 

Sports betting software is more expensive in terms of initial development cost and maintenance fees you need to consider in the long run. 

Posted by: @3rd_will

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Posted by: @gimpy

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I am considering breaking away from running a sportsbook with a pay per head and just opening one from scratch. I appreciate that a PPH is cost efficient but want to know if it might be better on the long run to just buy or hire some programmers to make me a sports betting software.

I was wondering what your reasons are for wanting to open a sportsbook from scratch instead of using a PPH solution. 

Sports betting software is more expensive in terms of initial development cost and maintenance fees you need to consider in the long run. 

 

This. You have pay per head providers offering their services at really reasonable prices, I do not see any reason why you would not use it. Unless you want your own proprietary software? For the record hiring developers will cost you a few thousand each month. Not even going to touch the cost of licensing software, hosting, servers and all that.