The Global Football Season Checklist for Bookies

Know the calendar

Autumn stacks the biggest competitions in the world on top of each other. A typical week for a global book looks like this:

• Tuesday and Wednesday: UEFA Champions League and Copa Libertadores knockout nights. Heavy live-betting volume from Europe and South America.
• Thursday: Europa League, Copa Sudamericana and NFL Thursday Night Football.
• Friday to Sunday: Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Liga MX, Brasileirão and the Argentine Primera, plus college football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday.
• Monday: NFL Monday Night Football and Serie A or Liga MX Monday fixtures. Settlement day for most agents.

Add international breaks in October and November, when World Cup and Euro qualifiers replace club football for ten days, and the cricket, tennis and basketball seasons running underneath it all.

Before the season: six things to set

1. Review every player's limits. Volume goes up in autumn; make sure max bets and max payouts still make sense for each profile. Raise limits for reliable players and hold them for anyone new.
2. Set parlay caps. Weekend accumulators across ten leagues are hugely popular and can pay hundreds to one. Cap legs and payouts per profile.
3. Decide your live-betting delay. A few seconds of acceptance delay on in-play markets protects you from players using fast feeds. Global PPH lets you set it per sport.
4. Check odds formats and languages. New players from a new country? Set their format and language before they log in for the first time.
5. Turn on the casino for everyone. Midweek nights without a big match are when slots and live roulette carry your figures.
6. Confirm your settlement routine. Agree the day, the method and the currency with every player. Write it down.

During the season: a weekly rhythm

Monday: run the weekly figures, settle up, and check which players were inactive. Inactive players cost you nothing on a pay per head plan, but a message about the week's big fixtures often wakes them up.

Tuesday: look at exposure on the midweek Champions League and Libertadores cards. Shade lines for any player who beat the closing price repeatedly last week.

Friday: post the weekend's headline fixtures to your player group. Highlight a derby or a rivalry match in each of your players' regions: Clásico, Superclásico, North London derby, Chiefs v Bills.

Sunday night: check exposure on Monday Night Football and any Monday club fixtures before you sleep, and lay off if one result would hurt.

Promotions that work for independents

• A small free bet on the first Champions League night of the season for players who were active the week before.
• A referral credit paid when the new player has been active for two weeks.
• A "derby day" boosted price on the biggest match in each region, capped at a low maximum stake.

Keep promotions simple and capped. The goal is activity, not giveaways.

Protect your margin

High season is also when sharp players are most active. Watch for accounts that bet only on line moves, that consistently beat the closing price or that suddenly increase their stake on a single market. Shade those accounts individually, lower their limits, or both. Use the layoff account whenever a single result on a single match would wipe out more than a normal week's hold.