History of Online Gambling Part Two: The Online Sports Betting

GamingZion reveals the beginnings of one of the world’s most popular gaming business: the online sports betting.

Some do it just for fun, others in order to gain money. However to bet on sports in the US, Europe or anywhere else in the world is not just a gambling business or a way to earn money. Moreover it is one of our main entertainments today. In part one of the “History of Online Gambling” series, GamingZion presented the early development of online casinos. In this second part we look at the exciting story of online sports betting.

• History of online sports betting
• Peer to peer betting innovation
• The trend of Live betting

The expansion of the online sports betting started right after the appearance on the online casinos in the 90s. The pioneer in the industry is claimed to be the IIntertops betting webpage, launched in 1996. Soon after a multitude of sport betting sites appeared on the market. Gamblers all over the world found fascinating the idea of placing wagers on sport matches online. The industry of online betting began to develop rapidly.

The initial move was made by the bookmakers who started to deal with online operations in order to complement their already existing businesses. Soon the online sports betting market became full of newly formed companies. All of them have been highly competitive between each other, with all of them eager to take the leading role in the industry.

In the struggle for success on the market they introduced a wide range of promotions that shaped the online sports betting. The ones that had the biggest impact on its development were the introduction of high bonuses and free bets for new players, as well as the enhanced odds and the cash back offers.

Peer to Peer betting

A considerable innovation in the online sports betting industry came with the launching of the Betfair website in 2000. What distinguished Betfair from the other existing sports betting sites from that period was that Betfair did not collect bets from the players but made it possible for players to place wagers between themselves. internet betting in the UK and everywhere in the world was transformed. This groundbreaking innovation, lately called peer to peer betting (P2P), immediately became widely popular.

Today Betfair is considered to be one of world’s greatest companies when internet betting exchange is discussed. The London-based company which operates under a license given by a Gibraltar court has been highly appreciated for its innovations. The company received the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in the Innovation category while its founders, Andrew Black and Edward Wray, were awarded with the Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Peer to peer betting or as it is commonly known “exchange betting” or “social betting” is still very popular amongst bettors. However, the main idea behind it remained practically the same. It aims towards creating a community of gamblers who can wager against each other rather than against the existent market of the sportsbook industry. This style of betting is today supported by a wide range of applications and online platform games with real money gaming elements.

The live betting era

In 2002 a new innovation shook the online sports betting industry. It was called: “live betting”. Live betting allows the bettor to place a wager on a sport event while it is in progress. This modification was made in contrast to the pre-match betting, where all bets should be placed before the game has begun. It is needless to say that this novelty brought instant success to the online sports betting sites providing the service.

One of the major advantages of live betting in comparison to normal spread betting is that players can see how the event unfolds, which significantly increases their chances of winning. In this way those being well familiar with certain sports, can acquire a better perspective on how the game is going to develop and base their betting decisions upon these initial impressions.

Today live betting can be done at many sports and there are hardly any betting sites that do not offer live betting services. Hockey, cricket, NBA are considered to be some of the most popular sports for live betting. They are full of action, offering a variety of live betting possibilities. In the case of NBA for instance, one can bet on who will be the next team to score, or which player will score the next point, or lose a ball, etc.

In the last years mobile betting also became a trend all over the globe. It allows bettors to place wagers from their mobile devices, making the betting faster and more convenient for them. Experts predict that the mobile betting will significantly widen its scope in near future, becoming the most common form of online sports betting.