Evolution of sports betting
The History of Sports Gambling
Sports Gambling is currently at an all-time high.
Just as it says in the name, sports gambling, or sports betting is betting and using your money on teams/stuff that you believe to win, this could either then make you lose that money or get more money for getting the right bet. People gamble their money on all sports, but the most popular sport in the world that is betted on according to Sports Encyclopedia is soccer. In the U.S alone however, footba
ll reigns supreme, with nearly half of all sports bets in the US!
Sports betting all began way back in the 1900’s with Horse Racing. Even though Horse Racing was the thing that kicked off sports betting way back in the 1900’s, to this day it still is very popular and one of the more betted on sports. Horse Racing marked the start of sports gambling history, and eventually, sports betting was moving on to other things such as football, baseball, and soccer. This all stopped legally though when all Sports Gambling was banned in the 1960’s.
Since Sports Gambling was made illegal in the 1960’s, it has slowly been resurfacing and many states have decided to legalize it. As of this moment there are around 30 states that have legalized Sports Betting and accept it into their state. People can only expect more states to follow suit later in the future.
Now that I’ve somewhat introduced what Sports Betting is, it’s time to get into the reasons why people might get involved and/or into sports betting. Though it may seem crazy to some a lot of people get into Sports Betting solely for the risk-taking factors of it, they like that there is a chance that they could make big money, but also are exhilarated by the fact that they could also lose big time. Another big reason as to why a lot of people find themselves involved with Sports betting is that they find it to be entertaining. People won’t do things they don’t find fun – or at the very least won’t want to do things they don’t find fun, but many people find watching sports live entertaining, and when you bet on the sport, it only increases their interest and entertainment. Finally, most obviously another reason people might feel encouraged to gamble on sports, is the profit they potentially could walk away with.
As stated before, the most popular sport in the world and to be betted on is Soccer. Soccer easily takes the #1 spot for most betted on sport in the world with around 70% of all bets coming from soccer alone! To get into view about how much money soccer makes on bets, an estimation shows that each World Cup Tournament sees around $260 Million dollars.
Now that we know how much money is typically earned during a tournament/Super Bowl, what effect does this have on the Economy (In America)? Experts anticipate that Sports betting will contribute around 22 billion to the GDP of the U.S and many people will reap benefits from this substantial amount.
It’s not farfetched to say that Sports Gambling is consuming the world, everybody and their moms know of at least a handful of people who are at the very least interested in the area. Sports Gambling, like many things involves risks, but many people like taking those risks and find them to be fun, on top of that people who do bet have the opportunity to walk away with more money that they’d hoped. Sports Gambling began way back in the 1900’s and started off with Horse Racing, and now today it can be found worldwide in just about every sport one can think of. Though not every State has legalized sports betting it is legal in over half of the states in the U.S and people can only expect this number to rise.
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