football betting

etting on sports has been around for centuries. Persons used to bet on every and anything. Some forms of early betting included cock fights and bare-knuckle fist fights. Some persons bet for profit while others did it just for the sheer entertainment of it.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, horse racing was undeniably the most popular type of sports betting activity and was most affordable for the higher social echelons. Baseball also gained popularity around the 1800s in America with the World Series being the holy grail of baseball betting. Today, sports betting has elevated itself above any social, race or creed classification and permeates through every facet of society from the middle class to the average Joe on the street.

In America in the late 1960s, sports betting took a turn for the better, with the introduction of televised sports. This marked the beginning of a financial phenomenon and a new breed of sports betting enthusiast was born. In 1974 the US federal government eliminated a 10% tax on sports betting wagers. This caused several land-based casinos to open Sportsbooks within the casino as a sideline attraction to prevent patrons from leaving the casino to place sports wagers elsewhere. It also help maintain high revenues during the slow periods. The Stardust Hotel in Nevada was the first major casino to make this move. The opening of their in-house Sportsbook in 1976 was a huge success and helped set the pace for sports betting action worldwide

With the advent of the Internet in the 1990s, sports betting quickly shifted online and soared to new heights as more and more online Sportsbooks set up shop in offshore countries such as Antigua and Costa Rica. Not to be outdone, England also jumped on the sports betting band wagon, piggy-backing on the success of sports betting in the United States and later dominating it with the fall out of sports betting in America due to the long-standing grey area associated with offshore gambling.

No longer did the sports bettor need to visit his local bookie to place a bet nor did he need to travel to a land-based casino. Sports odds were now easily accessible online and bettors reveled in the fact that they could place a bet from the comfort of their own home.

The icing on the cake was that getting money to and from the online Sportsbooks was made even easier than the initial Credit Card, Western Union, and Cheque payment options. As the popularity of Internet betting grew so too did the payment options as payment processors began developing newer, faster, and cheaper ways to transfer funds. Although the payment options were not developed for the use of online gambling, the success of the industry played a role in the type of option developed.

By 2005 Sportsbooks were taking in almost $100 Billion in online sports wagers, with sports bets holding the majority. Today, Sportsbetting activities have dwindled considerably. This was due to the tireless efforts of federal governments and agencies, especially those in the United States, to clamp down on Internet gambling. Tactics such as seizing private bank accounts believed to have been funded with monies from sports wagers, suing payment processors, and indicting persons associated with offshore gambling operations to name a few, were used to stagnate the growth of Internet gambling. To some extent it has worked. However, like our forefathers before us, most of us are bettors by nature, whether for fun or to make money. The fact of the matter is that Sportsbetting has already made its mark on the gambling industry and has proven that it is here to stay.