Nowadays, sports betting is such an everyday part of many countries’ cultures that it’s easy to take for granted. That’s true not only for the scale of it, but for the particular way in which modern-day bettors bettors wager.
But how did we get to this point? And, looking ahead, where is sports betting going? These are the two questions we’ll be investigating in this article.
Ancient Origins
Sports betting goes back as long as recorded western history.
The Ancient Greeks wagered on games of chance and organized sporting events. The Romans took things to another level in both categories, with gladiator fights and chariot racing – from a modern-day perspective – being the football and horse racing ‘big two’ markets of their day.
Sports like horse racing became truly formalized in the 18th century, and – unsurprisingly – sports betting came along with it. Actual, professional bookmakers started forming in the 19th century. Some of those, like Ladbrokes, stunningly remain not only in business but are still among the best sports betting sites you can use to this day, per punters.pub.
Modern-Day Betting
From the late nineteenth century onwards, the way in which sports betting was conducted didn’t really change. You went along to a physical betting shop (or an outlet at a racecourse), placed your wager, got your betslip, and – hopefully – collected your winnings. Only the scale really changed, with a steady rise in the number of both betting brands and brick-and-mortar sportsbooks.
The internet delivered the biggest evolution in the history of sports betting, and it’s not close. Suddenly, you could bet on events all around the world, whenever you wanted, without leaving your home.
From the late 20th century onwards, the dominance of online betting grew rapidly. Already by the turn of the century, the likes of Bet365 and Betfair were launching as online-only brands, without a single betting shop to their name. In both cases, this gamble worked out pretty well, with the allure of online sports betting proving irresistible for many.
The other seismic shift in the evolution of sports betting, of course, has been the rise of mobile technology. This took the convenience of online gambling to another level, allowing you – if you had an internet connection – to bet on what you wanted, wherever you were, whenever you pleased. The exact figures vary, depending on the source, but it’s believed that around 70% of online betting revenue now comes from mobile devices.
As for the high street betting shop, it’s dying a slow death. They’re still around, but hundreds close each year. The social aspect and the opportunity to play on physical gaming machines are basically the only reasons to bother visiting.
Looking Ahead
We know there will be developments in sports betting going forward – we just don’t know the form they’ll take. That said, they can be broken down into two main areas.
The first regards the industry itself.
Regulation around the betting industry basically never sits still. In the US, it’s loosened. In the UK, it’s tightening, particularly regarding advertising. In more liberal betting countries, like the UK, it’s hard to imagine any other changes will be positive for punters. More likely, we’ll see the restriction of certain bet types or promos, checks before you can start betting, caps on your spending, or similar measures.
All that is speculation, of course. But, with more of a focus on problem gambling than ever before, it seems to be the way things are trending.
The second regards the player.
This has a much more positive outlook. Both the internet and smartphones have been enormously beneficial to bettors. So has the development of in-play betting tools and live streaming, and new types of promos are being invented constantly.
More sportsbooks are opening all the time, which – in turn – forces existing brands to up their game. For the bettor, this can only be a good thing. It’ll mean more innovation in features and technologies, bigger and better promos, superior customer service, and so on, as all these betting sites fight to outdo each other.
