Sports Betting
Online Sports Betting in the US: A general
Overview
With the recent explosion of the
home computer industry and the subsequent exponential growth of
the internet it was inevitable that these two events would give
birth to the growth of online sports betting in the United
States. Prior to the introduction of betting on sporting events
via online, the only state where the activity was legal was
Nevada.
If a patron wanted to bet on the
outcome of a sporting event then they were forced to seek an
illegal (and often unreliable) avenue and find a ‘bookie’. A
bookie is an individual that would ‘make book’, that is take a
bet, on a sporting event at various odds. Since making book is
considered illegal the bookie is free to set odds and collect
payments in any manner that they wish. This led to the
criminalization of the profession.
While it is still illegal
to place bets on sporting events in 49 states, the advent of
internet gambling uses a technical loophole to skirt the law.
All such sites are based out of the contiguous United States
(and their territories), thus placing them out of the country’s
jurisdiction. Online betting has widened the scope both in the
type of bettors and the number of events available to bet
on.
With online betting a
person has a wide variety of events on which to wager.
Everything from horseracing to pro and amateur sports betting can be
found somewhere on the internet. Every type of bettor is
catered to from ‘squares’ to ‘sharps’. A square refers to an
amateur or casual bettor. Someone who is simply dabbling in
betting and usually has set small limits on their betting.
‘Sharps’ is a term that refers to professional gamblers who
will often wager large amounts of money on one or more sporting
events (often simultaneously).
There are online betting sites
that will cater more towards sharps. These sites offer higher
(or sometimes no) betting limits, higher moneylines (odds) and
a lower vigorish or simply known as the ‘vig’ (the fee charged
by the person taking the bet). These sites make their money on
losing bets and sometimes charge fees for withdrawing a bet or
making a minimum bet.
Sites that cater to ‘squares’
will generally set lower limits and even offer signup bonuses
to their patrons. The also tend to charge a higher ‘vig’
(11-10) and will set lower moneylines.
Squares tend to bet on only the
major professional sporting events: football, basketball,
hockey and baseball, while sharps will place wagers on more
‘exotic’ events such as college basketball and football.
Sports books in Nevada conducted
over 6 billion dollars worth of wagers in 2006. Online bets for
the same period were 27 billion, almost 5 times that of
traditional wagers. It is estimated that by 2015 the figure
will be almost 127 billion online bets placed on various
sporting events in the United States.
Even with the recent scandals
involving sporting figures and referees (e.g. the latest in
professional basketball) there seems to be no damping of the
desire of individuals to wager on the outcome of sporting
events. The ability to do so online has only increase the
opportunity to do so.
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