Betting on sports has been a popular activity for many years
, especially in the States. Ever since there has been sporting events there have been people that have wanted to bet on the results. In the past popular sports to bet on were based on horse races, cockfights and bare knuckle fighting. Horse racing was the biggest sport to be betted on and here in this article we look at how sports betting has become as popular as it is today.
It was the throughout the 19th century that saw the most popularity of bets on Horse racing, however it was mainly the upper classes that liked to indulge. However after the Civil War in America horse racing began to draw in other crowds from different social backgrounds and didn't just appeal to the upper classes.
Many bookmakers began 'auction pools' at the beginning of horse racing which involved auctioning off bets for different horses. But this way of betting soon changed because the bettors were unlucky if the horse they wanted to wager on was already taken. By the 1920's racing had reached its peak and there were a whole 300 hundred racetracks in the US alone. It was here that locals placed their bets on horses and was the most popular form of betting until the other professional sports leagues began forming and caught the attention of gaming fans
In Britain betting was not made legal until May 1st in 1961, and an impressive 10,000 betting shops opened after this. Over fifty years on and almost every high street in England has a shop that people can bet in and it has become a part of English culture. In the eighties betting stores began to be 'improved' as hot drinks and comfier seats were added to them. By this time there were four major firms that were dominating the betting market and these were William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral and Mecca.
Even more recently betting stores have seen the installation of FOBTs (fixed-odds betting terminals) which would be described as fruit machines by some people. There are also virtual races that customers can bet on to entertain themselves before the real races come on. Overall the way we bet and play money winning games has changed significantly over the years and is sure to change again as technology changes. People use cash less, cards are used more and virtual betting is seen as a form of betting. Betting is sure to change itself to adapt to a modern world.