$/€ When Did Sports Betting First Appear?
Lina Almans
09 May 2023
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Did you know sports betting goes way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans? They used to bet on gladiator fights and even the Olympics! Fast-forward to today, and sports betting is a billion-dollar industry, but how did it evolve from simple agreements between people to organized sportsbooks and online betting?
The First Recorded Bets
Sports betting got its start in Great Britain two thousand years later. In 1790, Harry Ogden began taking bets on horse races. He set the odds for each horse’s bet and spent a lot of time on British racetracks studying each horse’s abilities.
Before races began, Ogden would announce the expected odds of victory for each horse and allow anyone who wanted to place bets with him. It’s worth noting that Ogden was a very wealthy man, which allowed him to easily pay out winnings to players.
Horse Racing: The OG Betting Sport
In 1850, the first bookmaking office in history appeared in London, founded by two Brits – Leviathan Davis and Fred Swindell. Leviathan Davis, a mediocre carpenter, knew a lot about horse racing and wanted to make money.
Thirty years later, bookmaking offices opened in France and Germany, with bookmakers working on the same principle as they do now: finding bettors and guaranteeing payouts to winners, taking a commission in return. And it wasn’t just horse racing that you could bet on – other sports events, such as football, were also available.
In 1868, the US started the American Stud Book, which marked a new era of sports betting. It served as a form of entertainment, and with the rise of professional baseball in 1876, traditional sports betting came to the forefront.
Sports Betting Goes Global
Until the mid-20th century, bookmaking was illegal in both Europe and the United States, forcing bookmakers to operate in the shadows, relying on corruption or legal loopholes.
But in 1961, the authorities in Great Britain and some US states decided to legalize sports betting. The impact was immediate: within six months of the legalization of bookmaking in Great Britain, over 10,000 bookmaking offices opened their doors.
By 1973, William Hill had become a major player in the industry, with 14,750 bookmaking offices throughout Great Britain. Littlewoods, another key company, employed 22,000 people by 1982. As the industry expanded, new types of bets emerged, including boxing, golf, and tennis.
Until the mid-20th century, bookmaking was illegal in both Europe and the United States, forcing bookmakers to operate in the shadows, relying on corruption or legal loopholes.
But in 1961, the authorities in Great Britain and some US states decided to legalize sports betting. The impact was immediate: within six months of the legalization of bookmaking in Great Britain, over 10,000 bookmaking offices opened their doors.
By 1973, William Hill had become a major player in the industry, with 14,750 bookmaking offices throughout Great Britain. Littlewoods, another key company, employed 22,000 people by 1982. As the industry expanded, new types of bets emerged, including boxing, golf, and tennis.
First online bet was successful
The boom in the sports betting industry occurred in the 1990s with the introduction of online betting. In 1996, InterTops, a bookmaker’s office, made history by accepting the first-ever online bet.
On January 17, 1996, a punter from Finland named Jukka Honkavaara placed a $50 bet on Tottenham Hotspur to defeat Hereford United on Intertops.com. Honkavaara’s prediction was correct, and Tottenham Hotspur won by a wide margin, 5-1.
Within six years of operating online, InterTops attracted approximately 500,000 new customers who placed around 20 million bets during that time.
By 2001, the online sports betting market’s volume surpassed $2 billion, and the number of players grew to 8 million.
Where Sports Betting Stands Today
Sports betting is now legal in almost every part of the world, except for a few countries where it is prohibited, such as North Korea and most countries in the Middle East.
As of 2020, the global sports betting market was valued at $104 billion (according to Zion Market Research). Experts predict it will hit $179.3 billion by 2028.
When was the first online bet made?
The first online bet was placed in 1996 on the Intertops Sportsbook website.
When did legal sports betting begin in the United States?
Nevada opened the first legal sportsbook in 1949. When PASPA was put into place in 1992, Nevada was grandfathered into the law because it already had its own rules in place for sports betting. Other states like Montana, Oregon, and Delaware were also grandfathered into the law, but only Nevada had traditional single-game wagering.
What’s the most absurd winning in a horse race?
In 1995, a person won $210,000 from a bet of just 5 cents in an event with odds of 3072887 offered by Ladbrokes.
