Will Sport & Gambling Bond Break?
Most people often ask questions like these: “What is the tight bond between sport and gambling – will it ever break?”, “Gambling and sports betting – is it not the same?” At first glance, it may seem that – yes. In the presence of a certain similarity, these phenomena cannot be called synonyms. It’s difficult to deny the similarities:
- there is a definite advantage of bookmakers (at bets) and casinos (with online games);
- fortune plays an important role.
And with the recent events, when people need action where they can’t get one the line dividing sport and betting gets even thinner. In this time everyone needs a resemblance of presence and connection, a passion to jeer for something, and it’s no surprise that according to onlinecasinohex.ca live casinos got a huge rise in popularity, along with sports betting.
How It All Started? The History of Betting on Sport?
It all started back in Ancient Greece. Then the audience placed bets on the fights of the Olympic Games. By the way, the history of betting on sport deals with Ancient Rome, where bets were made on the victory of gladiators. But there is one peculiarity – the audience made bets directly, without intermediaries.
Today’s history of betting on sport started in Great Britain in 1790. Then William Ogden began accepting horse racing bets. In 1850, Leviathan Davis and Fred Swindell opened the first bookmaker’s office. Its founders made sports predictions and distributed flyers around London with odds of winning.
In 1961, the authorities of Great Britain, France, Germany, and some US states legalized betting. In the 6 months after the legalization of bookmaking activities in the UK, 10,000 bookmakers opened. The work of bookmakers was now regulated: the players were protected by law, and the bookmakers themselves “went out of the shadows.”
The greatest popularity of sports betting fell in the 1990s. It was then that online sports betting appeared. Yes, when it all began in Ancient Greece, there was definitely no Internet. In 2001, the online sports betting market exceeded $2 billion, and the number of players was more than 8 million. You were deprived of legal protection and could only rely on the honesty of the bookmaker.
How Does Gambling Influence the Sports Industry?
It once seemed that the need to make a bet was just a necessity. Nowadays, with the dominance of the gambling industry as part of the “leisure and entertainment sector”, this sometimes seems to be a must. Plus, sports betting is booming.
But very often, regulators interfere with the elationship between gambling and sports betting. Consider the example of football. Juventus, one of the biggest clubs, has been relegated to Italy’s 2nd division for bribing referees, while other major Italian teams such as Milan and Fiorentina have also been fined for their involvement in the scandal that became known as “Calciopoli” in 2006.
Even the Olympics are not immune, with multiple fixing charges and several badminton teams expelled for “not doing everything they can to win the match.” But the problem is clear. If sports want to benefit from gambling, then the biggest challenge they face is honesty.
What Would Become of Sport Industry?
Experts warn that sports must adapt as an industry in order to weather the current situation. ESSNA hosted a webinar entitled “Looking Ahead: What is the preferred exit strategy for the sports sector?”
The roster has made some worrying predictions about how the sports sector might be forced to change by the coronavirus and what else it can do to protect itself from future disasters.
For example, the head of the European Commission’s Sports Division explained that people have discovered new ways to go in for sport at home. The challenge is to ensure that this change does not harm the sporting organizations that the organization must continue to support.
Luca Bucchini, Managing Director of Hylobathes Consulting said that perceptions of sports will not change in the long term. Social media has been effective in facilitating homeschooling. However, there should be no illusion that social media can replace sporting events. At some point, sports betting should return to the physical world when it’s safe to do so.
