Betting on the Future

Gambling is a global and timeless activity used in societies all over the world. Betting is said to have existed as far back as 2300BC. There is evidence that they even ran lotteries in Ancient China over 4000 years ago! Modern dice can be tracked back to 500BC in Ancient Rome, and the first playing cards have also been credited to the Chinese(roughly 800AD) (Gambling.org, 2020).

In 2020, Gambling is a bigger industry than ever before! The gambling industry was worth almost $400 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $565 billion in 2022. There is currently a massive growth happening and a lot of this can be attributed to one thing; online gambling.

Online gambling is an industry on the rise due to the meteoric rise in global internet usage which has taken place over the last 20 years. The internet is now home to full virtual casinos, poker tables and lotteries. This has made gambling more accessible than ever before. Thanks to the rise of information technology, you can have your very own Las Vegas casino in your living room.

One particular branch of gambling has benefitted greatly from advancements in technology is sports betting. Legalised sports betting also has its origins in Ancient Rome. Gladiator fighting was very popular amongst spectator, and the richer fans would general put a wager on who they thought looked tougher.

Sports betting has come a long way since then.

It is particularly popular amongst European sports fans.

The growth of online sports gambling services such as Paddy Power and William Hill has revolutionised the way people place bets.

The range of services provided by these online bookmakers is more diverse than ever before. One such new service is in-play betting(Sports Betting Dime, 2020). This means that you can place a bet on an event when it has already started. The most impressive thing about this is that the odds for every possible in-play bet are being updated constantly by the bookmakers algorithms. If this event was a football match and you were betting on a team scoring another goal for example, the algorithm would consider factors such as; ‘How much time do they have left to score?’, ‘Which team is taking more shots?’ and ‘Do this team often score late goals?’.

The use of information technology in sports betting has completely changed the way the average sports fan approaches betting and this is only the start. Over time, the information systems which the bookmakers use to store this data, which is then fed into their algorithms, are constantly getting bigger and more advanced. The graph below shows the growth, and projected growth of the global sports gambling industry over time.

(Milton, 2020)

It is impossible to say how far sports gambling can advance with the increased use of technology. The entire industry doubled in value between 2009 and 2016, which is undoubtedly due to the advancements in modern technology. This will continue to benefit the bookmaker as they know exactly what odds to offer on every bet to get the best return. It also benefits the customer, who has more options than ever before for what to bet on.

References

Casino.org. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.casino.org/gambling-statistics/> [Accessed 14 March 2020].

Company, T., 2020.The Growing Gambling Industry: Forecasts, Technologies, And Trends. [online] Blog.marketresearch.com. Available at: <https://blog.marketresearch.com/the-gambling-industry-forecasts-and-trends> [Accessed 14 March 2020].

Gambling.net. 2020.The History Of Gambling - Complete Gambling History Timeline. [online] Available at: <https://www.gambling.net/history/> [Accessed 13 March 2020].

Milton, J., 2020.History Of Sports Betting | Bigonsports. [online] Bigonsports.com. Available at: <https://www.bigonsports.com/history-of-sports-betting/> [Accessed 14 March 2020].

Sports Betting Dime. 2020.The Size And Increase Of The Global Sports Betting Market. [online] Available at: <https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/guides/finance/global-sports-betting-market/> [Accessed 15 March 2020].