Not many industries adapted from tangible stores to an intangible service as smoothly as sports gambling – bet you don’t know the first ever bet!
Right Casino’s infographic tells the history of the online betting world, right from Antigua & Barbuda allowing offshore licences for online operators back in the mid-1990s.
There’s the first online bet, a wager on a match featuring football minnows Tottenham Hotspur and titans Hereford United. Elsewhere, failed US crackdowns, the understated dawn of Betfair and the entrance of the “cheeky Irish chappies” Paddy Power into the online fray.
Culminating in today’s world where online sports gambling represents a similar figure to the GDP of the Netherlands, it’s been quite the ride.
Just think how much the recent Super Bowl must have generated …
