The word “gamble” comes from the old English word “gamel” which means, “to play”. Safe to say, gambling on sports is as old as those sports themselves. The world runs on odds. In a world filled with uncertainty, winning something out of chance is truly an adventure. The rush a win gives, coupled with the adrenaline rush, isn’t an unfamiliar feeling to sports fans. Everybody wants to see their favoured team win, but adding a stake to that want makes the victory sweeter.
Like the Sportsbet NBA page, an online sportsbook page is what this long tradition has now come down to. Here’s a closer look at the long history of betting.
Interestingly, the earliest records of betting have been on sports – when the Greeks, and later, the Romans began betting during their games and chariot races. In Australia, the first official bet was set at Hyde Park in 1810, on horse racing. Brought on by the British, the game of betting got famous, and bookies started sprouting around everywhere. They would record the data from every match in a ledger while calculating the odds for every game and place bets for people who wanted to wager on races. Thus, they came to be called bookmakers.
After racing became popular in Australia, George Julius, an inventor cum entrepreneur, brought in a totalisator. This device would display the number of bets on each horse in a race. It soon became a necessity in races, and was a precursor to modern tote betting, wherein the players who bet on the winning horses would evenly split the total value of the bets placed.
As betting spread to other major events and games, these bookies would be at every game. Eventually, bookmakers offices opened, and when people wanted to place their bets, they would go to them. Modern betting is majorly done online with numerous sites and apps helping users place their Sportsbet. NBA, NFL, AFL, VFL are the significant events that people bet on, across Australia.
Here are some of the most popular sports where betting is widespread.
1) Football
Football is the most popular sport in Australia, as it is around the world. People bet on the international leagues as well as national leagues. The Australian clubs that are most popular are the Australian Football League and the Victorian Football League, which is the state-level Australian rules football.
2) Cricket
Cricket is one of the popular sports in Australia, owing to its British connection in history. People usually bet on all popular international cricket events including the world cup, the ICC championship trophy and the IPL.
3) Horse Racing
Horse racing is a sport with a rich history in Australia, especially when it comes to betting. It is the third most popular sport in Australia. It was initially brought to Australia by the British, then it flourished in the country, with the Melbourne cup garnering a lot of interest among Australians.
4) Rugby League
Rugby is the second most popular sport among Australians after football. Although similar to the Australian rules football, rugby is different in terms of the players involved and its rules. The National Rugby League is the most popular national rugby event for Australians.
Betting involved a lot of risks when people had limited access to information in the past days. But Modern technology, like machine learning models that spew millions of probabilities in a second, has undoubtedly helped people make an informed choice. Will the odds ever be in their favour? The machine learning models know.
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