How did online sports betting begin, and where does the industry go? We make a short journey to the past and share our estimates for US legal sports gambling
The Evolution of Sports Betting: How It Started, Where It Goes
If you enjoy sports betting and live in New Jersey, you can choose from many operators that legally offer this service. To see them all, just take a look at the legal New Jersey online casinos list. And don’t be surprised to see New Jersey casinos on this list because, due to local laws, sports betting in this state is also offered by licensed casinos like MGM online NJ.
Explained The History And Future Of The Online Sports Betting Industry And Market Size
You can try your luck right now with satisfactory odds for many different sports and also use casino apps NJ to do this: it is possible to take advantage of legal gambling services for both desktop and mobile devices. But before choosing among new online casinos NJ, how about a quick glance at the past and future of online sports betting? We think that knowing how we got to this point will make your NJ online gambling experience much more enjoyable.
The First Online Sportsbook in the World
In the 1990s, the internet was not as widespread as it is today, and although there were many companies interested in offering gambling online, no one had any idea how to do this. The problem was not only the technical inadequacies of HTML technology: the regulations required for gambling sites to serve legally did not exist yet. This situation continued until an economically struggling island country took the first step.
- In 1994, the small island nation of Antigua and Barbuda passed a law called the “Free Trade and Processing Act“. This law allowed companies wishing to offer online sports betting and casino games to obtain a license from this island country.
- In 1995, Microgaming became the first operator to obtain this license, and with it, opened the world’s first online casino called “Gaming Club”. CryptoLogic opened the world’s second online casino (InterCasino) also in 1996, and soon the two sites merged into one brand.
These casinos have also inspired sports betting operators. Intertops was a betting operator founded in 1983, and in 1996 it decided to bring its services online. A bettor named Jukka Hunkavarra placed the first online bet in history on the Intertops site on January 17, 1996. Intertops is no longer active today but is also known for offering the first mobile betting service in 2000. In other words, even today’s NJ online casino apps owe their existence to this brand.
Centrebet, based in Australia, became the second online sports betting site to launch at the end of 1996. This brand is also not active today, but it has made a significant contribution to online gambling: the world’s first online betting bonus was offered at Centrebet. This was a simple free bet bonus but formed the basis of all no deposit offers today. It is to this brand that we owe the existence of bonuses that we can currently use at all new online casinos NJ.
After 1996, everything developed very quickly
Online sports betting has developed rapidly since 1996, and many new operators have entered the market. Let’s show it as a list:
- 1996 – Another island country, Curacao, started to issue online gambling licenses. Today, many international sportsbooks continue to use this license.
- 1997 – Worlds Sports Exchange, the world’s third online sportsbook, launched (closed in 2013)
- 1998 – William Hill opens the first online betting site in England
- 2001 – Malta begins issuing a license for both online casinos and sportsbooks. The Malta Gaming Authority is among the most respected licensing agencies today.
- 2003 – Sporting Index launches the first mobile betting application in the UK
- 2007 – The United Kingdom Gambling Commission is established and begins to regulate legal gambling.
If we add New Jersey to this list, we have to jump to 2011. New Jersey gambling sites became legal in 2012, but due to multiple lawsuits, sports betting operators could not start offering their services until 2018. Old and new online casinos NJ, on the other hand, launched in 2013, and they are still going strong.
What the Future Holds
Live casino online NJ sites are active for 9 years, and sports betting sites are active for only 6 years. Therefore, we can say that they are still in “development”. In the near future, we do not expect a significant change except that bonuses start to offer more. However, in 10 years, we are likely to see the following changes:
- Independent licenses. Currently, gambling licenses are only given to land-based casinos. This may change, and licenses can be given independently of land-based enterprises. If this happens, the world’s largest operators can enter New Jersey.
- More coverage. Currently, you need to be physically within the state boundaries to play on NJ gambling sites. In the future, the states that legalized gambling can expand this to cover more areas. For example, via an interstate licensing agency, we can see licenses that are valid in both New Jersey and Philadelphia.
In any case, we think that the future will contain good things: New Jersey has been a good example of the advantages of legal gambling to all other states, and we think that many regions will follow it. In other words, one of our estimates about the future is that sports betting will become legal in all US states.