A brief history of Online Sports Betting
Sports betting saw its first appearance online shortly after the Internet itself begun to spread to the public. The first Online bookie was World Sports Exchange(WSEX). The first online betting sites were funded through the services from Western union and other offshore-friendly providers.
In the late 1990’s and through early 2000’s when Internet saw its first peak, hundreds of thousands of americans were gambling online. The most common betting objects could be found in National Football League (NFL) and the english Premiere League. The American government were concerned with this leading to money laundering and this inspired hundreds of illegal companies being setup. Their response came 2006 and lead to the implementation of the Unlawful Online Gambling Enforcement Act. This was a part of the SAFE Port Act and was added at the last moment. This law prohibits the transfer of funds from any financial institution to a gambling site.
The response from the online gambling community was to simply stop accepting United States players to wager. This had of course a mayor impact on the gambling companies. The biggest company at the time, Party Gaming, dropped their stock 60% over night as a direct result of this bill being passed.
Online gambling is today very widespread and it is considered more popular online than offline.