Sports betting is legal in many parts of the world. This includes Australia and Western Europe with the UK’s largest legal market.
However, the impact of illegal online gambling is much greater. There is an estimated $ 1.8 trillion in illegal wagering worldwide, mostly on unregulated and illegal betting websites.
There are currently hundreds of bookmakers and apps that enable betting. This has led to an improvement in the current system. For example, the digital currency Electroneum is said to be used by online gambling services. Platforms like HEROcoin want to decentralize sports betting. Since sports betting usually charge high fees, new platforms such as HEROcoin offer peer-to-peer betting and transparency in the flow of money and payments.
Players who bet on sporting events must pay a betting tax on their winnings.
Legal sports betting generates $ 150 billion in profits in the US
In the United States alone, illegal sports betting is valued at between $ 50 billion and $ 150 billion. By comparison, Nevada, the only state in the United States that allows sports betting, had sales of $ 4.8 billion in 2017. For comparison, Great Britain with 65 million inhabitants and a far less diverse sports market achieved a turnover of 20 billion US dollars in 2017. Worldwide, professional football and basketball are the most popular sports to bet on.
Fantasy Sports versus Daily Fantasy Sports versus Traditional Sports Betting
Both traditional and fantasy sports betting are common forms of gambling. However, there are major differences. For one, fantasy sports betting is legal. In fantasy sports, your rivals are other human players and not bookmakers just like in traditional sports betting. A group of human players called a league selects from real athletes to form imaginary teams in fantasy sports. Points are awarded to the team based on each athlete’s performance during the season. To win, your team must have accumulated the most points throughout the season, which usually lasts a few months.
A popular fantasy sport is Daily Fantasy Sport (DFS). The DFS lasts for a day instead of a season. In the morning you bet on different players. While leagues in normal fantasy sports are usually made up of friends. With DFS you compete against random people with whom you are equal. The winning pot can reach millions of dollars.