History | Sports Betting

Rugby history

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Rugby School
The legendary story/myth about the origin of Rugby football—whereby a young man named William Webb Ellis “took the ball in his arms [i.e. caught it] and ran,” showing “a fine disregard,” while playing Rugby School’s already distinctive version of football (not to be confused with association football, which was [...]
History and development of soccer

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Map showing the popularity of association football around the world. Countries where association football is the most popular sport are coloured green, while countries where it is not are coloured red. The various shades of green and red indicate the number of players per 1,000 inhabitants.
Games revolving around the kicking of [...]
Snooker history

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Illustration of a game of three ball pocket billiards in early 19th century Tübingen, Germany
The game of billiards dates back to the 15th century but snooker is a more recent invention. In the late 19th century billiards games were popular among British army officers stationed in India, and players used to [...]
History of ice hockey

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Dutch burghers playing a game that looks much like ice hockey.
Games between teams hitting an object with curved sticks have been played throughout the world since prehistoric times. The word “hockey” has been used since the 16th century, but its etymology is uncertain. It may derive from the Old French word [...]
History of greyhound racing

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Photo finish of a greyhound race in Tampa, Florida, USA on February 9, 1939.
Modern greyhound racing has its origins in coursing. The first recorded attempt at racing greyhounds on a straight track was made beside the Welsh Harp reservoir, Hendon in 1876, but this experiment did not develop. The sport [...]
Dart boards

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Dart boards are usually made of sisal fibers and each section is lined with thin metal wire. The numbers indicating the various scoring sections of the board are normally made of wire, especially on tournament-quality boards, but may be printed directly on the board instead.
Height and distance
In the standard game, the dart [...]
History of cross-country skiing

Friday, March 20th, 2009

A skiing Lappish woman or a goddess. Olaus Magnus
Cross-country skiing originated in Fennoscandian countries in prehistoric times. It was still widely practiced in 19th century as a way of moving from place to place in winter. Elks, deers and other animals were hunted by skiing. Nowadays almost everyone in Finland and [...]
Biathlon history

Friday, March 13th, 2009

The sport has its origins in an exercise for Norwegian soldiers. The first known competition took place in 1767 when border patrol companies competed against each other. Gradually the sport became more common throughout Scandinavia as an alternative training for the military.
Called military patrol, the combination of skiing and shooting was [...]
Tennis

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

Tennis is a sport played between either two players (“Singles”) or two teams of two players (“doubles”). Players use a stringed racquet to strike a ball, a hollow rubber ball covered in felt, over a net into the opponent’s court. In some places tennis is still called lawn tennis to distinguish [...]
Motor sports

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Fernand Gabriel driving a Mors in Paris-Madrid 1903
Auto racing (also known as automobile racing, autosport or motorsport) is a sport involving racing automobiles. Motor racing or motorsport may also mean motorcycle racing, and it can further include motorboat racing and air racing. It is one of the world’s most popular spectator sports [...]
Darts

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Darts in a dartboard
Darts is a game, or rather a variety of related games, in which darts are thrown at a circular target (dart board) hung on a wall. Though various different boards and games have been used in the past, the term ‘darts’ usually now refers to a standardized game [...]
Spread betting

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Spread betting is a form of gambling on the outcome of any event where the more accurate the gamble, the more is won and conversely the less accurate the more is lost. A bet is made against a ’spread’ (or index), on whether the outcome will be above or below the spread. [...]
History of baseball

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

The New York Giants baseball team, circa 1910.
Origins of baseball
The distinct evolution of baseball from among the various bat-and-ball games is difficult to pin down. However, it is mainly agreed that modern baseball is an American development from earlier British games, such as rounders, with possible influences from cricket.
1886 baseball [...]
Betting scandals

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Historically, sports betting has been associated with a number of unsavory characters, which has a lot to do with its desultory legal treatment throughout the world. Organized crime notoriously has relied upon sports betting for money laundering or funding purposes. The corruption or threat of a boxer to take a dive [...]
Parimutuel betting

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Parimutuel betting (from the French language: pari mutuel, mutual betting) is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and a house take are removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all placed bets.The parimutuel system is [...]
Betting exchanges

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

A betting exchange is a p2p gambling website acting as a broker between parties for the placement of bets. The concept is similar to that of a stock exchange or a futures exchange, where in this case the commodity being traded is a bet, rather than a stock or futures contract. Most [...]