There is no way to calculate exactly just how much money is wagered on sporting events every year but it’s a lot. Millions. Billions. Trillions? No one knows for sure because a large portion of the wagering takes place outside of the bounds of legally licensed wagering sites.
In the United States, players are only able to place legal wagers in 4 or the 50 states. Nevada is obviously the number one earner with Las Vegas and its many Casinos and Sports Books but limited wagering is also legal in the states of Delaware, South Dakota and New Jersey.
The State of New Jersey, under the leadership of Governor Chris Christe, is making a move in the US courts to have full on wagering on sports legalized in the Empire State but recently the courts have turned them down and now the case is seemingly destined to wind up in the US Supreme Court for a decision.
While the courts decide the legality of wagering on sports, millions of bettors around the world are placing their wagers on games via local bookmakers and offshore sportsbooks ‘illegally’. These folks are by no means criminals, but they are in fact operating outside of the law. It is worth noting that it has never been illegal to place a wager in the United States. However, it is illegal these days to take a wager on a sporting event.
Wagering on football… both American Football and the game of Soccer which is known in the rest of the world as ‘football’… is a huge, multi-billion dollar industry in the world today and shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, revenues from wagering on sports just keep on growing year after year around the world.
The staggering amounts of money wagered on matches in Asia, where the sports are not subjected to such stringent controls as seen in the US or Europe, have led to accusations of possible match fixing in several countries. There is just too much money involved and too little control exercised to prevent the threat of fixing.
As much as 70% of all sports wagering is estimated to come from the two ‘footballs’, which are, after all, the most popular sports on the planet. There are some 55,000 matches per year and, with the advent of the Internet and modern bookmaking software, access to wagering online via the latest mobile devises has become all the rage these days.
