What’s it all about?

Online Sports Books are fully comprehensive gambling sites where a spread of bets can be made. These include intricate stats, detailed betting options, multiple sports games such as golf, hockey, cricket, tennis, football, soccer, horseracing, NBA, rugby and many more. It’s not only about winners and losers; it’s about margins of victory, rankings, matchups, placements, geographic stats and so forth.

Is it legal?

This has been the most widely debated issue regarding online sports betting. Suffice it to say that the USA has been fighting against legalizing online sports betting with measures such as the UIGEA 2006 (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) and the Interstate Wire Act 1961 (prohibiting transferring money for sports betting between states). But these laws do not specifically apply to online sports betting and herein lies the dilemma. The UIGEA prohibits Americans from transferring funds from credit cards for the purposes of online gaming. Thus the act of funding gaming is illegal, not the online gaming itself. Representative Barney Frank is currently working hard against the UIGEA.

Who was there first?

It’s generally accepted that sports betting came online when the internet came around with WSEX being one of the first offshore sports gambling online operators. The way that punters were able to finance their wagers was through channels such as Western Union. Within a short period of time, online sports gambling took off at an unprecedented rate. The NFL and the Premiership League opened up to a huge online market of eager punters and sports aficionados. Through the power of the web, communities of punters get together in online forums to share their thoughts on the games. Here they predict outcomes, make informed bets and form like-minded communities.