Can you believe that online betting has grown into a $100 billion industry in the space of 20 years? It all started when Finnish punter Jukka Honkavaara bet on a football match between Tottenham and Hereford Utd in 1996. Aided by developments in technology, the industry has gone from strength to strength. The first mobile betting application arrived in 2003 courtesy of Sporting Index. More recently, social betting (the ability to mirror people’s bets through social media platforms) and the launch of bitcoin as a payment method has expanded the customer base further.
Betting brands such as Betfair, Paddy Power and Bet365 are now household names. Paddypower are known for their outrageous PR stunts (such as positioning a Grim Reaper behind David Moyes during his ill-fated reign at Old Trafford), whereas Bet365 have called upon the services of actor Ray Winstone as brand ambassador. Bet365 now receive 11.1 million monthly searches in Google – more than Nike! It hasn’t all been plain sailing though. The US government has effectively outlawed online betting by passing the UIGEA in 2006, which made it illegal for banks to process financial transactions for betting sites. Meanwhile the industry has been tarnished by illegal match-fixing rings.
Infographic by: rightcasino
Betting brands such as Betfair, Paddy Power and Bet365 are now household names. Paddypower are known for their outrageous PR stunts (such as positioning a Grim Reaper behind David Moyes during his ill-fated reign at Old Trafford), whereas Bet365 have called upon the services of actor Ray Winstone as brand ambassador. Bet365 now receive 11.1 million monthly searches in Google – more than Nike! It hasn’t all been plain sailing though. The US government has effectively outlawed online betting by passing the UIGEA in 2006, which made it illegal for banks to process financial transactions for betting sites. Meanwhile the industry has been tarnished by illegal match-fixing rings.
Infographic by: rightcasino
