Towards the later 2016, more speculations started gathering up about growth of sports betting primarily due to the US presidential election. Though, in many parts of the world such as the UK and Australia, sports betting is a legal affair, still its social and commercial impact is always discussed upon. From safe havens like Las Vegas and Macau to recently upcoming markets like India, experts have seemingly expressed a common intention towards legalization of sports betting.

Recently, a UK Online sportsbook RedZone Sports has offered a completely new betting game to the US sports buffs. Argyll Entertainment has also added new flavors for the gamers. According to a press release, Stuart Tilley, CEO of Argyll Entertainment said,

Following the initial success of BetOn Brazil we want to take our same philosophy of having entertainment at the heart of everything we do and apply it to a US sports-themed gambling destination for the rapidly-growing number of UK customers who follow the NFL, NBA and other major US sports.

We have many examples of successfully running sports betting with great execution and monitoring. UK online casino giant William also has introduced a few sports themed games with attractive offers where you can claim your welcome bonus with William Hill promotions!

The United States too is considering legalizing sports betting through Patent No. 0125691, though there are no immediate plans for this. Held by Microsoft, the patent application can prove to be a critical piece of a future that will enable widespread legal sports betting in the United States. The popular U.S.-based global cable and satellite television channel, ESPN conducted an extensive survey among various interested groups and came away with several key findings about the future of American sports betting. The survey report reveals that:

  • The U.S. Congress is reviewing federal gambling laws and may come away with a plan to introduce comprehensive legislation addressing sports betting, fantasy sports and other forms of online gaming.
  • This will open up avenues for some of the world’s largest tech companies to emerge as bookmaking giants, which will put a competition among the existing established U.S. and international sports-book operators.
  • High-stakes sports betting will be largely dominated by the use of robots, dynamic algorithms; microchips enabled devices and motion-tracking cameras, which are capable of capturing real-time data from athletes’ bodies.

However, the survey does not deny further spreading of gambling addiction and gambling-related advertising, which already have legal, social, economic and moral pitfalls.

Interestingly, conservative gaming markets such as India is now opening up to welcome sports betting. In a conference at Gangtok, former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha advocated on legalisation of sports betting and gaming as these are very popular among the people and have a massive revenue generation potential. Sinha said,

With good regulation and responsible gaming, we can make it happen. Like it exists in Sikkim and helps increase revenue and employment in the state. “This (gaming/betting) industry has huge revenue generation potential, which can be seen in Sikkim and Goa.

Whether or not to legalizing sports betting is a joint consensus by the various political, social, economical, and moral interests. However, one thing is sure that the gamers are going to have more options, variety and innovation in the future.