Another interesting trend in online sports betting developed in the year after Betfair entered the market. This internet gambling site took sports betting to a new level with the invention of peer-to-peer wagering.
Almost unique in the industry, this system basically allowed players to make bets between themselves while the site took commission from each wager.
Two years after the formation of Betfair, in-play sports betting provided the online industry with another boom.
Taking internet technology to its limits, live sports betting has proven to be immensely popular and one of the most exciting new sports wagering option on the market today thanks to its compatibility with both desktop and mobile devices.
Planet Poker is generally considered to have been the first online gambling site to offer poker. Unfortunately, the site was plagued by a number of technical problems and other glitches.
Back in those days, a large number of people were still using dial-up internet services, which created a number of speed and downloading issues.
However, the failure of Planet Poker led to the rise of new poker sites such as Paradise Poker, partypoker and, eventually, PokerStars.
Paradise was launched in from a base in Costa Rica and quickly became the biggest player in the market. Thanks to a more advanced platform than Planet Poker, Paradise was able to cram thousands of players onto its platform on a daily basis.
Partypoker and Poker Stars were formed just two years after Paradise Poker in and soon became the top two internet gambling sites in the world.
In fact PokerStars is partly responsible for the global poker boom thanks to its online tournament satellites. Although online poker was hugely popular in the United States, Congressional lawmakers decided to pull the rug out from under players in This move led to a huge amount of confusion regarding the legality of not only internet poker, but also online gambling within the US in general.
Many poker and other online gambling sites were forced to shut down or else close their doors to US players. The really interesting thing about the UIGEA is the fact that it didn't actually make gambling online illegal.
Instead, it attacked the payment processing companies, making it illegal to process payments for gambling activities for anyone residing in the US.
Unfortunately, this led to a lot of confusion and many sites and online gambling businesses saw this as a big gray area.
Many of the major sites decided to stop doing business with US customers, devastating their revenues in a number of cases.
Several sites did try to stick it out and continued accepting US players. Sadly, in , the US government cracked down and seized their websites, essentially shutting these three and other companies down to anyone residing in the US.
This event became known as 'Black Friday' in the online poker community. Although legal online poker is still a gray area in the US, there is some hope for the future.
A number of legislators have begun attempting to reinterpret the legal foundations upon which the UIGEA was based. This has led to several US States, including New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, to allow online poker again, although with additional regulations.
Although online gambling, especially online poker, has had its ups and its downs over the years, there is renewed hope for the future. Europe has already recognized internet gambling as the right of every legal adult and it seems as if the US is starting to adopt the same mindset.
In fact, the top online gambling sites are now working hard to lobby US politicians and many are predicting that the coming years could see a renewed boom for the virtual gambling industry.
Our reviews and guides are used by more than , players worldwide every year. Live casino games are fairly commonplace online now, but they were a major development when they first appeared.
Players could actually watch live video streams of dealers and croupiers in real time, and this proved to be incredibly popular.
Today, many players much prefer to play the live games, rather than the graphic-based ones. A more recent development is the addition of mobile compatible games at many sites, meaning you can play your favorite games from your smartphone or tablet.
Again, this is something that has proved to be very popular and is a good example of how online casinos are continuing to advance.
There is little doubt that we will see even more progress over the coming years. Online sports betting began shortly after the early online casinos.
The first site was Intertops in , and others soon followed. The placing of wagers on sporting events over the internet was very popular with gamblers all around the world, and the industry took off in a big way.
A number of new companies were formed to enter the market, and most existing bookmakers opened up web-based operations to complement their existing businesses.
As with online casinos, things were very competitive. Betting sites also offered generous bonuses and free bets to new customers as a way to attract more bettors.
A number of other promotions were introduced, too, as sites tried to stand out from their competitors. Things like enhanced odds and cash back offers became commonplace, and the range of different wagers that were available greatly increased, too.
In , a new betting site called Betfair opened up. Unlike all the other betting sites at the time, Betfair itself did not take bets from customers, but instead allowed customers to place bets between themselves.
Peer to peer betting was incredibly popular almost immediately, and remains so to this day. It became known as exchange betting, and several other companies subsequently launched similar sites, although Betfair dominated this particular market.
Live betting was introduced for the first time in , allowing bettors to place wagers on a sporting event while it was taking place.
This was another major development and also an instant success. The vast majority of betting sites went on to offer a live betting service, and these days you can bet on a massive range of sporting events while watching the action.
Mobile betting is also available at most of the big sites, making it possible to place wagers using a phone, tablet, or other mobile device.
Placing wagers online is easy and convenient and offers many other advantages over more traditional betting. On January 1st, , a new site called Planet Poker became the first to offer online poker.
The site soon started attracting players, despite frequent technical problems and issues caused by the speed and unreliability of dial-up internet.
Interestingly, though, the rake levels set by this site are still the industry standard today. Paradise Poker started out in the following year, and it was more advanced and more stable than Planet Poker.
It experienced fast growth as a result. The following year, poker professional Dutch Boyd launched his new site, Poker Spot.
This was the first site to offer online tournaments, but suffered numerous problems with processing customer payments and lasted only until Two new poker sites that were to become giants in the industry opened up in Paradise Poker was still the front-runner, but these other two sites quickly became serious players.
PartyPoker began running tournaments that offered qualification to live events, and these proved to be particularly popular.
Another site, UltimateBet, was also making a name for itself at the time. Televised poker was attracting larger audiences, perhaps due to the introduction of card cameras that showed the hole cards of players, and PartyPoker started advertising heavily on these shows.
The advertising worked, and they became the largest poker site. PokerStars was not too far behind, and they improved their standings with the launch of the World Championship of Online Poker.
Suddenly everyone dreamed of winning big money, and the popularity of online poker increased dramatically. The following year, another site that was to become a major player opened: Online poker was popular all over the world, but nowhere more than in the United States.
This created a great deal of confusion about the legality of online gambling in the US, and many poker sites and other gambling sites closed their doors to American customers.
In the last few years, the popularity of online poker has leveled out somewhat. There are still a lot of people playing, and a lot of sites where they can play.
Many of these sites are now on networks, sharing a pool of players to increase liquidity. The overall standard of online poker software is higher than it has ever been, and continues to improve.
History of Online Gambling In the modern world, the idea of life without the internet is an almost unthinkable prospect.
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