Sports Betting – What Is Official Betting?
Official betting is an activity where bettors wager on a sports game, event, or match. It’s regulated but not criminalized in most countries, and is legal in many states. Several major professional sports leagues have sponsorship agreements with bookmakers, and some of the NHL’s clubs have mobile sportsbooks that allow fans to place bets from their smartphones.
Football
The most popular sport to bet on in Nevada is football, where millions of dollars are wagered on NFL games each season. You can bet on a team’s winning or losing score, total points scored, and more at your local casino. You can also bet on the outcome of a specific play or an individual player’s performance.
Baseball
There are also a variety of bets available for fans of Major League Baseball. These include moneylines, over/under, and run lines. Some of these bets become official at certain times during the game, such as full-game moneylines that become official after five innings — or if the home team leads after 4.5 innings.
Betting on the Total (also called the OVER/UNDER) is a popular bet on a game that will have more than one winner. You can bet on the number of total runs scored, the number of total goals scored, or the combined score of both teams.
Horse Racing
If you’re a fan of horse racing, you can bet on the first two finishers in a race, or on a set amount of races in a given day. You can also bet on the exacta, quinella, trifecta, and superfecta. These bets entail picking the winners of a set number of races, and can earn huge payouts for a successful wager.
Despite a history of corruption in sports, some bettors are still willing to risk their hard-earned cash on a team they believe can win a game. For example, many people bet on their favorite MLB team to win the World Series, despite the fact that it has lost every previous postseason game in a decade.
In 1919, a group of gamblers paid eight members of the Chicago White Sox around 10,000 dollars to fix the World Series. It was an unprecedented scandal and prompted several players to be banned from the sport for life.
Cricket
The governing body of cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC), regulates the activity. Its rules state that any individual who is a player, coach, umpire, or match official in any WBSC competition cannot bet on that specific competition. The ICC definition of a “player” includes those who are participating as part of a national cricket team, as well as players who have been selected for any international or domestic tournament within 24 months.
While sports betting is not illegal in the United States, it is still a highly controversial topic. Several states have passed laws against it, while others have not. The Supreme Court’s ruling in May 2018 opened the door for more states to make sports gambling legal. Currently, more than 30 states have legalized some form of USA sports betting.