What is Online Sportsbook Betting?

A sportsbook, sometimes abbreviated as “book”, is a place where a gambler can wager on various sporting competitions, including football, baseball, hockey, golf, horse racing and boxing.

The words origin comes from the French word “portmanteau” which means “jacket holder”, or a suitcase with two storage spaces.  Sportsbook combines two meanings into one word for a sports gambling operation, in this case SPORTS and BOOK which is short for bookmaking.

In the mid 1930’s, Leo Hirshchfield started a company in Minneapolis, Minnesota called Athletic Publications, Inc., that published and distributed odds to bookies across the country by telephone and telegraph.  The company was a major provider of odds and prices until it finally disbanded, under the fear of prosecution from the Federal Wire Act of 1961.

Today there are roughly 150 licensed sportsbooks in the United States, all located in Nevada casinos.  In the 1950’s the first Nevada sportsbooks, called turf clubs opened.  They were independent from the casinos, and had an informal agreement with the hotels that they would stay out of the casino business al long as the hotels stayed out of the sportsbook business.  The sportsbooks had to pay a 10% tax so they charged a high vigorish (the amount charged for their services) to gamblers, but they still brought in a lot of business.  In 1974 the tax was lowered to 2%, and 1983 to 0.25%.  In 1975 Lefty Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust Casino, convinced legislators to allow them in the casinos, and soon nearly all the casinos included sportsbooks as a main part of their business.  The turf clubs were no longer able to compete and they eventually all closed.

What is an Online Sportsbook?

Internet Sportsbooks range in focus, as some primarily cater to American sports, while others focus on European soccer.  Some sportsbooks handle large wagers while others have low wagering limits.  Some offer many exotic proposition wagers, where others have limited choices.  Payment methods are not universally accepted at all sportsbooks. 

While Internet Sportsbooks lack face-to-face transactions, they can handle many more customers than land based sportsbooks and can operate more cost effectively.  Vegas books can process maybe 20-30 clients at a time while Internet books can process thousands simultaneously.  Internet books have much lower costs per wager (much lower overhead with reduced brick and mortar) and they can pass this type of savings on to the gambler in the form of deposit bonuses or reduced juice (cheaper prices). 

Internet Sportsbooks allow you to shop for lines instantly.  In comparison traveling from casino to casino to check out the various odds would clearly be less efficient.  Costa Rica is home to a large number of offshore sportsbooks, as it caters too many of the needs of the industry with an open regulatory environment and a large, capable workforce.  In addition, a number of sportsbooks are located in Jamaica, Gibraltar, Anigue, Curacao and Australia.