From Back Streets to Wall Street: How Sports Betting Is Going Mainstream
Nevada sports betting is beginning to look a lot like Wall Street
The world of sports betting has come a long way in the past hundred years. Gone are the days when gambling was considered a vice, when point spreads were discussed in hushed tones, when betting was seen as strictly taboo. Now, with the ongoing advancement of technology and social media, sports betting is going mainstream. Many believe the trillion dollar industry will expand beyond the limits of Nevada’s state borders. Indeed, with the help of the internet, one need not make the trip to a casino just to place their bets. Now they can wake up in their Strip hotel, roll over and put a grand down on their favorite team. As with every other aspect of our world, digital innovation has placed functionality in the palms of our hands, giving us a level of accessibility we might never have dreamed of twenty years ago. But here we are.
Last year alone, Nevada sportsbooks reported wager totals of more than $4.5 Billion. The year before that, it was a record $4.2 Billion. In 2014, reports gave a total of $3.9 Billion in total wagers. Clearly we’re seeing a huge upward trend for the sports betting industry. This year, according to Reuters, Nevada’s 196 sportsbooks recorded a record $138.5 Million in wagers for the Super Bowl. If these patterns are indicative of the future, this trillion-dollar industry is only going to get bigger.
And as the industry continues to expand, bettors are resorting to increasingly sophisticated technologies to inform their wagers. Data analysis tools, real-time betting, online apps, and fund managers are changing the game, putting sports betting on par with stock trading. We are now seeing a flourishing of sports betting systems like we’ve never seen before. Here are just a few ways that sports betting is going mainstream:
Online Apps and Data Tools
The world of sports betting has been drastically transformed by the advent of related online technologies. From online apps created by sportsbook companies to data tools such as IntelligentBettingTips.com, the internet has created a sports betting revolution. In 2014 alone, sportsbook operator CG Technology said 69 percent of bets were placed on its app. That represents a marked increase from the previous year and a clear upswing in the use of computers and smart devices to place bets. Without a doubt, the increase in sportsbooks offering online apps for betting has played an active part in the industry’s expansion, according to Nevada Gaming Control senior research analyst Michael Lawton.
On top of sportsbooks apps, a new industry has arisen to support the betting community. Data tools. Firms such as SportsAnalyticsSimulator and IntelligentBettingTips.com now offer complex data analysis tools to aid you in your pre- and in-game betting. IBT, specifically, offers a prediction model similar to the collective intelligence systems used on Wall Street. By combining the collective mass of online sports user-base intelligence, opinions and predictions, and analyzing that data against some of the leading sports bookmakers, experts and analysts, then integrating that with the site’s own algorithms, IBT has created one of the most popular new data analytic tools to offer users an array of solid predictions. So much of this industry has coopted many of the predictive strategies employed by day traders on Wall Street. They represent one of a handful of rising firms helping bettors place wagers they can believe in.
Realtime Wagering
Another major advancement for the industry comes via the assistance of high speed data flow during games. Whereas in the past bettors placed most of their bets before the start of a game, Nevada is now seeing a sharp rise in in-game betting. Because of this, the demand for real-time data is only becoming greater. The transmission of data in this fashion is known as ‘courtsiding’. In the past it has occurred most prominently in the tennis world, with many arguing that it should be illegal. The reason for this is that courtsiding, which bypasses the delay that of digital television broadcasts, involves the transmission of in-game data to bettors who can then place wagers before bookmakers can receive that information and change the betting odds. But the practice isn’t technically illegal. And more and more, it’s finding legitimacy among bettors looking to capitalize on big moments in sports games. No doubt, as the speed of data transmission increases, realtime wagering will continue to play a larger and larger role in the betting industry.
Mutual Funds and Fund Managers
In 2015, Nevada passed Senate Bill 443, ushering in a new era for the sports betting industry. The bill, which essentially allows investor groups to place wagers in the sportsbooks, represents a major step forward in the legitimization of the industry. Entity betting works in much the same way a mutual fund does. For those who don’t know, a mutual fund is an investment vehicle made up of a pool of funds from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets. In similar fashion, individuals can place their money in investment groups such as ContrarianInvestments, who then takes the pooled funds and places bets on behalf of the entity. A downside to this is that the individuals have no say in where their money goes.
This is where fund managers come into play. ContrarianInvestments founder Chris Connelly is one such manager. After getting his start in the stock market at the age of 14, demonstrating a penchant for solid investments, Chris turned his attention toward the world of sports betting. Very quickly, he had some notable success.
“After showcasing my ability,” Chris says on the ContrarianInvestments website, “I currently have over 180 bettors who subscribe to my picks via email. My success lead me to become noticed by some of the biggest bettors in the industry and I recently consulted for a large syndicate betting group this past year.”
His ultimate goal for CI is to be the “Warren Buffet” of the industry, demonstrating the legitimacy of sportsbetting “by outperforming the major stock indexes, mutual funds and ETF’s.”
While entity betting is still very much in its infancy, it represents a step forward for an already massively profitable industry. And while the waging itself must take place within the state limits, SB443 allows investors to pour in from anywhere, not just Nevada. So in essence, fund managers like Chris are helping to expand sports betting beyond the limits of Nevada, bringing the action to people all over the country and even the world.
