Whilst sports betting has been around for hundreds of years, the
trading of a sporting event is a relatively new phenomenon and has
only recently been considered to be main stream since the
development of the betting exchanges in June 2000.
Since the launch of the betting exchanges the industry has seen a
huge change with how clients interact with the sports betting
markets. Previously the role of the bookmaker was to set the odds
for an event and for clients to place bets, or wagers, with the
bookmaker on their prices. If the punter won the bookie lost, it
was a very simple concept.
The exchanges transformed the market in a way that many
traditional bookmakers didn't think possible and as the exchanges
can be said to have revolutionised the market, the traditional
bookmakers have kept pace with the development of betting platforms
and new innovative bet types.
There are now an increasing number of financial traders who are
using sports bookmakers and betting exchanges to trade on sporting
events in ways similar to the more traditional futures, cfd and
foreign exchange markets. It would appear that the market is
changing as quickly as ever before and that the number of new
clients on both betting exchanges and with traditional bookmakers
is likely to continue to rise.
The sports betting market is now a regulated environment with both
the Gambling Commission (fixed odds and binary markets) and
the FSA (sports spread betting companies) now monitoring
different areas of the business. With increased regulation comes
increased confidence in the product and so sports betting and
trading is likely to become more common amongst other financial
trading communities.