The History of Sports Betting: From Ancient Arenas to Mobile Apps

One of humanity’s oldest forms of gambling only recently became legal across most of the United States.

Ancient Origins in Greece and Rome

Wagering on athletic competitions dates back to ancient Greece, where spectators placed bets on events at the early Olympic Games, and continued through the Roman era, where chariot races and gladiatorial combat drew enormous crowds of bettors. These early wagers were typically informal arrangements between individuals rather than organized bookmaking operations.

The Rise of Organized Bookmaking in England

Structured sports betting began taking shape in 18th-century England, closely tied to the growth of organized horse racing and the professional bookmakers who set odds on race outcomes. This model of fixed-odds betting eventually expanded to cover other sports, including boxing and, later, football.

America’s Long Legal Battle

In the United States, sports betting existed largely in an illegal or gray-market form for most of the 20th century, dominated by underground bookmakers, apart from a narrow legal carve-out for Nevada sportsbooks. This changed dramatically in 1992, when Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which effectively banned sports betting in nearly every state except Nevada.

The 2018 Supreme Court Ruling

The legal landscape shifted dramatically in May 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association that PASPA was unconstitutional, effectively returning the authority to legalize sports betting to individual states. Within just a few years, dozens of states moved to legalize and regulate sports wagering, launching a rapid nationwide expansion of the industry.

The Mobile Betting Boom

The post-2018 legalization wave coincided with the rapid rise of mobile sports betting apps, allowing users to place wagers instantly from their phones rather than visiting a physical sportsbook. Major operators invested heavily in advertising and partnerships with professional sports leagues, transforming sports betting from a once-taboo activity into a mainstream, heavily marketed entertainment product across the United States.