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Since time immemorial people like to risk and compete, so first bets appeared a very long time ago. People used to bet not only money but also cattle, slaves or estates. American indians had a custom, peculiar in its cruelty - to execute the captain of the losing team in the game that slightly reminded basketball. Believe me, all games were full of vehement and most interesting competition. Due to a certain reason the captains were especially active :) All this, though, was only remotely like modern sports betting. The first step towards it was made in 1651 in France when the first horse race was held and the first bet on its outcome was made. Private bookmakers appeared in England in the XIX century. There all the money bet was put together and the bookmaker took some percent of it and the rest was distributed among winners. An interesting fact - such seemingly modern notion as "handicap" actually appeared in the times of the French king Louis XVI, who ordered that foreign horses should take additional weight - handicap, to support local horse breeders. When I discovered this fact I thought - what if instead the so much criticized limit of foreign players the authorities introduced something similar and just make those players wear 1,5-2 kilos of handicap? :) Sports betting spread wider covering new kinds of sport. After horse, dog and cockroach racing bookmaker started offering odds on football as well. Sports betting acquired its modern look. |