Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a
wager on the outcome.
Sports bettors place their wagers either legally,
through a bookmaker/sportsbook, or illegally through privately run enterprises
referred to as “bookies”. The term “book” is a reference
to the books used by wage brokers to track wagers, payouts, and debts. Many
legal sportsbooks are found online, operated over the Internet from
jurisdictions separate from the clients they serve, usually to get around
various gambling laws (such as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of
2006 in the United States) in select markets, such as Las Vegas, or on gambling
cruises through self-serve kiosks.[1]
There are different types of
legalized sports betting now such as game betting, parlays props and future
bets. They take bets “up-front”, meaning the bettor must pay the
sportsbook before placing the bet. Due to the nature of their business, illegal
bookies can operate anywhere but only require money from losing bettors and do
not require the wagered money up front, creating the possibility of debt to the
bookie from the bettor. This creates a number of other criminal elements, thus
furthering their illegality. (來源 )
The bookmaker functions as a market maker for sports wagers, most of which
have a binary outcome: a team either wins or loses. The bookmaker accepts both
wagers, and maintains a spread (the vigorish) which will ensure a profit
regardless of the outcome of the wager. The Federal Wire Act of 1961 was an
attempt by the US government to prevent illegal bookmaking.[5] However, this Act
does not apply to other types of online gambling.[6] The Supreme Court has not
ruled on the meaning of the Federal Wire Act as it pertains to online
gambling.
Bookmakers usually hold an 11–10 advantage over their
customers—for small wagers it is closer to a 6–5 advantage—so the bookmaker will
most likely survive over the long term. Successful bookmakers must be able to
withstand a large short term loss. (Boyd, 1981) (來源 )