There is no concrete evidence from archaeologists regarding sports before antiquity. However, they suggest the existence of sports in prehistoric times. Nowadays, sports and casinos are so highly developed that they have already gone online and now platforms like 1xbet can offer the best games, but this was not always the case and it took a long time before the industry came to this point.
Men would fight among themselves, and others would “bet” on the one they considered the strongest. The reward, of course, was not only monetary.
When sports appeared
Sports existed already in Antiquity, in the period of Ancient Greece. At that time, the Greeks held sports and athletic competitions, and it was very popular. Indeed, they were known for their love of sports and events such as the Olympic Games. The Corinthian and Delphic Games, various events close to the Olympic Games, also provided people with great opportunities to bet on their favorite sporting events.
However, in order to pay the athletes, visitors were certainly forced to pay for tickets through the ticket office, and sports was also organized to make the event profitable. Sports has almost always existed.
The Romans were also the first players, especially thanks to the famous gladiator fights, the oldest of which date back to 264 BC. We also find, about a century BC, sporting events, to which are added wild animal fights, chariot races, or, even more cruelly, duels between condemned to death and feline, and therefore, of course, gladiators. Roman civilization made money much more meaningful in this way of distraction.
Middle Ages Bets
To continue chronologically, in the Middle Ages, so-called “sports” continued to develop during this period, especially with the advent of new sports practices such as archery or even sword or spear tournaments on horseback. Then and gambling spread throughout Europe, mainly in France and England.
In the 17th century, players had the opportunity to compete in duels, armed, often ending in the death of the loser, the monetary aspect was then somewhat inappropriate;
In the 18th century, the word “handicap” appeared in the world of sports especially in horse racing. This word comes from the word “hand in a cap”, which was used when one item of exchange had less value than another, and when a sum of money was added for fairness. Then sports, which has a more monetary aspect, begins to take shape. Horse racing sports flourished in the 19th century.
Evolution of Horse Racing
Their growth is gigantic, and therefore we see the emergence of numerous racetracks, where we find the upper class who come together to bet for fun, as well as poorer circles who hope to win money. In the 20th century, a little later, horse racing retained its popularity, but other sports encroached on the monopoly of the racing world. This can be explained, in particular, by the advent of television around 1960, on which sporting events were shown to the general public. Sports then goes up all over the world. The second important change of the twentieth century was the advent of the Internet in the late 1990s.
Thus, it is precisely due to the increase in the number of sports events broadcast on television, advertising (for example, sponsors on football jerseys), the Internet, and television that sports has become firmly established in people’s lives every day, especially in Western countries.
The history of sports in England
Legal sports appeared in 1930 in England, about forty years after France. However, the growth has become more significant, and today we find a more gambling character among the British than among the French.
The practice of sports was first reported in 1646 during a cricket match. This famous common game, noble and bourgeois English, encourages nobles to participate in sports in order to relax or enjoy winning small amounts. Indeed, initially, sports was not intended to win large amounts of money, at least in the current conditions.
Around the 19th century, the arrival of the first settlers to the future territory of the United States of America changed the history of sports. The British colonists became addicted to the entertainment and pleasures that gambling brought. Often, the bloody bets adopted by previous generations of Britons were not synonymous with making money. These bets were different from horse racing, cockfights, or even bare-knuckle boxing matches.
The English sports culture is very clearly felt in the active lives of various players, especially in football, the national sport. Moreover, this culture of gaming and among the British has persisted, as today they account for almost 15% of the annual bets in the world. It is to them that we owe the first national lottery, and, consequently, the first online sports sites.
Conclusion
In the end, it is worth saying that the history of sports, although rooted in ancient civilizations, has undergone more changes than we can imagine when we just think about this topic. Now we can enjoy sports online, but all this is a result that came from ancient times.