Sports betting is when you put money on an outcome and get paid if it wins or loses. It comes in many different forms, from a simple moneyline bet to a totals wager. In the United States, you can place a bet on a game by going to a casino or an online gambling site. The Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on sports betting in 2018, and now it’s up to individual states to decide whether to legalize it.
Currently, Virginia is the only state that allows its citizens to place bets on a variety of sports events through its online casinos and horse racing betting sites. The only exception is for college sports that involve a team from a public or private institution of higher education. The state’s betting industry is expected to bring in billions of dollars a year over the next five years.
While the majority of sports bets will be placed on professional teams, some fans prefer to bet on their favorite college teams. However, there are some important things to know about college sports betting before you make a bet.
One of the biggest sports betting scandals in history involved eight members of the Chicago White Sox, who were caught accepting cash from a professional gambler to fix the 1919 World Series. The players, including Oscar Felsch, Arnold Gandil, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, and Charles Risberg, were permanently banned from baseball and never got into the Hall of Fame.