Past and Future of Betting

Betting is older than the written history itself, and people were betting on anything and everything they can think of, even before money was invented.

Published in

iBetYou

6 min readMay 26, 2021

“An Age Of Chance” in ancient times, gambling was in its pure form, the game of chance. Most popular among players were different variations of dice games. Usually, to win, the player would need to score the exact 3 numbers on dice or the highest pair of 3 identical numbers dice.

Ancient betting:

There is not much written about betting in ancient times, and many historians are still speculating on gambling possibilities in that period. However, based on artifacts found that date as far as 3000 B.C., we can make a strong case that gambling for fun is at the very core of what makes us human.

*Fact; Six-sided dice existed in Mesopotamia about 3000 B.C, i.e., 5000 years ago*

In Ancient Greece, approximately +2000 years ago, Greeks used to bet on various outcomes, whether dice games, Olympic games outcome, betting on the athletes competing against each other. Nevertheless, gambling had not one but two Gods on its side. Hermes and Pan, important figures in Greek mythology, are known for taking part in gambling, whereas some stories mention Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus had a game of dice and straw in a bid to split the Universe between them. When the dice were thrown and straws were drawn, Hades snapped up the “Underworld”; Poseidon won the “seas”, and Zeus got the “Heavens”.

Middle ages: “Betting is a nobleman’s pastime!”

In the Middle ages, betting was among the few privileges for the nobleman. As early as 1190, during King Richard I’s crusade, any individual below the ranking of the knight was banned from gambling. [We can blame Greeks here, as we all know that the crusaders spent enough time around the local folks and brought back home the betting bug.]

Moving a few centuries ahead and a couple of bans and unbans of gambling, we arrive at the 18th century, where betting became open for everyone. Betting flourished with the invention of the Bookkeepers. What makes Bookepers so important, you would ask, and we answer. The Bookie guarantees that you are going to get your win/or pay what you lost on the second. And this is a revolutionary invention. You don’t need to rely on someone’s word that will pay what was staked.

Bookkeepers, or so-called “Bookies”, were people you had to meet if you wanted to bet on some event, horse race for example.

Bookies were the people who laid out actual odds creating a “book, by gathering multiple scenarios or results, which, if balanced, will always ensure profit for them. [Even here, we can see why it is so hard to win on sports betting … What a coincidence!]

The most popular places to promote betting and where bookies operated were usually pubs. Betting in a place where there was alcohol turned out to have many unwanted experiences. That’s the point where bookies started opening their official stores for betting. A dark place, lots of alcohol, crowds of people, interested in placing a bet… Sounds familiar, right?

Well, it didn’t take long until a few great minds thought of the same concept, and Casinos started popping out everywhere. And the rest is history [Quite a boring one, so we are skipping the laws and bans on gambling across the World.]

Entering the new world of online betting!

Online betting started in 1996 — sound strange? We couldn’t believe it either.

Intertops became the first recognized online sports betting site on the web in 1996, regulated by the then-new and first of its kind, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

Betting in shops was not perfect and thus was replaced very soon with the online version of betting.

The new revolution of betting began with online betting. You can freely take your laptop, smartphone, or any other device, enter your favorite betting website or app, and bet on different events, such as sport, racing, etc. But also, everything was just on your screen, from events, stakes to live betting opportunities.

However, anyone who placed an online bet knows the pains of registering, winning tax, a variety of limits, rules you need to follow, difficulty withdrawing your money, etc.

What makes online betting archaic:

First, if you want to bet on some of the online betting platforms’ you need to log in and provide personal information, such as full name, surname, state, country, zip, street, house number, etc.

In order to place your bet, you have to provide your credit card info and deposit money to the account. And it gets even worse when you want to withdraw your money. You need to reveal more personal information, upload identification documents, wait for a decision to get your money. Frustrating, right!?

Why iBetYou is your new best betting companion:

Now, as the DeFi is hitting the first rows of the internet and applications built on it. So it was just a matter of time when it would include betting.

A new way of decentralized betting is revolutionizing the industry, similar to the Bookies and the betting shops a few centuries ago.

Now you can place your bet freely, without any restrictions or sharing sensitive information. You can play and bet on anything and everything your mind wishes. The only thing you need is an idea and some wager to place behind it.

Best of all is that it is entirely free, without any hidden costs or fees, open for everyone to use, has no rules, and absolutely no limits!

How does this magic work, you would ask? Easy as it will ever be, you enter the iBetYou site, connect your MetaMask wallet, and get started!

Here’s an example to open your world of betting ideas:

A big event is coming, let’s say the Champions League match between Tottenham and Arsenal.

You are confident that Tottenham is going to win, and your friend thinks the opposite. So instead of going on a betting site and playing by their rules, you and your friend simply go to IBY and create a bet yourself. You craft your bet with any desired outcome. Then, stake your wager and call another two friends to be judges to your bet. One judge will be assigned to you, and another judge will be assigned to your friend. After your judges accept the invite and approve the bet, everything is set. You are free to watch your game and wait for the results.

Now the game is finished, and you have the results, it turns out that PSG won. All that is needed to complete the bet is the judge’s approval on the validity of the outcome. Once judges approve the bet, funds from the bet are transferred to our wallet in seconds. And judges are given a small percent from the yield gathered on AAVE while your funds were staked.

So, this is an example of one bet on IBY, created and ruled entirely by you!

Can you imagine the possibilities of joking, rivalry, competitiveness, joy, and thrill that this can bring to you? Motivate yourself by putting a price on your decision or goal, bet your friends on various ideas, bet on any event you wish.

All of this is made possible on ibetyou.xyz!