This creates a number of other criminal elements, thus furthering their illegality. 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. They take bets 'up-front', meaning the bettor must pay the sportsbook before placing the bet. There are different types of legalized sports betting now such as game betting, parlays props and future bets. 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. The term 'book' is a reference to the books used by wage brokers to track wagers, payouts, and debts.

Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a bookmaker/sportsbook, or illegally through privately run enterprises referred to as 'bookies'. Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

( July 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please help improve it to make it understandable to non-experts, without removing the technical details. Now, with the rise of online betting, sportsbooks and casinos provide live-betting services.This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. At first, bookies would take bets by phone as the event occurred. Technological progress has changed this and, since the 1990s, some forms of betting have occurred while an event is taking place. Until recently, however, betting was not able to keep up with the rapidly moving odds that happen during a live event. As time has moved on, betting has become more mathematically advanced, often spurring on advances in statistics. Sports gambling stretches back as far as recorded history, with reports of wagers being made during the ancient Greek Olympic Games.

Live betting and the advertising around it may encourage impulse bets, causing concern that the practice may lead to a gambling addiction.

The ability to place many bets during a single event has changed the nature of placing bets.

Live betting is a relatively new development in gambling.

Live betting is betting that happens during a sports or gaming event.

Online sports betting betting odds