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New Year’s Article – 2025!
Champagne, Lotteries and the Science of Probability
by Ian Sherrington
December 31st, 2024
Series – The Online Gambling Industry
The Paperwork – Jurisdictions, Legal and Compliance
As the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, the world is united in celebration. Glasses of champagne fizz, hopeful punters clutch lottery tickets, and the air buzzes with anticipation of a brand New Year!
At the heart of these New Year’s customs lies the fascinating science of probability – the core of our gambling industry.
Probability is the mathematical framework that allows us to quantify uncertainty, to make sense of randomness, and to understand the odds of seemingly unpredictable events.
It’s what makes the journey of champagne bubbles captivating and the dream of a lottery jackpot tantalizing. And it’s a field of study that owes much to one of history’s greatest minds: Blaise Pascal.
But how exactly do champagne bubbles, lottery tickets, and the work of a 17th-century mathematician come together to shape the New Year’s festivities?
Let’s have a quick dive into these connections, exploring how the randomness we celebrate today is tied to the enduring legacy of probability.
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Series Introduction
The Online Gambling Industry
A Series of Articles
Ian Sherrington, July 2024
In 1996, a small sportsbook in Austria accepted the world’s first online sports bet: a $50 gamble that Tottenham Hotspur would beat Hereford United in a third round FA Cup replay.
Since then, the rise of the online gaming industry has been meteoric. From humble beginnings, in seedy apartments and dimly lit basements, visionaries and programmers created computer systems that would form the foundations of a remarkable industry.
This transformation has extended gambling opportunities in unprecedented ways. As each new system or service came online, it gained popularity and momentum, leading to rapid growth.
Today, the industry is worth a fortune, with a turnover calculated in the trillions of dollars. It pays significant taxes, contributes to worthy causes, offers investment opportunities, and provides employment to many.
This first article in the series “The Online Gambling Industry” outlines the origins of the industry; looking at the key innovations that contributed to the beginnings of the online gambling industry.
We will explore how these early developments set the stage for the thriving online gambling landscape we see today.
The following articles in this series will delve deeper into the evolution of the industry, revealing the pioneers and their ground-breaking contributions. Join us, as we uncover the fascinating history of online gambling!
A Note from the Author
Dear Reader,
I’m Ian Sherrington and thank you for your interest in this fascinating topic. As a programmer, I played a key role in the early days of the Online Gambling Industry. On January 17th, 1996 the first online sports bet was accepted by the new Intertops website which I had conceived and created. Intertops has been online and accepting bets ever since.
I’ve stayed in the industry and continue to innovate and contribute in various ways, not just technically. During my time I’ve witnessed the evolution of the industry first-hand.
I always wanted to write about the industry and how it came to be and uncover the innovations and the innovators, many of whom I have met, and their invaluable contributions.
Now I have the chance to do it so now I’m investigating .. Who did what, when and.. why?
Huge thanks to Paul and all for your patient editing!
Let the Series begin!
Ian Sherrington, July 2024
