ESPN | Suki Sather

Following decades of holding the line, the NCAA and the four major professional sports leagues eventually lost their struggle against the spread of lawful sports betting in america.
The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) — the federal sports betting statute preventing any state outside of Nevada from taking a bet on a game — died of organic Supreme Court causes annually ago, just after 10 a.m. ET on May 14, 2018.
In that brief year, seven nations (in addition to Nevada) have allowed widespread lawful sports betting and together have earned nearly $8 billion in stakes. Montana, Indiana, Iowa and Washington, D.C., have handed legalization bills over the past couple of days, and lots of states — including New York — are poised to be next. 2024, nearly 70 percent of countries predicted to provide sports.
It is a massive moment in American sport and already has produced some incredible scenes and storylines:
Three prominent sports commissioners — the NBA’s Adam Silver, the NHL’s Gary Bettman and Major League Baseball’s Rob Manfred — have appeared together with the CEO of one of the greatest sportsbook operators in the nation to announce ventures.
2 NFL owners entered last year with financial stakes, albeit de minimis ones, in DraftKings — that the fantasy giant-turned-bookmaker, which will be taking bets on their respective teams.
??? Fox Sports declared last week that it is going to launch a sports betting app and start taking bets that autumn — the biggest move so far by media companies increasingly taking an interest in the industry. ESPN and Fox Sports 1 have already launched daily displays around sports betting.
??? Sports betting has been in the center of discussion of numerous huge sporting moments over the past year (Todd Gurley’s kneel-down, Tiger Woods winning the Masters, the Kentucky Derby disqualification, James Holzhauer’s”Jeopardy!” run, among others), raising its profile even further.

The Death Watchers