Digital Double Down: How Smartphone Apps Have Transformed Sports Gambling

When I was a teenager, I worked at a video store (remember those?). Every Tuesday, we would get a shipment of the new releases that would adorn the shelves that weekend. I tended to look over these titles to see if there was a movie that interested me so that I could make a mental note to rent it. One day, I came across a movie that had two actors that I recognized: Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino. I was intrigued. The movie was called “Two For The Money”. I rented it and was fascinated by the premise of this film.

If you have never seen it, the movie is about a former college football star (McConaughey) who enters the world of sports betting after a career-ending injury. Then he aligns himself with the head of a sports gambling business (Pacino) who shows him the ins and outs of the industry through the lens of this business. The movie is one of my favorites as it touts excellent actors with a topic that I have always found fascinating. Fast forward to today, and I think about that movie quite a bit. Sports gambling has been on the rise of late, with 22 states having legalized the business. This has brought legitimacy to the sports betting world, and a big driver of this legitimacy has been mobile betting smartphone apps. These apps are using available technology and capitalizing on it to make betting on sports…