SiGMA News is pleased to announce a  new fortnightly series titled “The Online gambling industry: Tales from the Past” which will provide in-depth insights into the evolution of this 75-billion-dollar market.

Leading this collaboration is Ian Sherrington, CEO of Crownstar and a visionary in the world of online gaming technology. Ian’s extensive career is marked by pioneering achievements, including the development of the first-ever online Sportsbook for Intertops in 1996, which revolutionised the sports betting landscape.

” With this series, I’m attempting to document how and where the industry actually got going and who provided the motivation behind it all. I hope you enjoy it!.”
IAN SHERRINGTON

Ian’s innovative contributions have continually pushed the boundaries of online gaming. After the success of the online sportsbook, Ian went on to create more pioneering gaming products including the first online Mahjong cash game system, the first live Bingo game in Asia, and the first true blockchain betting system.

The new series will describe the origins of the online gambling industry. How technical innovation aligned with vision and circumstance. Uncovering the ‘firsts’ will be a continual theme throughout the series, including the first online wager, the first online gambling jurisdiction, the first gaming system certification and many more.

Material for the series will be sourced from Ian’s personal experiences as well as interviews with key figures – those that were there.

The first article describes the situation just before the online boom started, the early 1990’s. Ian takes a look at the key innovations that contributed to the beginnings of the online gambling industry. He explores how these early developments set the stage for the thriving online gambling landscape we see today.

SiGMA’s tales from the past!

How the online gambling industry started: Summary

The rise of the internet revolutionised the gambling industry. By the mid-1990s, the groundwork for online gambling had been laid through a series of technological advancements, including the invention of the internet and HTML, the backbone of the World Wide Web.

Central to this evolution was the development of the Internet, which emerged from a series of breakthroughs in electronics and networking. Innovations like the invention of the transistor in 1947 and the concept of packet switching allowed for rapid, reliable data communication across vast networks, forming the bedrock of the Internet’s infrastructure.

The transition from proprietary online services like AOL to open Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the late 1980s empowered users to access a broader range of content, breaking the constraints of closed systems.

By 1991, Tim Berners-Lee’s creation of HTML, the HTTP protocol, and the first web browser marked the dawn of the World Wide Web, offering a revolutionary framework for organising and navigating information. The release of HTML 2.0 in 1995, with its formalisation of web forms, enabled interactive experiences and real-time data exchange between users and servers.

The establishment of security protocols such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) in the mid-1990s addressed the critical need for encrypted communications, ensuring that sensitive information could be transmitted securely over the Internet.

These advancements collectively set the stage for the digital transformation of the gambling industry. By the mid-1990s, with affordable Internet access, standardised web protocols, and enhanced security measures in place, online casinos, sportsbooks and lotteries began to emerge, signalling a seismic shift in the gambling industry’s trajectory and expanding its reach beyond traditional venues into the digital domain.

The online gambling industry was born, and with it, the start of a new era in entertainment and technology.

Read the complete story:

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