Over/Under

The definitive, colorful history of American sports betting that challenges the dialogue around one of our country’s fastest growing (and most controversial) industries.

For close to two hundred years, sports gambling in the United States has been a discreet affair. Placing a bet meant a weekend in Vegas or being introduced to somebody’s guy or giving your credit card to a shady website. Then one day in 2018, nine Americans in black robes had a discussion and took a vote. And before you knew it sports gambling was legal—and it was everywhere.

So what happens now? In Over/Under, David Bockino sets out to answer that question by borrowing a lesson from the pros. Equipped with decades of historical sports data, the world’s most successful bettors use what has happened in past contests to predict what might happen.

When Bockino applies that approach to the sports gambling industry itself, he uncovers a fascinating and unexpected history: betting is not a result of the multi-billion-dollar American sports landscape, but rather is a primary reason for it. Gambling has been there from the very beginning, an essential catalyst for nearly two hundred years of sports obsession and fandom.

Over/Under takes readers on a rollicking journey through the history of American sports betting. It starts in mid-nineteenth century New York City, as a new sport lured bettors out of shadowy gambling halls and into the fresh air. The story then heads to Churchill Downs and Augusta National Golf Club where sports gambling dresses up in fancy outfits, to Chicago and Minneapolis where sports gambling makes people do dishonest things, and to Las Vegas and the Caribbean where sports gambling makes some people very rich.

And through it all, the narrative rolls out a cast of colorful characters: hustlers, wise guys, moguls, opportunists, grifters, speculators, touts, who are all trying to make a quick buck. Written for those eager to learn more about a recently-legalized industry—one that’s been described both as a financial bonanza and an impending disaster—Over/Under is poised to become the definitive book of a controversial industry in the midst of incredible yet uncertain growth.