And they’re off! Online sports betting has taken such a huge step forward int he past decade — basically taking a limited, rare form of legitimate gambling and making it available for anyone with an Internet connection (which, by by no coincidence, is a population which has itself become nearly ubiquitous during that same time period).

If you’ve been to an online sports betting website and no what to expect, you can skip down a few measures. However, many people still haven’t experienced it for themselves (what are you waiting for?), son I thought it might be helpful to put up a page or two of introduction — it never hurts to be prepared, right?

First of all, you don’t need to worry about the hype and glitz that you’ll see at online slots sites and even many poker sites. Sportsbooks are made for us no-nonsense, ‘get right to the action’ type of people. If you have to click more than twice to see a list of detailed wagers in front of you, you’re probably not at one of the better sportsbooks. Sure, there’s still plenty of multimedia if you want it (and some of the good sportsbooks have, uh, ‘optional extras’ such as swimsuit calendars and other excuses to show hot babes), but every decent sportsbook out there knows to make the betting top priority.

The only thing standing between you and making any bet that you want is the country from which you are wagering. People from the US are largely restricted from play at a number of the best online sportsbooks (including the world favorites of 888Sport, William Hill, and Ladbrokes, among others) but still have a number of high-quality choices (BetUS, Sportbook.com, and Sportsbetting.com are my personal top three right now). This is true not just for sports betting but also for online poker or online casino USA also.

Oh, and you’ll have to set up an account, but that’s no more difficult than setting up an account at any online business such as eBay, Facebook, Amazon, et cetera. And the online security is just as good if not better than any of those sites, so the little amount of information that the sportsbook needs will be completely secure and private.