Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the United States of America, often referred to as America’s favorite pastime. The sport as we know it today was created by Abner Doubleday, in the summer of
1839, however, the origins of the sport date back much further than that. Before we get into the history, let’s first look at baseball today.

Baseball is the second biggest sport in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of fans around the country. Major League Baseball is worth over 10 billion dollars, and baseball players are some of the
highest paid American athletes.

Baseball is also massively popular in the betting sphere, and in fact, is the second biggest betting sport in the states. It is also popular to bet on around the world, however, lags behind other sports like soccer,
tennis, cricket, etc. Many online websites allow baseball betting, and see a huge increase in traffic during the baseball season. The popularity of sports betting at Novibet stems from the ease of use, and
accessibility that the website provides, as it can be accessed from any electronic device, meaning you are able to place a bet wherever you are, at any time.

Now that we’ve looked at the current state of baseball, let us look at the history of the sport.

The Progenitors
As said above, baseball as we know it today was officially created by Abner Doubleday in 1839, however the sport’s origins may date a lot further back. In fact, a French manuscript from 1344 depicts priests
playing a bat-and-ball game with several similarities to baseball as we know it. An early game, which often involved the use of sticks, or bats, is the game la soule, which shared many commonalities with baseballs, including running from base to base, the shape and size of the ball, and the occasional use of bats.

Another game, similar to baseball, is the English game called rounders. The earliest references to rounders date back to the time of the Tudors, which was between the late 1400s and early 1600s. In the
early 18th century, we have evidence of the game of rounders being referred to as baseball, and the game does share a number of similarities to the sport as we know it today. A number of other bat-and-ball games have been referenced to over the years, with many similarities to baseball, and many of them have been referred to as base-ball. However, officially, the game of baseball
began in 1839.

The Early Years
The baseball craze hit the States in the 1850s, with a number of association forming in the late 19th century, most famous of them being the National Association of Base Ball Players. The first professional
baseball team formed in 1869, under the name of Cincinnati Red Stockings (Red Sox today), who went undefeated in the season, and today are still the only team that has gone undefeated during a baseball
season. In 1903, the world of Baseball would change forever with the formation of Major League Baseball, the biggest baseball organization since the formation of the National League. The rest, as they
say, is history.