San Francisco, Feb 7 (EFE; local reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Security is tight at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, where the Carolina Panthers will take on the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday evening.

Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies will be out in force at the facility in the San Francisco Bay Area in the wake of the terrorist attacks late last year in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

Law enforcement agencies stepped up patrols and activated different security systems before Super Week started in the Bay Area.

In Costa Rica, local sportsbooks have also increased security, although the focus is on their networks and communications infrastructure. According to estimates released by Sports Betting in America, nearly $4.2 billion will be wagered on Super Bowl 50, mostly by residents of the United States, but 97 percent of that heavy betting volume will not be handled in that North American nation.

For the most part, sports betting is prohibited by the U.S. federal government; the only exception being a few jurisdictions in Nevada, mostly in Las Vegas, where fully licensed sportsbooks took in less than $150 million in wagers during last year’s Super Bowl.

U.S. residents who enjoy wagering on sports do not usually travel to Las Vegas to place bets; instead, they seek local options. A good portion of online and mobile wagering is handled in Costa Rica by Pay-Per-Head (PPH) providers such as IDSca.com, a pioneer in this field. IDSca.com clients tend to be neighborhood bookmakers who take local action through a PPH back office safely located in Costa Rica.

Through IDSca.com, bookmakers can offer their players many attractive options such as prop wagers and live betting, which they can access online, from their smartphones, or even through a call center. Players even have entertainment options such as online casino gaming, and they don’t have worry about sending funds overseas; all bets are settled locally, and thus no money flows through Costa Rica.

Physical security is always tight at the IDSca.com data centers, which are made redundant beyond Costa Rica for the purpose of constant availability in case of cyber attacks or disasters. Since the PPH operations of IDSca.com do not handle betting funds, they are not a target for cyber thieves; however, security is always provided to protect against crimes such as distributed denial of service (DDOS) and man-in-the-middle attacks.

Oddmakers in Las Vegas, meanwhile, have the Carolina Panthers as 3.5-point favorites to beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50.

The Panthers, winners of the National Football Conference title, were initially 5.5-point favorites to beat the Broncos, the American Football Conference champions. EFE