Online sports betting is taking a big swing in plenty of well-developed countries in the world, with Australia being no exception.
Nowadays, you don’t need to bother going to the retail store to place your bet, as you can do everything from the comfort of your own home. Moreover, you have way more options and betting types on online platforms, so the benefits are all there for everyone to see.
So, how does online sports betting rank among Australians? Let’s make a quick overview of the industry in the country.
Australia has a rather unique and interesting approach towards online gambling in general. The regulatory framework that explains and sets the rules of online gambling in the country is the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001.
While online casinos offering games of chance are not allowed in the country, the Gambling Act has a more lenient approach towards sports betting sites.
So, online sports betting is legal as long as the betting occurs before the game starts, as that way, punters don’t gamble “interactively”. For a long time, Australia has put a ban on live betting, so punters are a bit limited with options here.
However, there are also tons of international sports betting sites that are free to accept Australian punters without consequences. To this day, there is no case of the government prosecuting or criminally charging someone in Australia for wagering on offshore online betting sites.
Online operators betting sites in Australia seem to grow in popularity with each passing year. Estimations show that just in 2022, the online betting market in Australia reached $4.5 billion in revenue.
The same estimates predict that those numbers will rise to $7.2 billion by 2028, so the growth rate will be around 7.9% in the next five years. These numbers are a great representation of how influential online sports betting will continue to be in Australia.
Keep in mind that these numbers are a representation of the bets placed on licensed bookies in Australia.
As mentioned above, there are also international betting sites that accept punters from the country, so the numbers may even be bigger here.
In the past, Australia admitted to having a “regular gamblers” problem, but with new legislation possibly coming, the regulatory powers for the Commission and greater fines for operators who don’t adhere to the strict rules are sure to keep things under control.
Online sports betting provides tons of options for every Australian punter. The rise of mobile betting will surely speed things up, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the numbers mentioned above get much bigger.
So, at the end of the day, we can say that there is plenty to be excited about with the development of online sports betting in Australia.
Just remember to always choose reliable betting sites and to gamble responsibly – that way, betting will always be a nice pastime activity that can sometimes generate profits.