Sports betting means placing a bet with a bookmaker on the outcome of a sporting event. If you’re aged 18 or older, it is legal for you to bet on sports in Australia.
Sports betting accounts for less than 4% – of total gambling expenditure in Australia. It is also growing in popularity, with the latest statistics showing that sports wagering increased by 13% between 2015 and 2016.
Traditionally, Australians have placed bets on horse racing events. From the first Melbourne Cup in 1861 to Phar Lap’s hey day in the 1930s, horse betting was and remains an extremely popular pastime for Australians.
The introduction of online betting has opened the gateway for betting on a wider array of sports. If you like, you can wager a bet on local sports like AFL, rugby league and union, soccer, cricket, netball, tennis and many more. Online betting also gives you access to betting on the outcomes of international events, including American Football (NFL), American Basketball (NBA) English Premier League (EPL) and many others.
Sport is a game of chance and skill and so is sports betting. You can’t change your luck but you can improve your skills
Central to the enjoyment of sports betting is remaining in control. Always bet sensibly and within your means. You might like betting simply because it makes watching your favourite sports more fun. That’s often true. However, with a better understanding of the industry and available betting products, you have the chance to make good profits with sports betting.
To bet on sports you need bookmaker, betting exchange or betting agency. Betting agencies provide markets that allow you to place bets. The selection of your online bookmaker is an important decision as many offer different types of sports betting products. The following betting sites are licensed and regulated in Australia:
We offer sports betting tools and calculators to help you calculate your potential returns on a variety of sports betting options.
If you like betting on soccer matches, try our arbitrage calculator. The calculator will compute the value of the arbitrage once all of the odds for the three outcomes are entered.
The back and lay calculator is also very useful for all sports, but in particular tennis and golf betting, where there can be wild fluctuations on a betting exchange.
try our betting toolsWhen you create a new account with a bookmaker or betting agent, you typically receive a sign up bonus. This once-off bonus is provided as thanks to you for choosing the bookmaker and opening a new account. If you’re thinking of opening a betting account, it’s a good idea to shop around and see what sign up bonuses are available.
Many bookmakers also offer bonus bets, usually tied to a particular event. For example, a betting agency may offer a free bet, if you place a head to head bet on a team in an AFL match. If that team loses, but leads at some point, or loses by a specific amount, you receive a bonus bet. This type of promotion, where the sports bet type is central to the offer, is very common. These types of bonuses are offered every week by bookmakers on a range of sports, involving a variety of bet types.
You can do well by taking advantage of the variety of betting promotions on offer from bookmakers. It is not necessarily recommended to seek out sports markets because a bookmaker is offering a bonus on a particular event. However, if you are planning to place a bet, it is worthwhile scanning the bookmaker promotions to see if there is an offer available that gives you the chance to win a bonus bet.