It may be time to get some facts laid out regarding Australian sportsbooks, due to the amount of vague/inaccurate information circulating regarding their operations, as well as the apparent need by many to find a genuinely secure, trustworthy and accountable international sportsbook.

I am not associated with any betting agency and represent no one; the only bias I have is towards those sportsbooks operating in the best interests of their clients. Naturally this extends to changing bookmaker’s attitudes towards acceptable operating standards and procedures, and offering a comprehensive selection of wagering options at competitive odds.

While Canbet and International All Sports are known for providing among the best value markets around on US sports (usually around a 3% hold), it is also a source of continual frustration that markets for Australian sports are rarely seen to be set below a 5% hold, and a good deal more in many cases (commonly around 7.5% with the TABs).

Bottom line: the more punters begin to shop around for the best available markets and the more bookmakers are made aware of them doing so, the better the value and range of betting options should become.

Safeguards

Two tiers of government are responsible for regulating Australia’s gambling industry.

Online gambling is specifically regulated at a Federal level by the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.

Bookmaking itself is legislated by state government, each of the eight states/territories having its own departmental authority. It is this independent authority that is responsible for acting on complaints and provides the all important element of accountability for every bookmaking license holder within that jurisdiction. Many sportsbook websites provide a link to the relevant authority within their state/territory with whom complaints may be registered.

[I have personally experienced only a single instance over many years of betting where a state authority has needed to be involved, regarding a wager that had been accepted and was later cancelled. The response was swift in the form of a personally signed letter from the department, and a subsequent phone call some two weeks later by the operations manager of the sportsbook. They had, of course, gotten the two prices mixed up, my contention being the wager had been confirmed in an “all-in” event, such a wager being unable to be cancelled. It was settled without a firm decision being made by the authority so that I am to this day unaware of what the final ruling might be in such a case. While similar errors are known to occur occasionally, I have yet to have another right place, right time experience, but to digress…]

Any perceived problems with Australian sportsbooks, when they do occur, are also usually well publicised events (Sydney Morning Herald each Friday, OnThePunt.com.au etc) further adding to the disincentive for a sportsbook to operate outside of the law. However, I have yet to see any genuine concerns raised, most being circumstantial oddities (such as bets placed after the start of an event or this season’s Canterbury Bulldogs NRL debacle, stripped of their competition points for breaching salary cap conditions and the effect this had on futures wagers that had been placed for premiership, wooden spoon etc).

Major operators

It would appear that Centrebet’s title of “largest sportsbook in the southern hemisphere” has finally been claimed, albeit by a nose (though official confirmation of this seems hard to come by). Despite increasing their annual turnover by more than 60% from A$250M to $401M to June 2002, the figure fell short of Canbet’s A$410M for the same period.

Canbet’s rise to fame is satisfying for a number of reasons, the most importantly of which being providing something of a measuring stick by which other sportsbooks may be measured. However, given that Canbet claim some 88% of their business comes from North America while Centrebet do not operate in the US (when Jupiters Ltd acquired Centrebet in 1998 they bowed to pressure from their major shareholder the Hilton Corporation and are no longer able to accept bets from US citizens), the figures by no means tell the whole story.

Amazingly, Centrebet claim “soccer accounts for about 80 per cent of turnover” and “75 per cent of turnover comes from Scandinavian countries, less than 10 per cent from Australia”. Centrebet also takes pride in having

- been “betting live on the internet longer than any other organisation in the world, other than an Austrian bookmaker”.

- over 100,000 clients – “one of the five largest online client bases in the world”.

Other turnover figures available include International All Sports, pulling A$350M in wagering to June 2002. In this case the figure is largely supplemented by their racing division. International All Sports are deserving of recognition, as their markets are indeed on a very close par with Canbet’s. Importantly, they offer some of the most attractive incentive bonuses around.

SportsTAB turned over $197M for the period.

Main sportsbooks

The following is a list of the major sportsbooks operating in Australia. I have attempted to list them in declining order of relevance for international punters. Any consideration that might be given would of course need to be made based on betting options, limits, transaction fees, business hours, bonuses etc.

ASX = Publicly listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange

ERB = Private company founded by established racing bookmaker

Name - Established - Owned by

Canbet 1994  Canbet Ltd (ASX)

IAS Bet 1995  IASbet Ltd (ASX)

Centrebet 1992 Jupiters Ltd (ASX)

Betworks 1998 Eurasust Ltd (ASX)

Sportsbet Australia 1983 CGC

Sports Acumen 1996 eBet Ltd (ASX) Australia’s only active index, or spread-betting, sportsbook.

Tatts Bet 2001 Tattersall's Holdings Pty Ltd (Lottery and gaming company, founded in 1881).

Sportodds 1997 Con Kafataris (ERB)

Australian Sportsbook 1996 Bill Hurley (ERB)

Davidson Sportsbetting 1998 Hamish Davidson (ERB)

Global Sportsbet  ~1992 Gary Walsh (ERB)

TAB Sportsbet 1990 Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX) Each of the eight states/territories’ Totaliser Agency Boards (TABs) provide fixed-price sportbetting. All markets, apart from SportsTAB, are derived from TAB Sportsbet.

SportsTAB 1998 Tab Ltd (ASX)

Sportingbet Australia 2002 (Aus) Sportingbet Plc (AIM listed on the London Stock Exchange) Not an Australian company, of course but rather the Australian subsidiary of the Sportingbet Group. 

Other operators

In fairness, the following operators should also be included. At the time of writing many of them offer very limited betting options:

Michael Eskander Sportsbetting 1999 Michael Eskander (ERB)

Complete Sports Betting 1995 Emanuel Seal (ERB)

Fivestar Sportsbet 2001 Kim Hunter (ERB)

Norm Short Sportsbook 1989 Norm Short (ERB)

Just a Bet 2001 Michael Webster (ERB) Website under construction.

Cricketbet 1989 Philip Nott (ERB) Cricket betting only.

Multibet 2002 Terry Lillis (ERB) Founder of Centrebet, bookmaking since 1969. Multiple betting only.