Betting online in Australia is extremely popular, so there are many Australia betting sites vying for the huge market share that is out there. The competition is beneficial to the players because operators have to try to outdo one another to lure in new business.
We have examined all of the Australia betting sites that are established enough to qualify for our reviews. Our researchers have applied rigorous standards to identify the betting websites that we can recommend.
The sites are listed below, and you can gain a great deal of useful information if you compare the pros and cons.
The underlying reason why sports betting is so very widespread down under is because people really enjoy playing sports at all levels. There are a number of different sports that are at the top of the heap, but Australians enjoy betting on a wide range of different types of contests.
In the early days of ESPN when they did not have comprehensive contracts with all the major American sporting leagues and the NCAA, they broadcast some sports that Americans do not typically see. Australian rules football is one of them, and it can be described as a combination of rugby and American football.
It is a fantastic spectator sport and is as important to people in Australia as the NFL is to sports fans in the United States. When it comes to sports betting online in Australia, their version of football is the most popular option. The professional league is called the Australian Football League (AFL).
The betting options are virtually identical to the way that Americans bet on the NFL. There is a moneyline that does not involve the utilization of a point spread. You have to pick the winner outright, but you get less than even money if you select the favorite. Conversely, you get more than even money on the dog.
They also have line betting, but this will have a variable moneyline attached to it as well because the scores are quite high, so it is impossible to find a uniform middle point. Futures betting on the AFL Premiership is also offered on Australia betting websites.
There is one very interesting form of wagering available on the Australian Football League contests that you do not see in the United States. AFL season pricing allows you to bet on a particular team in each of the 23 home and away rounds that will be played during the entire campaign.
The “Sport of Kings” has always been one of the most popular pastimes in Australia, and the first Thoroughbreds were imported to the continent around the beginning of the 19th century. European horses traditionally stocked the bloodline, and they eventually brought in horses from the United States.
At present, there is a homegrown Australia Thoroughbred breeding industry, and these horses have had some success in stakes races around the world, but it is limited.
Horse betting online in Australia is completely legal and extremely popular in all parts of the country. The biggest races of the year are the Melbourne Cup, the VRC Oaks, the Victoria Derby, the Caulfield Cup, the W.S. Cox Plate, and the Golden Slipper Stakes.
The third-biggest moneymaker for Australia betting sites is rugby. It is a sport that is played in the winter, and it has been a staple on the continent for about 150 years. The National Rugby League is the professional association, and the culmination of each season is the NRL Grand Final.
This event has drawn over 100,000 live spectators, and it is one of the most widely viewed sporting events in the world.
Aussies love to bet on auto races as well. They take a lot of pride in their homegrown drivers that compete in international races. Australian motor sports legends include three guys with the same first name: Alan Jones, Allan Grice, and Allan Moffat.
Adam Macrow is widely considered to be the top active professional race car driver that hails from Australia.
The sport that Americans call soccer is called football or association football in other countries. Since Australian rules football is the top sport, association football takes a backseat. However, it is still a very popular sport for betting in Australia, especially when World Cup season rolls around.
Cricket is a sport that originated in England in the 1500s, and it can be loosely described as a bat and ball game that bears some similarities to the game of baseball that came along centuries later. Australian cricket teams are consistently among the best squads in the world, and online sportsbooks take significant action on cricket games.
The sports listed above are the most popular for betting online in Australia. There are a handful of other betting options available that people take advantage of to a lesser extent. Australians have an interest in tennis betting, especially during the Grand Slam series.
In addition to Thoroughbred racing, harness racing has some fans, and greyhound race betting is also available in Australia.
If you want to get started betting online in Australia, and you decide on the sportsbook that you feel comfortable with, you have to make your first deposit. Australia sports betting sites typically offer several different deposit methods to their customers.
They are more or less the same on all betting websites that are domestically licensed, but there are some differences with international sites. These are the deposit methods that you will typically find on Australia betting sites.
The good old Visa card is offered as a deposit method for just about every site that is doing business down under. It can be a bank-issued Visa that is permanently in your name, and you can also make deposits with prepaid Visa cards.
Since sports betting online in Australia is perfectly legal, bank transfers may be the most simple and effective deposit method. This is particularly true if you are wagering on a site that is operated by an Australian company.
Bank transfers are often offered by international providers, but there are added hoops to jump through, like the utilization of SWIFT codes.
Another deposit method Australian punters can utilize is BPAY. Many people use this service to pay their utility bills. The downside is that you have to wait a few days before the money shows up in your sports betting account because there is processing time.
This option can only be offered by sites that are operating under an Australian online bookmaking license.
This deposit method is exclusively available at Aussie and New Zealand sportsbooks. It allows you to initiate bank transfers that are instantly acknowledged by the betting site that you are using for betting online in Australia. The funds are instantly available for wagering, even though the bookmaker won’t receive them immediately.
One of the most widely utilized online payment processing companies in the world is PayPal. Some bookmakers that are licensed in Australia allow players to make deposits using their PayPal accounts.
These are e-money transfer services that are accepted as deposit methods in Australia and other countries. Skrill and Neteller are used by some in-country sportsbooks and operators that are licensed elsewhere.
All of the companies that facilitate these deposit methods cannot necessarily be used to get your winnings into your pocket. The Australia-focused services POLi and BPAY are great for making deposits, but they do not issue withdrawals. If you use these providers to make deposits, you can request payouts through bank transfers.
Companies that are licensed in Australia can facilitate withdrawals through all of the other service providers that can be used to make deposits. The same thing is true for international bookmakers with the exception of PayPal.
When sports betting sites first started to appear on the internet, there were absolutely no government restrictions in many countries because it was something brand new. Australia put no restrictions in place, but before long, legislators started to have concerns.
The stark reality is that a significant percentage of people down there are hardcore when it comes to gambling in general and gambling on sports in particular. Lawmakers wanted to protect potentially compulsive punters from themselves, so the Australian Commonwealth Parliament passed the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.
This put regulations in place, but it did not focus on the players themselves. This piece of legislation made it illegal for operators to advertise and solicit customers. However, citizens were allowed to legally use Australian sites, and they could also continue betting online on international sites.
Sports gaming is like a birthright there; it is sacrosanct, so this law did not apply to sports betting online in Australia. It only applied to interactive gambling games. Betting remained perfectly legal with no impediments as long as the wagers were placed before the start of the games. The statute did prohibit in-game wagering.
Things stayed constant on the legal front for the next 15 years until the Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 was pushed through by Alan Tudge, who was the Australia Minister for Human Services then. It definitely made an impact that was felt by many operators and players.
As a result of this legislative measure, Australians may not play poker or casino games online. Offshore operators without active gaming licenses were banned entirely. A blacklist was established, and ISPs are required to block access to the sites that are on this list.
In spite of this get-tough initiative, Australia betting sites still take countless wagers on sporting events legally each and every day.
Now that you have digested all this information, you are probably ready to dive in head first and start betting online. The first step will be to go through our list of Australia betting sites to determine which of the approved options is right for you.
It is wise to determine the deposit and withdrawal methods you would like to use so that you can make sure you sign up on a site that is compatible. You also want to take a long look at the sports that are highlighted, especially if you like to bet on somewhat obscure sports.
In addition to the administrative part of the equation, you should place a value on an intuitive website that is easy to navigate. Finally, Australia betting sites often compete for new customers by offering sign-up bonuses. You should definitely check out these offers before you make any final decisions.
We covered a lot of ground to this point, so we will wrap it up with a quick series of frequently asked questions that will highlight the key points.
Yes, the websites that we have listed have all been thoroughly vetted, and they are trustworthy and totally legal.
There are a number of different deposit and withdrawal methods that are widely accepted everywhere, so anyone that can conduct other types of business online can easily use these approved sites.
They all have customer service available, but like any other industry, some are better than others. If you read our reviews, you will be able to see how we rate the customer service that is provided by the operators we recommend.
