From 5.6% in 2012, Roy Morgan said that a fifth of Australian bettors or 22.7% use their mobile phones to gamble. The number of Australians who use their PCs to place bets remained virtually unchanged from 15.2% in 2012 to 15.1% in 2018, according to the research.
The number of Australians using the internet to wager grew significantly from 15.7% in 2012 to 34.1% this year, according to Roy Morgan. Despite the robust online gambling figures, the research firm noted that the number of Australians making bets have dropped 8.7% to 3.4 million in 2018 from 3.7 million in 2012.
“What is clear from these figures though is that a majority of Australians who bet still don’t bet via the Internet. Over two-fifths of Australians who bet have not used the Internet to place a bet and these are the key market companies offering online betting need to target to grow their revenue,” Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine, said in a statement.
Roy Morgan’s latest report also showed that gaming giant Tabcorp Holdings and Paddy Power Betfair’s Australian unit Sportsbet continues to dominate the Australian online betting industry.
At least 17.9% or nearly a fifth of Australians have placed their bets through Tabcorp’s betting sites TAB.com.au, UBET, Tatts.com/Tattsbet and the recently shuttered Luxbet.com, according to the research firm.
Paddy Power Betfair’s Australian unit Sportsbet is the second most popular online betting site with 12.9% of Australians visiting their website to wager. Crownbet, which is set to rebrand as Sportingbet following its acquisition, has 6.5% of Australia’s online wagering industry. Crownbet owns several online betting sites including Crownbet, William Hill, Sportingbet, TomWaterhouse, Centrebet and Betfair.com.au.
Source: GMB / Calvin Ayre
