Four-fold rise in Aussies making mobile bets
Aussies are increasingly using their mobile phones to place bets, according to a study released by Melbourne based market research outfit Roy Morgan Research this week which reveals that there has been a four-fold rise in the number of punters using their mobile devices to place wagers.
The company substantiates its numbers by quoting 2012 statistics which show that back then just 5.6 percent of bets were made from mobile devices, whereas now 22.7 percent of Australian gamblers make their bets on mobiles.
By contrast, the number of punters who used desktop devices to wager declined slightly from 15.2 percent in 2012 to today’s 15.1 percent.
The Morgan study claims that online gambling growth in Australia has been solid, rising from 15.7 percent in 2012 to 34.1 percent in 2018, although the number of Australians making bets declined from 3.7 million in 2012 to just 3.4 million this year – sliding 8.7 percent.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said in a press release on the numbers:
“What is clear from these figures 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 that companies offering online betting need to target to grow their revenue.”
Levine says that Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. and Paddy Power Betfair’s Australian unit Sportsbet continue to dominate the Aussie online betting industry, noting that at least 17.9 percent 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 closed Luxbet.com.
The Morgan study showed that currently Paddy Power Betfair’s Australian subsidiary Sportsbet is the second most popular online betting site with 12.9 percent of Australians visiting the website to wager.
CrownBet, which is to rebrand as Sportingbet following its recent acquisition by The Stars Group (see previous InfoPowa reports), has a 6.5 percent share of Australia’s online wagering market, and owns online betting assets like sites William Hill, Sportingbet, TomWaterhouse, Centrebet and Betfair.com.au.
