More Australians have been using their mobile phones to wager on different sporting events, although the number of punters has dipped in the last couple of years.
In its latest gaming report, Roy Morgan Research said Australia has seen a more than four-fold increase in the number of Australians using their mobile phones to wager, driving online wagering growth higher.
From 5.6 percent in 2012, Roy Morgan said that 22.7 percent of Australian bettors use their mobile phones to gamble. Australians PC bettors remained virtually unchanged from 15.2 percent in 2012 to 15.1 percent in 2018, according to the Melbourne-based market research company.
Australians who use the internet to wager grew significantly from 15.7 percent in 2012 to 34.1 percent this year. Despite the robust online gambling figures, the research firm noted that the number of Australians making bets has dropped 8.7 percent 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 Ltd. and Paddy Power Betfair’s Australian unit Sportsbet continue to dominate the Aussie online betting industry.
At least 17.9 percent of Australians placed wagers 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 Sportsbet is the second most popular online betting site with 12.9 percent of Australians visiting their website to wager. Crownbet, which is set to rebrand as Sportingbet following its acquisition by The Stars Group, has 6.5 percent of Australia’s online wagering industry. Crownbet owns several online betting sites including William Hill, Sportingbet, TomWaterhouse, Centrebet and Betfair.com.au.com.au.
