The dawn of the digital era has started years ago with the introduction of many innovative technologies, which managed to find their place also in the gambling industry. Currently, Australia reported that the revenues of its retail betting sites continue to sink, while the online wagering apps seem to proliferate.
The Australian-based investment bank UBS reported that the digital betting marks a considerable growth in its turnover for the first six months of the year, estimated to be around 23%. This means that for the first half of the year, digital wagering contributed with around two times more than the retail betting to the total betting turnover in Australia.
Matt Ryan, an analyst at UBS explained that contrary to the digital wagering growth, the retail betting suffers 6% decline for the same period. The investment bank also released a report for Q4 of the fiscal 2016-17, which shows that all the biggest wagering operators in Australia, including Sportsbet, William Hill, Ladbrokes and Bet365, registered 64% app download share in total.
The same figure of app download was registered for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. Mr. Ryan commented the results, explaining that the percentage of app download is different for every individual operator, but the overall picture is relatively stable. The data showed that Sportsbet is the leader, as it contributes to the total 64% of app downloads with 33% (more than a half).
The next on the list is the wagering company Tabcorp contributing with 18% of app downloads. The company, in fact, has increased its share in the app downloads with 2% in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year. It should be noted that the wagering company managed to find its feet after suffering a 4% decline in 2016. Based on these figures, Mr. Ryan explained that the company has the potential to further increase its share and contribute to the country’s overall digital wagering growth, expected to ascend with 15% more in the coming 2018.
Tabcorp entered an online betting joint venture with “Sun Bets”, the fastest growing online operator in the UK. Thus, Tabcorp managed to reach the English-based customers, while “Sun Bets” could expand its reputation among Australian players. But the financial report shows that Tabcorps’ UK partner is barely managing to keep its head above the water with only 0.9% app download share.
Nevertheless, it seems that the online wagering continues to take over the betting shops in Australia. Specialists expect that this tendency will keep on leading the market and in the coming year online operators will increase even more their gross gaming revenue (GGR), while the traditional betting system gradually succumbs under the pressure of the rising technologies.
