Straight Up – The realities of a global wagering market
In this edition:
- In the MIXI – A Japanese behemoth eyes Australia as its next betting growth market
- Straight Shorts – Tuesday April 1 – Big fine for Colossalbet
- Straight Shorts – Monday March 31 – Branding switch for corporate bookie
It has been less than seven years since the United States Supreme Court paved the way for legalisation of sports betting by overturning PASPA, the landmark piece of legislation originally spearheaded by NBA champion turned Senator Bill Bradley.
To date, 39 of the 50 states have acted to put sports betting into law, and in that relatively short period, Americans have turned over nearly US$500 billion through licensed providers, generating US$42 billion in revenue for betting companies.
With a near 10-fold population advantage, the US market surged past Australia in terms of revenue (racing and sports) in early 2022. Even as the Aussie market was on a fully rolling boil during the pandemic, the growth of the American sports betting segment was going three to its one.
In 2024, it posted US$13.7 billion in revenue, over twice that of Australia ($5 billion). New York, with a smaller population than Australia (19m to 26m), only legalised online sports betting three years ago and already generates $2 billion of that.
A host of Australian companies have headed into the American gold rush looking to make their fortune. But instead of the bounty being shared among many, the US sports betting market is remarkably more concentrated than Australia.
At last count FanDuel had 37 per cent of the US handle and DraftKings 35.5 per cent. When you cut it by revenue, they hold nearly 80 per cent of the market combined.
PointsBet and BlueBet were among those Australian companies to try their hand at the American market. Both withdrew citing the prohibitive costs of competing against what has become a duopoly.
PointsBet now finds itself in the middle of another global strategy, that of Japanese behemoth MIXI, which has put in a takeover bid for the publicly listed wagering company. That deal looks highly likely to progress after a statement from the PointsBet board on Thursday re-affiming its support.
The Japanese market is highly regulated, with betting only allowed on four sports, and MIXI sees the opportunity in applying its social betting strategy in the Australian market. It already does this through betM in Australia which has been operational for the last three years.
Wagering is becoming ever more global, and not only through the major global outfits like Flutter, Entain and Bet365, who we profiled last week.
In other wagering news, this week we saw BlueBet adopt the betr brand for its corporate brand, as it officially took over the operations of TopSport.
What you may have missed this week:
- ‘This is kind of normal for us’ – Extreme weather a reality of remote Queensland racing
- Jun Zhang to lead new-look Yulong after Cox departure
- Less taxing – Magic Millions launches international angle for in absentia mares at National Sale
You would have noticed that this edition of Straight Up is centred on wagering. Our Tuesday edition deals with breeding and bloodstock and Friday’s focus is on racing. We also have a daily newsletter – The Straight Daily News. You can change which newsletter you receive in your membership preferences.
Thanks for supporting independent media,
Bren O’Brien
Managing Editor and Founder
The Straight
Author
