Matched Betting in Australia

Matched Betting in Australia in 2023 is an amazing opportunity to make money.

Sign up bonuses are generous and existing customer promotions are very lucrative, just like they were in the UK a few years ago.

This article will take you through the basics of what you need to know about matched betting in Australia.

Australian bookmakers

There are around 20 corporate bookmakers in Australia.

Many of them are UK companies that have established a place in the Australian market. Sportsbet is owned by Paddy Power and has the largest market share.

Betfair are currently the only betting exchange operating in Australia.

Australian sign up offers

The bookmakers use sign up bonuses to entice customers into creating an account and betting with them. Sign up bonuses vary in size from $100 to special deals allowing people to get $2,000 matched.

However, not every bookmaker offers sign up bonuses.

If you have access to all of the sign up bonuses, it’s possible to make a profit of $4,500 or more.

Availability of offers in Australia

To be eligible for a sign up bonus, all bookmakers require you to be a resident of Australia, with some extending the offer to residents of New Zealand.

To open a bookmaker account in Australia, you just need the following:

• Proof of your address
• ID (British passport is fine)
• Australian bank account

So, even if you’re just visiting Australia on a gap year with a working holiday visa, you’ll be able to do matched betting.

How to get started

By law, Australian bookmakers need to ask for and verify ID within 90 days. They’ll try and verify you automatically using a credit checker. Being on the electoral roll at the address you have provided should be sufficient.

If automatic verification isn’t possible, you’ll need to provide 100 points of ID. This will include scans of documents such as your driving license, passport and proof of address.

To be able to withdraw your winnings you’ll need to send a scan of your bank card and occasionally a scan of a bank statement.

Australian gambling winnings are tax-free, unless the Australian Tax Office considers your activity to be a professional endeavour.

Australian gambling State laws

The Australian gambling industry has always been regulated by State and Territory authorities.

This means that due to differing gambling laws, many of the sign up bonuses are only available to certain States.

It’s great if you are in QLD, ACT or NT, as you can gain access to all sign up offers. The remaining States vary, with SA being the most restricted.

Some bookmakers have ignored the State laws and pay bonuses regardless, referring to them as ‘loyalty bonuses’.

In December 2018, Australia’s six State governments have agreed to work together in developing consistent nationwide policies which will regulate online gambling in Australia.

The ‘National Consumer Protection Framework’ will aim to address the worrying rate of online problem gambling in Australia.

They plan to introduce a restriction on inducements, such as bonuses. It’s unknown how this will affect the matched betting landscape in Australia.

Bookmaker’s should continue to offer bonuses. It might just be the case that these are smaller moving forward.

Ongoing bonuses

It’s not just the sign up bonuses that are lucrative. Australian bookmakers offer so much in the way of expected value with their ongoing promotions every week.

The three main sports promoted by bookmakers are AFL, NRL and the Big Bash. They also cover most of the major sporting events. It’s not uncommon for a regular season game of AFL to have over ten different offers on it!

These offers range from the standard ‘if your team X, get X bonus’ to the ‘early payout offers’. Some offers might not hit all that often, but others with maximum stakes of up to $10,000 can be very profitable indeed.

As the rugby league, Aussie rules footy and the Big Bash cricket rarely have draws, it’s often a good idea to dutch offers against each other to save on qualifying costs.

There are also many ‘Multi’s‘ offers where if one leg loses you gain a bonus.

Another major ongoing promotion source is horse racing. Every weekend you’ll see multiple bookmakers offering promotions on multiple races, such as a bonus bet if your horse comes 2nd or 3rd. There are plenty of variations though, including cash back, extra places, bet boosts and more.

One thing to note when using Betfair to lay bets on Australian horse racing, other than major races, there is only enough liquidity to get decent matches in the 10 minutes leading up to a race. This means traditional odds matcher tools aren’t much use in finding suitable bets.

Overall, these ongoing promotions can add up to well over $1,500 per week in expected value.

Accessing these offers from abroad

To avail of these offers, you’ll need to be a resident of Australia and have proof of your address. As an Australian resident, wishing to access the bookmaker sites when abroad, you would need to use a VPN. This enables you to access the sites and bypass their Geoblocks.

Bonus Money matched betting service

Matched betting in Australia is made easy with the Bonus Money matched betting service.

They’ve compiled all of the offers that have positive expected value into an ‘Offer Calendar’ (see above).

They also offer a chrome extension called ‘Matcha’ that allows you to see a comparison of Betfair and bookmaker horse racing odds as an inlay directly into the bookmakers page.

‘Matcha’ is a unique product that helps you get cheaper qualifying bets on horse racing promotions and extract higher profits from your bonus bets.

For a limited time only, Matched Betting Blog users can get a $10.00 discount when they sign up to Bonus Money.

Just use the promo code ‘MBBLOG‘ to get your first month for just $39.00. If you decide it’s not for you, the service comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.