Live betting in Australia – is it legal?
Despite the popularity of AU in-play sports betting, the activity is banned by the local government. According to the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001, any and all operators within or outside of the country do not have any legal tender to offer their services to the Australian population, especially when it comes to the live betting.
How can you bet then? Well, there’s this small loophole within the regulation. In fact, it can’t even be considered a loophole as it’s not even mentioned in the law. The one who will face the consequences of live betting in the country will be the operator himself. The bettor will not have to face any legal charges.
What this means is that, if you gain access on a platform and start betting, even if the government finds out, you will not be touched, it’s not illegal to bet, it’s illegal to operate a betting website.
So, unless you’re preparing to launch your own website for live betting in Australia, you should be completely clear.
Are there any legal operators?
Well, yes, Australia does have legally registered and licensed companies that have the option to offer services to their local population. However, the services they can offer are very limited and aren’t usually user-friendly.
What this means is that bets are very restricted. The number of sports is very small, and the checking process that people have to go through can be a bit stressful.
Furthermore, these registered companies pay billions of AUD to the government to simply keep their licenses. There’s no telling when that may stop and they close down overnight.
Sure it may be a bit on the safe side in terms of future regulatory crackdowns (which have already begun), but when it comes to privacy, you’ll be sacrificing it completely.
How to identify a legit Aussie live betting site
The fact that AU live betting is illegal doesn’t mean that operators cannot offer it while still being regulated by relevant agencies in Australia. Naturally, they’d have to have a specific state’s license to operate locally, but there are some that help them reach the whole nation.
But no matter what you do, don’t register with Aussie live betting sites that don’t have any license. Although the license may be a very thin thread to base your assumptions on, it’s still much better than no license at all.
Why? Because if they defraud you from your funds, meaning they just take your money without letting you bet on anything, you won’t have any government agency to back you up on getting those funds back.
At least with the license, the operator is obliged to be ethical.
Next, come the KYC and AML rules that the sports betting websites will have to follow. This means that no matter how much you try, a legit and licensed website will require to know your personal information.
These can be things like your name, ID number, place of residence, address and various other personal documentations. It all falls under the country’s KYC (Know Your Customer) which helps prevent any money laundering attempts in the future.
However, our advice would be to register with a company that doesn’t require this information from the get-go. Not all live bet Australia platforms demand this information during the registration process. They mostly require an email and phone number. The ID verification comes in once you’ve decided to withdraw a large number of funds.
With the current Australian law, that’s around AUD 10,000. Anything above that number will require your immediate identification.
This is the law so it can’t really be avoided.
What games are popular for online live betting Australia?
There are quite a lot of sports games that Australians like to follow on a daily basis, but there aren’t too many they like to bet on.
If you’re an Australia, you probably already have your list of games you’re heavily involved in and know enough to bet on. However, the Aussie in-play betting websites have their preferences as well, which could mean that your favorites may not be the same as the platform’s.
We will give a detailed explanation of the games below and tell you what exactly you can place a bet on.
No matter where you go, Football is going to be either the most popular sport there, or at least in the top 3 most popular sports.
It’s just universal and sports betting websites absolutely love to feature premium betting options for these games.
In most cases, the live betting for football matches starts during the first half-time. The second half-time is usually too late already due to an unfair advantage that one team may get during the first. However, after about 20 minutes or so of the first half, players choose to place their bets as it’s enough time to determine who has the clear advantage and who’s more likely to win.
However, you can also choose to place bets on various other things as well. Such as the number of corner kicks, fouls, yellow cards, ball possession, kicks on target and etc. There are a lot of variables that one can choose from.
But still, most live betting sites in Australia tend to favor bets on who’s going to win as it’s a much broader “topic”.
Baseball
Baseball is another favorite sport for Australians. Even though the sport originates from the United States, MLB is still very popular with Aussies. It’s hard to imagine somebody staying up late to watch a Baseball match taking place in the United States, but simply because it’s so predictable, maybe the reason why bettors love to choose this sport specifically.
Betting options range from home runs to shots missed to pretty much anything you can imagine. But yet again, the most popular bet is on who’s going to win the game.
Basketball
It’s sometimes said that the NBA is most popular in the United States unless a bunch of Aussies is attending the match.
Australians tend to enjoy watching the NBA more so than football in some cases. This is due to multiple Australians or Aussie immigrants being present in some of the most popular teams. Some AU in-play betting sites like to focus on Aussie players specifically and allow bettors to place bets on that specific player.
For example, imagine that the platform allows you to place a bet on how many scores Aron Baynes is going to get in a specific match. It’s quite varied, but once again, bets on who’s going to win are the most popular.
Can you place a live bet for free?
As weird and outlandish as it may sound in the capitalist world, Australia betting live for free is actually possible as long as you’re ready to face deadlines and minimum requirements from your betting operator.
It’s a bit hard to call the whole process free as it requires most of the players to dedicate hours upon hours to withdraw their rightfully won profits.
Let us try and explain the whole process through the introduction of various bonus offerings that Aussie betting websites have for their players.
There are three in total.
No deposit bonus
The no deposit bonus is the true free betting options you will find anywhere, but it will cost you a few extra hours in front of the screen to meet the minimum requirements. Let’s try and break it down a bit.
The moment you register on the in-play live betting Australia, you will be given several options for deposits. All you have to do is choose the no deposit option, which usually comes through a promo code that you can indicate on your account dashboard.
Once indicated, anywhere between AUD 50 – 500 will be transferred to your account. I’m saying this range because that’s the usual average one in Australia at least. There are larger options, but this is the most manageable.
What you need to consider is that these funds are not withdrawable until you reach a specific amount in wagered volume. For example, if you are given a no deposit bonus of AUD 100, your desired volume will be AUD 1000.
So, what does this mean? This means that you need to place bets before the deadline that amount to AUD 1000. How will you do that? By winning on the bets you place with the bonus you received of course. You will slowly but surely build up the account to a point where you reach the minimum requirements.
Once they’re met, you will be notified that funds can now be withdrawn, including the bonus that you received.
But remember that every live online betting Australia platform has its rules and restrictions. For example, the no deposit bonus can be restricted to just football or basketball. There are also restrictions such as minimum and maximum bets.
Overall, the website tries to make the process of reaching the minimum requirements a bit more challenging than it already is. This way it feels like you’ve truly earned the funds you’re about to withdraw.
Deposit bonus
The deposit bonus is a bit more complicated than the no deposit bonus. It’s not necessarily something that can be classified as free, at least for half of the time.
You see, in order to receive this bonus, a player needs to deposit at least some kind of money with the platform. The amount can be different and usually comes with a minimum and maximum cap as well.
The most common deposit bonuses with Australia live betting websites are matching or half-matching bonuses. Let’s try and decipher them as well.
A matching bonus is also referred to as a 100% bonus. If you deposit AUD 100, you will be given an additional AUD 100, setting your account on a total of AUD 200.
The 50% bonus works the same way, but instead of the AUD 100, you get AUD 50 for an AUD 100 deposit. Pretty simple, right?
The reason why the deposit bonus is a bit more manageable is because of the minimum requirements. It’s still the same as it was with the no deposit bonus, but you have a lot more resources.
For example, when you receive the AUD 100 no deposit bonus, your minimum requirement is AUD 1000, but you only have AUD 100 to achieve it. If you receive a AUD 100 through a deposit bonus, the minimum requirement is AUD 1000, but you have AUD 200 to achieve it.
As you can see, there’s quite a big difference.
Freebet bonus
The freebet bonus is sort of like a gift card with the Australian in-play sports betting platforms. The company starts a promotion where they give out these specific codes or links to their newsletter subscribers, who are then rewarded with a free bet of AUD 50 or 20 on a specific match or sport.
For example, in the past, when sports betting websites were just starting out in the country, most of them would hold a similar promotion just to increase the number of people subscribed to their newsletter. In exchange, they gave promo codes on football matches for the upcoming world cup.
The freebet bonus usually has a deadline of around two weeks or so, if it’s not focused on a specific match but rather on a specific sport in general.
For example, if you get a freebet bonus for football, you will have two weeks to use it. If it’s a freebet bonus of Australia vs Japan for example, then the deadline will be the second half of that match.
