UK bookmaker Betfred is set to strengthen its presence in the Australian online gambling market with plans to launch a local mobile betting service in time for the 2014 Fifa World Cup national football tournament this summer.Luke Brill, managing director of Betfred Australia, told the SmartCompany website the bookmaker will focus on sports that are currently underserved by current Australian online gambling operators, which instead place a heavy focus on Australian rules football and rugby league competitions.
Brill said Betfred will initially focus on sports betting before adding a horseracing service in time for the Spring Race Carnival in October and November of this year. He also said that Betfred is also due to launch a full-service web offering in the near future.
Betfred currently employs 15 staff in Australia with an additional five due to arrive from the UK. It has established sites in Sydney and Darwin, where it has also obtained a Northern Territory gambling licence.
“We want to be known as a mobile bookmaker,” Brill said. “The propensity to gamble is high in Australia … [and] high numbers of Australians bet on European sports.”
Alan Eskander, co-founder of national bookmaker Betstar, which was recently taken over by Ladbrokes, said the Australian gambling market would not be able to support the increasing number of players and it would be unsustainable to have “five or six large players going after the same dollar”.
Eskander added: “There will be jostling for positions over the next two-to-four years, after which time we will see further consolidation or attrition.”
At the time of Betstar’s acquisition by Ladbrokes, Eskander said his decision to sell was motivated by shifting market conditions with the local gambling market changing beyond recognition in recent years.
Eskander cited the influx of offshore bookmakers as the reason for this change, with such companies making it increasingly difficult for small- to medium-sized businesses to compete with these larger firms.
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
