Government lobbying by market rival Tabcorp to increase the Point of Consumption taxes charged to Australia’s corporate bookmakers have been “destructive” for the industry and resulted in a worse outcome for customers, according to Sportsbet CEO Barni Evans.
It has also helped fuel further infiltration by illegal offshore operators which now comprise around 15% of Australia’s sports betting market, he told attendees during a Keynote Address at the Regulating the Game conference in Sydney on Wednesday.
Evans, who since its merger with BetEasy in 2020 has led Sportsbet to become Australia’s market leading online wagering provider – taking over from Tabcorp – said it was more important than ever for industry to work together given the sharpened regulatory microscope operators have come under.
That process may already be gaining traction, with the Sportsbet CEO revealing he occasionally lunches with recently appointed Tabcorp chief Gillon McLachlan. McLachlan’s predecessor Adam Rytenskild was said to have been banned by the Tabcorp board from talking to Evans during his tenure.
Nevertheless, Evans called out his company’s main rival in the Australian sports betting space for its role in encouraging state-by-state tax increases for the corporates.
“Taxation became a battle ground between Tabcorp on one side and the corporate bookmakers on the other. What a ludicrous situation where competitors are using tax as opposed to innovation and customer-centricity to compete with each other,” he said.
“We use tax as a stick against each other which is a terrible look at the industry and has ultimately been destructive.”
The result, Evans added, has been a reduction in business efficiency across all of the corporates.
“All [corporate operators] are making less money than they were before,” he said. “I think PointsBet, the year before last, as a publicly listed company they said their objective in 2024 was to break even. Imagine being a shareholder in a company that told you their objective in the year was to make no money!
“That’s the real impact of taxation and like any commercial organization, we’re all responding in commercial ways. Overrounds (a measure that can be thought of as an approximation of a bookmakers’ edge) have climbed up a bit. We need to be very, very careful about that because customers are very sensitive when they don’t get the right price on their favorite that they think is going to win.
“All brands in market have suppressed slightly their generosity (comps) because for most companies that’s their biggest cost center.”
A 40% reduction in industry marketing spend over the past 12 months is less likely to garner any sympathy given significant public outcry over the proliferation of sports gambling advertising in recent years, although even this has its own implications, Evans explained.
“[The rise of] the illegal, unlicensed offshore market is real,” he said, echoing comments made by former CEO of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Michael Phelan earlier this week.
“If you watch the Australian [Formula 1] Grand Prix this weekend, there will be no licensed Australian wagering brands around [the track], I guarantee it. The only gambling brands you’ll see [advertised] will be offshore because they’re the only ones that can afford it. It is 15% of the market, it’s growing like crazy and it doesn’t just threaten [the licensed market], it risks annihilating.”
Evans earlier reflected on the catalysts for the rapid expansion of Australia’s online sports betting industry – primarily a 2008 High Court ruling that found efforts by Western Australia to outlaw betting exchanges were unconstitutional – and admitted the industry had been slow to the starting gate on topical issues like responsible gambling and financial risk.
Greater industry cooperation is, he explained, vital to ensure more comprehensive and effective frameworks are in place.
