Sportsbet Blog

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is underway and there is a fierce competition between the Australian Bookmakers during the World Cup giving you the customer the best deals ever seen online.

Its a great time for punters as you are not limited to one bookmaker, you can join two or three bookies and claim the offers from each one.

Make sure to checkout our World Cup betting guide here for tips on how to get the most out of your bets.

Here at Sportsbet Blog we have reviewed all the offer available and this is our top 5 betting offers for this World Cup.

1. Sportsbet’s World Cup $200 Free Bet bundle

When opening a new betting account Sportsbet match 100% of your first resulted bet up to $100 free. When you place your next 10 bets they will then match 100% of their average value up to $100 free.
Bonuses are credited in to your account as real cash.

2. Luxbet’s Free World Cup Jumper Promotion

Luxbet is giving you a free genuine World Cup jumper of your choice. To get the jumper all you need to do is make your first deposit of $150 or more and they will send you an email with a form to claim your jumper.

I checked out the Rebel Sport website and these jumpers cost $140 so it’s a great offer to take advantage of.

Luxbet is owned by the TAB so if your already betting at your local TAB its well worth joining Luxbet and getting a free jumper.

3. IASbet $100 World Cup Free Bet Offer

Although its not as big a free bet as the $200 Sportsbet offer, IASbet’s free bet is much easier to get. Simply make a deposit of $50 or more and use the promotional code FREEBET. Your $100 free bet will then be deposited into your account within 24 hours.

4. Centrebet’s Two Offers

Centrebet have been the most creative when it come to their offers this World Cup. They have 2 unique offers that could land you with a heap of free bets.

• Deposit $100 or more and place $20 or more on any World Cup market. Then watch the free bets roll in. For every goal Australia score you get a $20 free bet!
• Place a bet on Australia to quality from the Group Stage of the World Cup and if they come in 3rd in Group D  Centrebet will refund all losing bets!

I like both of these offers as you could work them to your advantage. Eg. Back Australia not to score so if they do you know a free bet will come your way, a win-win situation!

5. Sportingbet Two Offers

• 10% Winner’s Bonus. Make a minimum bet of $10 on selected World Cup markets and if you win you get a 10% bonus on you winning’s. This offer is a great way to get bigger payouts than any other bookie online.
• Socceroos first goal second chance. Place $10 or more bet on an Australian player to be the first goal scorer in any of their matches, and if Australia fails to score a single goal in the match, Sportingbet will give you a $10 Free Bet.

Online bookies could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars after numerous bets being placed this morning just before Melbourne Storm and the NRL announced the salary cap infringements.

Not only have Melbourne Storm lose their two premierships but all points in the 2010 season handing them the wooden spoon after only six rounds.

Online bookmaker Sportingbet took several bets at 250-1 with some punters set to win $10,000 from each bet

“We took three bets to win $10,000 and another to win $8000 for the Storm to win the wooden spoon all within 10 minutes of each other this morning,” Sportingbet Australia spokesman Bill Richmond said.

“You don’t take a series of bets like that unless someone knows something and we have suspended betting on the wooden spoon as a result.”

“Melbourne is now our worst result for the wooden spoon despite the fact they are premiership favourites.”

The TAB also took a $200 bet for Storm to take the wooden spoon the night before the announcement at the odds of $200-1 with a massive $40,000 payout. Before suspending the market the TAB received further bets that morning.

Another major online bookmaker IASbet took “farily odd” bets on the wooden spoon and have suspended betting and waiting out the storm to see what results from it all.

Australia’s only betting exchange Betfair also was hit with wooden spoon bets before the rumour become fact with Betfair spokesman Hugh Taggart saying that his agency would not void a market based on hearsay and rumour, and it would take advice from the NRL for Betfair to stop the public betting on the market.

“We would only avoid a market in an extreme circumstance.”

“Punters always bet on rumour and innuendo.”

“Our markets will be dictated by what happens in the public domain.”

It has been a very messy day for the NRL and the bookies have been cough up in the middle of it. I can’t see the bookies accepting these bets I think a refund will be given to clients that put bets on 24 hours before the announcement.

Where it could get messy is the Melbourne premiership betting. Do the bookies keep the bets or will refunds be given out. It will very interesting to see which bookmakers makes the first move with the others likely to follow suit.

Update: See our tips for the Brownlow Medal.

With the 2009 Brownlow Medal drawing near its time to make a betting decision for the big night.

The first decision to make is who to make your Brownlow bet with. The obvious choice is to goto the best odds to maximise your potential winnings.

Betfair has once again shown why they are the best and have by far the best odds around. Not only do they have better odds for the favourite Gary Ablett but substantially better odds for the roughies. Want to know why Betfair continuously has the best odds? Checkout our Betfair review that shows why they are always better than the rest.

There is a number of Brownlow bets to choose from including head to head options, highest player of each team, how many Brownlow points will the winner have and even the leader after round 11.

Betfair also has a great refer-a-friend promotion that gives both you and your friend $50, see Betfair here for more info on this great offer.

Below is a odds comparison table from the three main Australian bookies for the 2009 Brownlow Medal which is drawn on thw 21st of September. The best odds for each player are in bold.

It’s a great time to be with Sportsbet as they have announced today they will be having a Super Saturday this weekend the 25th of July.

What’s this involve you ask? Around every month or two Sportsbet have a massive free bet promo weekend with six ways of getting some great free bets just for placing a few bets or making a deposit.

Last time Super Saturday was on I took advantage of the the offer called Resurrection Bet. This one is my favourites because if you lose you get a 100% refund of your bet to place on the following Wednesday. For example, if you put $200 on a horse to win and it comes 2nd by a nose there no need to worry, you get your money back! Just make sure you bet on the nominated Resurrection Bet races that are listed on the Sportsbet site and you can’t lose.

For more info on Super Saturday or to join Sportsbet checkout their site.

Here’s some details on the offers available

1. Everyone’s a Winner

You’ll win even if you lose. Sportsbet will refund 10% of your net losses on Randwick racing win, place and each way bets placed from 10am to 6pm AEST Saturday 25 July.

2. Happy Hour

For one mad hour from 1pm to 2pm AEST 25 July you can boost your payouts on 10 win, place or each way bets of up to $200 stake each on nominated Flemington & Doomben races with Sportsbet’s great Happy Hour 20% Bonus offer!

The 20% bonus is also on top of the Best Odds (better than the TAB) available through Sportsbet.

Heres the Happy Hour times for each state

Qld:  1pm-2pm.
SA:  12:30pm-1:30pm.
NT: 12:30pm-1:30pm.
WA: 11am-12pm.
Vic/NSW/ACT/Tas: 1pm-2pm.

3. Fifty/fifty bet

Earn a $50 free bet on each of the four 50/50 bet offer available on Super Saturday. You can get up to $200 in free bets!

4. Funky Fourth

Place an Each Way wager on one horse in any of the nominated Morphettville races and if your horse Runs 4th, your stake will be refunded and you’ll get your money back.

5. Resurrection Bets

Place a win, place or each way wager of up to $200 stake on the nominated Resurrection Bet races and if your bet loses, your stake immaculately resurrects as a Free Bet for ONE DAY only on Wednesday 29 of July.

6. Seeing Double 1st Deposit Bonus

Sportsbet will double the value of their ’1st Deposit’

Make your 1st deposit and earn up to $200 in free bets (2 free bets equal to 20% of the deposit amount up to $200).

Tabcorp have decided to back down on copyright claims directed at Sportsbet in an embarrassing end to what could have been a massive change to the betting industry.

Back in February Sportsbet Blog wrote of the legal action being taken out on Sportsbet which can be found here. Tabcorp claimed that Sportsbet had been using their tote dividends on its website which was in breach of the copyright act costing them $58 million every year.

Recently in a similar case Ice TV was being sued by the Nine Network for use of their TV guide information. A High Court judge threw out the case which weakened Tabcorps case.

A TAB spokesman said “In our view, the decision has a significant impact on copyright law as it relates to particular issues in Tabcorp’s case. As a consequence, Tabcorp has decided not to pursue its copyright case against Sportsbet at this time.”

This is a great win for the little guy and great for the betting public. Sportsbet always pays the top price from all the totes giving Australian the best payout possible. Check the Sportsbet site for yourself and see the difference.

Tabcorp has now had talks with Productivity Commission wanting Australia wide regulations to tote betting odds.

Good luck to them…

Latest Update Here

Tabcorp has sued Sportsbet over the TAB’s win dividends and race field information that Sportsbet has been using on their website.

The court heard that Tabcorp has “suffered, and is likely to continue to suffer loss and damage” as a result of Sportsbet’s actions, while Sportsbet “has made, and is likely to make, substantial profits”. Which to me translates to “We (Tabcorp) can’t compete with Sportsbet’s higher dividends and they are making us look silly!”

Tabcorp said the case would involve putting on evidence about the way they create their material, the labour and skill that is involved in doing so. They also said in court that the very important issue is how Sportsbet recreates the TAB’s material by reproducing it either in whole or in substantial parts.

People now have options who they bet with and will always go to the place where they are best looked after. Sportsbet are catering for peoples needs much better than the TAB has ever done so.

They have a betting product called City Best Plus which pays the highest odds from all the different Totes. For example, if UNiTAB has higher odds than the other Totes after the race has been run and won then you will receive the higher payout from the UNiTAB.

The table below is from the Sportsbet site and shows how this works. It also shows an example of the alleged copyright infringement that Tabcorp is suing for.

The TAB have had it way to easy for to long and now that some competition has come along they don’t know how to handle it. More and more people have turned to Sportsbet and the Internet for betting and given the TAB outlets the boot.

The court heard that Sportsbet may attempt to have part of the claims struck out.  Sportsbet director Nick Tyshing said outside court the company would vigorously defend the case. The matter returns to court this month so make sure to check back for updates on how this case unfolds.

Sportsbet will match your first deposit 100% for new customers up to a massive $200 free bet. For more infomation on this offer or to signup checkout their website here.

The Australian Government and lobbyists have been discussing banning free bet incentives in bookmaker advertising. The bans would likely cover all types of media including all print and TV.

When doing some study on the topic I came across an article from a leading newspaper. Its talks about banning free bet incentives from ads and includes comments from Centrebet’s Neil Evans saying “Its the right thing to do”. After reading the article I noticed on the right of the page was a completely contradicting advertisement from Centrebet which made me laugh out loud, check it out here! It features Neil Evans promoting a promo for a “free betting bank”. The banner goes on saying that a $100 free bet will be given!

The ad is randomly placed on different pages of the newspapers site and slaps all what the article has to say in the face.

I really can’t see the government stopping the adverts anyway. The current economic headaches and the downturn in advertising revenue to Australia’s major media outlets has seen bookmakers fill the gap and in some cases hold the industry up.

The issue of free bets in advertising originated from the recent relaxing of advertising laws for corporate bookmakers. Bookies can now advertise in Victoria and NSW to the disgust of TabCorp. The TAB have said that “A national ban on the advertising of free bets is needed”. This is obviously a money grab on their behalf with corporate bookies slowly but surly taking a large share of the TAB’s market.

Senator Nick Xenophon has also commented on the issue saying that he would introduce a private members bill in the next few months to stop the practice of free bet incentives altogether. Little does he know that there are 1000′s of bookmakers outside Australia that welcome Australian residents and offer free bets. As they operate outside Australia there is nothing the Government could do to regulate this. If the bill did make it to Government they would be crazy to allow it and watch the gambling dollars fly out of the country, tax free.

Personally I think free bet offers are good. I’ve had some nice wins from them and its a great way to sample the services of the bookmaker. The main reason that free bets were originally introduced is that the competition between bookmakers become very fierce as they all try to outdo each other for your business. I can only see this as a win for the consumer and can see the offers only getting better for punters in the future.

The Top 3 Biggest Offers are

1. IASbet: A $100,000 Betting Bank to play with on Sydney Cup Day and keep the profit of the day!
2. Canbet: $1000 Free Bet
3. Bet365 $500 Free Bet

The tender for the 2012 Victorian Government betting licence is heating up with confidential tenders submitted to the government.

The new outlines for Victorian betting licence have been released and will no doubt shake the gambling industry considerably with betting exchanges and massive tax cuts to entice hype and competition for the betting license.

Betting exchange will be allowed to operate in Victoria formerly only allowed in Tasmania and Betfair (the world’s biggest and leading betting exchange) has already announced that it has not submit a tender for the betting licence. But they say they are very keen to operate a betting exchange in Victoria for the new licence holder. Instead of the usual TAB style outlets Betfair may essentially have the ability to open betting exchange outlets around Victoria. This alone could change the face dramatically on how we currently place bets in Victoria.

There will also be tax cuts to betting of 60% which is a staggering 1 billion dollars over the 12 year life of the licence which will be held by the new company. This will most likely see much better odds to the end user and the ability to match or beat the corporate bookmakers at their own game.

There are a few companies that have announced that they are interested. Tatts who currently own Unitab are trying to continue their Tote dominance around Australia including the upcoming Tasmanian Tote licence. Intralot the new lotto licence holder have said that they have submitted a tender and Irish gaming giant Paddy Power have also announced that they too have lodged a bid. The TAB was reluctant to comment if they had made a bid to the Government but are very likely to want to continue what has been a very profitable business for them. With big international companies bidding it may make it difficult for Tatts and Tabcorp to compete with the amount of push these companies have and may see the tender go off shore.

Whoever wins the licence will be paying a fortune for the privilege and the winners out of all this will be the gambling public. This will give people many more options over the phone, internet and outlets with a much better return than the previous TAB system.
It will be an interesting time for the Victorian gaming industry and the rest of Australia will be taking notes and no doubt will follow the lead of Victoria in years to come as the competition increases between bookmakers and the Tote.
For more information on Betfair and how betting exchanges work check out the Betfair website.