Small Betting Sites Australia
Best Small Online Bookmakers in Australia
Why Pick a Small Bookie?
When you first look at Australian small bookmakers, it seems like you can close the page immediately because there won’t be anything that you can’t find on a big brand name betting site. And if you do, you’ll be sorely mistaken. On this Match.Center page, we’ve listed 10 not particularly well-known betting sites. And each has something you won’t find anywhere else, despite the fact that there are over 80 licensed betting sites in Australia.
Usually, we cover the big betting sites Australia provides that have an extensive offer in all sports. This text will be like a small private bakery: yes, there aren’t 10 stands, just two, but you won’t find that in a supermarket.
This unique page also required a unique approach from our experts: how to decide who can be called a small betting site and what criteria to use to evaluate and include them in our selection?
There are three main criteria for selection:
- A local bookmaker, established and operating in Australia and nowhere else.
- Sports betting markets are much narrower than international betting juggernauts like Bet365 or Ladbrokes.
- Very limited or unique specialisation. For example, two of the sports betting sites in our selection offer betting exclusively on greyhounds.
Pros of Small Online Australian Bookmakers: Why You Should Choose Them
For us as betting experts, the answer is simple: small betting sites in Australia are very interesting. How do they even survive in a market where marketing budgets are in the hundreds of millions and the top brands consider it beneath their dignity to offer less than 30 sports?
Here are the advantages of small betting sites Australia offers.
Full focus on selected sports
Small betting sites Australia offers invest all their resources in their chosen sport: horse racing, greyhounds, fantasy sports (these sites may not have any classic betting at all).
This can give you a whole new sports betting experience.
On the SportChamps site, for example, Australian punters participate in betting tournaments regularly. In this way, you are not competing against the bookmaker, but against your friends or rivals. You don’t get that feeling from a traditional bookmaker.
Conciseness
If you are interested in a particular type of sport, like horse racing, and don’t bet on other sports, then the huge selection of sports is just an overloaded sportsbook’s interface. And then there are casinos, bingo, poker…
On small betting sites in Australia you can find the races you want in a second, as well as statistics for each horse or dog’s last race.
Traditions
Betting on horse racing markets has a very special atmosphere. Many Australian betting sites retain the tradition of accepting sports bets in cash at the racecourse and by phone. Some still don’t accept online betting. Here’s the appeal on The Track betting site from bookmaker Anthony Doughty:
Tired of the robotic service of the online bookmakers? Do you want to establish a relationship with your bookmaker? Then why not try Anthony Doughty!
Bookmaker Brandon Cleary (‘Clearybet’) has followed the same route of human contact with aussie punters to build an interesting betting experience, despite the company’s history dating back to 2004, when it was already possible to bet online.
By betting with small online bookmakers in Australia, you can have the rare betting experience of knowing your bookmaker face-to-face.
More money remains in the country
Small betting sites Australia runs are always owned by Australians. And many of the big online bookmakers are part of international betting corporations – e.g. bet365, Ladbrokes, Sportsbet. They pay less tax than local ones. According to Aussie Fair Play Coalition calculations, Australian TABs, one of the best small online bookmakers, pay 6% tax on each bet, while foreign online bookmakers in Australia pay 3% tax.
Small local betting sites sometimes support this fight publicly. Some of them write on their online betting sites in the “About us” section that if you choose their site, you will support your country. They also assure you that they employ Australian citizens.
However, the flagship of the fight against overseas corporations was not the small bookies, but a local large company, TABcorp, which operates across Australia and has over 5,000 employees.
Cons of Small Betting Sites Australia: Why You Can Avoid Them
The disadvantages of small betting sites Australia provides are the flip side of their advantages, multiplied by the lack of resources.
Poor selection
The most obvious disadvantage of small online bookmakers: their sports markets are almost always narrow. Some only have Australian racing – but this approach is even fairer to the customer.
If a specialised online bookmaker tries to offer bets on other popular sports, it will usually be few of them and bad ones. You can open any match of any sport and see only 2-3 sports betting markets there: 1/X/2 and sometimes a couple of Over/Under bets, the things that most bookies offer.
Fans of mainstream sports like rugby, basketball or soccer have absolutely nothing to do on these online betting sites.
Large number of White Label sites
There are several online bookmakers in Australia using essentially the same website. The pages differ from each other only in colour. The entire betting line, the range of betting options and the statistics are the same.
We wouldn’t recommend you to visit the clone sites, although they aren’t that bad. We would say a screenshot of such a site can be placed in the encyclopaedia next to the word Average.
Poor websites
Sometimes small betting sites clearly don’t have the resources to improve their betting sites. You click on Sports and wait a few seconds for the sports betting markets to load.
Some online bookmakers in Australia don’t even have filters for more than sports types. Inside the sports just a dump of upcoming matches from different tournaments.
So the question arises: why did you leave the racetrack and start offering sports bets on basketball if you don’t care so much about it?
There are also some completely unexpected situations. For example, the CricketBet betting site cannot be viewed if you are not registered. What are you gentlemen hiding in there? Such things don’t let us name them the best small betting site.
Meanwhile, Moneyball has decided to get rid of the small betting site for good and is only available on mobile apps. But they swear that they offer the best odds on accumulators in the country.
Comparison of Small Australian Bookmakers VS Big Australian Bookies
| Feature | Big bookie | Small bookie | Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Range of sports | Wide | Poor or average | Cell |
| Sport markets quantity | Good | Very poor mostly | Some small bookmakers offer not a bad range of markets |
| Odds | Differently | Differently | There are no obvious parallels between the size of the bookmaker and the odds |
| Live betting | Yes | Almost nothing | Booki provides very few live bets |
| Racing | Good enough | Awesome or quite good | Small bookmakers have unique offers |
| Payment methods | Several methods | Usually only bank cards and POLi | Cell |
| Ease of navigation | Differently | Usually great | Cell |
| Phone betting | Often | Often | Some small bookmakers do not accept bets online at all |
| Reputation and credibility | Great | Hard to say | Cell |
| Local bookie | Rarely | Always | Cell |
| Owner | Corporation | Often a particular bookmaker with a name | Cell |
TOP 10 Small Online Bookmakers Australia
And here comes the most interesting part of the review. The top provided by the Match.Center team combines very different small online bookmakers in Australia. There is no single standard by which they can all be properly compared. These are just 10 interesting local sports betting sites that we liked.
TABtouch
This is the largest site in our selection and one of the best small online bookmakers. It is owned by the huge company TAB. Nevertheless, we can’t leave it out. Unlike the main TAB.com.au, Touch is heavily oriented towards horse and greyhound racing.
We recommend paying attention to it not only as one of the best small betting sites, but also as a sports media about horse racing. Experts discuss horse racing on the blog, as well as the TABradio programmes. Both are available to any small betting site visitor. And registered aussie punters can watch videos.
TAB blog is updated daily with three topics: dogs, horses, trots. There you can find announcements of upcoming races and expert advice. It is laconic and one text won’t take you more than 2-3 minutes to read.
A pleasant surprise is that the Sports section is also well-stocked. For many sports the betting offer is even better than on TAB.com. For example, there are almost 400 bets on soccer, 175 on MLB and a modest but unashamed 25 markets on tennis matches.
The horse racing markets feature both Australian and international racing. Right there you can see detailed statistics on the performance of the selected competitor.
The list of races on the desktop version of the site is a bit shallow. If you cannot see well, it is not comfortable. In this case, we recommend using the mobile version or app, where everything is larger and the functions are the same as on the main site.
JimmyBet and BetBetBet
Two identical websites. The main profile is horse racing. But what makes them stand out among the other small betting sites is their good betting offer in different sports.
Of course, it cannot compete with the giants. But you will find there a betting line of 15 sports with a good selection of tournaments. In the soccer section, for instance, you’ll find over 40 leagues including internationals and the second leagues of the main national competitions. You can also bet on all the major tournaments in rugby, baseball, basketball and tennis. Admittedly, without much imagination, there will rarely be more than 10 betting options on any given match.
Horse racing is another matter. There are plenty of races and all the exotic bets: Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, and First Four. There are also statistics, though we found more data at many competitors.
These online bookmakers in Australia will suit those who bet on horse racing most of the time, but sometimes don’t mind betting on rugby or soccer, purely for fun.
Apart from that, we liked the visual design of the websites of these small online Australian bookmakers.
Bet Hunter
Bet Hunter is similar to JimmyBet and BetBetBet: the same sports and bets, but in a more concise design. There are no pop-ups offering chat, no ticker with upcoming races on top. They’ve also cut down on the statistics.
Instead, you get fantastic page navigation speed. It really does feel like a betting hunter and that’s what we like the most about Bet Hunter.
The speciality, of course, is horse racing. According to the About Us page, the creators of Bet Hunter have over 70 years’ betting experience in betting on thoroughbred and harness racing.
Booki
A special feature of one the small online Australian bookmakers is that they accept live bets online. However, the selection of these bets is very poor: when we first logged in, we only saw 4 basketball matches. You can choose from 15 to 30 bets. The second time we saw even less.
Otherwise, Booki doesn’t stand out much among other small Australian betting sites. There’s plenty of horse racing and a good offering of other sports: 20 in total, plus politics and entertainment. There are horse statistics, the site is neat, and there are mobile apps. You can see that Booki is trying.
The owners claim to have 50 years of betting experience. We can’t verify that.
Betdogs
A small betting site for fans of greyhound betting. There you will find great statistics on all the dogs: information on form, results of the last few races and a chart characterising the dog.
Betdogs offers many types of bets, including Best of the best, Multi betting and Exotics.
According to the website, one of the owners of Betdogs, Lloyd Merlehan, became the first licensed Australian bookmaker in 1990.
PuntOnDogs
As the name suggests, this is a greyhound racing online bookmaker and one of the small betting sites Australia offers. Nothing else, and that’s fair enough. The owners write about the founding of the company like this:
“We were a couple of frustrated New South Wales dog punters that could hardly even get a decent bet on these days”.
Actually, all bookies promise you something cool. In this case, to our surprise, it turned out not to be empty words. PuntOnDogs does offer odds that are very different from others. Not in the sense that they are many times higher – of course, that can’t be, the bookmaker has to earn money somehow.
But the odds of a race are sometimes assessed differently here than on other sites. Almost everywhere the odds of the dogs are almost the same. When Ladbrokes sets the odds of 3.0 on the favourite, the punt123, for instance, will set the odds between 2.5 and 4.0. On a potential runner-up, by contrast, punt123 will only set the odds of 8.0 and Ladbrokes will set the odds of 9.0.
At PuntOnDogs, you can see not 3.0, but 6.0 on the favourite for the same race, and almost as much on the second favourite in the race. You get really varied odds.
A unique feature of PuntOnDogs that we haven’t seen anywhere else is the weekend. The online bookmaker is not open on Sundays and Mondays.
SportChamps
The aussie punters who place bets on SportChamps are not competing with the bookmaker, but with each other. But this is not a betting exchange, the format of the game is a tournament. To participate, you have to pay the required entry fee and then place at least 5 bets during the tournament.
Tournaments can be either multi-sport, where you can choose from a wide range of games, or the opposite, dedicated to a specific competition. For example, T20 Cricket World Cup or NBA Season (long tourney).
After paying in real money, you get conditional ChampCash tokens, like in poker tournaments, and you use them for betting. A tournament can last 1 day or the whole season. Whoever has the most coins at the finish line gets the biggest part of the prize pool.
Competitions are held for both playing sports and horse racing.
To bet from a smartphone, you need to install the app. SportChamps does not have a mobile version of the website.
Moneyball
This online bookmaker only operates in the mobile app.
Moneyball claims to have the best odds on accumulators of 3 or more selections.
DraftStars
DraftStars is a fantasy sports site with tournaments for several sports, different entry fees and number of games. For example, you can participate in a tournament that includes all the NBA games of the day, or one dedicated to a single baseball game.
Fees range from $0 to $500 per tournament.
Otherwise, it’s classic Fantasy leagues. It’s just unusual for Australia.
Your task is to put together a team on a limited budget. You can include players from clubs that participate in the matches you choose for that tournament. For example, in the screenshots below, we have started to assemble the team of the day in the NBA. We took Nikola Jokic from Denver, Trae Young from Atlanta and LeBron James from the LA Lakers. But you can’t take the 9 most star players because they are all expensive – you won’t fit into the salary cap. In addition to the greatest basketball players, you’ll also have to pick some of the simpler guys, and that’s the crux of the game: who can guess which player will perform well on the night and make a double-double, for example.
At the end of the game night, your players will score points. For every point scored in a real game, your player will get 1.5 points, 1 point for an assist, 1.25 for a rebound, and 2 points for a block or a steal.
The betting site will then add up all the points. Whichever team scores the most gets the first prize.
The tournament pool includes the following competitions:
- AFL
- NFL
- NBA
- EPL
- MLB
- Cricket
- Golf
- Racing
If you like making sports predictions and are looking for something fresh, we recommend trying a fantasy at DraftStars.
Small Australian Bookmakers’ Odds and Limits
Small Australian Bookmakers’ Odds are not too different from the odds of the big betting sites. In the first table we compare Ladbrokes and JimmyBet’s margins on playing sports.
| Sport | Date | Game | Ladbrokes 1X2 | JimmyBet 1X2 | Ladbrokes Over/Under | JimmyBet Over/Under |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cricket | 1/11/2022 | Afghanistan – Sri Lanka | 5.36% | 5.50% | – | – |
| Cricket | 1/11/2022 | England – New Zealand | 5.36% | 5.42% | – | – |
| Cricket | 2/11/2022 | Zimbabwe – Netherlands | 5.91% | 5.84% | – | – |
| NBA | 1/11/2022 | Charlotte Hornets – Sacramento Kings | 4.76% | 5.37% | 5.26% | 5.26% |
| NBA | 1/11/2022 | Brooklyn Nets – Indiana Pacers | 4.44% | 5.15% | 5.26% | 5.26% |
| NBA | 1/11/2022 | Toronto Raptors – Atlanta Hawks | 4.52% | 5.17% | 5.02% | 5.26% |
| Soccer: World Cup | 21/11/2022 | England – Iran | 8.83% | 5.43% | 7.91% | 5.68% |
| Soccer: World Cup | 21/11/2022 | Senegal – Netherlands | 11.07% | 6.85% | 8.42% | 5.68% |
| Soccer: World Cup | 21/11/2022 | USA – Wales | 11.76% | 5.73% | 8.33% | 5.71% |
As you can see, in the NBA, Ladbrokes’ margins were slightly lower. In terms of cricket odds, it’s equal. In terms of odds for the Soccer World Cup, JimmyBet is significantly better.
In the following table we will compare the odds on Horse racing of the two big and two small betting sites. October, 1 – first race at Flemington.
| Horse | Ladbrokes odds | Sportsbet odds | Booki odds | Bet Hunter odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zulfiqar (Fav) | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.0 |
| Krakarib | 31.0 | 31.0 | 31.0 | 31.0 |
| Diabelli (2nd fav) | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| Exposition | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Hellish | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 |
| Little Brose | 18.0 | 18.0 | 18.0 | 19.0 |
| Parade Ground | 13.0 | 14.0 | 13.0 | 11.0 |
| Amelie | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 10.0 |
| Awestruck | 8.0 | 8.0 | 7.5 | 7.5 |
| Bad Girl Bubbles | 21.0 | 23.0 | 21.0 | 21.0 |
As you can see from this table, Bet Hunter stood out in the chosen race with lower odds on the favourite. In addition, this online bookmaker together with Booki puts Awestruck at odds of 7.5 for a potential third place, while the corporate monsters from Ladbrokes and Sportsbet do not see a clear third favourite and put Awestruck and Exposition at odds of 8.0 for 3-4. Overall, there isn’t a huge difference in the odds. On average, the giants have slightly better odds.
Now let’s have a look at the odds on greyhound racing. As an example, let’s randomly take race 11 at Albion Park on 31 October.
| Dog | Ladbrokes odds | Sportsbet odds | Booki odds | Betdogs odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Ruby | 26.0 | 26.0 | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Serene Way | 26.0 | 26.0 | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Orson Alison | 6.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.5 |
| Cody’s Stud | 2.15 | 2.15 | 2.15 | 2.1 |
| Orson Trinity (2nd fav) | 6.0 | 6.5 | 6.0 | 6.5 |
| Salamanca | 20.0 | 20.0 | 20.0 | 21.0 |
| Time to Enjoy | 19.0 | 19.0 | 19.0 | 18.0 |
| All Up (Fav) | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.7 |
Betdogs, which specialises in greyhound racing, offers slightly lower but still competitive odds on the first two favourites than Ladbrokes and Sportsbet, and slightly higher odds on the 3rd-4th places. For the two underdogs, all four betting sites offer 26.0.
Booki is no different from the big betting sites. Its odds are almost identical to Sportsbet.
Of course, the odds for each of the many races may differ on all betting sites Australia provides. But there are almost certainly no big differences in odds between the big and small betting sites for either horse racing or greyhounds. So you can find even the great odds, just explore the small bookmakers thoroughly.
Do Small Online Bookmakers Cover Many Betting Markets?
No, you will almost never find a large number of markets on small betting sites Australia offers. The only exception in our selection is TABtouch, which offers a good selection of sports and in these terms can be considered one of the best small betting sites Australia provides. But even that can’t compete with the biggest online bookmakers in terms of the variety of sports betting.
If you’re looking for a great selection of markets on any sports other than horse or greyhound racing, you’re better off looking for a online bookmaker in our other review.
Tips from Match.Center on How to Bet on Small Online Bookmakers
We at Match.Center like to repeat that punters who bet for fun always win because they enjoy the races. However, we understand that not everyone possesses the miraculous ability to have fun while losing money. So here are a few tips that we hope will help you, at the very least, not go into deficit when betting. These are tips from our British horse racing expert with 20 years’ betting experience, Valentin Axani.
Create a dedicated bankroll
This makes it easier for you to keep track of horse racing bets. This is because horse racing betting is a very special game, quite different from betting on other sports. In comparison with playing sports, it is similar to betting on the exact score in soccer: you have many possible outcomes, some of which are very likely to happen and others which are unlikely to happen. This creates an increased complexity for the bettor. A separate bankroll will help you understand how exactly the horse racing bets are going, without the influence of other bets.
Use the Kelly criterion
Let’s face it, this advice won’t suit everyone, and it’s a bit of a departure from the wish to bet for fun. Kelly’s criterion is not easy to use and requires the punter to have certain skills as well as the work to analyse the races. Besides, using it, you won’t make a big payout in a short period of time. But you can almost certainly avoid big losses.
The American scientist John Larry Kelly Jr. developed this method in 1956, and tested it on the stock exchange. The formula was later adopted by bettors.
- C – betting odds
- % – probability rate of the event according to the punter’s estimation
- S – bankroll size
- T – necessary bet amount
Example of use:
The race you can see in the screenshot below involves the horse Pink Cashmere. We have made our prediction and concluded that the horse has a 25% chance of winning. Booki sets on this horse the odds of 4.2. So, in our opinion, it’s a good bet. Let’s calculate how much we should bet.
4.2 X (25/100) – 1 = 0.5. Now 0.5 / (4.2 – 1) = 0.16 (if you round up). Multiply this number by the bankroll size and get the bet amount. For example, if the bankroll is 10000, the bet amount is 1600.
The advantage of the Kelly criterion is, first and foremost, fairness to the bettor. This formula does not promise you a reward without putting in the effort. Yes, you must understand the sport you are betting on, be able to calculate the probability of the event, be disciplined and patiently look for value bets. It’s not easy, but the truth is that if you don’t do the work in these areas, no formula will help you win consistently in betting.
If you’re not yet a very experienced bettor, you can use half Kelly – that is, divide the total of the formula (T) by 2. In the example above, we would have a bet of 800.
Choose the right bookmaker
At first glance, it may seem that betting on horse racing is similar at all online bookmakers in Australia. But, as we described above, there are slight differences, including the odds. Some give a little more on the favourite, others on the middle runners. Over time, this difference can add up to a nice amount if you make the right choice.
You should pick one or more online bookmakers in Australia with odds that seem to be the best in relation to the predictions you make. If you’re more likely to bet on favourites, find a bookmaker that sets the competitive odds on favourites compared to others. If you like to bet on non-obvious results with great odds, find the bookmaker who has the highest odds.
Choose a few areas to explore
It’s pointless trying to keep track of everything that happens in the racing world. There are too many races and horses for anyone to handle them all. A better tactic is to pick a few horses or specific stables and follow them regularly. Then you will be more confident in your predictions.
You don’t have to always bet
This advice seems too obvious, but anyone who has bet knows that you have to remind yourself about it from time to time. Every time a sporting event of your interest is planned, you are tempted to bet at least a little. Even if you don’t see value bets and haven’t made a clear prediction.
In such situations, remind yourself that there will be other events. No one is forcing you to bet right now, if you can’t find a bet you think would be beneficial.
Evaluate the chances of each of the horses in the race, comparing them with the offered odds. If, according to your prediction, the chances of one of the horses are higher than the odds offered on it, only then place your bet. It doesn’t matter if it is the favourite. Over the distance, you win money not when you back the winning horse, but when you bet on any horse with the odds that have a value.
