The Australian Online Betting Market in Numbers: Size, Growth, and Where MiFinity Fits

A .5 Billion Market – and Growing

Numbers do not lie, but they do need context. Australia’s online gambling market was valued at US$5.5 billion in 2025, with projections pointing to US$9.0 billion by 2034 at a compound annual growth rate of 5.67%. The total gambling market – including retail and offline – was forecast at US$15.88 billion in revenue for 2025. These are not abstract figures. They represent real money moving through real payment systems, and every dollar passes through a deposit method on its way to a sportsbook or casino.

I have spent nine years watching these numbers climb, and the trajectory has been remarkably consistent. Regulatory changes shift market share between licensed and offshore operators, new sports codes attract new demographics, and mobile penetration drives access, but the total market grows year after year. The question for payment providers like MiFinity is not whether the market is growing, but how much of that growth flows through their rails.

Sports Betting Revenue and Online Penetration

Sports betting specifically generated US$7.32 billion in revenue in 2025, with projections reaching US$8.36 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 2.69%. A separate analysis placed the market at USD$2,442.8 million in 2024 with more aggressive growth projections to USD$5,096.8 million by 2030 at a 13.2% CAGR. The discrepancy reflects different methodological approaches – some models include all wagering turnover while others measure gross gaming revenue – but both confirm significant growth.

The critical detail is online penetration. The online segment accounted for 79.74% of sports betting activity in 2024. That is not a trend line – it is dominance. Four out of every five sports betting dollars in Australia are placed online, and the ratio is widening. Average revenue per user in the sports betting segment sits at US$924.82 in 2025, with user penetration at 29.3%. The maths is straightforward: a large market, heavily skewed online, with high per-user spending creates enormous transaction volume that payment providers compete to facilitate.

Within sports betting, horse racing remains the revenue leader at 37.9%, with fixed-odds betting representing 41.6% of the total. AFL, NRL, cricket, and soccer split the remainder, each with its own seasonal patterns that distribute wagering activity across the calendar rather than concentrating it in a single period.

Who Bets Online in Australia

Understanding the demographic profile matters because payment preferences vary by age, income, and digital comfort. User penetration across all gambling segments was projected at 77.8% in 2025, with the total user base expected to reach 23.6 million by 2030. The average revenue per user across all gambling sits at US$756.71.

Overall gambling participation has actually declined to 58.8% in 2025, which sounds like a cooling trend until you dig deeper. The rate of risky gambling among participants jumped from 13.7% in 2024 to 19.4% in 2025 – fewer people are gambling, but those who gamble are doing so with more intensity and risk. That pattern has direct implications for responsible gambling frameworks and the payment tools that interact with them.

The 25-44 age bracket represents the largest segment of online casino and sportsbook users. The 18-24 cohort is the fastest-growing, driven by mobile-native behaviour and comfort with digital payment methods. Over 56% of all Australian gamblers participate predominantly online, and this majority continues to expand as digital infrastructure matures and retail betting outlets diminish.

These demographic patterns align with e-wallet adoption. Younger users default to digital payment methods; older users are increasingly migrating from cards. The credit card ban in June 2024 accelerated this migration across all age groups by removing a familiar option and forcing adoption of alternatives.

Geographic distribution matters too. New South Wales leads gambling participation nationally, followed by Victoria and Queensland – the same states that dominate BetStop registrations, which suggests both the highest volume and the highest awareness of gambling harm tools. For payment providers, these population centres represent the densest concentration of potential users, and the payment infrastructure supporting them – bank networks, card issuers, e-wallet access – is mature enough to handle high transaction volumes without bottlenecks.

The Digital Wallet Share of Australian Betting Payments

Digital wallets already account for 31% of e-commerce payments in Australia. Within the gambling sector, the share is growing but harder to pin down precisely because operators do not uniformly report payment-method breakdowns. What we know is that the global digital wallet market reached $56.77 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit $145.35 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 20.9%. Over 5.2 billion people worldwide use digital wallets, representing more than 60% of the global population.

In the gambling-specific context, 68% of online players in the US prefer e-wallets over credit cards, citing security and speed. Australian adoption is following a similar trajectory, accelerated by the credit card ban. MiFinity’s growth to one million accounts in early 2025 – with 1,200-plus brand integrations across iGaming – positions it as a significant player in this transition.

The global gambling industry generated $347 billion in revenue in 2024, growing at 18% year-over-year between 2020 and 2024. Digital wallets are capturing an increasing share of the payment volume underlying that revenue. For Australian punters, the practical implication is that choosing an e-wallet is no longer an alternative payment strategy – it is increasingly the default.

For a look at how the advertising reform starting in January 2027 may further shift how punters discover and access sportsbooks, I covered the implications in the gambling ad reform guide.