Australia continues to attract interest from new market entrants in the face of an ongoing regulatory overhaul of federal gambling laws disrupting the competitive landscape, as NextBet becomes the latest market arrival.

The newly formed company has hit the ground running with Australia, launching via acquisition. It has started its journey with the acquisition of CrossBet, a Brisbane-based mid-sized bookmaker licensed by the Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission.

Scott Cross, Founder of CrossBet, will continue to head up the online bookmaker as its Executive Director, effectively taking the local lead for NextBet’s plans to scale up and carve out market share in Australia.

This will not be an easy task, however, with Australia home to some deeply entrenched market leaders, namely Tabcorp, the largest firm. Other key players include Entain’s Ladbrokes Australia and Neds brands and Flutter Entertainment’s Sportsbet, with the market being a notoriously tough one to crack – William Hill lasted just five years, for example.

“The formation of NextBet creates the foundation to scale rapidly through an ambitious M&A strategy, while investing in proprietary capabilities to meet the demands of a changing wagering market,” Cross remarked.

NextBet, and by extension CrossBet, is likely gaining confidence in its challenger brand mission from the financial support of its principal backer, Philippines-based investment group Asian Logic.

The Manilla firm describes itself as an investor in online and land-based gaming, both B2B and B2C, with interests across Asia, Europe and Latin America, and now it has added Australia to this geographic mix.

New entrants and new regulations

NextBet’s has launched at a time when Australian betting and gaming stands at a crossroads. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing calls from the backbenches, and particularly from The Greens, to press ahead with gambling reforms.

A 2023 parliamentary report, “You Win Some, You Lose More” – also known as the ‘Murphy report’ after the late Peta Murphy MP who wrote it – made 31 recommendations for Australia’s gambling regulation. This included an extensive rolling back of advertising, creation of an ombudsman, amid other measures.

Albanese’ government put the reforms on the shelf late last year ahead of campaigning for the 2025 general election. However, with his party now solidly in power with a strong majority in parliament, reform advocates have been calling for the Murphy report to be put back on the agenda.

Regardless, Australia’s gambling sector remains highly valuable and despite regulation, it will likely continue to do so – though with a lot more compliance, KYC and advertising considerations for operators to factor in.

According to figures from the Australian Gambling Statistics and Industry Market Research (IMARC), Australia’s gambling market is indexed at around AU$32bn (€20–22bn) in annual gross profit, drawn from total wagering turnover of AU$244bn (€145–150bn).

Online gambling accounts for roughly AU$7–8 bn (€4.5bn–€5.2bn), equal to 20–25% of the market, while land-based activity continues to dominate with AU$24–25bn (€15–17bn), representing around three-quarters of total gross profits”.

M&A activity has remained steady as a result, with perhaps the most notable example being Betr, the trading name of BlueBet.

This firm was itself created as a result of a merger between BlueBet and Betr in 2023, and it has continued to pursue M&A since, acquiring TopSport – like CrossBet a Northern Territory bookmaker – while currently being involved in an extensive bidding battle with Japanese firm for control of PointsBet.

Against this backdrop, NextBet plans to target Australia’s mid-size, two tier betting industry, perhaps wisely opting to avoid potentially costly competition against Tabcrop, Entain and Sportsbet, though it is not ruling out more acquisitions further down the line.