The latest research from Roy Morgan estimates 602,000 Australians aged 18+ (3.3%) placed bets on AFL or NRL games during the year to June 2016, up from 520,000 (2.9%) three years ago. This past year, 409,000 bet on AFL and 306,000 on Rugby League. The research also revealed that most bets on either football code are now being done on the internet.70% of AFL gamblers used a website or app to place their most recent bet on the sport, up from 48% three years ago. Rugby League bettors had initially been slower to make the shift to online sports betting, but have been catching up over the last few years: rising from 38% in 2013 to 62% in the latest year.
“AFL was the code of choice for over 100,000 more gamblers than Rugby League, which reflects the higher popularity of the sport nationwide. However Rugby League bettors waged around 40% more on average than AFL bettors during the year. Rugby League actually accounted for 52% of all gambling expenditure across these two codes.” Michele Levine, CEO – Roy Morgan Research commented.
% of AFL and NRL sports bets done online in 2013 vs 2016
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, July 2012 – June 2013 sample n = 19,365 Australians 18+ including 271 AFL bettors and 236 Rugby League bettors; July 2015 – June 2016 sample n = 14,300 Australians 18+ including 197 AFL bettors and 157 Rugby League bettors;
Levine went on to explain that the research also revealed that close to one in two Australian adults (47.9%) watch either or both football Grand Finals on TV. With 3.3% of adults betting on any AFL or NRL matches during the year, this is equivalent to around one in 15 Grand Final viewers who sometimes put money on the games’ outcomes. But this proportion of bettors among viewers varies widely across age and gender segments. Men aged 50-plus are the most likely to watch the Grand Finals (63.8%), but only 2.6% of this group bets on AFL or NRL matches during the year—only around one in 25 TV viewers. Men aged 35 to 49 are also big fans of watching either or both events (58.2%), and are also among the most likely to place bets (7.8%): a bettor-to-viewer ratio of around two in every 15—double the norm.
% of each group that Bets on AFL or NRL and Watches Grand Finals
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, July 2015 – June 2016 sample n = 14,300 Australians 18+
Levine commented that the viewers most likely to make a bet are men aged 25 to 34. Although less than half this group watch the AFL or NRL Grand Finals (44.1%), almost one in 10 men 25 to 34 gamble on the sports (9.6%)—for a ratio of more than one in five bettors among this weekend’s TV audience. Among men, 18 to 24 year-olds are the least interested in watching the Grand Finals on TV (41.4%), but 6.7% of have placed bets on the sports—almost one in six viewers. Around four in 10 women watch the Grand Finals (40.1%), but of these viewers only around one in 50 (or just 0.8% of all women) bet on any AFL or NRL matches during the year.