Sportsbet CEO, Barni Evans, has acknowledged that Australia’s largest online bookmaker made serious misjudgements in its approach to advertising and industry responsibility.
Speaking at the Regulating the Game event in Sydney, Evans criticised past marketing strategies, admitting that the company had engaged in an aggressive “advertising arms race” without fully considering its wider responsibilities.
Evans conceded: “We stuffed a lot of things up,” stating that Sportsbet had failed to act swiftly enough in safeguarding the integrity of professional sports and preventing financial crime. He admitted that, in the past, the company “did a terrible job” of alerting sporting bodies to suspicious betting transactions.
Sportsbet’s role in sports integrity and gambling regulation
These remarks come as Australia’s financial intelligence agency has imposed stricter compliance measures on Sportsbet, following an enforceable undertaking in 2024.
The bookmaker committed to improved anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing protocols after regulators identified failings in its reporting systems.
Evans also addressed broader industry concerns, criticising delays in the launch of a national self-exclusion register for problem gamblers. The initiative, originally proposed in 2018, only went live in 2023, a delay that Evans described as a “failure of the ecosystem”.
The evolution of gambling advertising in Australia
Reflecting on the evolution of sports betting advertising in Australia, Evans defended early industry figures who faced intense scrutiny for high-profile ads, saying that the industry “had not yet established clear guidelines on what the public deemed acceptable.”
While some have criticised Evans for not taking stronger unilateral action to curb excessive advertising, he argued that Sportsbet had to operate within the competitive landscape at the time. “Rightly or wrongly, that is what we did,” he said.
A new direction
Evans’ remarks indicate that Australia’s sports betting industry is at a crossroads, with increasing regulatory pressure and growing public demand for more responsible gambling practices.
As scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators intensifies, operators like Sportsbet will need to adapt to evolving public expectations and government policies.
