As of last Wednesday, Betfair, the world’s largest betting exchange, has also begun operating a betting exchange in both Australia and New Zealand. Operations were officially launched in Hobart and were attended by Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon and PBL’s chief executive, James Packer.

While Betfair has been accepting wagers from residents of Australia and New Zealand since February 7th, the company only started processing the wagers through its new Tasmanian exchange six weeks ago. The Tasmanian operations in Hobart began processing wagers after the completion of its $10 million infrastructure. Since that time it has since taken in millions of bets each week through the Betfair.com.au website.

Andrew Twaits, Betfair’s corporate and business affairs director, remarked, “In six weeks we've had 100 percent up-time ... and we're now processing more bets today than transactions on the Australian stock exchange”.

Established betting agencies and many in the racing industry opposed Betfair’s establishment in Australia, making the move highly controversial. Also, against the advice of the labor party states, the Tasmanian government went ahead and granted Betfair the licensing required for operations.

Initially, the new Betfair establishment in Hobart created 75 jobs, but that number is expected to increase to 150 in another year.

Posted on: October 15, 2006

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