Australians Gambling on Property Prices

A new type of betting is surging in popularity at some of Australia’s largest betting operators, as punters are granted five new wagering options covering the movement of property value. With the sporting calendar completely obliterated in recent weeks, bookmakers are scrambling to find new ways to fulfill cash-flow and revenue.

Housing price tranches represented by coins in piles.

Australians are being offered the chance to place wagers on the future value of property across eight major cities. The new gambling opportunity comes as bookies scramble to make up lost business on decimated sport markets. ©nattanan23/Pixabay

In a big to end the stagnation currently engulfing the Australian casino industry, the step to launch a new betting market appears to be taking hold. Customers of large gambling companies, including Betfair, can now bet upon the value of their own house on a quarterly basis. A unique and innovative approach from bookmakers in Australia has not gone unnoticed, and similar offers are being drawn-up at large European and U.S. firms to meet the growing demand.

The specifics of the Betfair offer are easy to grasp, and focus on the shift in value, with options to also quantify how large the movement is for an increased odds offer on your bet. The new type of betting is accessible to Australians living in eight cities, those are Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney.

With pretty much every major city throughout the country covered by this exciting new type of wager, it’s little surprise to see how quickly this has caught on. Given the situation, and the detrimental economic effects of COVID-19, it is a bright light for the betting sector, in particular, to be able to offer customers a new capacity for novelty betting.

Betfair and Australian Bureau of Statistics Lead the Charge

With the new form of betting sweeping across the online betting platforms of Australia, it is worth mentioning the two organizations that are leading the effort in establishing house price betting. Firstly, there hasn’t been an operator as innovative throughout the history of online gambling, and they’ve proven again why they have what it takes to lead the world on new betting technologies.

The second organization that is absolutely pivotal to maintaining the viability of this emerging wagering type is the Australian Bureau of Statistics who provide the impartial data regarding house price fluctuations. Anyone can access their data on the national movements of property value, and their database contains vast amounts of relevant information points that may be useful for those who plan on placing a wager.

As with all the betting companies involved in this new house price wagering market, Betfair’s data will be fed through an API developed and maintained by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data collection agency typically releases their results on a quarterly schedule and provides a detailed analysis regarding the positive or negative price-movements of average property prices in the eight cities aforementioned.

Discuss the technicalities of the new arrangement between betting companies, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a Betfair spokesperson commented.

Due to customer demands, we’ve developed five separate markets for house price wagering. For each eligible city: increase of decrease by more than 2.0%, increase of decrease by less than 2.0%, or no change at all.Spokesperson, Statement, Betfair

The narrow sets of data currently available are being used to power a minimum of five markets to be initially launched into the sportsbook. Each city within the eligible eight on the list are being monitored on five separate data points: an increase or decrease by more than 2.0%, increase or decrease by less than 2.0%, or by no significant change at all.

The flexibility involved in these betting options will certainly be adequate considering the limited nature of these specific markets. Overall punters will need to actively predict the future cost of average property prices on a quarterly basis. By any account, this is no easy feat and will require a sound understanding of macroeconomics, retail property markets and other existential factors that tie into the valuation of the property.

The operators in Australia have claimed that the move to introduce these markets has originated from huge customer demand. It has been widely reported that the initial launch of the markets last weekend yielded a tremendous AU$6,500 worth of wagers in Sydney alone. With almost a week gone past, and accounting for the total wager across all eight cities, that figure will be considerably higher with possibly one or even two more zeros added.

Sporting Calendar Decimated

The rise in property value betting is by no doubt in relation to the complete shutdown in global sport. Indeed within Australia, many of the biggest sporting events have been canceled or suspended due to the outbreak of Coronavirus. The betting industry has been dealt a double-blow, as all brick and mortar locations had to shut their doors following the directive issued by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in March.

One sport that seems that have escaped relatively unscathed in some parts of the world is horse and dog racing. The events have been moved to behind closed doors, and feature races organized by just a skeleton crew. With the racing generating over AU$10bn a year in revenues, the tax take alone is enough to make the government want to stop it from occurring. But the chances are, like many other western nations it will too be postponed indefinitely.

As the last remaining sports are slowly being phased out, virtual sports will soon take their place. Last weekend in the UK, more than £3mn was raised for the NHS in the virtual Grand National broadcasted on national television. Other events such as drone racing and political betting have also seen a dramatic uptick since the initiation of the lockdown.

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