In 2025, sports fans worldwide are expected to spend a whopping $77 billion on wagers, up $7 billion in a single year, and double the figure reported just five years ago. Even more shockingly, nearly 40% of that value will come from only three countries, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, home to the largest numbers of sports bettors. And while both the U.S. and the U.K. are more mature markets with many times more sports bettors, neither of them comes close to Australia when it comes to average spending. According to data presented by Betideas.com, Aussies are expected to splash an average of $1,200 on sports bets in 2025, or 34% higher than earlier forecasts.
Australia’s Sports Betting Forecast Climbs While Forecasts for Other Markets Fall
While online betting continues surging across the globe, not all nations wager equally. Even among the biggest sports betting markets, Australia stands in a league of its own. Easy access to online betting platforms combined with loose regulations and high disposable income have fueled Australia’s betting culture, making it the world’s biggest betting nation per capita. While that hasn’t changed in 2025, Australians are spending far more on wagers than previously thought.
Last year, the Statista Market forecast projected that sports bettors in Australia would spend an average of $940 on wagers in 2025, far more than in any other major market and well above the global average. In comparison, the same forecast showed Americans would spend nearly $630, Britons around $450, while the projected global average was $426. But in just seven months, the outlook for Australia has shifted dramatically. According to the latest data, Aussies are now expected to spend a staggering $1,200 this year, three times more than Americans, Britons, or the global average, and 34% more than earlier forecasts.
Even more interesting is that Australia’s sports betting forecast is climbing while estimates for other major markets are falling. The latest Statista forecast shows Americans will spend $431 on average this year, nearly $200 less than previously expected. The U.K. market will also see a decline, with average spending per user dropping from $451 to $435, while the global average is set to fall from a projected $426 to $389 per user.
The Statista projections also show that Australia’s average spending per bettor will stay around $1,200 through 2029, while the U.K.’s is expected to climb to $475, the U.S. to $457, and the global average to $408.
Offline Sports Betting Fuels Market Growth in Australia
While innovations like in-play betting, AI predictions, and digital sportsbooks have driven sports betting growth in most major markets, that’s not entirely the case in Australia. Here, in-person wagers at pubs, TAB outlets, and racetracks are growing faster than online bets, fueled by a strong social betting culture and habits that digital platforms can’t quite match, and Statista data proves it.
With Aussies spending well over $1,200 on wagers on average, the country’s sports betting market is projected to reach $7.3 billion this year. That figure is set to climb another 11% to $8.1 billion by 2029. In that time, online betting will grow 9% to $5 billion, while offline betting will jump 15% to $3.1 billion.