The April 2026 report, produced by Australia’s primary communications and online content regulator, maps four broad applications of AI in licensed wagering: predictive analytics and odds setting, personalized promotions and services, content creation and new product features, and the detection of harmful or fraudulent gambling behavior. The report draws on company announcements, investor presentations, executive interviews, academic research and journalism, and notes that providers are often reluctant to disclose the full extent of their AI use given the public and regulatory scrutiny the sector faces.

Australia is not a minor market for this conversation. Australians spent an estimated AU$12.45 billion ($8.91 billion) on online gambling in 2024, with wagering accounting for AU$8.6 billion ($6.1 billion) of that figure.

A 2024 Australian National University longitudinal survey found that roughly a third of Australian adults had participated in online gambling in the past year, the first time online activity surpassed venue-based gambling in the study’s history. Sports betting, at 89 percent, has the highest proportion of gamblers who conduct their activity online.

The dominant force in Australian online wagering is Sportsbet, owned by Flutter Entertainment, which holds close to half the market. Tabcorp holds around a quarter, with Entain’s Ladbrokes and Neds, Bet365 and PointsBet accounting for much of the remainder.

The most mature AI application in the sector is predictive analytics, which licensed wagering providers have used for over a decade to set odds and manage margins. What has changed is the sophistication and speed of these systems.

Modern predictive models process live data – player injuries, weather conditions, in-play betting patterns – and can generate and distribute odds with minimal human input, almost in real time. The scope of what can be priced has also expanded significantly. AI systems can now generate odds across a growing array of micro-outcomes within a single match, creating more opportunities for users to place bets.

Betfair Australia has publicly stated that AI algorithms have improved the accuracy of its odds by 22 percent. PointsBet‘s parent company Fanatics acquired predictive technology firm Banach Technologies for $43 million, specifically for its in-play wagering and odds calculation capabilities.

Personalization is where the report raises its sharpest concerns. Gambling providers are candid about their ambitions here. Sportsbet has stated it aims to give each customer a personalized experience every time they log in, drawing on real-time data fed into recommendation engines that determine homepage content and which odds are displayed.

Bragg Gaming‘s Vice President for AI and Innovation has described the company’s machine learning models as going beyond basic segmentation, with AI-driven offers delivered with a nuanced understanding of player sentiment. Tabcorp, working with Databricks, has deployed AI tools that automatically populate in-app offers for every customer daily, based on behavior, interests and seasonality.

The ACMA report references the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s concept of hyper-nudging – the use of dynamically personalized, data-driven prompts to shape consumer decisions – as a practice that AI tools enable at scale.

Personalized advertising is not limited to existing customers; it is used to recruit new ones. The report cites academic literature linking the increasing prevalence of online sports betting among younger demographics in part to targeted social media marketing underpinned by AI systems.

On the content and features side, gambling providers are using generative AI to produce advertising material, design games and develop customer-facing tools including chatbots and AI assistants. Sportsbet’s AI Assistant allows members to query an AI tool for racing events, while the company also launched a chatbot modeled on an AFL commentator that was, according to reporting cited in the document, trained to subtly promote the brand. Ladbrokes Australia has introduced Form Genius, an AI analysis tool allowing users to query historical racing data. Tabcorp launched Tab Intelligence, a generative AI platform built on Llama 3, alongside Horse-o-pedia, a knowledge graph for racing insights.

The report also covers what may be AI’s most defensible application in the sector: harm detection. Studies have shown AI models can identify behavioral patterns linked to problem gambling, and several providers have deployed or partnered with dedicated tools.

Tabcorp has partnered with Mindway AI, whose GameScanner product combines AI with neuroscience to identify at-risk users, claiming it detects at least 87 percent of cases that human experts would flag. Entain states it uses machine learning to identify risks in player behaviour and intervene appropriately.

The ACMA is clear that the same capabilities powering harm detection also power engagement and revenue generation, and that commercial incentives do not automatically align with player safety outcomes.

A 2025 investigation found that major AI chatbots were directing users toward unlicensed gambling websites and providing guidance on bypassing age checks and self-exclusion schemes, a finding the report treats as illustrative of the broader regulatory challenge.