Centrebet take a punt on stocks
The Age
Tuesday March 9, 2010
CENTREBET has become the first agency in Australia to offer betting on local financial markets €” beating Betfair and Tabcorp €” and it plans to expand into equity and commodity betting in coming months.Betting on the outcome of Reserve Bank board meetings has long been popular with Australian punters, but Centrebet is hoping to lure new customers keen to bet on movements in an index of the top 200 listed companies.At present it has only one product on offer €” a choice of three closing levels for the S&P/ASX 200 Index on March 31.Company spokesman Neil Evans said bets could be made until the market closed."It is a straight up and down betting book, and a futures book," he said yesterday.Mr Evans said the company's gaming licence was issued by the Northern Territory government and allowed it to take bets on a range of markets.Betting on financial markets is not new. Betfair has offered odds on movements in London's FTSE index and Wall Street for some time, as well as changes in the official cash rate in Australia, the US, Europe and Britain. But this is the first time bets have been offered on Australian financial markets.A spokesman for TAB Sportsbet said yesterday its licence prevented it from offering financial betting. Betfair could not be contacted.Tax counsel for the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Yasser El-Ansary, said that profits from casual betting were not taxed, but if done in a professional manner the profits could then be taxed.Traders can already profit from taking a position on how the market will perform by buying a futures contract but these are traded on the ASX and must be bought through a licensed broker.An ASX spokesman said it had no influence over betting that occurred off-market. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission declined to comment.The index closed at 4807.9 points yesterday and Centrebet's odds were favouring a decline over the next three weeks.CURRENT ODDSOdds on sharemarket closing price on March 31, 2010.4799.9 points or less $2.204800 to 4900 points $3.404900.1 points or more $2.37S&P/ASX last closing 4807.9
© 2010 The Age
