A bookmaker is a person or business that sets fixed odds on a race, game or event, takes bets at those prices and pays the winners out of its own money. Bookie is the everyday short form, and Racing Victoria's Racing 101 glossary defines bookmakers as "a person or company licensed by the government to accept bets".
The bookmaker is always the other side of your bet, unlike the tote, where punters bet into a shared pool, or a betting exchange, where they bet against each other. Betting accounts in Australia covers the rules every bookmaker account runs under.
How a bookmaker takes your bet
Once the bookmaker accepts your bet, the price is locked in whatever the market does next. If your selection wins, it pays your stake times the price; if it loses, it keeps the stake. The person on the other side is the punter.
Example: Illustrative price. You put $40 on Team B at $2.30. If Team B wins, the bookmaker pays 40 x 2.30 = $92: your $40 back plus $52 profit. If Team B loses, the bookmaker keeps the $40.
A bookmaker does not have to take every bet in full: it sets a max bet on each market and can decline or trim a stake under its terms.
On-course, corporate and tote compared
Leaving betting exchanges aside, Australian punters deal with three kinds of operator, and only two of them are bookmakers.
| On-course bookmaker | Corporate bookmaker | Tote | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it takes bets | At race meetings, from a stand | Online and by phone | Through the TABs: outlets, phone, online and on course |
| What you get | The price on its board | A fixed price it offers | A dividend declared after the result |
| Who takes your bet on | The bookmaker | The bookmaker | Nobody: winners share the pool |
| Who licenses it | In NSW, the racing controlling bodies | A state or territory regulator named on ACMA's register | State law licenses each tote operator |
Racing NSW calls corporate bookmakers licensed off-course wagering operators that offer betting online. The tote, by contrast, takes no side: winning bets share the pool once the operator's commission is out, as tote betting shows. The TABs sell fixed odds too, so on those bets they act as a bookmaker. Corporate vs on-course bookmakers compares the first two in detail.
How bookmakers make money
Turn each price into an implied chance (1 / decimal odds) and a bookmaker's market adds up to more than 100%. The excess, the margin or overround, is what pays it over time.
Example: Illustrative prices for a two-way market: Team A at $1.65 and Team B at $2.30. The implied chances are 1 / 1.65 = 60.606% and 1 / 2.30 = 43.478%, a total of 104.084%, or about 104.08%.
If money arrives in proportion to those chances, the bookmaker keeps 1 - 1 / 1.04084 = about 3.9% of everything staked, whichever team wins. Real books (a bookmaker's record of the bets on an event) are rarely that tidy, so bookmakers also move prices and limit stakes: how bookmakers work shows a balanced and a lopsided book in dollars, bookmaker margin measures any market, and the bookmaker margin calculator does the sums from the prices.
Terms people mix up with bookmaker
- Betting exchange: matches your bet with another punter's opposite bet and takes a commission from the winner, without becoming a party to the bet. See betting exchanges in Australia.
- Tipster: a tipster recommends bets but takes none.
- Betting shop: in Britain, a bookmaker's high-street shop; here the off-course betting shop is a TAB outlet, and in NSW only TAB Limited provides off-course retail betting (Liquor & Gaming NSW, checked October 2026).
Bookmaker names are trade marks of their owners. B337 is not affiliated with them.
Where a bookmaker's licence shows
An online or phone bookmaker must be on ACMA's register of licensed providers to operate in Australia, and each row names the brand's licence holder and licensing authority. At the track, who licenses a bookmaker depends on the state: in NSW, the racing controlling bodies license the bookmakers who field at meetings. Offering online betting here without a state or territory licence is an offence under the Interactive Gambling Act, and ACMA warns that unlicensed operators may not pay out winnings. The guide to checking a bookmaker is licensed sets out the register check step by step, with the warning signs of an illegal site.
Risk: Betting involves risk. Every bookmaker price carries a margin in the bookmaker's favour, and there is no guarantee of profit. See responsible gambling for limits and support.