The term SP Sportsbook stands for Starting Price Sportsbook, which generally refers to receiving bets with fixed odds or starting price.
This type of gambling was legal in Australia only for licensed bookmakers working the course meaning at the race track. In the 30s with the radio and the telephone at full blast, you could listen to the races without going to the track. Many people liked to bet on horse racing, but they often couldn’t go to the track to place bets.
The Melbourne Cup was well known to Australian bettors and everyone wanted to place a small bet.
This being the case, it was very difficult for most people to bet if they couldn’t get to the track.
The illegal SP bookie could be anyone. It could be a small one-person timer operator who accepts minimum bets from one or two friends, including neighbors, family, co-workers, etc.
Brokers, as they were known, who roamed the neighborhood collecting bets from customers at their own homes, at the local hotel, on the back streets, etc. Cockies short for cockatoos that would be placed on high-point positions and other display advantages to warn bookies and bookies of approaching legal authorities.
Then there was the large-scale phone-based SP betting ring that involved people answering phones around the clock and taking thousands of bets worth thousands and thousands of dollars in just one day.
Of course, this was all illegal, but the authorities were slow to realize the magnitude of the money generated by this activity in the racing industry. In fact, the police often turned a blind eye to this as it seemed harmless and was in fact the SP bookie providing a service to the public.
Eventually, the government finally caught on and realized that something lucrative was going on in this part of the racing industry. They also realized that it did not generate any tax and therefore a Royal Commission was launched in 1959.
In 1961, due to the Royal Commission, an Off Course Totalizing Agency Board was introduced.
This now resulted in some of the money being wagered on race bets being returned to the racing industry. Gamblers could now place bets without fear of the law.
As time went by, TAB agencies appeared everywhere, hotels, clubs, shopping malls, etc.
The racetrack bookmaker still had shortcomings. In Australia, legalized bookmakers were not allowed to operate off-course shops similar to other countries in the world. So most bookies were only allowed to take bets from people at the track until the 1990s.
The death of the SP Bookmaker and the last nail in his coffin is near.
Corporate bookmakers were then able to offer another alternative to the bettor thanks to the new legislation. The Northern Territory Government could now issue Licenses offering telephone and online betting to bookmakers. Online bookmakers are now legal and customers in Australia and abroad can place bets on all Australian racing and sporting events by almost any means.
With all this new legislation and control by the Australian governments, the SP bookmaker slowly died out. they are gone
To place a bet now you can use your mobile phone to call your local legal bookmaker at the track or at their office, have a credit account with them if you wish. You can place a bet over the internet with one of the many online bookmakers, go to the local pub and use the TAB, place a bet using your TV remote while watching the race or even do something different, go to the racetrack and place a bet with an ongoing bookmaker.
Who will be next to die, not the current bookie, I hope.