The chatter of mates in the change room and the smell of Deep Heat. In different grounds across Victoria, thousands of players gear up for their weekend football game.

Overseas, people can place bets on these games. Not on the A-League, or the AFL, but on semi-pro and amateur games.

Victoria has a deep footballing scene. Running ten tiers deep with over 200 senior men's teams and 150 senior women's teams, in a connected pyramid ranging from the National Premier Leagues to the State Leagues.

It's in these leagues that overseas gambling websites are offering odds. Sometimes on games with teams as low as the sixth tier.

Odds for Dockerty Cup games involving lower-tier teams shown on paripesa.ng and betandyou.com Photo credit: Zechariah George

Most of the people involved have no idea. Joel Baburajan is a football fan and watches games from the English Premier League to local games.

"It's definitely a surprise to me," he said, "because initially I thought it was more for the bigger leagues and not really on a more local level."

Joel Baburajan is a huge football fan. Photo Credit: Zechariah George

With these markets, sports integrity risks arise because these players are often not full-time.

"The more I thought about it, it does raise a bigger integrity risk compared to the bigger leagues," Joel said.

In recent years, high-profile fixing cases involving A-League Men's players at Western United and Macarthur FC have emerged. Lower in the footballing pyramid, players at former Victorian Premier League team Southern Stars were found guilty of spot fixing a minimum of four games in 2013 for an international betting syndicate.

Sports integrity consultant Dr Catherine Ordway says it's concerning that bets are available on these matches.

"People, of course, at the lower levels and community sport and so on, aren't thinking about this for a minute, and don't have any access to support, and they quite often don't have any education about why they might be used and manipulated in this way."
Dr Ordway

Gambling has become a contested issue in Australia. A 2025 survey by The Australia Institute revealed that three in four Australians support a total ban on gambling ads phased in over three years.

This year, the Australian Federal Government responded to the 2023 Peta Murphy gambling inquiry, announcing partial bans on gambling advertising. This included bans on gambling ads in sporting venues and on the radio during school pickup and drop-off times.

However, the Federal Government came under fire for their response, with ACT Independent Senator David Pocock calling it "cowardly" and "deeply disrespectful" in a statement.

On the government's response, Dr Ordway said, "I do feel that the Australian government needs to go much further, in terms of protecting the Australian public from the harms of gambling."

Sport and Recreation Victoria is working to reduce sports gambling harm in the community, and one way they are doing this is through community education.

Tahlia Kibby, a Senior Project Officer at Sport and Recreation Victoria, said, "We work with our state sporting organisations in the integrity space, including to educate them on the harms of gambling."

"Specific to gambling," Ms Kibby said, "our education and awareness piece is centred around our Victorian Integrity in Sport Action Plan."

The Victorian Integrity in Sport Action Plan is a state government framework aimed at educating sporting organisations on how to identify and address integrity issues.

However, as these websites running odds for lower-level games are overseas, regulation is a challenge.

"You can't just watch the money trails the way that we can in Australia"
Dr Ordway

On these overseas websites, "they often use cryptocurrencies and other mechanisms that are designed to hide who the punters are and, in fact, where the money is going," Dr Ordway said.

Under the Interactive Gambling Act, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has blocked over 1,500 online betting sites since 2019. Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Government has announced it will boost enforcement against illegal offshore gambling providers.

For fans like Joel, the issue is clear. "We risk really falling into a hole with this, where you don't know if a team's throwing because they have bets on."

Meanwhile, players will lace their boots and put on their shin pads for the weekend's game, unaware that a market somewhere will already have odds running.

If this story has raised concerns about gambling, contact the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au