Shy,

Of course they could offer a similar service (although the online gambling legislation could pose a few problems to true Australian companies - but TABs could get that modified easily!). The problem is that would require them to be forward thinking instead of desperatly trying to protect their large margins so it probably won't happen.

To me the logical solution would be for the three major TABs to join forces to create a single exchange which they could then "sell" under their own brands - so you would access it from the individual TAB websites (and possibly branches) but it would be a single exchange behind the scenes. This would give them the advantage of keeping costs down (by sharing them) and the punters the advantage of bigger pools. The 5% commission could then be directed to the appropriate TAB depending on where the bet was sourced from and then split with the government & racing industry.

The benefits to the racing industry could potentially be enormous with the extra turnover from overseas customers.

Of course what will probably happen is they will try to fight the exchanges instead and by the time they realise it is an inevitable evolution it will be too late and they will have missed the boat.

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"Computers can do that????" - Homer Simpson