BetGalaxy Review

BetGalaxy Australia is one of a number of new players in the Australian betting market having only launched in early 2023. BetGalaxy is the trading name of Trading Pursuits Pty Ltd (registered in August 2022) and is a Victorian based bookmaker which is Australian owned and operated. The BetGalaxy bookmaker is a member of the Victorian Bookmakers' Association and like regular Victorian based bookmakers adheres to the Victorian Bookmakers' Association Responsible Gambling Code of Conduct. 

BetGalaxy claim an “out of this world” experience and invite you to “join us on our journey to the stars”. This atmospheric approach is so obvious when, wherever possible, as you will see in this review, the colourful visuals are of an outer space theme. 

The BetGalaxy website has a well-structured more-racing than sports focussed layout. The colour palate is on the darker side with blues and purples, which is a colour pair that should differentiate themselves and make that space (excuse the pun😊) their own. Both of the BetGalaxy Apps have been developed for mobile users and the both BetGalaxy Android and iOS Apps has been downloadable since January 2023, plus there have been updates during 2023.  

The BetGalaxy bookmaker has been a very difficult company to find information about. There is so little information on the BetGalaxy website or the BetGalaxy Apps. I had to peruse the 123 page BetGalaxy Terms and Conditions document to find anything useful on the company background.  

The BetGalaxy visuals are impressive but there are niggles that we will get to later. I could not find a BetGalaxy bookmaker telephone number, which may be good for their efficiency but it doesn´t sit well with me. 

Now let’s take a look at the BetGalaxy website homepage which uses a two vertical panels style. The homepage is extremely long and I will need to display it across three screenshots.  

Here is a view of the top part of the homepage: 

On the website, no matter where you place your mouse, the full page will scroll, unlike other betting sites which enable left ¼ panel or right ¾ panel scrolling.  

On the left ¼ panel of the home page is the navigation panel to all the various racing and sporting events plus Deposit Funds, Contact Us and My Account. The default for the toggle button towards the top middle is RACING (not SPORT). With this slider set to RACING, the ¾ panel will display the next 3 races of whatever runner type, a Feature race and 3 columns with a list of the next 7 Thoroughbred, next 7 Greyhound and next 7 Hardness races all with countdown times if less than an hour or the race start time if more than 60 minutes. You will need to scroll down (see next screenshot) to see these additional races. 

From now on I will refer to the left ¼ panel as the left panel and the right ¾ panel as the right panel. 

Finally, on further scrolling at the bottom of the homepage there are links to the Help & Support and the online documentation. 

The overall effect is a dark, focussed, easy to read website with references to outer space wherever appropriate. I think BetGalaxy have found a visual niche which they can continue to exploit into the future.  

If you are wondering about the Betslip, it appears by sliding in from the right side when you select a runner’s odds to place a bet.  

There is a banner across the top of the webpage with all the Up & Coming Thoroughbreds, Greyhounds and Harness racing with countdown timers which can be further refined to any 1,2 or all the runners and (domestic) AUS/NZ and/or International racing. This banner remains visible even if the SPORTS slider, rather than RACING is selected. 

Click on Thoroughbreds in the left panel and today´s races are presented in the right panel with the first 4 place numbers in each race (if the race has already finished) or the time the race starts. 

Click on the race and you will either see: 

• If finished - the runner names, the WIN, Place and Exotic dividends (on the right) 
   
  or 
   

• details on the up & coming race including a sliding button of Insights which is additional comments from the BetGalaxy team (lower right) 

Live chat is available by selecting “Contact Us” in the lower left Navigation Panel or clicking on the yellow box in the top right of the homepage (this usually shows Account Balance and Bonus Bets total available) and then selecting “Support”. A new window opens and allows you to send a message (BetGalaxy claim to usually respond in a few hours) plus if the BetGalaxy helpdesk is open there is the option for “Live Chat”.  

BetGalaxy promotions are available by selecting Promo from the lower section of the left panel. 

BetGalaxy contains many sports betting options, the Terms and Conditions document lists at least 29. Nevertheless, BetGalaxy cover racing options well with an intuitive website and as usual this BetGalaxy review will only focus on racing. 

As I said BetGalaxy do offer an extensive range of race options, but it could be improved if they offered some of the advanced features available from their competition. If, though, you are looking for a straightforward, not overly complex racing experience, then please keep reading.  

🐴Betting Markets - 7/10
BetGalaxy provide the commonly available WIN, Place & Exotics betting markets but if you are looking for any, of the many, niche options that are offered elsewhere including Favourite v Field, Odds v Evens, Head to Head, Jockey Challenge, as well as the Totes and Same Race Multis then I have not seen them, but before rejecting BetGalaxy as a bookmaker review the BetGalaxy Racing Markets section later in this review, which should provide more details.

💳Banking Options - 5/10

Deposits can only be made via VISA and Mastercard, Debit and Credit Card, however withdrawals can only be to a Bank Account. So one the one side it is all very clear and straightforward, but if you want a more extensive set of choices, this may be something of concern. 

📱Mobile Experience - 8/10
I feel there has been either more development or extensive testing with the Apps than the website. The niggles I will get to appear more with the website. Overall I liked the mobile experience, I was using Android, it has exactly the same look & feel as the website. With one click at the bottom of the App you can head straight to Racing (or Sports), then once in Racing you can further select Thoroughbreds and/or Greyhounds and/or Harness in Australia/New Zealand and/or International.    

💸​Withdraw Speed - 9/10
BetGalaxy offer Electronic Funds Transfer, which is fairly fast. EFTs can take between 1 and 3 days (depending on your bank). 

🧩Overall User Experience - 8/10
BetGalaxy provide great access via website and mobile devices for people on the move. Access to customer service could be improved, there is no telephone number, there is not a lot of information (unless you have time to read a 123-page Terms and Conditions document) and the Q&A has only 5 entries. One of the Q&A states an email address for general enquiries [email protected], which is interesting in that if you spotted at the bottom of the website homepage shown earlier there is a [email protected] email address for any enquiries.   

🔒Security - 10/10

BetGalaxy is fully licenced by Racing Victoria and strictly regulated by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC). You should feel that security is taken seriously. BetGalaxy are “fully committed to ensuring betting is a fun and entertaining experience. We take the protection of our customers very seriously and protect those with potential gambling problems”. 

BetGalaxy is a new bookmaker and comes to the table with website and Apps with a refreshing look & feel. In the times I have been reviewing, the BetGalaxy Odds on offer are comparable with the more established players, sometimes better. 

As of this review, the offerings are only WIN, Place and Exotics. So in the near future it will be interesting to see whether more markets open up. 

In terms of coverage of race meetings, I have seen most, if not all, of the thoroughbred, greyhound & harness races listed for Australia & New Zealand and as far as international race meetings, I have seen odds for races in USA, France, United Kingdom, South Africa and Ireland which is certainly less than other bookmakers.  

The BetGalaxy website is excellent for planning your racing schedule, from the homepage left panel you can select Thoroughbreds or (listed directly below) Greyhounds or (again directly below) Harness. If you Select Thoroughbred (the other 2 will show a similar setup) and as across the top row (assuming today is Monday) you can see and therefore navigate to races YESTERDAY, NEXT TO JUMP, TODAY, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY and FUTURES.  

Next To Jump will list row by row (with a countdown timer) the races that are next to start, whereas Today will display a table of all today´s races by racetrack and race number, each entry shows the winning number (international or first four for domestic) or it will display a countdown timer for a race still to start. Any race about to start within the next 5 mins is shaded in red (4m 7s) or in yellow (59m) for a race due to start within the hour, otherwise the time of the race start is displayed. 

1 dollar bet are accepted. 

Here are additional frustrating examples of the website: 

• if you navigate to Thoroughbreds you will see the usual table of races but just above the table you will see a navigation banner HOME > RACING. You can (FYI) successfully go HOME from this banner, and if you select TOMORROW the banner successfully changes to HOME > RACING > TOMORROW, the table shows all Tomorrow´s thoroughbred races, but then if you then pick a race, say the GRAFTON Race 4, the BANNER changes to HOME > RACING > THOROUGHBRED > GRAFTON R4 (all looks good), you can switch to other races at Grafton, but you cannot navigate back to TOMORROW´s races (and the associated table) in one click. This makes it really frustrated when planning tomorrow´s races of interest. 
• Once you´ve selected a race occurring TODAY, you cannot change the view to look at another race on another track, your only route is go back via THOROUGHBRED. Whereas with the App and any race TODAY there is a down arrow next to the racetrack name to allow you to switch to another race track. 

The BetGalaxy iOS and BetGalaxy Android Apps (see above) have a consistent look & feel with the website.

There space constraints of an App compared to a webpage/website are well known, for example there is no left ¼ panel with the Apps, but the basic information is available with straightforward intuitive navigation. 

To navigate to Racing instead of a Racing-Sports Slider on the homepage, in the BetGalaxy Apps there are 5 buttons at the bottom for Home – Racing – Betslip – Sports – Profile. Obviously select Racing. 

The one thing that makes sense with the BetGalaxy App is knowing when something is or is not selected. At the top of the Racing panel, for example, there are 3 icons for Thoroughbred, Greyhound and Harness and 2 icons for Aus/NZ or International Markets. On the website you simply tick what you want to select but on the Apps it is different. An icon with a yellow surround means selected and an icon with a grey surround means not-selected. So in the lower example above I am only interested in International Thoroughbred racing (that are Next To Jump). 

Another trick is that for any race, there is the ability to sort a runner by increasing or decreasing WIN or PLACE odds. If selected a down or up arrow is displayed next to WIN or PLACE. But, it is also possible to sort the RUNNER number by decreasing or increasing number and then the down or up arrow moves to RUNNERS. The 3rd screenshow at the top of this section has runners sorted by runner number. 

(However at times on the website (and not the App, again another example of developments improvements in the Apps), I got the system into a mess where I could never get the Runners to sort by increasing numerical order (The heaviest weight should be listed first) and without doing anything the order of the list of runners would just change randomly, it was not into an increasing or decreasing, Win or Place odds order, it was very strange. I repeated this exercise many times on different races. I had to leave the race, select another race and then return to the same race, to fix the problem.)  

Everything described for the BetGalaxy website is visible in the BetGalaxy Apps, with a few clicks a bet can easily be placed. 

At time of writing, here is information extracted from the two different iOS and Android App platforms who tend not to show the exact same information: 

• There have been over 1K downloads from the Google Play Store, with a rating of 4.4 from 17 reviews. BetGalaxy want you to join them “on our journey to the stars”. 
• There have been 11 releases of the BetGalaxy App in the Apple App store with a rating of 4.1 from 97 reviews. The first release 8.0 was in January 2023, the latest 1.71 in September 2023. “Your trusted choice for out-of-this-world betting”. 

BetGalaxy provides a number of features that enable a great experience. Here are some examples: 

24/7 Customer Service 

There are 2 options to make contact for support, send a message and if during normal service hours (not published) there is the ability to interact in real-time with customer support. 24/7 is oversimplifying the situation, but yes you can ask a question/make contact 24 hours a day, but the response may be a little slow depending on when you use the facility. 

Extensive Use Of Colour and Insight 

The dark blues and purple tones give a sense of focus to a screen and with backgrounds of stars match the outer speace vibe of BetGalaxy.  

For almost every race BetGalaxy will highlight in yellow some of the following: 

• BEST RATED runner in the race 
• LAST START WINNER 
• STRONG FINISHER – finishes strongly in the home straight 
• ROUGHIE – has won at long odds before 
• TRACK SPECIALIST – has won more at this track than any other (x times) 
• DYNAMIC DUO – “Horse name” and “Jockey name” have a strike rate of xx% 
• CONSISTENT PERFORMER – 6 Top 3 finishes from 7 starts 

This is information you could research but it saves a few seconds, or more, if BetGalaxy have already done the work for you. 

Sometimes the following symbols appear next to runners, which I have to guess, as I could not find any explanation, mean the betting is hotting up and really hotting up for that specific runner and their odds are dropping.  

The BetGalaxy website and Apps are missing some of the features of the more established players including black books, form guides, speed maps and any form of commentary on the runners. 

At present other than the above yellow-coded indicators, BetGalaxy also do not offer any sort of tips, but if this is something you are interested in then please take a look at  Free horse racing tips. 

I have only ever seen BetGalaxy offer the WIN, PLACE or the Exotics range of markets, which if these are all you want then BetGalaxy will work as a bookmaker for you.  

However, in the Terms and Conditions document there is a section under Other Racing Products which states that BetGalaxy operates: 

• Best Tote – the best of the 3 Australian TAB Win Tote Prices  
• Racing Derivatives, including, Head to Head, Favourite Out, Favourite v Field, Inside v Outside, Half v Half and Odds v Evens 
• Top Fluctuation – Best price declared by the Official On-Course Bookmaker 
• Best of The Best – the best of either the Best of 3 Australian TAB prices or the Official On-course Top Fluctuation.  
• Fixed Odds – Fixed Win and Place odds at time of placement 
• Starting Price – SP is the official bookmakers price 

In Australia, there are stringent regulations governing online bookies regarding advertising bonus bets and other incentives. Because of this, BetGalaxy cannot advertise any sign-up bonus bets to punters who do not already have an account. 

Once you have registered, make sure in your BetGalaxy Account overview you have the “Yes, I would like to receive promotional offers” boxes ticked for Email and/or SMS. 

I found at least 8 references to Bonus Bets in the BetGalaxy Terms and Conditions document. 

To learn more about BetGalaxy promotions and offers, visit their website: http://www.BetGalaxy.com.au or to sign up for a BetGalaxy account: https://BetGalaxy.com.au/signup 

If you want to know more about Promotions and Bonus Bets it is also worth reviewing our Horse Racing Promotions and Bonuses section which goes into more detail. 

To sign up at BetGalaxy, simply select the SIGN UP icon from the BetGalaxy website or BetGalaxy App or go straight to here:

 Enter your personal details including: 

• Title (select from the options) 
• First Name 
• Middle Name  (optional) 
• Last Name 
• Mobile Number 
• Residential Address 
• Date of birth  
• email address  

Agree to “receive promotional material via email phone and other means” (which is strange as you can change later to email or SMS or both, so I have no idea with “other means” what BetGalaxy intend). 

You will also need undertake Identification and Verification, to comply with the Australian Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. You must provide a minimum proof of your full name, date of birth and residential address within seventy-two (72) hours of opening an account.  

BetGalaxy will provide your Personal Information to their choice of a third-party credit-based entity, for the purposes of independent Identification and Verification services, known as “Third Party IDV”.   To be successful, you may have to use one or several forms of government issued IDs such as Driver’s License, Australian passport, Medicare card, etc. Once your account is verified, you will be able to withdraw money won and make deposits into your account. 

If Third Party IDV is unable to be completed for some reason, then BetGalaxy have a process to manually undertake the verification.  

BetGalaxy Deposit – there is a straightforward, no surprise single panel to make a deposit 

BetGalaxy Withdrawal – likewise there is a single panel to complete to make a withdrawal 

BetGalaxy banking is fairly simply to use, firstly once registered you can deposit funds by MasterCard or VISA, credit or debit card. The minimum deposit is 10 dollars. 

You can make a withdrawal by adding (and saving) your bank details. BetGalaxy withdrawals should take between 1 and 3 days. In the small print you may just be able to see that only turned over funds can be withdrawn. 

BetGalaxy customer service is provided, in 2 forms, you can leave a message and BetGalaxy claim to respond within a few hours or if you are attempting to make contact with BetGalaxy Customer Service in normal service hours you can open a conversation window.  

There are 2 documents that can be reviewed online: 

• The 7 page BetGalaxy Responsible Gambling Policy 
• The 123 page BetGalaxy Terms & Conditions & Rules of Betting 

Neither document contains a datestamp, so it could be difficult to know if either document gets updated in the future. Both documents are a nightmare to search while viewing online, but if you download these pdf files then later searches are far easier to undertake. 

There is also a Privacy Policy webpage (which does have a datestamp at the end), which contains a lot of valid information but there is a really confusing section on the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) of the European Union, I have no idea why anything regarding the EU is present as currently BetGalaxy is only available for Australian residents.