An aggressive ad spend of $41 million has paid off for Sportsbet with the online gambling site topping the list for brand awareness in the highly competitive category.

According to a UBS study of a 1000 Aussie punters, the blokey Sportsbet site had an 85 per cent brand recognition among those surveyed and 26 per cent of respondents said they’d used the site.

Sportsbet has run an aggressive branding strategy of late with spots in outdoor, radio and TV. Its approach is typically blokey and satirical and occassionally controversial. Its creative is done by independent agency BMF.

Twelve months ago it used greyhounds to spoof the launch of the film Fifty Shades of Grey and was subsequently investigated by the Advertising Standards Bureau for allegedly promoting bestiality.

There was a tie for second in the UBS study, with Tabcorp and Ladbrokes both receiving 68 per cent brand recognition. Centrebet and Unibet both had scores in the low 50s, while Betfair, Tatts Group and Luxbet all had brand awareness in the high 40s. The least recognised sites were Betstar and Bookmaker – who both scored scores in the low 20s.

All the major players have spent hard to secure their slice of the lucrative online gambling market with all the players regularly trying to one-up their competitors with new tech initiatives and the promise of better odds. However, the next holy grail may well be live sports action. Some 57 per cent of people surveyed for the UBS study saying they’d more likely place a bet with a bookie who brought them live broadcasts of sports events.