Sportsbet has increased its marketing spend by millions of dollars in an advertising blitz ahead of an expected crackdown by the Australian government.

The business spent an extra $19m on marketing in the first half of 2023 compared with the same period the year before, the financial results of Sportsbet’s Dublin-based parent company Flutter show.

Flutter said the “additional marketing spend of £10m” was necessary “to defend our leadership position” in Australia.

The Australian market is fiercely competitive with a number of new entrants. The industry’s annual turnover is worth around $50bn.

But the chief advocate of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Tim Costello, said Sportsbet was spending big on ads while it could to generate profits before the expected ban on ads.

Costello, who lobbied the prime minster, Anthony Albanese, and opposition leader, Peter Dutton, to take action earlier this week, repeated his claim that ads were creating a new generation of punters.

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“[Sportsbet] are being utterly irresponsible and that rise alone should destroy their social license to operate,” Costello said.

“This proves a levy on Sportsbet is appropriate and why are we allowing our kids to be targeted by a foreign, Dublin-based company.”

Sportsbet said its marketing spend was “seasonal and dependent on a range of activities”. “This supports racing and sporting industries,” a spokesperson said.

This rise in marketing spending comes as the gambling industry lobbies ministers to water down a parliamentary inquiry’s recommendation for ads to be banned.

In June, the parliamentary inquiry called for a total ad ban to combat the manipulation of an “impressionable and vulnerable audience”. It called for a phased approach to the ban, starting with eradicating online inducements.

At the time, Sportsbet’s chief executive, Barni Evans, criticised the recommendations as disproportionate. He instead called for more measures to improve consumer protections.

“We believe an approach that significantly reduces the number of ads rather than complete bans would respond to community concerns, while still supporting sport and media,” Evans said in a statement when the report was released.

The industry’s lobbying group, Responsible Wagering Australia, described the ban as a step too far. Its chief executive, Kai Cantwell, said “blanket bans – even in a phased rollout – are shortsighted, ineffective and are not the answer”.

Sportsbet’s big increase in marketing costs was partly to blame for a 27% loss of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. Changes to point-of-consumption taxes issued by states also cost the business £33m (A$64m).

But Flutter went on to report that the sports betting market was expected to keep growing in Australia and attributed Sportsbet’s “particularly strong” growth to the development of its “same-game multi” product.

“Sportsbet has a strong heritage in leveraging its scale and superior product expertise to win in the market,” the financial results said.

“This continued in [the first half of 2023] with expansion of our same game multi tracker product to the NRL and further evolution of social betting product, Bet With Mates, by adding player statistics and chat functionality.

“Sportsbet’s significant scale advantage and superior product provides us with confidence around the future trajectory of our Australian business as it navigates this period of change.”