Single, formerly a writer for The Canberra Times, had lost his job in a wave of redundancies at the newspaper,[2] and Hamilton had become disillusioned working in political campaigning for NGOs following a short stint at Hill FM as a newsreader.

[2][6] The pair, who attended Charles Sturt University together,[2] teamed up with Grove, an entrepreneur and executive producer of the ABC satirical news show The Roast, to create the site.

[9] The popularity and consequential virality of its posts is described by the pair as being a result of their ability to scan through the news and put their spin on the topics of the moment, with Single suggesting that the site seeks to "make the line between what's real and what's not even blurrier".

[15] In January 2017, the site teamed up with Sydney brewery Yulli's Brews to launch a branded line of beer, Betoota Bitter, to be made available at a number of pubs throughout Australia.

[18][19] In March 2023, streaming service Paramount+ announced that it would air The Betoota Advocate Presents, a satirical comedy documentary series that investigates modern Australian controversies, which premiered on 14 June 2023.

[26] In October 2015, former Wallabies captain John Eales criticised The Betoota Advocate for an article attributing to him a quote that referred to Australian-born fans of the All Blacks as being "worse than ISIS".

[27][28] In February 2017, Queensland MP Leanne Donaldson said that the site had "missed the mark" by making light of Bundaberg's problems with alcohol fuelled violence after it published an article suggesting that the town would be building a giant statue of a black eye.