Love to bet in Australia? Starts Prickly Pear? (7)
I believe the answer is:
opuntia
'prickly pear?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'love to bet in australia? starts' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'to bet' becomes 'punt' (punting is a kind of betting).
'starts' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letters of 'in australia' is 'ia'.
'o'+'punt'+'ia'='OPUNTIA'
(Other definitions for opuntia that I've seen before include "Eg, prickly pear" , "Genus of cacti" , "Prickly-pear" , "Cactus of the prickly pear genus" , "spiny plant" .)