Online betting in New Zealand: the lawful choices and what else is out there

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

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18+ Only

Current as of 30 October 2026 · checked against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (as amended 2025) and the Department of Internal Affairs public register.

The Racing Industry Act 2020 was amended in 2025 to name TAB NZ — and only TAB NZ — as the lawful provider of online sports and racing betting to people in New Zealand. That change took effect on 28 June 2025 and replaced a market that, in regulatory terms at least, no longer exists. From that date forward, every brand a New Zealand punter meets sits on one of two sides of that line: TAB NZ and its second brand Betcha, both lawful; every other online sportsbook the country has heard of, unlawful for the operator to serve this country, with whatever consumer safeguards an offshore licence does or does not bring.

The page that follows covers what that means for the punter. It explains the monopoly, names the two brands that carry it, walks through the bet types and the markets they offer, and looks at what offshore sites still appear on New Zealand screens — and why the choice between them is not a like-for-like one.

The 10 brands New Zealand punters meet, ranked by what they actually deliver

Ten brands a New Zealand punter encounters: two lawful, eight not. The ranking here runs on what each brand delivers in practice, and that ordering turns out to put the two TAB NZ brands at the top by default — not because they have richer features than the offshore majors, but because every other entry on the list is unlawful here for the operator to take a bet. That inversion is the one the table below makes visible.

Reading the table sideways makes the asymmetry plain: the top two rows describe a licensed monopoly, with regulator oversight and a complaints path; the next eight describe offshore brands, some long-established and well-funded, none of them lawful here. New Zealand customers do meet those eight brands, and the choice between the two groups is not so much a question of quality as one of legal standing.

The two TAB NZ brands are one operator, not two rivals

TAB and Betcha are the two online faces of TAB NZ, not two competing bookmakers. They run off the same platform, share the same TAB NZ licence, and serve the same markets under the same terms. The choice between them is one of interface and product mix, not one of licence, ownership, or harm-minimisation framework — the choice that matters, and the only one New Zealand law actually decides, is already made.

TAB NZ has run a racing and sports betting app under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board since 8 September 2014. The app carries horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league, and other sports, both pre-match and live, and shows a 17+ App Store age rating while the betting terms require customers to be 18 or over. Betcha launched on the New Zealand App Store on 6 August 2024, published by Entain New Zealand Limited — the local arm of the partner that runs TAB’s technology stack under the long-term deal covered in the next section.

The Entain partnership and where the gross profit goes

TAB NZ does not run its own technology. Under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023, Entain runs the TAB business in New Zealand and takes a 50/50 share of gross profits. TAB NZ receives at least NZ$150 million a year for the first five years of the deal, and Entain pledged a one-off NZ$100 million payment to the racing sector on signing. The partnership sits behind both TAB and Betcha — a punter placing a bet on either brand is betting with TAB NZ, and the technology, the trading, and the back office sit with Entain.

The deal is the reason a New Zealand punter meets two app brands rather than one. Each offers a slightly different product mix and a different skin on the same trading engine, which is why the comparison above gives them their own rows rather than treating them as identical.

What the law actually changed on 28 June 2025

The change is one section of one statute. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, inserted by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, came into force on 28 June 2025. It says that no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or incorporated. The Department of Internal Affairs told unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect.

The law does not block offshore websites. It puts liability on the offshore operator: the section is the prohibition, and the prohibition runs against the brand taking the bet, not the punter placing it. New Zealand does not maintain a register of bookmakers because there is only one lawful bookmaker to register. There is no application route for a second licence.

The same statute and its regulator carry other rules a punter must know. Section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020 makes it an offence to bet under 18. The age for TAB NZ betting is 18, against20 at land-based casinos — never merge the two. TAB NZ accounts need a verified New Zealand address and ID; opening an account from outside New Zealand is not how the brand is built.

What may be bet on, and what stays out

Racing and sports from TAB NZ only. The published betting rules cover Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, with Multis and Same Game Multis available through the app. No statutory restriction on in-play markets has been published, and the TAB NZ apps list live betting. There is no lawful New Zealand betting exchange and spread betting is outside TAB NZ’s sports-betting definition.

What the law does not cover tells its own story. No statutory per-bet cap is in force — limits are TAB NZ’s own terms. Bets on politics and novelty markets are not established. Virtual sports are treated by the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 as casino gambling, and whether esports betting counts as sports betting under the Racing Industry Act is not established either. The ban covers events held inside and outside New Zealand alike; geography of the event is not a carve-out.

Greyhound racing closes from 1 August 2026

Greyhound racing is shutting down in stages from 1 August 2026. From that date, offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races in New Zealand either — the racing code leaves the betting programme along with the tracks. Thoroughbred and harness racing continue. The change is a small one numerically but a clean test of how the statute reaches both the racing code and the operators that quote it.

Tax: what the punter pays and what the operator pays

For the punter, Inland Revenue’s general position is that recreational gambling winnings are not taxable and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business is a separate case, and the language Inland Revenue uses for that is “consult Inland Revenue or an accountant” — general information, not tax advice. The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026, but that charge’s cessation is not a green light: an operator paying no tax here is a different thing from an operator being lawful here.

Operators pay two layers. TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74%, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. Offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty at 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, stepping to 16% from 1 January 2027. The duty is not the same as a licence: a duty being payable does not make an offer lawful, and a writer who suggests otherwise has read the wrong column.

Safer gambling in New Zealand: what exists, what doesn’t

Safer gambling tools sit at TAB NZ’s app and across the TAB and Betcha accounts. The app lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion, and a self-exclusion applies across both brands at once — opting out of TAB opts out of Betcha with the same exclusion. The age gate is 18 for betting and 20 for land-based casinos; never merge them.

What does not yet exist is a single national online-betting exclusion register. The Gambling Commission’s register under the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 covers online casinos only; it does not cover sports or racing. A punter who wants to step away from TAB NZ has the brand’s own exclusion tool, not a registry that walks them out of every bookmaker in the country.

Help is free and not bound to TAB NZ. The free Gambling Helpline is 0800 654 655, with a text line on 8006, and Safer Gambling Aotearoa runs alongside it. The gambling-harm vocabulary the country uses is “harm minimisation” and “gambling harm”, not the more clinical “responsible gambling” the offshore sites prefer — both phrases describe the same idea, but a New Zealand local offers it under the local name.

What DIA says about betting with unlicensed operators

The Department of Internal Affairs is the gambling regulator under the Gambling Act 2003 and monitors compliance with the betting prohibition under section 92A of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Its public warnings on offshore operators are short and specific: an overseas operator may sit in a jurisdiction with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins. The warning is a regulator’s, not a salesman’s, and it is the one the offshore sites do not quote.

No prosecution of an offshore bookmaker was found in the public record. The penalty for breaching section 74AAA is not stated in the section, so the law’s bite is its existence and the regulator’s stated position rather than a published tariff.

Where the player stands

Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore betting operator in breach of section 74AAA. No source states a penalty for a player. New Zealand law targets the operator; DIA warns players of the risks; no published penalty for a player was found. Honest framing: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework. Offshore is unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, with no New Zealand complaints route and DIA’s stated risks.

Crypto and anonymity: what the New Zealand rule allows

TAB NZ does not publish rules on crypto deposits in its terms; its deposit methods are operator-level, not statute-level. The law is silent on crypto and on VPN use at the betting-account level. The DIA’s stated position is on the operator, not on the wallet.

What sits behind that silence is worth a paragraph. Anjouan and Tobique licences, Curaçao licences, and Costa Rica companies recur in the offshore operator set, and offshore sites marketing “crypto sportsbook” or “Bitcoin betting” usually carry those licences. None of them gives a right to take bets from people in New Zealand. None of them puts the punter under the New Zealand Gambling Commission’s complaints framework. None of them obliges the operator to honour a TAB NZ-style self-exclusion. The crypto angle changes the payment rail and the speed of withdrawal; it does not change the legal status of the bet.

Telbet describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook; Thunderpick sits under a Curaçao licence with crypto esports betting alongside its casino; Roobet is a brand name of Raw Entertainment B.V. and licensed by the Curaçao Gaming Authority. None of these is lawful in New Zealand. None of them is unsafe by definition; none of them is safe by the New Zealand standard.

Bonuses and free bets: what they cost the punter who clears them

Bonus language is the marketing layer that takes the most arithmetic to read honestly. “Free bet” usually means a stake that is not paid back on a win. “Risk-free” usually means a free-bet refund rather than money. “100% bonus” usually means a bonus whose value clears only after a stated turnover at a stated minimum price. The marketing word is the brand’s; the cost is the punter’s.

TAB NZ runs Bonus Cash promotions, with new-customer Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets. The app also lists a Mega Multi bonus of up to NZ$50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs, with terms and conditions applying. The terms are TAB NZ’s own, and the only rule that binds them is the brand’s own terms page.

Offshore, the picture widens and the variation widens with it. Telbet’s welcome offer is described as 200 percent up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins, with a 5 USDT free bet on the Russian-language site. The phrase “up to” is the operator’s; the rollover that turns the bonus into withdrawable cash is the punter’s. Bonus terms on one of the brands above last updated in late August 2026 state that bonus funds cannot be used while the player has open casino or sports bets — a clause that turns a “100%” headline into a different read.

What a “free bet” actually paysA free bet whose stake is not paid back returns, on a win at decimal odds, the winnings only. If a NZ$10 free bet wins at odds of 3.00, the return is NZ$20 — the NZ$10 stake is gone. The marketing word is “free”; the value is the winnings, not the return. A punter who reads “free NZ$10” and mentally counts NZ$30 at 3.00 has counted the stake the offer never pays.

A “risk-free” bet refunded as a free bet is a free bet by another route. The first bet loses; the brand refunds the stake as a free bet; the free bet’s value carries the same stake-not-paid-back rule. The first stake is back as a credit, not as cash. The marketing word is “risk-free”; the punter’s exposure shifts from the first bet to the second.

Why turnover is the figure to read first

A bonus headline of “100% up to NZ$100” means the punter must wager the bonus — sometimes the bonus plus the deposit — a stated number of times at a stated minimum price before the bonus becomes withdrawable. A5x wagering factor on a NZ$100 bonus is NZ$500 of qualifying bets. A 10x factor on the same bonus is NZ$1,000. Bets below the minimum price usually do not count. The marketing word is the percentage; the cost is the turnover and the time it takes to clear it.

The arithmetic is mechanical and is the same on every bookmaker. Read the wagering factor, the base (bonus, or bonus plus deposit), the minimum price, and the deadline. Any one of them is the reason a “100% bonus” is a small offer or a heavy one. None of them is in the headline.

Mobile and apps: what runs on the phone

TAB NZ has run an app on the New Zealand App Store since 2014, with horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league, and other sports, pre-match and live, and in-app features that have grown with the Entain partnership. Trackside live race streaming is in the app, with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals.

Betcha launched on 6 August 2024 as the second TAB NZ online brand, published by Entain New Zealand Limited, with a sports-and-racing product mix designed to sit beside TAB rather than above it. The two apps share features and a wallet in the sense that exclusions and harm-minimisation tools run across both; the product surfaces differ.

The wider offshore set offers apps under their own licences, each with its own availability. BillyBets’ cashier page offers New Zealand in its country selector but shows only Euro as a currency filter, which is the kind of detail a punter meets on the deposit screen rather than the marketing page. None of these apps is lawful in New Zealand. The phone is the same; the legal status of the bet placed on it is not.

Live betting and cash out on TAB NZ

TAB NZ apps list live betting on the racing and sports menu, with in-play markets and a same-game multi product that lets a punter build several legs from the same event. Cash out, where it sits, runs against the brand’s own terms and is not separately licensed.

Offshore, in-play markets are where the major operators differentiate most. The racing codes differ — horse racing in-running is one thing, basketball in-running another — and the menu’s depth is the brand’s own call. The stat the punter reads on these menus is the margin, which sits in the price and which the next section walks through.

Bet types, odds, and the margin that sits inside them

TAB NZ offers fixed-odds and tote (pool) bets. Fixed odds are the price-on-the-board numbers — decimal in New Zealand, $2.10 meaning a NZ$10 stake returns NZ$21 on a win. Tote bets are pool bets: the punter’s stake joins a pool, the takeout is removed, and the remaining dividend is paid out proportionally to winning tickets, with no fixed price printed in advance. The difference is one of pricing: a fixed-odds bookmaker carries the risk of the price; a tote carries the risk of the pool’s size.

The bet types TAB NZ publishes include Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie, Big6, and Multis including Same Game Multis — a multi whose legs come from the same event. Same Race Multis and one-tap Popular Multis run through the app. Place Extra backs runners to finish up to tenth in selected races. The list is the brand’s own; a punter reading it has read a betting menu, not a marketing page.

The same bet type lives on the offshore sites with their own menus and their own names. A Same Game Multi on TAB NZ is a Same Game Parlay on a US-facing bookmaker. The mechanism — several legs from one event — is the same; the brand’s vocabulary around it is not.

How the bookmaker’s margin sits in the odds

The bookmaker’s margin is the share of every NZ$1 bet on a market that the bookmaker keeps on average. It is built into the odds: it is the difference between the prices a “fair” market offers and the prices the bookmaker prints. A market with a 5% margin returns, on average, 95 cents per NZ$1 bet across all outcomes. The same number is a payout share of 95%; margin and payout share are the same market seen from two sides.

For a three-outcome market, the payout share is the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the odds. Take odds of 3.10, 3.40 and 2.30 on a rugby match’s home win, draw and away win: the reciprocals are 0.323, 0.294 and 0.435, summing to 1.052. The reciprocal of 1.052 is 0.951 — a payout share of 95.1%. The margin is 4.9%. The bookmaker keeps about 4.9 cents per NZ$1 bet on this market, on average. The number is small; it is the only number that says what the bookmaker makes on the bet.

The marketing word around margin is “best odds” or “competitive prices”. The arithmetic around it is the payout share above. A punter who reads the marketing word and never reads the payout share is reading the wrong column.

Decimal odds are the New Zealand convention

New Zealand publishes decimal odds — $2.10, $4.50 — the price that multiplies the stake to give the return on a win. Fractional odds (5/2, 9/1) appear in the UK and are a different convention for the same number: 5/2 is the same price as 3.50 in decimals. A punter reading $2.10 reads the price the brand has published; a punter reading11/10 reads the same price written in a different style. Both forms describe one decimal return.

Sports and tournaments: what TAB NZ runs

TAB NZ covers the racing codes that the country runs and the sports that the country watches. Thoroughbred and harness racing carry the betting programme through the year; greyhound racing runs through to its staged closure from 1 August 2026. Rugby union and rugby league are the headline football codes — All Blacks test matches, Super Rugby Pacific, NRL — with the Black Caps covering cricket, the Warriors the NRL side, and the domestic football codes alongside.

Internationally, the Melbourne Cup sits on the TAB NZ programme every spring, and Cup Day is one of the brand’s peak betting days of the year. The majors of international sport — the football codes of Europe and South America, the basketball leagues of North America, the tennis majors, the golf majors — sit on the menu through the year. The punter who bets on TAB NZ bets on the same sports an offshore site covers; the menu’s surface is the racing and sporting calendar, not a brand-specific one.

Offshore, the menus are wider. Basketball and American football appear with more depth on some offshore books than on TAB NZ. Rugby’s depth varies. The menu’s wider read on offshore is not a free pass; it is a wider catalogue on a site that is not lawful here.

New bookmakers: who is actually new

Newness in New Zealand is a thin category. The lawful set has two brands and they are both TAB NZ brands; the offshore set is a list of operators that have been live for years. 22Bet shows a copyright line for 2017 to 2026; Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group; SpinBetter sits under a Costa Rica registration with an Anjouan licence number. None of these is new in the sense of having launched this year; what changed in 2025 was the statute, not the offshore market’s launch dates.

The punter reading a “new betting sites” headline in New Zealand is reading a list of offshore brands, most of them several years old, all of them unlawful here since 28 June 2025. The “new” in the headline is the writer’s, not the statute’s, and the writer has not named the regulator whose permission makes a new site lawful in New Zealand. There is no such permission, and there is no such regulator.

How TAB NZ actually works, step by step

Account opening. A TAB NZ account needs a verified New Zealand address and ID. The address verification is the regulator’s, not the brand’s; the Racing Industry Act 2020 places the duty on TAB NZ, and TAB NZ passes it to the punter through the sign-up flow.

Deposit. Deposit methods are TAB NZ’s own terms; no statute sets them. The simplified wallet in the app lists the methods the brand accepts, with limits the brand sets.

Betting. The bet types and the markets are the published betting rules. Fixed-odds or tote, single or multi, pre-match or live. The bet slip holds the selection; the wallet holds the stake.

Settlement. Win or lose, the bet settles against the brand’s rules. A tote dividend pays proportionally from the pool after the takeout. A fixed-odds bet pays the decimal price printed at stake time. The return lands back in the wallet.

Withdrawal. Withdrawal methods are TAB NZ’s own terms. The wallet is the same wallet that took the deposit; the path back is the brand’s own.

Harm minimisation. Deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion sit in the app. The exclusion covers TAB and Betcha with the same setting. The free Gambling Helpline is 0800 654 655, text 8006.

What changes between TAB and Betcha

The interface and the product mix. Same wallet logic, same racing rules, same harm-minimisation tools; a different skin on the same platform. A punter who likes one over the other has a taste, not a difference in licence or standing.

What changes if the punter goes offshore

The licence, the harm-minimisation framework, the complaints path, and the legal status of the bet. An offshore bookmaker taking the bet is breaking section 74AAA; the punter placing the bet is not convicted under section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003; the regulator warns of risks. The bet settles the same way on the offshore book; the legal frame around it is not the same.

The operator reviews

What follows is each operator review, with figures, ending on a verdict.

TAB (TAB NZ)

TAB is one of the two online brands of TAB NZ, the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025. The other brand is Betcha; the two are the same operator. TAB NZ holds the monopoly, and the regulator that monitors it is the Department of Internal Affairs. The 25-year Entain partnership signed in 2023 gives TAB NZ at least NZ$150 million a year for the first five years, with Entain taking a 50/50 share of gross profits.

The product is fixed-odds and tote on the racing codes — thoroughbred, harness, greyhound through to its staged closure from 1 August 2026 — and on rugby union, rugby league, and other sports, pre-match and live. The app, first released on 8 September 2014, carries Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet. Bet types run from Win, Place and Each Way through Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, with Same Race Multis, Same Game Multis, and a Place Extra option that backs runners to finish up to tenth.

Bonus Cash promotions run through the app; new-customer Bonus Cash can be split across multiple bets, and a Mega Multi bonus pays up to NZ$50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs. The harm-minimisation framework — deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion across TAB and Betcha — sits in the app, and the free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) is listed alongside.

Verdict: the lawful choice and the only one with New Zealand regulator oversight and a complaints path. The product depth is racing-first; the menu widens on the football codes and the international majors; the harm-minimisation tools are the country’s, not the brand’s invention.

Betcha (TAB NZ)

Betcha is the second TAB NZ online brand, published by Entain New Zealand Limited and first released on the New Zealand App Store on 6 August 2024. The product sits beside TAB rather than above it: racing and sports, fixed-odds and tote, the same bet types and the same markets, with a skin designed for a younger audience than the original TAB app. Harm-minimisation runs the same way; the self-exclusion that opts a punter out of TAB opts them out of Betcha with the same setting.

The differences are product mix and interface, not licence. Betcha is one of two brands that may lawfully take online sports and racing bets from people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025, and the only “new” brand on the lawful list.

Verdict: the brand to choose over TAB if the interface fits, the same lawful standing if it does not. The choice between them is taste; the choice between them and the offshore set is statute.

22Bet

22Bet’s address redirects from 22bet to 22bet4u.com, and the site shows a copyright line for 2017 to 2026 and a 21+ age notice. The licence is Curaçao (8048/JAZ), held by TechSolutions Group N.V., and the brand sits outside the New Zealand lawful set: only TAB NZ and its brand Betcha hold this right.

The site offers sports and casino, with a long-running operator history rather than a fresh launch. A New Zealand punter meeting 22Bet meets an established offshore brand running on a Curaçao licence, not the regulator’s framework in Wellington.

Verdict: not lawful here for the operator. Established, well-funded, and sitting on the wrong side of section 74AAA. The punter placing a bet has the regulatory framing the previous section describes.

Glorion

Glorion names no licence that applies in New Zealand; only the TAB NZ monopoly carries the right to serve this market. The brand’s published terms state that support is available by Live Chat and by email, and that the site accepts customers over 18 only.

The customer-protection layer is the brand’s own; no New Zealand complaints route reaches it, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework applies, and the regulator’s stance on offshore operators is the one the previous section lays out.

Verdict: an offshore sportsbook meeting the New Zealand punter through marketing rather than through law. The age gate is the operator’s, the regulator is not.

Sportaza

Sportaza’s footer states that the brand is licensed and regulated by the Government of the Autonomous Island of Anjouan, Union of Comoros, under licence number ALSI-202606064-FI2, while the terms (section 1.4) cite a separate Tobique licence (0000067). Neither licence gives a right to take bets from people in New Zealand; only TAB NZ may do that under section 74AAA.

The brand is on the offshore list New Zealand punters meet through sports and casino marketing. The “two licences” footers that recur on offshore brands sit at the bottom of the page as a credibility signal; they are not a route to the New Zealand regulator.

Verdict: a brand meeting the New Zealand punter with two offshore licences and no New Zealand standing. The licensing question for the punter is not “which regulator”; it is “is this regulator’s reach the one my bet falls under”.

RoyalistPlay

RoyalistPlay is owned and operated by Novatrix SRL, a Costa Rica company with registration number 3-102-893958, and holds e-gaming licence No. 0000002 from the Tobique Gaming Commission. None of that reaches New Zealand: this jurisdiction is reserved for the TAB NZ brands alone, and the Tobique licence gives no right to take bets from this country.

The casino-with-sports vertical is the brand’s; the regulator’s reach is the Tobique commission’s, not the Department of Internal Affairs’. A New Zealand punter on RoyalistPlay is on a Tobique-licensed site, not on a New Zealand-licensed one.

Verdict: offshore casino-and-sports, no New Zealand standing. The brand offers what its licence covers; the licence covers Costa Rica and the Tobique commission, not Wellington.

BetNinja

BetNinja states that it is licensed to conduct online gaming operations by the Union of the Comoros. The Comoros licence sits in the same set as the Anjouan and Tobique licences: an offshore regulator whose standing is not the New Zealand one. Only TAB NZ holds the legal right to serve New Zealand bettors, and the Comoros licence gives no right to take bets from this country.

The brand is on the offshore list with the same regulatory framing as the others in this section. The marketing is the company’s; the regulator is the Comoros’s.

Verdict: offshore sports-and-casino, no New Zealand standing. The brand carries the same frame as the other Anjouan and Comoros-licensed sites; the punter’s regulator is not the one Wellington runs.

Telbet

Telbet describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook, with a welcome offer of 200% up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins, and a 5 USDT free bet on the Russian-language site.

The crypto angle is a payment rail rather than a licence. The same offshore frame applies: the brand takes crypto, settles on its own terms, and sits outside the New Zealand regulator’s standing.

Verdict: an offshore crypto sportsbook with the same New Zealand standing as the rest of the list. The crypto language in the marketing is a payment line, not a regulatory one.

FunBet

FunBet’s sportsbook offers odds on football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and a bookmaker described as open 24/7. The brand names no licence that applies in New Zealand; only the TAB NZ brands may lawfully operate here.

The menu’s depth on football and basketball is the brand’s call, and a New Zealand punter betting on the NBA or the Champions League meets that depth on an offshore site rather than a TAB NZ one.

Verdict: offshore sportsbook with a wide menu and no New Zealand standing. The menu’s width is real; the licence’s reach is the offshore regulator’s, not Wellington’s.

Alawin

Alawin accepts customers aged 18 or over only, and the site runs as an offshore sports-and-casino brand with no licence that applies in New Zealand. It sits outside the local lawful set, and the brand’s terms carry no New Zealand-specific clause beyond the age gate.

The frame is the same as the other offshore brands in this section: the regulator is the offshore one, not the Department of Internal Affairs, and the punter’s standing is the regulator’s warning rather than the regulator’s protection.

Verdict: offshore sportsbook with an age gate and no New Zealand standing. The age gate is the brand’s; the regulator is not Wellington’s.

Frequently asked questions

How can I bet on the Melbourne Cup online?

Melbourne Cup is a TAB NZ racing event on the spring programme, with fixed-odds and tote betting through the TAB and Betcha apps. Offshore sites also publish Cup markets, but only TAB NZ and Betcha are lawful for a New Zealand punter to use. Place the bet through the TAB NZ brand of your choice; the operator is the same.

How do I bet on horses online?

Horse racing betting in New Zealand runs through TAB NZ and Betcha, the two online brands of the only lawful provider under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The bet types on the racing menu are Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Quaddie and Big6, with Multis and Same Race Multis available on the app. Open a TAB NZ account with a verified New Zealand address and ID, deposit through the wallet, and place the bet through the app or site.

How do I bet on Lotto online?

Lotto is not part of the TAB NZ betting programme covered by section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020; it sits under a different statutory frame run by the New Zealand Lotteries Commission. The TAB NZ apps cover racing and sports betting, not Lotto. For Lotto, the operator is the Lotteries Commission, not a TAB NZ brand.

Which bookmaker may lawfully take sports and racing bets in New Zealand?

TAB NZ and Betcha, the two online brands of TAB NZ, are the only providers lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025 under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is only this one lawful provider, and no application route for a second licence. Every other online sportsbook that meets a New Zealand punter is, in operator terms, unlawful here.

How is the return on a bet worked out from the stake and the odds?

For a single bet, return equals stake multiplied by the decimal odds; net profit on a win is stake multiplied by odds minus one. For a multi, the odds of the legs multiply into one price before the stake is applied. At decimal odds of $3.00 and a NZ$10 stake, return is NZ$30 and net profit is NZ$20. The price is the number that multiplies the stake, and the only way to read the return is the multiplication.

What is the bookmaker’s margin and how can it be seen in the odds?

The margin is the share of every NZ$1 bet on a market that the bookmaker keeps on average, and it is built into the prices the bookmaker prints. For a market with a5% margin, the average return across all outcomes is 95 cents per NZ$1 bet. The payout share — the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the odds — is the same market seen from the punter’s side. A 95% payout share is a 5% margin. The number sits in the odds; the punter reads it by adding the reciprocals of the prices and taking the difference from one.

Published by the Kiwifreebets team.