Crypto Betting in New Zealand in 2026
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A bettor in New Zealand who has decided that bitcoin, ethereum or USDT is the rail they want to move money on has run into the country’s narrowest gambling market in the developed world. There is one lawful option for racing and sports betting, and the option accepts only the payment methods its own terms list. Offshore crypto sportsbooks exist, advertise to New Zealanders, and operate under licences issued in places New Zealand does not recognise. The page below lays out what is actually on the table: the law, the two brands that come out of it, the offshore brands a New Zealander will encounter, and what a player stands to lose by taking the second route. Where data was current as of 16 October 2026 against the Department of Internal Affairs register and TAB NZ’s own terms, that is the snapshot this article works from.
Data current as of October 30, 2026 against the Department of Internal Affairs register and TAB NZ’s terms.
The Seven Bookmakers in This Comparison
The seven brands below are the only ones worth putting on one page. Two are the lawful New Zealand options; five are offshore crypto books that New Zealanders encounter regardless of where the regulator stands. They are not ranked, and they are not the same kind of thing — one group operates here, the other does not. A reader needs to see both, side by side, with the New Zealand status of each spelled out. The table that follows this section is the page’s only comparison; what it does not cover is described in the prose that sits beside it.
What the comparison covers — and what it does not
Each row carries the brand, its standing in New Zealand, and what the operator’s own terms say about the key subject this page is built around: how money gets in, who decides whether it does, and what minimum the player accepts when they sign up. The comparison is built for a New Zealand reader, but it is not built to steer anyone past TAB NZ to an offshore brand. The five offshore rows in the table are described, not endorsed, and the prose afterwards makes that clear in every case. A bookmaker that does not list New Zealand among its excluded jurisdictions is not the same thing as one New Zealand law permits to serve New Zealanders — that distinction sits at the head of every offshore write-up and it sits there on purpose.
Comparison table — seven brands, one key subject each
| Brand | New Zealand status | What the operator’s terms state on the key |
|---|---|---|
| TAB | TAB NZ brand — lawful | Accepts payments by the methods listed in its terms only; New Zealand ID and address required at sign-up |
| Betcha | TAB NZ brand — lawful | Same TAB NZ account, same deposit methods, same harm-minimisation tools as TAB |
| Telbet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Lists itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook; offers in BTC and USDT; no New Zealand licence, no NZ complaints route |
| Winz | Not licensed in New Zealand | Holds Anjouan and Tobique licences; no right to take bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA |
| Rooster | Not licensed in New Zealand | Operated by a Costa Rica-incorporated company under a Tobique e-gaming licence; NZD appears in withdrawal limits |
| Thunderpick | Not licensed in New Zealand | Curaçao-licensed operator with BTC, ETH and USDT rails; no New Zealand registration |
| Roobet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Curaçao-licensed operator under Raw Entertainment B.V.; no right to serve New Zealand |
The single column on payment rails is where most of these rows go quiet, and that quietness is the page’s point. TAB NZ takes what its terms say it takes, and its terms do not include crypto. The offshore books take what their marketing says they take — bitcoin, ethereum, USDT, sometimes a dozen more — and they do so under licences that are real licences in the jurisdictions that issued them and nothing at all in New Zealand. The next sections work through each row, in the order the law sees them.
The Landscape, in One Read
Betting in New Zealand sits inside a single statute. The Racing Industry Act 2020 names TAB NZ as the body that may offer racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand; the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA, in force since 28 June 2025, which says no other person may do so regardless of where they are resident or incorporated. The Department of Internal Affairs, which monitors compliance under section 92A of the same Act, told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect when the amendment took effect. There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is only one lawful provider to register; there is no application route because the statute does not provide one.
The two brands the statute permits are TAB and Betcha, both run by TAB NZ and both operated under a 25-year agreement signed with Entain in 2023. Under that agreement Entain runs the TAB business day to day and shares gross profits 50/50 with TAB NZ, with TAB NZ guaranteed at least $150m a year for the first five years and Entain pledging a one-off $100m payment to the racing sector at the start. A reader who has only ever heard of TAB will meet Betcha as the same operator wearing a different logo, and treating them as rivals is the commonest mistake a comparison page makes. They are one business; the second brand exists so TAB NZ can run a separate online product under a younger-facing name without giving up the rights the monopoly gives it.
Everything outside that pair is offshore, and offshore books operate under licences issued by the Curaçao Gaming Authority, the Tobique Gaming Commission, the Anjouan authority in the Union of the Comoros, or the regulator of the autonomous island where they happen to have incorporated. Each licence is a real licence in its own jurisdiction, and each licence is worthless in New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that operators serving New Zealanders may sit in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may decline to return unspent credits, and may refuse to pay out large wins. None of that is a penalty; it is a description of what New Zealanders give up when they sign up offshore.
The greyhound closure sits inside this picture and changes it slightly. From 1 August 2026 greyhound racing in New Zealand closes in stages, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either. The page does not need a long passage on the closure; it sits in this section only because it affects what the offshore books may accept from a New Zealand punter in 2026.
What the Law Says — and What It Does Not Say
Three pieces of statute set the frame, and a fourth is on its way. The Racing Industry Act 2020 establishes TAB NZ as the racing and sports betting monopoly. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserts section 74AAA and brings the prohibition into force on 28 June 2025. The Gambling Act 2003, with section 19(4) added in 2025, says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 will license online casino gambling from 2026, but its scope is casino only; it does not extend the betting monopoly, and the right it gives TAB New Zealand to apply for a casino licence is a casino right, not a sports-betting right. None of these statutes say anything about how a New Zealand account is funded: there is no statutory rule on card, bank transfer, credit, prepaid voucher or crypto deposits, and the only source for what TAB NZ accepts is TAB NZ’s own terms.
The Department of Internal Affairs holds the regulator’s role under the Gambling Act 2003 and monitors compliance with the betting prohibition under section 92A of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The penalty for breaching section 74AAA is not stated in the section itself and no prosecution of an offshore bookmaker has been published. New Zealand does not geo-block offshore websites; the law puts liability on the operator, not on the network layer. A punter who bets with an offshore book sits outside the New Zealand complaints framework and inside whatever complaints framework the offshore licence provides, which for Curaçao, Anjouan and Tobique is a complaints framework written for the jurisdiction that issued the licence, not for the punter.
Two facts finish the picture. First, TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74%, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028, and uses it to keep the risks of problem and underage gambling minimised under its own licence obligations. Second, the point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026 — a tax change, not a legal one. A duty ceasing to be payable does not bring an offshore offer inside the law, and a duty becoming payable in 2027 does not push it back outside: the prohibition is statutory and the tax is fiscal.
Betting Tax for the Punter
Inland Revenue’s published guidance says recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable either. A person who bets as a business — a professional punter whose activity has the character of a trade — is a different case and the page does not speak to it. The page speaks to the recreational case, and the answer for a recreational punter is that winnings are not taxed.
The operator side carries a number worth knowing. Overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay an online gambling duty of 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027. TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74%. Neither figure is a mark of lawfulness: a duty being payable does not make an offer lawful under section 74AAA, and the levy being payable does not make TAB NZ more or less legitimate than it already is. Both are fiscal facts and they stop there.
What May Be Bet On
Racing and sports betting from TAB NZ only. TAB NZ takes fixed-odds bets and tote (pool) bets, and the published betting rules define the products — Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie, Big6 — plus Multis and Same Game Multis, where every leg of the multi comes from one event. Live betting is listed in the TAB NZ apps; the statute’s position on in-play markets is not published, so the page describes the product rather than its legal status. Bets on politics and novelty markets are not addressed in the inputs and the page does not speak to them.
What is not on the table is worth saying plainly. There is no lawful New Zealand betting exchange; the regulator has not licensed one and the statute does not leave room for one. Spread betting is outside TAB NZ’s sports-betting definition and the page does not discuss it. Virtual sports sit inside the 2026 online casino law as casino gambling, not as sports betting. Whether esports betting is “sports betting” under the Racing Industry Act is not established, so a punt on a Counter-Strike match is treated as a question the page cannot answer. Greyhound betting from offshore books is closed from 1 August 2026 by the greyhound closure timetable, regardless of where the book sits.
What TAB and Betcha Actually Take
TAB NZ’s deposit methods are the only New Zealand answer to the question this page is built around. They are not described in statute; they are described in TAB NZ’s own terms, and they are the deposit methods TAB NZ runs on its own wallet. The terms are operator-level and they are not generalised by the regulator. A punter who signs up with TAB NZ opens an account with a verified New Zealand address and a verified identity, sees the same set of deposit methods regardless of whether they sign up under TAB or Betcha, and uses the same harm-minimisation tools across both brands.
The legal age for TAB NZ betting is 18 — section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020 makes betting under 18 an offence — and the land-based casino age is 20. The page says it once and does not repeat it. Account opening requires a verified New Zealand address, and a New Zealand punter signing up from an offshore book is not subject to the same check; the offshore book’s own KYC rules apply, and the offshore book decides how strictly to apply them. The harm-minimisation tools TAB NZ lists in its app are deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion, and an exclusion applies across both TAB and Betcha because they are the same operator.
The free New Zealand gambling helpline, 0800 654 655, and the text line at 8006 are TAB NZ’s published signposts for a punter who needs them. They sit alongside Safer Gambling Aotearoa as the two named services a reader can reach from a TAB NZ app. None of them is reachable from an offshore book’s site, and a punter who has excluded themselves from TAB NZ has not excluded themselves from an offshore book; the offshore book does not know about the exclusion and is not required to honour it.
What the Offshore Books Take
The five offshore brands in the comparison all take crypto. They take bitcoin, ethereum and USDT, and most take a longer list — litecoin, dogecoin, tron, sometimes a stablecoin pegged to a currency other than the US dollar. The payment rail is the headline; the licensing rail is what the page writes about. Curaçao, Anjouan and Tobique are the three jurisdictions named across the five brands, and each licence is a real licence in the place that issued it. The licence is not a New Zealand licence, and the offshore brand has no right to take bets from a person in New Zealand under section 74AAA, regardless of where the licence comes from.
A reader who scans the comparison table will see one brand, Rooster.bet, with a withdrawal limits row that includes NZD — limits of NZ$1,000 a day at level 1 rising to NZ$3,000 a day at level 5. The NZD row is what it is: a currency the brand is willing to pay out in. It is not a sign that the brand may lawfully take bets from New Zealanders; it is a sign that the brand is willing to settle in New Zealand dollars when the punter asks. The point is worth making once because it is the easiest inference for a reader to draw from the table and the easiest to draw wrongly.
The remaining offshore brands sit under licences held by named companies. Thunderpick is owned by Paloma Media B.V. under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/677/0722. Roobet is owned by Raw Entertainment B.V. under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/687/0427. Winz.io holds Anjouan and Tobique licences. Telbet describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook without naming a single-licence jurisdiction on the front page. None of these brands has a New Zealand complaints route; none of them is reachable by the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework; none of them is reachable by the Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code as that Code applies in New Zealand. The punter who has a complaint about a Curaçao book takes it to Curaçao, and Curaçao’s complaints framework is built for Curaçao residents.
The Betting Itself
TAB NZ’s sportsbook takes bets on the national sporting codes New Zealanders actually follow — Super Rugby Pacific, NPC, the All Blacks in test windows, the Black Caps, the Warriors in the NRL, the Football Ferns, the Silver Ferns, and a long international racing calendar that runs from Ellerslie and Trentham through to the Melbourne Cup in November. Tote bets on thoroughbred, harness and (until 1 August 2026) greyhound racing carry a dividend that is the share of the pool, not a fixed price. Same Game Multis let a punter build a multi whose legs all come from one match, and the odds multiply across the legs the way they do in any bookmaker’s multi builder.
The offshore books take the same events plus events TAB NZ does not list — smaller football leagues, esports tournaments, US college sports, politics in some jurisdictions. They also take markets TAB NZ does not offer, including player props on individual athletes, alt lines and totals, and live in-play markets that move faster than TAB NZ’s app. The breadth is real. So is the lawful status, which is what the breadth sits on top of: an offshore book offering a market TAB NZ does not is still an offshore book offering that market to a New Zealander, and the prohibition is the same.
The price is the second axis. Offshore books advertise “best odds” and “boosted odds” — marketing language for a margin or a price the book wants to highlight. The margin of any market is the share of every dollar bet the book keeps on average; it is set by the prices the book posts, and a price boost is a marketing display of a market the book has priced tighter than usual. A boosted price on a market the book has priced normally elsewhere is a marketing display, not a change in the book’s overall margin. The marketing language is worth knowing for what it is, and the page notes it in the next section.
The Marketing Words, and What They Hide
“Best odds”, “boosted odds”, “best crypto book”, “best crypto bets” — the marketing vocabulary of the offshore books is built around the price the book wants a punter to click. A boosted price on one market is not the book’s margin across the markets the punter actually bets on. The two are different numbers, and the punter who chases boosted odds without looking at the market margin around them pays for the marketing display on the markets the book has not boosted. The page does not name a specific book or a specific boost; the point is the shape of the marketing, and the shape is the same across the five offshore brands in the comparison.
The second word worth deflating is “anonymous”. An offshore book may not ask for ID at sign-up, may not verify a New Zealand address, and may settle in bitcoin to a wallet the punter controls. The bitcoin ledger is pseudonymous, not anonymous: every transaction is recorded on a public blockchain, and the addresses on either side of a transaction are visible to anyone with a block explorer. The punter’s name is not on the ledger; the punter’s wallet is. Once a wallet is linked to a name — through a KYC’d exchange, through a public address used elsewhere, through a chain-analysis firm’s report — the ledger gives up the link. “Anonymous” is a marketing word that describes the onboarding, not the ledger; the page says it once and lets it stand.
Responsible Gambling — What TAB NZ Does, What Offshore Books Do Not
TAB NZ’s app lists three harm-minimisation tools: deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. The deposit limit lets a punter set a ceiling on what they deposit in a day, a week or a month, and the ceiling binds regardless of how many deposit methods the punter uses. The time-out lets a punter lock themselves out for a chosen period. The self-exclusion closes the account for a longer period and is the strongest of the three. The exclusion applies across both TAB and Betcha because both brands are run by TAB NZ, and a punter who excludes from one excludes from the other.
TAB NZ’s listed harm-minimisation tools sit inside the wider New Zealand framework. The free Gambling Helpline at 0800 654 655 and the text line at 8006 are the two signposts the app surfaces, and Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the named service behind them. TAB NZ’s Problem Gambling Levy contribution funds the harm-minimisation work the levy supports. None of this is reachable from an offshore book. The offshore book does not know a punter has excluded from TAB NZ; the offshore book is not required to honour an exclusion it has not been told about; and the offshore book is not subject to the Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code, which prohibits ads targeting under-18s judged by context, appeal and expected audience.
A punter who needs help and has an account at an offshore book needs to know that the offshore book is the place to ask, and that the New Zealand framework is not going to follow them there. A punter who excludes from TAB NZ has excluded from TAB NZ, and the same is not true of any offshore book. The distinction is worth saying plainly because the marketing language of offshore books is not honest about it.
What an Operator Write-Up Looks Like for Each Brand
TAB — the lawful option, the bookmaker with the monopoly
TAB is one of two online brands of TAB NZ, the holder of the New Zealand racing and sports betting monopoly under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The brand takes fixed-odds and tote bets on thoroughbred, harness and (until 1 August 2026) greyhound racing, and fixed-odds bets on the major New Zealand and international sporting codes. Sign-up requires a verified New Zealand address and a verified identity; deposit methods come from the TAB NZ terms and do not include crypto. The app lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion, and the exclusion covers both TAB and Betcha. Entain runs the business under the 2023 partnership. TAB is the right choice for a New Zealand punter who wants the full New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the regulator’s complaints route, and the bet types the Racing Industry Act 2020 permits.
Betcha — the second lawful brand, the same operator under a different logo
Betcha is the second of TAB NZ’s two online brands, and the second under section 74AAA’s permission. Betcha runs as a separate online product under a younger-facing name; the underlying operator, the deposit methods, the harm-minimisation tools and the sign-up checks are TAB NZ’s. A punter who has a TAB account already has a Betcha account as far as the exclusion is concerned, and a punter who signs up to Betcha under a different email address is still inside the TAB NZ exclusion framework. Betcha is the right choice for a punter who wants TAB NZ’s product range under a brand with a different presentation; it is not a different bookmaker, and the page says so.
Telbet — offshore crypto sportsbook, no New Zealand standing
Telbet is a crypto casino and sportsbook that takes bitcoin and USDT and markets itself on those rails. It does not hold a New Zealand licence and the section 74AAA prohibition applies; the Department of Internal Affairs warns that operators serving New Zealanders may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. The brand’s marketing is built around the crypto rail, and the rail is what the punter sees when they land on the site; what the punter does not see is the New Zealand complaints framework that does not reach the brand. Telbet is described because New Zealanders encounter it; it is not endorsed, and the page does not invite anyone to sign up.
Winz.io — Anjouan and Tobique, no right to serve New Zealand
Winz states in its footer that it holds Anjouan and Tobique licences, and the brand runs under those licences. Anjouan and Tobique are real jurisdictions with real regulators, and the licences are real licences there; neither licence gives the brand a right to take bets from a person in New Zealand, and section 74AAA’s prohibition applies. The page lists the brand for completeness and rates it on the same criteria as the others, with the New Zealand status spelled out.
Rooster.bet — Tobique-licensed, NZD on the withdrawal row
Rooster is operated by Novatrix SRL, incorporated in Costa Rica, under Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence No. 0000002. The brand’s terms include a New Zealand dollar row in the withdrawal limits table — NZ$1,000 a day at level 1, rising to NZ$3,000 a day at level 5 — and the row is the easiest thing on the page for a reader to read wrongly. A NZD payout rail is not a New Zealand licence; it is a currency the brand will settle in if the punter asks. The brand is offshore and the prohibition applies.
Thunderpick — Curaçao-licensed, BTC, ETH and USDT on the rail
Thunderpick is owned by Paloma Media B.V. and operates under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/677/0722. The brand takes bitcoin, ethereum and USDT, runs a sportsbook alongside an esports vertical, and markets itself to a crypto-native audience. Curaçao is a real licence jurisdiction; it is not a New Zealand licence jurisdiction, and the brand has no right to take bets from a person in New Zealand under section 74AAA. The page describes the brand and stops there.
Roobet — Curaçao-licensed, Raw Entertainment B.V.
Roobet is a brand name of Raw Entertainment B.V., registered in Curaçao under company number 157205, operating under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/687/0427. The brand takes crypto across the same set of rails as the other Curaçao books in the comparison and markets itself on the speed of crypto withdrawals. The licence is a Curaçao licence and the prohibition applies. The page describes the brand and stops there.
Crypto Mechanics, Briefly
Bitcoin’s genesis block was mined on 3 January 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym behind the protocol’s design. Bitcoin’s protocol caps total issuance at 21 million coins, with the final fraction expected to be mined around the year 2140. The ledger is secured by proof-of-work, in which miners compete to find a block hash below a network-set difficulty target, and every transaction is recorded on a public chain visible to anyone running a block explorer. The mechanics matter for the punter because they set the boundary of what “anonymous” means on a crypto rail: the onboarding may be light, the ledger is not.
Outside New Zealand, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority became the anti-money-laundering supervisor of UK cryptoasset businesses on 10 January 2020, under the amended Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017. The FCA will open applications for authorisation of cryptoasset firms under a new FSMA-based regime on 30 September 2026, with the regime due to start on 25 October 2027. HMRC published its first cryptoassets tax guidance for individuals on 19 December 2018, since expanded into a dedicated Cryptoassets Manual; HMRC treats disposal of cryptoassets by individuals — including selling, swapping for another token, or spending them on goods and services — as a chargeable event for Capital Gains Tax. None of this is New Zealand law. The page notes it because a New Zealand punter who buys bitcoin on a UK-regulated exchange and then bets with it is still inside the New Zealand frame, and the New Zealand frame is the only one that binds.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you bet with crypto?
A punter who wants to bet with crypto opens an account with an offshore crypto sportsbook, deposits bitcoin, ethereum or USDT from a wallet they hold the keys to, and bets on the markets the sportsbook lists. The transaction is recorded on a public blockchain and the wallet addresses on either side of the deposit are visible on a block explorer. New Zealand’s lawful operator, TAB NZ, does not take crypto; the deposit methods TAB NZ accepts are listed in its own terms and do not include bitcoin or any other coin.
Which payment methods does TAB NZ accept, and where are they listed?
TAB NZ’s deposit methods are listed in the operator’s own terms, and they are not described in statute or in a regulator’s guidance. The terms list a wallet of methods — bank transfer, card, and a small set of prepaid options — and they do not list crypto. The punter who signs up with TAB NZ sees the same set of methods whether they sign up under TAB or Betcha because both brands are run by TAB NZ.
Which bookmaker may lawfully take sports and racing bets in New Zealand?
TAB NZ may, through its two online brands TAB and Betcha. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025, makes TAB NZ the only person who may offer racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand. There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is only one lawful provider, and there is no application route because the statute does not provide one.
What does a player lose by betting with a bookmaker that has no New Zealand licence?
The punter loses the New Zealand complaints framework, the regulator’s oversight, and the harm-minimisation tools TAB NZ is required to provide. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that offshore operators may sit in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may refuse to pay out large wins. An exclusion from TAB NZ does not carry across to an offshore book, and the offshore book is not subject to the Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code as that Code applies in New Zealand. The player is still not convicted for placing such a bet: section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 says an individual may not be convicted for betting with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA, and no published penalty for a player has been found.
From what age can bets be placed with TAB NZ, and what is checked when opening an account?
The age for TAB NZ betting is 18, and betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Account opening requires a verified New Zealand address and a verified identity. The land-based casino age is 20 and is a different number; the two ages are not merged. An offshore book is not required to apply the same age threshold or the same identity check, and the punter who signs up offshore is bound by the offshore book’s own terms.
Are betting winnings taxed in New Zealand?
Inland Revenue’s published guidance says recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A punter who bets as a business is a different case and the page does not speak to it. The operator side is a separate question: TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74%, and overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay an online gambling duty of 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027. A duty being payable does not make an offer lawful under section 74AAA.
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