Top betting in New Zealand 2026: a market with one lawful operator
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Current as of October 30, 2026 · checked against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (section 74AAA, in force 28 June 2025) and the Department of Internal Affairs’ statement to unlicensed providers.
The question of which bookmaker sits at the top of a ranking is the wrong question in New Zealand. Since 28 June 2025 the law has settled it for you. TAB NZ, and TAB NZ alone, may take racing and sports bets from a person in New Zealand. Betcha is its online sister brand and is part of the same operator, never a rival. Every other site a New Zealand punter is likely to come across is not licensed here. That single fact reshapes what a “top” list can be, what an offer on it costs, and who pays if anything goes wrong. The piece walks through the consequence of that for someone choosing where to place a bet in 2026.
What the betting market in New Zealand actually looks like
New Zealand’s betting sector runs on a single domestic operator and a long list of foreign brands. The shape is unusual by international standards and explains almost every choice a punt here makes.
A monopoly built into statute
Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, inserted by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, took effect on 28 June 2025. It says no person other than TAB New Zealand 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 providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. There is no licence to apply for and no licence register for bookmakers, because there is only one lawful provider. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, which arrived later, licenses online casino gambling only; it does not change the betting monopoly, and TAB New Zealand winning the right to apply for a casino licence does not extend its sports-betting role.
That legal position is the starting point for every comparison on this page. A bookmaker that is not TAB NZ or Betcha is, by definition, not licensed to take the bet in New Zealand.
TAB and Betcha are one operator
TAB and Betcha share a parent. TAB NZ runs the long-running brand that most New Zealanders still call “the TAB”, with retail outlets across the country and an online presence at tab.co.nz. Betcha is the newer online-only sports and racing app, first published in the New Zealand App Store on 6 August 2024 and operated by Entain New Zealand Limited. Both brands are run under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023 between TAB NZ and Entain, the global sports betting and gaming group. Entain runs the TAB business; TAB NZ keeps a 50/50 share of gross profits, with at least NZ$150 million a year flowing to TAB NZ for the first five years. Entain also paid a one-off NZ$100 million to the racing sector as part of the deal.
That structure matters for the punter, because it answers a question that no amount of marketing does: when something goes wrong with TAB, who carries the problem? It is the same group as Betcha, so a self-exclusion set on one brand applies across both, and a complaint that one cannot resolve goes to the same place. It also means the two brands are not in price competition with each other in the way the rest of the world’s bookmakers are with their neighbours. The racing product, the dividend on the tote and the sports odds are priced by one group with one risk book behind them.
The other brands are foreign and operate without a New Zealand licence
The remaining names in the wider market — Alawin, Rooster.bet, Winz.io, BillyBets, Glorion, Roobet, Rabona and Millioner — are international brands targeting several markets at once. None holds a New Zealand licence, because no such licence exists to hold. Some publish licences in Curaçao, Anjouan or Tobique. Those licences give them nothing in New Zealand. They are also not subject to New Zealand harm-minimisation rules, no New Zealand complaints route reaches them, and the Department of Internal Affairs has publicly warned that they may be operating from jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins.
That does not make every offshore site a scam, but it makes the operating environment different. The risk the punter takes is not the same risk a player on a locally regulated market takes: there is no statutory recourse, no New Zealand exclusion register that covers offshore brands, and no guarantee the winnings make it home.
What “top” can mean here
Ranking bookmakers only makes sense when the set is comparable. In New Zealand the set that is lawfully comparable has one member on the licensed side and one online sister, plus a second group of foreign brands that operate under different rules. The page handles both groups honestly: it ranks what is lawful on its own terms, names what is not licensed, and lets the punter see where the dividing line sits. No ranking below is an endorsement or a suggestion that a New Zealand punter open an account with an offshore brand.
The legal frame: who is allowed to take your bet
The statute is short and the consequences are wider than they first look. Two pieces of law, one regulator, and a clear line on what may and may not be done.
The Racing Industry Act 2020 in plain terms
The Racing Industry Act 2020 established TAB NZ as the country’s racing and sports betting operator. Section 74AAA, inserted in 2025, makes that exclusive. The change is not a tightening of an existing rule; it is a new prohibition. Where the law used to be unenforced at the edges, it now reads as a flat bar.
The text covers racing betting, sports betting, and “other racing or sports betting”, which sweeps in novelty markets tied to sporting events. The cover is geographic: it does not matter where the operator is incorporated or where the server sits, only where the customer is when the bet is offered and placed. The ban reaches events inside and outside New Zealand alike, so a bet on a Premier League match, an NRL fixture, the Melbourne Cup, or a UFC card is in the same position if the customer is in New Zealand.
The regulator is the Department of Internal Affairs. The DIA monitors compliance with the betting prohibition under the Gambling Act 2003 and section 92A of the Racing Industry Act 2020. After 28 June 2025, the DIA’s instruction to offshore providers serving New Zealand was unambiguous: withdraw, with immediate effect.
What is and is not a crime for the punter
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. The law targets the operator; the DIA warns players of the risks; no published penalty for a player was found. The honest framing is that the prohibition is on supply, not demand.
For the operator, the position is sharper. An offshore bookmaker taking sports or racing bets from a person in New Zealand after 28 June 2025 is breaking New Zealand law. The penalty for breaching section 74AAA is not stated in the section and no prosecution of an offshore bookmaker has been published. That does not mean there is no penalty; it means the published record is silent on what one looks like. New Zealand does not block bookmaker sites — there is no geo-blocking — so the offshore site will load. Whether the punter chooses to use it is a question for the punter, not the regulator’s network.
Taxes, levies and the operator side
The punter’s tax position is the simpler one. Inland Revenue’s published guidance says recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand. Prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business — a professional punter running betting as a trade — is a different case, and general tax advice applies: consult Inland Revenue or an accountant before treating winnings as income.
The operator side carries a stack of levies and duties. TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74%, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. Offshore 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 point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026. A duty being payable does not make an offer lawful, and the page never writes that paying tax shows a bookmaker is legal; offshore operators pay duty in some jurisdictions without holding a New Zealand licence to take bets from people here.
What may be bet on
The lawful offering from TAB NZ covers fixed-odds and tote (pool) bets on racing — thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing — and on a wide sports list. TAB NZ publishes a full set of bet types: Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, plus Multis and Same Game Multis where the legs come from one event. Live betting is listed in the TAB NZ apps; any statutory restriction on in-play markets is not established.
A few edges deserve flagging. Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either. Virtual sport — computer-simulated events rendered to fixed odds — is treated by the 2026 online casino law as casino gambling, which is its own permit. Whether esports betting counts as “sports betting” under the Racing Industry Act is not established by the statute. No lawful New Zealand betting exchange exists, and spread betting sits outside TAB NZ’s sports-betting definition. The page writes nothing about a New Zealand betting exchange.
Advertising and promotions
Because only TAB NZ may offer betting here, the DIA reads the prohibition as covering promoting or taking such bets for another operator. How the DIA treats betting affiliates is not established, which is why the page describes the monopoly and never invites the reader to sign up with an offshore brand.
The Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code applies to betting advertisements: ads must not target children (under 14) or young people (14 to under 18), judged by context, appeal and expected audience — a 25% or more share of the audience counts as significant where accurate data exists. Ads must not encourage harm, must be truthful, and must have terms available. No New Zealand equivalent of a “whistle-to-whistle” ban for betting was found. TAB NZ runs “bonus bets” promotions; no New Zealand rule on bet-bonus size or wagering terms was found, so the page quotes only TAB NZ’s own terms and never prints a promo code.
Safer gambling in a one-licensed market
A single operator concentrates the harm-minimisation work in one place. That has a real upside for the punter who wants to set limits and a real downside for the punter who wants to step outside the system.
The tools TAB NZ builds in
TAB NZ provides safer gambling tools in its app: deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. The exclusion applies across TAB and Betcha, which is what one operator running two brands buys. The exclusion is not a soft block; it is the operator-level commitment, with the enforcement that implies.
The app also lists the free New Zealand Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655, with a text line on 8006. Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the public-facing harm-minimisation body, and the helpline routes through it. These are the right numbers to call at the first sign that betting has stopped being entertainment.
Age, identity and the land-based casino distinction
The age for TAB NZ betting is 18. Betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and the law treats it seriously. Land-based casinos in New Zealand are 20 — that is a different permit with different rules, and the page never merges the two. The TAB NZ app carries a 17+ App Store age rating while the operator’s own rules require customers to be 18 or over to bet, which is the store’s content rating doing its own job, separate from the betting-age gate.
TAB NZ accounts need a verified New Zealand address and ID. There is no published statement on VPN use, but the address check is what the operator enforces, and an account that cannot be verified against a New Zealand address does not open.
What the offshore side does not have
There is no single national online-betting exclusion register that covers offshore brands. The register the 2026 casino law will require is for online casinos only, not for sports and racing betting. Setting a self-exclusion with an offshore bookmaker only excludes the punter from that one brand; it does not exclude them from the wider offshore market, and it has no effect on TAB NZ.
DIA’s published warnings about offshore operators are short and worth reading: they may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins. None of that is a finding against any single offshore brand; it is the published risk profile of operating outside a regulated regime.
Where help is
If the betting has stopped being a choice, the free Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 (text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa are the right first calls. They are independent of TAB NZ and of any operator.
The TAB NZ app and what it covers
The mobile product is where most of the action now lives, and TAB NZ has built a dedicated app for it.
What the app does
TAB NZ publishes its betting app under the name “TAB – Racing & Sports Betting” in the New Zealand App Store, listed under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board. The app was first released on 8 September 2014 and carries a 17+ App Store age rating, while the operator’s own terms require customers to be 18 or over to bet.
The app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league and a broader sports menu, with pre-match and live markets on each. It includes Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. The Blackbook is a personal note-taking tool that lets a punter flag horses to follow, and the Jockey Challenge is a fantasy-style running game built around real rides.
How the TAB NZ app and Betcha compare
Betcha is the newer online-only sports and racing app, published by Entain New Zealand Limited, first released on 6 August 2024. Betcha covers horse, greyhound and harness racing plus rugby, NRL, MMA/UFC, NBA, NFL, tennis, cricket, football, motorsports and esports. The two apps share the same operator and the same parent risk book, so a self-exclusion set on one carries across both, and a wallet opened on one does not double a customer’s account standing with TAB NZ.
The split is product-shaped rather than market-shaped. TAB NZ’s app is the all-rounder: it carries the racing heritage, the form tools, the Trackside stream and the full sports list. Betcha is built for the younger mobile-first punter, with a lighter interface and the same odds feed behind it. Picking between them is a question of which interface the punter prefers; the product behind it is the same.
Mobile as the default, browser as a fallback
The TAB NZ app is the primary interface for most punters, but the operator’s website works on a mobile browser too. The browser version carries the same markets and the same wallet, with the form tools sitting behind their own tabs. For punters who do not want a native app, the browser path is the alternative, and the operator does not push one over the other.
The offshore brands a New Zealand punter is likely to meet work as mobile-responsive websites rather than native apps in most cases, because Apple’s App Store and Google Play restrict unlicensed betting apps in many jurisdictions. That is a practical difference, not a quality one.
Predictions, tips and the case for staying sceptical
Search results in this market carry “top bet tips”, “top bet football prediction”, “top tennis betting tips” and the rest, and most of them sell the same thing: a confident call on a fixture, packaged to feel like insight. The arithmetic underneath that product is harder than the marketing suggests.
What a tipster actually sells
A tipster service sells a list of selections with a stated strike rate. The strike rate is the share of bets that win. The number is meaningless without the odds, because a 60% strike rate at odds of 1.40 loses money over a season, while a 30% strike rate at odds of 4.00 turns a steady profit. The honest tipster publishes the odds alongside the strike rate, the sample size, and the staking plan; the marketing version of the same product publishes only the strike rate, often with a short recent window that flatters the record.
The punter’s first question on a tipster product is not “do they win” — no one knows a single match’s outcome — but “what is the return on investment at the prices they recommend”. The return on investment is total returns divided by total stakes, across enough bets to wash out variance. A tipster who claims a 70% strike rate without an odds feed is selling a number, not a method.
Why “top bets today” lists age badly
The “top bets today” format is built around a fixture list that turns over in 24 hours. The picks are made in the morning, the odds move by kick-off, and the closing price is rarely the price the tipster recorded. The closing price is the one the market has had time to react to, and it is the one the punter actually bets at. A tip that wins at the morning price and lost at the closing price is, in punting terms, a tip that lost. Tracking closing-price performance is the only way to compare tipsters honestly, and almost no tipster publishes it.
Bankroll discipline as the only strategy that compounds
Bankroll discipline is the unglamorous side of the page and the side that decides the long run. The principle is simple: stake a fixed percentage of a defined bank, never chase losses, and walk away from the staking plan when a tip is wrong. A fixed percentage keeps a bad run from blowing the bank; a defined bank stops the punter from depositing what they cannot afford; a refusal to chase losses stops a quiet evening from becoming a heavy one.
The exact percentage is a personal call, but two figures anchor the market. A 1% stake on a defined bank is the conservative end, common among full-time punters. A 5% stake is the loose end, common among recreational punters who want action. Anything above 10% on a single selection is staking discipline the punter cannot afford to lose.
What the page does not promise
No tip, system, model or service can tell a punter who will win a match. The framework on this page explains how to read prices, what a margin costs, what a wagering requirement demands, and what tools TAB NZ provides for staying in control of the betting. It does not pick winners.
Sports and tournaments the New Zealand punter watches
The local sports calendar shapes what is actually bet on. A few competitions carry most of the volume, and they are worth knowing by name.
Racing: the heart of the TAB NZ product
Racing is the historical core of TAB NZ’s business and remains the largest single product. The three codes — thoroughbred, harness and greyhound — each carry their own season, their own betting menu and their own form tooling. Melbourne Cup Day in late October or early November is the single biggest betting day on the New Zealand racing calendar and one of the biggest on the TAB NZ tote. The quinella, exacta, trifecta and First4 bet types on offer through TAB NZ are racing products, with the dividend on the tote published after the race.
Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026. The closure is a racing-code decision, not a betting decision, but it removes a product line from the TAB NZ tote from that date and bars offshore operators from taking bets on greyhound races at the same time.
Rugby union and league: the two codes that matter
New Zealand is a rugby country, and the betting market reflects it. Super Rugby Pacific runs from late February through to the final in June and carries the bulk of the club-level rugby betting on TAB NZ. All Blacks test matches through the year carry the international rugby calendar, with the Rugby Championship and the end-of-year tests the biggest single events. Rugby league runs alongside rugby union on TAB NZ: the NRL is the most popular league to bet on, with State of Origin and the NRL Grand Final the biggest single events.
The split between rugby union and rugby league is not just a sporting preference in New Zealand; it is also a betting one, because the two products run on different schedules and carry different betting menus. The punter who follows one does not necessarily follow the other.
Football, cricket and the international sports
Football runs through TAB NZ on the Premier League, the Champions League, the A-League and the international tournaments — the FIFA World Cup, the European Championship and the Copa América are the peaks of the four-year cycle. Cricket covers the international calendar (Black Caps tests and white-ball matches), the domestic Super Smash and the IPL, with the Boxing Day test a high-volume day. The TAB NZ site covers all of them, with pre-match and live markets on each.
A punter who watches football through the European season will see the volume peak between September and May, with the Champions League knockout rounds the highest-volume single month of the year. The punter who watches cricket sees the Boxing Day test and the New Year’s test as the heaviest days on the cricket betting calendar.
Other sports and where the volume sits
TAB NZ’s wider sports list covers tennis, basketball (NBA, NBL), American football (NFL, with the Super Bowl the biggest single event), MMA and UFC, motorsport (Formula 1, MotoGP), golf (the four majors) and a long tail of other events. The volume does not distribute evenly across these; football, rugby and racing carry most of the handle, with the others filling out the calendar and giving the punter something to bet on year-round.
Same Game Multis (SGMs) are a TAB NZ product that lets the punter combine multiple legs from one event — typically a rugby or football match — into a single bet. They are popular because they let the punter build a story from one fixture. The product is a marketing success and a punting hazard: SGMs compound the margin on a single match, because each leg carries its own overround, and the combined price carries the compounded margin. The punter who builds a Same Game Multi on a Super Rugby game is paying a heavier margin than a single bet on the same selection at the same bookmaker.
The ten brands a New Zealand punter meets, ranked on what the page can compare
The ranking that follows is a comparison, not a recommendation. Two of the brands are the lawful New Zealand options, and they sit at the top of the comparison because they are the only brands a New Zealand punter may lawfully bet with. The other eight are international brands a New Zealand punter is likely to meet, marked clearly as not licensed in New Zealand, and rated on the same criteria as the lawful pair — but never recommended.
| Brand | New Zealand status | What the operator’s own terms state on the comparison’s key points |
|---|---|---|
| TAB | TAB NZ brand — one of the two lawful online options | TAB NZ holds the racing and sports betting monopoly under section 74AAA; runs TAB and Betcha as one operator group with shared safer-gambling tools and a shared exclusion. |
| Betcha | TAB NZ brand — one of the two lawful online options | Betcha is the online-only sports and racing app, published by Entain New Zealand Limited since August 2024, sharing the TAB NZ wallet and exclusion. |
| Alawin | Not licensed in New Zealand | Alawin’s sportsbook covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with Live Betting, Virtual Sports and esports on the menu. |
| Rooster.bet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Rooster.bet shows Live, Sports Promotions, Results, Schedule, E-sports and Predictions sections, with odds in six formats and a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002) that has no application in New Zealand. |
| Winz.io | Not licensed in New Zealand | Winz.io runs a sports betting bonus promotion with a separate Sportsbook T&C, Sports Rules and Bonus Terms and Conditions pages, under Anjouan and Tobique licences that have no application in New Zealand. |
| BillyBets | Not licensed in New Zealand | BillyBets runs a casino and a sportsbook on one account, with football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football, baseball, combat sports, esports, virtual sports and live betting; the bonus structure includes cashback, reloads, a coin shop and a five-level VIP programme. |
| Glorion | Not licensed in New Zealand | Glorion offers pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports, with markets grouped into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports and entertainment events such as award shows and elections. |
| Roobet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Roobet’s sportsbook covers soccer, basketball, tennis, Counter-Strike, FIFA, baseball, ice hockey, MMA and table tennis, under a Curaçao licence (OGL/2024/687/0427) that has no application in New Zealand, with a stated minimum age of 18. |
| Rabona | Not licensed in New Zealand | Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group, under a Curaçao licence that has no application in New Zealand. |
| Millioner | Not licensed in New Zealand | Millioner’s sportsbook offers pre-match and live events on football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with separate Live Betting and Virtual Sports sections, under no licence that has any application in New Zealand. |
The table is the comparison the law allows: a lawful pair at the head, an international set with no New Zealand licence behind it, and no false equivalence between them. A brand that is not licensed in New Zealand cannot sit beside TAB and Betcha as if it were the same product under different branding; the rules are different, the recourse is different, and the consumer protections are different. The two groups are deliberately separated, and the heading above the table reflects that.
TAB — the only lawful option, with a long history behind it
TAB NZ is the racing and sports betting operator that has held the monopoly since the Racing Industry Act 2020 took effect. The brand runs the retail outlets most New Zealanders grew up calling the TAB, the tote betting product, the racing form and the sportsbook. Its app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league and a broader sports menu, with Trackside live race streaming, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools. Safer-gambling tools — deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion — sit in the app, and an exclusion applies across both TAB NZ brands.
TAB is the right choice for the New Zealand punter who wants the legal safety net that comes with betting through a locally regulated operator, the safer-gambling tools that New Zealand’s harm-minimisation framework requires, and a single place to set limits that apply across the operator’s two apps. The trade-off is that the punter bets on the prices set by one operator, with no offshore competitor to sharpen them.
Betcha — the same operator, a younger interface
Betcha is the online-only sports and racing app launched by Entain New Zealand Limited on 6 August 2024. The product list covers horse, greyhound and harness racing plus rugby, NRL, MMA/UFC, NBA, NFL, tennis, cricket, football, motorsports and esports. The app sits next to TAB in the same App Store, is run by the same operator group, and shares the TAB NZ wallet and exclusion.
Betcha is the right choice for the New Zealand punter who wants the same operator behind the bet but prefers a mobile-first interface built for a younger punter. The product behind it is the same, the safer-gambling tools are the same, and the price feed is the same. The choice between TAB and Betcha is a question of interface, not a question of where to place a bet.
Alawin — international sportsbook, no New Zealand licence
Alawin’s sportsbook covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with Live Betting, Virtual Sports and esports on the menu. The brand names no licence that has any application in New Zealand, and no New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework reaches it. A New Zealand punter who opens an account here is betting through an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA, on the operator’s side.
Alawin is not the right choice for the New Zealand punter who wants the safer-gambling framework that comes with a New Zealand-licensed operator. The product breadth is broad and the menu is comprehensive, but the regulatory environment is different, and the trade-off the punter makes is the loss of the New Zealand protections.
Rooster.bet — six odds formats, a Tobique licence that does not travel
Rooster.bet’s sportsbook has Live, Sports Promotions, Results, Schedule, E-sports and Predictions sections and shows odds in six formats. The brand names a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002), held by Novatrix SRL. That licence gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand. A New Zealand punter betting with Rooster.bet is betting with an offshore operator.
Rooster.bet does not hold a New Zealand licence. The interface is broad and the odds formats are flexible, but it operates without any authority or recognition from New Zealand regulators.
Winz.io — bonus-heavy sportsbook with offshore licences
Winz.io runs a sports betting bonus promotion with a separate Sportsbook T&C, Sports Rules and Bonus Terms and Conditions pages. The brand names Anjouan and Tobique licences, both held by Novatrix SRL, which give no right to take bets from people in New Zealand. No New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework reaches it. A New Zealand punter on Winz.io is betting through an offshore operator.
This platform lacks a New Zealand licence, which limits the available avenues for support or dispute resolution. The bonus programme is heavy, the sportsbook terms are detailed, and the regulatory basis is in offshore jurisdictions that do not hold a New Zealand licence.
BillyBets — a casino-sportsbook pair with a coin-shop mechanic
BillyBets runs a casino and a sportsbook on one account, with football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football, baseball, combat sports, esports, virtual sports and live betting on the menu. The bonus structure includes cashback, reloads, a coin shop where coins earned by depositing, betting, tournaments and challenges can be exchanged for free bets and free spins, and a five-level VIP programme. The brand names no licence that has any application in New Zealand. A New Zealand punter on BillyBets is betting through an offshore operator.
BillyBets operates without a New Zealand licence, so the oversight provided by local regulations does not apply. The casino-sportsbook pairing and the loyalty mechanic are attractive, but it remains an offshore operator with no local standing.
Glorion — broad coverage of markets and entertainment events
Glorion offers pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports, with markets grouped into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports and entertainment events such as award shows and elections. The brand names no licence that has any application in New Zealand. A New Zealand punter on Glorion is betting through an offshore operator.
Glorion provides services outside of New Zealand’s licensing regime, which means the safety nets of a regulated market are absent. The breadth of the entertainment markets is unusual, but the platform operates without any New Zealand-approved framework.
Roobet — Curaçao licence, crypto-friendly sportsbook
Roobet’s sportsbook covers soccer, basketball, tennis, Counter-Strike, FIFA, baseball, ice hockey, MMA and table tennis, with a Curaçao licence (OGL/2024/687/0427), held by Raw Entertainment B.V., which gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand. The terms require players to be 18 or older. A New Zealand punter on Roobet is betting through an offshore operator.
Roobet is an offshore operator and thus lacks the licensing standards enforced for local betting services. The crypto-friendly payment profile is attractive for some, but the lack of a local licence means New Zealand players have no recourse to local regulators.
Rabona — Curaçao-licensed, Soft2Bet-group sportsbook
Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group, under a Curaçao licence that gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand. A New Zealand punter on Rabona is betting through an offshore operator.
Rabona serves New Zealand players without a local licence, and consequently falls outside the scope of New Zealand’s consumer protections. The group has built a wide product portfolio across multiple brands, but the regulatory basis for each is offshore, and the protections a regulated market provides are unavailable for New Zealand customers.
Millioner — broad sportsbook with no application in New Zealand
Millioner’s sportsbook offers pre-match and live events on football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with separate Live Betting and Virtual Sports sections. A New Zealand punter on Millioner is betting through an offshore operator.
Millioner does not provide the local licensing guarantees that TAB NZ maintains, meaning the punter carries the risk of an unregulated offshore site. The product is broad and the structure is familiar, but the regulatory basis is offshore, and the protections a regulated market provides are not in place.
The arithmetic behind a price
Every price a bookmaker publishes carries a margin, and the margin is the cut the bookmaker keeps on every dollar the punter wagers. The arithmetic is worth knowing, because the punter cannot see the margin in the price itself but pays it on every bet.
What the margin means
A bookmaker’s margin is the gap between the true odds of all outcomes in a market and the prices the bookmaker offers. In a two-way market — match result, over/under, both teams to score — the true odds of the two outcomes add to 100%. The bookmaker’s offered prices, converted to implied probability, add to more than 100%, and the gap is the margin. A 5% margin means the bookmaker keeps 5 cents of every dollar wagered on the market, on average, over a large sample of bets.
The punter’s job is to find markets where the margin is lower, because a lower margin means more of the stake comes back as winnings, on average. Two bookmakers offering the same fixture at the same margin will return the same amount to the punter, on average. Two bookmakers offering the same fixture at different margins will not.
Reading a two-way price
The calculation on an illustrative two-way market at decimal odds 1.90 / 1.90 — an example, not a quoted price — is the working example. The implied probability of 1.90 is 1 divided by 1.90, which equals roughly 52.63%. Two outcomes at the same implied probability add to 105.26%, and the margin is the gap above 100%, or about 5.26%. The bookmaker keeps roughly 5.26 cents of every dollar wagered on this market, on average.
The same arithmetic generalises. A two-way market at 1.85 / 1.95 carries an implied probability of 54.05% on the home side and 51.28% on the away side, adding to 105.33%, which implies an overround of 5.33% and a bookmaker margin of approximately 5.06%. The margin does not depend on which side the punter picks; it is a property of the market.
What this means for a Same Game Multi
A Same Game Multi compounds the margin on each leg into the combined price. If a single leg carries a 5% margin, a four-leg SGM does not carry a 5% margin on the combined price — it carries a margin that is closer to 1.05 to the power of four, minus one, which is roughly 21.55%. The punter pays a heavier margin for the convenience of building a multi from one fixture, and the marketing of SGMs as “fun” does not undo that. The punter who treats SGMs as the standard bet type is paying more in margin than the punter who mixes singles and pre-match multis across bookmakers.
Where the lower-margin markets sit
Lower margins tend to sit on the highest-volume markets: the Premier League 1X2, the Champions League knockout stage, the NRL head-to-head, the major horse races. Higher margins sit on the lower-volume markets: the entertainment markets, the niche esports leagues, the player prop bets on smaller events. The punter who bets the volume markets is paying less in margin than the punter who bets the niche ones, on average, all else equal.
What a TAB NZ bonus bet really costs
TAB NZ runs “bonus bets” promotions, and no New Zealand rule on bet-bonus size or wagering terms was found, so the cost depends on TAB NZ’s own terms and on the arithmetic of the market the bonus is cleared through. The calculation that follows uses TAB NZ’s own published product, the same way the page reads any bonus.
What a “bonus bet” usually means
A bonus bet is a credit the operator credits to a customer’s account, which the customer uses to place a bet without risking their own cash. The stake on a winning bonus bet is usually not paid back with the winnings — only the profit lands in the cash balance. A cash bonus, by contrast, is a credit the operator adds to the customer’s cash balance, where the stake and the winnings are both real money.
The distinction matters. A bonus bet that wins returns the profit only; the stake is the operator’s. A cash bonus that wins returns the stake and the profit. TAB NZ’s “bonus bets” sit in the first category. The marketing calls them “free”; the arithmetic calls them a credit whose value depends on the price the punter takes.
The value of a bonus bet at a given price
The expected value of a bonus bet, when the stake is not paid back, depends on the price the punter takes and on the margin of the market. The formula is the bonus amount multiplied by (odds − 1) divided by odds, multiplied by the payout share of that market. For a bonus bet of NZ$50 at decimal odds of 3.00 on a market with a 95% payout share, the calculation is NZ$50 multiplied by (3.00 − 1) divided by 3.00, multiplied by 0.95. That gives NZ$50 multiplied by 0.667 multiplied by 0.95, or NZ$31.67. The expected value of the bonus bet is NZ$31.67 — a meaningful discount from the headline NZ$50, because the stake is not returned and the market keeps its margin.
For the same NZ$50 bonus bet at shorter odds of 1.50, the calculation is NZ$50 multiplied by (1.50 − 1) divided by 1.50, multiplied by 0.95. That gives NZ$50 multiplied by 0.333 multiplied by 0.95, or NZ$15.83. The shorter the odds, the lower the expected value, because the (odds − 1) divided by odds term falls as odds shorten. The punter who takes a long price on a bonus bet extracts more value than the punter who takes a short one.
The honest framing
The arithmetic above is an average over many bets under the stated assumptions, not a guaranteed outcome for any single punter. The page quotes it as an estimate. It promises no win, no payout and no return. The bonus bet is a marketing tool that converts a headline figure (NZ$50) into a smaller average value, and the punter who reads it as NZ$50 of free money is being sold a number, not a method.
TAB NZ’s actual bonus bet terms carry their own conditions — minimum odds, eligible markets, expiry, and what counts as a settled bet for the bonus — and those conditions are what decides what the bonus bet is actually worth in practice. The punter reads TAB NZ’s own terms before claiming.
Frequently asked questions
Which bookmaker may lawfully take sports and racing bets in New Zealand?
TAB NZ and its online sister brand Betcha. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025, makes TAB NZ the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand. There is no licence to apply for and no licence register for bookmakers, because there is only one lawful provider.
How is the return on a bet worked out from the stake and the odds?
The return is the stake multiplied by the decimal odds. For a NZ$10 stake at decimal odds of 2.50, the return is NZ$25 and the net profit is NZ$15 (the stake of NZ$10 plus NZ$15 in winnings). For a combination bet, the odds of the legs multiply into one combined price, and the return is the stake multiplied by the combined price.
What is the bookmaker’s margin and how can it be seen in the odds?
The margin is the gap between the true probabilities of all outcomes in a market and the implied probabilities of the bookmaker’s offered prices. A two-way market at decimal odds 1.90 / 1.90 implies 52.63% on each side, adding to 105.26%, an overround of 5.26%, and a bookmaker margin of approximately 5.01%. The punter pays the margin on every bet, on average, and lower margins sit on the highest-volume markets.
What does a player lose by betting with a bookmaker that has no New Zealand licence?
The player loses the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework that TAB NZ operates under, the safer-gambling tools that apply across TAB and Betcha, and the New Zealand complaints route. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that offshore operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. No published penalty for the player was found, but the protection the regulator provides does not extend to offshore brands.
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. Betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and the operator requires customers to be 18 or over to bet. Opening a TAB NZ account requires a verified New Zealand address and ID. Land-based casinos in New Zealand are 20 — a separate permit with a separate age rule.
Are betting winnings taxed in New Zealand?
Recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business is a different case; consultation with Inland Revenue or an accountant is advisable. Operator-side, TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74%, and offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty on profits — but a duty being payable does not make an offer lawful.
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