What New Zealand's betting offers are really worth in 2026

Updated October 2026

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Since 28 June 2025, betting offers in New Zealand come from a single company. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA into the Racing Industry Act 2020, and that clause shut the door on every other bookmaker taking racing or sports bets from a person in New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. The law is targeted at the operator, not the punter, but the practical effect is the same: when this page talks about a welcome offer, a free bet or a boosted multi, it is almost always talking about the same business.

That business is TAB NZ, the state-backed tote and fixed-odds operator. It runs two customer-facing online brands — TAB and Betcha — and every offer that can lawfully be claimed from a New Zealand IP address sits behind one of those two doors. Ten brands appear in the comparison below because New Zealand players meet the other eight offshore names in their inbox, on social media and in search results. They are reviewed here so the reader knows what is and is not on offer, and at what legal cost.

Data current as of 31 October 2026, verified against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (as amended), the Department of Internal Affairs’ public statement on the new monopoly, the TAB NZ and Betcha app listings on the New Zealand App Store, and the terms pages of the eight offshore brands reviewed.

The ten brands a New Zealand punter will meet, ranked by what they actually offer

This is a comparison of the betting offers open to a person in New Zealand — what each brand markets, what its own terms say, and whether a New Zealand reader can lawfully take the offer. Two of the ten are the only lawful options. The other eight are offshore brands that accept sign-ups from many countries but hold no licence that permits them to take bets from people in New Zealand. A reader who skips that distinction may end up with a winning bet and no way to recover it.

The brands below are ordered for what a value-conscious New Zealand punter is most likely to weigh first: a lawfully available offer, then a lawfully available offer from the second TAB NZ brand, then offshore names that compete on bonus size, market depth and product features. Within the offshore set, ranking reflects how relevant the offer is to a New Zealand racing and sports audience — a brand that prices up Super Rugby Pacific, the NRL and the All Blacks is more useful than one that does not. None of the offshore brands is recommended; the ranking is for awareness, not endorsement.

A row reads thin by design when the answer is one a New Zealand punter needs to act on. The next ten sections take each brand in order, name what it really offers and finish with a verdict that tells the reader who, if anyone, the brand is for.

TAB — the only lawful online bookmaker in New Zealand

TAB sits at the top of this comparison for one reason: it is one of two online brands of TAB NZ, the sole provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025. The legal frame is set out in full later in this page, but the practical point is straightforward: a punter who bets with anyone else, regardless of how generous the welcome banner appears, is taking a bet that no New Zealand regulator can compel a payout on.

The product itself is the established New Zealand tote and fixed-odds book. Same Race Multis and Same Game Multis are core features, with a one-tap Popular Multis feed for punters who want a curated slip. Place Extra is a TAB-specific product: it lets a punter back a runner to finish as high as tenth in selected races, an option that has no real equivalent at a foreign sportsbook. A new TAB NZ customer can claim Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets, and the app lists a Mega Multi bonus of up to $50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs. The exact terms of the Bonus Cash — minimum odds, expiry, eligible bet types — are not given on the app listing and need to be read on the slip at the time of claim, because TAB NZ’s own terms are the only rule book that applies.

The wagering and the product on offer are modest by international standards. There is no 200% match, no crypto boost, no tiered VIP ladder climbing toward a personal account manager. There is a regulated product, a New Zealand address-verified account, a real complaints route to TAB NZ and the Department of Internal Affairs, and a set of safer-gambling tools in the app that are explained in the responsible-gambling section below. The reader who values those things over a larger headline number has only one place to go.

Verdict: TAB is the standard choice for anyone who needs a regulated product, a New Zealand complaints path and a bookmaker that operates within the clear bounds of section 74AAA. Other brands lack these protections.

Betcha — the second TAB NZ brand, built around multis and social betting

Betcha is the second online brand of TAB NZ and occupies the same legal position as TAB. The difference is the product surface. Where TAB inherits the legacy tote-and-fixed-odds audience, Betcha is the product that TAB NZ has built for a younger, app-native punter: a Multi Builder that lets the user build a multi from a single event, copy trending multis from other users and track live legs as they land, plus a Same Game Multi grid that assembles markets from one match onto one slip. The Multi Builder is not a niche add-on; it is the centre of the app.

A daily Toolbox of odds boosts and bet insurance is the closest thing Betcha has to a conventional welcome offer, and the terms of each boost — eligible markets, minimum stake, the maximum stake that qualifies for insurance — change daily. The Playbook and Bet Social sections are a different kind of offer: a feed of tips, match analysis and other punters’ activity, designed to give the user a reason to come back to the app on a Tuesday with no racing on. Safer Betting tools are listed in the app, and the listing carries a 17+ age rating, which is one above the 18+ minimum for betting in New Zealand and reflects the app-store policy rather than a TAB NZ rule.

The catch is the same as for TAB: a free bet on Betcha is a free bet on TAB NZ’s platform, with the same Bonus Cash economy, the same wagering framework and the same exclusion that flows between the two brands. A punter who self-excludes on TAB is self-excluded on Betcha, and the Bonus Cash balance is shared.

Verdict: Betcha offers a social, multi-focused experience that distinguishes it from TAB’s traditional racing menu, making it the preferred choice for punters who prioritize building their own bets over standard tote dividends.

BillyBets — generous reloads and a coin shop, no New Zealand licence

BillyBets is a casino and sportsbook under one account, and its offer page leans into the casino side. The sports product includes reload bonuses and cashback on sports bets, and the coin shop is the part that catches the eye: coins earned by depositing, betting, entering tournaments and clearing challenges are exchanged for free bets and free spins. A five-level VIP programme sits on top, with the usual escalating rewards at higher tiers. The cashier page offers New Zealand in its country selector, but the only currency filter shown is Euro, which is a small clue that the brand is configured for a European default rather than a New Zealand one.

The legal line is strict. BillyBets does not name a licence that permits it to take bets from people in New Zealand, and the Department of Internal Affairs’ statement on the new monopoly is unambiguous: an offshore operator taking a New Zealand bet is breaking section 74AAA. The terms on the page reviewed do not exclude New Zealand customers, which is the practical reason the brand appears in this comparison: a New Zealand punter can open an account, deposit and place a bet. Whether the brand pays out a large win to that customer, or through which channel a complaint travels, are questions only the operator’s own jurisdiction answers.

Verdict: This operator provides casino and sportsbook entertainment without a New Zealand licence, meaning players operate outside local protections. It is an option only for those who fully understand the risks of offshore betting.

Telbet — a 200% crypto welcome, sized for a non-New Zealand audience

Telbet describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook. The welcome offer is large by any standard: 200% up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins, with a 5 USDT free bet listed on the Russian-language version of the site. The sportsbook section adds in-play betting, a My Bets page and a separate set of sports betting rules, bonus terms and responsible-gambling and AML policies. The product is real, the offer is published, and the licence question is the same as for every other brand in the offshore half of the list.

The size of the welcome is the headline, and the size of the welcome is also the reason to slow down. A 200% match in Bitcoin is denominated in an asset whose dollar value moves daily; the bonus terms on a crypto sportsbook tend to be the most restrictive on the brand’s site, and a New Zealand punter claiming a USDT free bet is accepting terms written for a non-New Zealand customer and overseen by a non-New Zealand regulator. The Department of Internal Affairs’ standing warning — that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins — applies in full here.

Verdict: A massive headline bonus might attract attention, but players weigh the restrictive crypto wagering requirements against the lack of New Zealand-based consumer support.

RTbet — minimum stake of 0.5 and a 30-leg cap on multis

RTbet is a Curaçao-licensed sportsbook and casino, and the published terms are the kind of detail an experienced punter looks for first. The minimum bet per event is 0.5 in the currency of the customer account, which is low enough to let a punter test a market without committing serious bank. Multi-bets and system bets are capped at 30 selections, which is also a cap on how much complexity a single slip can carry. The Curaçao licence is published and identifiable, and Curaçao is a real regulator with a published register — it is not a licence that permits the brand to take bets from people in New Zealand, and the same Department of Internal Affairs warning applies.

For a New Zealand punter the relevant question is whether the sportsbook prices up the racing codes and the rugby league markets that matter here. The terms page reviewed did not surface that detail, and the brand is one of many that look identical in marketing screenshots. The minimum stake and the multi cap are useful to know because they constrain what the welcome offer is worth in practice: a small free bet on a market with a 0.5 minimum is a different prospect from a small free bet on a market with a 5 minimum.

Verdict: The operator provides a functional sportsbook with low minimum stake requirements; players remember that this site has no legal standing in New Zealand.

Glorion — virtual sports, novelty markets and a wide event menu

Glorion’s market list is the most varied of the ten brands reviewed here. Pre-match and live betting sit alongside virtual sports, horse racing and esports, and the markets are grouped into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports, with entertainment events such as award shows and elections added on. For a punter who wants to bet on something other than a football match, the menu is wider than what the average international sportsbook offers. The brand names no licence; the standard offshore caveat applies in full.

A wide market list is also a wider set of rules to read. Novelty markets, in particular, settle on a defined event outcome — an award-show winner, an election result — and the rules around what counts as the official result, and what happens when the event is cancelled or postponed, are the place where a winning bet is most often disputed. The Department of Internal Affairs warning is most relevant here, because a New Zealand punter on a novelty market at an offshore brand is a long way from the New Zealand complaints framework.

Verdict: Glorion offers a diverse menu that includes novelty and virtual events, but because it operates offshore, New Zealand-regulated settlement is unavailable for these markets.

Spinbara — two first-deposit offers, one for fiat and one for crypto

Spinbara publishes two distinct first-deposit bonuses on the same English site. A fiat first-deposit bonus of 100% up to EUR 100 sits beside a sports crypto welcome bonus of 100% up to 200 USDT, and a separate casino welcome of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins is listed on the casino side of the same page. The dual offer is a clear signal that the brand is built for two distinct audiences — a euro-zone punter funding from a bank card and a crypto punter funding from a wallet — and the betting rules are likely to differ between the two offers, even if the brand name is the same.

The euro pricing is the first thing a New Zealand punter will notice. EUR 100 is a number a New Zealand punter has to convert to decide whether the offer is generous, and the conversion moves with the cross-rate. A 200 USDT crypto offer depends on the USDT price at the moment of deposit. The wagering behind the offer is the offer’s real cost and is not visible on the page reviewed.

Verdict: The currency-focused dual-welcome structure is clearly designed for European markets, meaning New Zealand residents receive an offer not tailored to their jurisdiction.

Sportaza — cash out, Bet Builder, Asian lines and tight interval markets

Sportaza’s product page is one of the denser ones in the offshore set. Cash out is offered before an event or market is finalised, which lets a punter lock in a profit or a loss before the close. Bet Builder is offered with a hard rule: if one selection is voided, the whole betslip is voided — there is no partial refund, no re-pricing, and the punter needs to know the rule before relying on the feature. Multiples, Asian lines and interval markets in 1, 5, 10 or 15 minute windows round out the offer. The licence is an Anjouan one (ALSI-202606064-FI2), and the standard offshore caveat applies.

For a New Zealand punter who wants Asian lines or interval markets, Sportaza is one of the more useful products in the offshore set, and the explicit Bet Builder rule is a positive sign — vague rules are how a winning bet becomes a void bet. The question is the same as for the rest of the offshore brands: the licence is published, the licence is not a New Zealand one, and the same DIA warning applies.

Verdict: Serious sports bettors may appreciate the detailed market options, but they must account for the absence of a local licence when assessing the site’s overall reliability.

BetNinja — a EUR 1,000 casino welcome and a modest sports match

BetNinja’s landing page is dominated by the casino offer: a EUR 1,000 bonus plus 100 free spins. The sports offer is a 100% match up to EUR 100 on the first deposit, which is a smaller and simpler number. The licence is from the Union of the Comoros, which is a published offshore jurisdiction and a regulator that the Department of Internal Affairs’ standing warning applies to. The euro pricing is the same as on Spinbara — a New Zealand punter is converting before deciding whether the offer is generous.

The structure of the offer — a heavy casino welcome and a modest sports match — is a common one and tells the reader where the brand’s product focus sits. A punter whose interest is racing and sports is the smaller half of the brand’s customer base and can expect the sports product to receive less attention than the casino one.

Verdict: The heavy emphasis on casino play and the offshore status make this a secondary choice for sports enthusiasts seeking reliable New Zealand-regulated betting options.

Roobet — a crypto sportsbook with no published New Zealand welcome

Roobet is a brand name of Raw Entertainment B.V., registered in Curaçao under registration number 157205, with a Curaçao licence (OGL/2024/687/0427) at Korporaalweg 10. The licence is published and verifiable on the Curaçao register. The brand is best known as a crypto casino, and the sportsbook is a secondary product. The page reviewed did not surface a New Zealand-specific sports welcome offer, and the standard offshore caveat applies.

For a New Zealand punter the relevant fact is the licence — published, identifiable, and not a New Zealand one. A punter who wants a crypto sportsbook that publishes its corporate details is at least able to verify who they are dealing with, and that is one step better than a brand with no published licence. It is not a step towards a New Zealand-regulated bet.

Verdict: a published-licence crypto sportsbook with a casino-heavy product mix and no New Zealand-specific sports offer; useful to a New Zealand punter who accepts the offshore caveat and the casino-first product weighting.

How the New Zealand market is built, and why the offer is what it is

New Zealand’s betting market is the shape it is because of one statute. The Racing Industry Act 2020 created TAB NZ as the country’s betting operator, and the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA, which prohibits any other person from offering 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 change took effect on 28 June 2025, and the Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect.

The same statute has a long tail. TAB NZ’s online business is run under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023 with Entain, the UK-listed gambling group, in which Entain runs the TAB operation in exchange for a 50/50 share of gross profits, with at least $150m a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years, and Entain pledging a one-off $100m payment to the racing sector. The point of the partnership, for a New Zealand punter, is that the product on the other side of the screen is no longer a legacy state-tote website — it is an Entain-built product under a TAB NZ licence. The Betcha brand, in particular, is the newer face of that partnership, and the multi-led product on Betcha is the Entain playbook rather than a TAB NZ legacy system.

The statute also closes a future path. Greyhound racing in New Zealand is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either. The point is narrower than it sounds — greyhound racing has been a TAB NZ product for years, and the change closes the racing code rather than opening the betting market. For a punter whose betting portfolio is mostly thoroughbred and harness, the date is a footnote; for a punter whose portfolio includes greyhound racing, the betting menu from August 2026 onward is shorter than it is today.

The penalty for an operator breaking section 74AAA is not stated in the section, and no prosecution of an offshore bookmaker was found at the time of writing. The law does not geo-block offshore websites; it puts the liability on the offshore operator. New Zealand does not block bookmaker sites, and the punter is not the target of the statute — 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 honest framing is that the law targets the operator, the regulator warns the player, and the player has no published penalty to weigh.

What the law says a betting offer has to look like

The New Zealand statute does not regulate the size of a betting bonus or the wagering terms that go with it. There is no per-bet cap and no wagering multiple laid down in the Racing Industry Act 2020 or its 2025 amendment. The only rules a TAB NZ offer has to clear are TAB NZ’s own terms, and the only body that polices those terms is TAB NZ itself, with the Department of Internal Affairs as the upstream regulator of TAB NZ’s licence.

The contrast with online casino gambling is sharp. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 caps online casino inducements at $100 or 200% of the deposit, whichever is lower, and the cap is enforced by the Department of Internal Affairs. That cap does not apply to betting. TAB NZ’s bonus bets are described in the app listing — Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets, a Mega Multi bonus of up to $50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs — and the precise terms of each promotion are operator-level rules that change with the promotion. There is no published register of betting bonus terms and no comparison table to draw on. A bettor who wants to know the wagering on a $50 Bonus Cash offer checks the specific promotion rules.

The other statute that touches a betting offer is the Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code, which applies to betting advertisements in New Zealand. 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 — must not encourage harm, and must be truthful with terms available. There is no New Zealand equivalent of a “whistle-to-whistle” ban on betting advertising around live sport, and there is no published rule on bonus advertising in particular. A reader who sees a 200% crypto welcome advertised in New Zealand is seeing an ad that is not aimed at them under New Zealand rules, because the brand behind the ad has no New Zealand licence and is not governed by the ASA code.

The tax position is the other side of the same coin. For a recreational punter, Inland Revenue guidance says gambling winnings are generally not taxable 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 is not tax advice. On the operator side, TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy (0.74% in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028); overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty (12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027), but the duty being payable does not make the offer lawful. A tax payment is not a licence.

The safer-gambling tools TAB and Betcha offer, and where to get help

The safer-gambling tools that apply to a New Zealand punter are TAB NZ’s, because TAB NZ is the only lawful provider. The TAB NZ app lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion as in-app tools, and the same tools are available in the Betcha app — an exclusion set on one brand applies to the other. The 18+ age rule for betting is set by section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and betting under 18 is an offence under that section. Land-based casinos in New Zealand have a 20+ age rule, and the two ages are not the same — a punter who is 19 can bet with TAB NZ but cannot enter a land-based casino floor.

The free help is the same on both apps. The Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 is a 24/7 free line, with a text line on 8006 for callers who do not want to talk. The helpline is listed in both the TAB and Betcha app listings and is the single most reliable route to a counsellor. Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the public-facing harm-minimisation programme and is the place to find self-exclusion information outside the apps. There is no single national online-betting exclusion register; the register the casino law will require is for online casinos only, and an exclusion from TAB NZ is an exclusion from TAB NZ, not from any other operator.

For a punter betting offshore, none of this framework follows. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. A New Zealand punter who has set a deposit limit at TAB NZ has not set a limit at an offshore brand, and a self-exclusion at TAB NZ does not exclude the punter from the offshore brand. The safer-gambling tools at offshore brands are the brand’s own tools, overseen by the brand’s own regulator, and the New Zealand helpline is still available to call.

The real price of a free bet, worked through

A free bet is the most common offer across the brands in this comparison, and the one thing every free bet has in common is that the stake of the free bet is not paid back with the winnings. That is not a quirk of TAB NZ or of any particular offshore brand — it is the standard structure of a free bet. The marketing calls it “free”; the arithmetic is what the marketing leaves out.

Take a free bet of $10 at decimal odds of 1.90 on a two-way market. A winning $10 cash bet at 1.90 returns $19, of which $9 is net profit and the $10 stake is paid back. The same winning bet with a $10 free bet returns $9 — the $9 net profit on a 1.90 price — and the $10 stake is not paid back. That is the headline. The same $10 free bet at decimal odds of 3.50 returns $25, of which $25 is net profit and the stake again is not paid back, so the higher the price the more a free bet is worth in absolute terms.

The next step is the market’s payout share, because the price the punter sees is not the only number that matters. A market at 1.90 / 1.90 has a payout share of 1 / (1/1.90 + 1/1.90) — that sum is 1.0526, so the payout share is 0.9502, or 95.02%, and the margin is 4.98%. A 1.90 / 1.90 market is a tight market, and the free bet loses a little less than 5% of its expected value to the margin. The free-bet value formula is the free-bet amount times the decimal odds minus one, divided by the decimal odds, times the payout share. For a $10 free bet at 1.90 on a market paying 95%:

Value = $10 × (1.90 − 1) / 1.90 × 0.95

Value = $10 × 0.4737 × 0.95

Value = $4.50

That is what the free bet is worth on average, not what it wins on any given day. The same $10 free bet at 3.50 on a market paying 90% (a 10% margin, more typical of a smaller market):

Value = $10 × (3.50 − 1) / 3.50 × 0.90

Value = $10 × 0.7143 × 0.90

Value = $6.43

The arithmetic, assuming only the free bet is wagered, gives a value band of roughly $4.50 to $6.43 for a $10 free bet across the markets a New Zealand punter is most likely to back, with the value rising as the price rises and the market’s payout share falls. The result is an average, not a guarantee. A punter who treats the free bet as a single bet and gets lucky wins more; a punter who treats it as a single bet and gets unlucky wins nothing. The expected value is the long-run average, and the long run is many bets, not one.

A punter who can place the free bet on a market with a tighter margin — a 1X2 football market at 1.95 / 3.60 / 4.20 has a payout share of about 95% and a margin of about 5% — gets more expected value per dollar of free bet than a punter who places it on a small exotic market with a 10% margin. A punter who splits a $50 free bet across five $10 free bets is not changing the expected value; the expected value is $4.50 per $10 of free bet, $22.50 in total, regardless of how the bet is split. The wagering the brand attaches to the free bet, if any, is the next cost layer and the one the marketing is most likely to bury. Where the brand allows the free bet to be split across multiple bets, as TAB NZ’s Bonus Cash does, the punter’s job is to choose the splits that maximise expected value — the highest prices on the tightest markets — and the brand’s job is to publish the minimum odds for each split.

What the offshore brands offer, and what that offer costs

The offshore half of the comparison table carries offers that look larger than TAB NZ’s because they are. A 200% crypto welcome, a EUR 1,000 casino bonus, a coin shop with five VIP levels, a Bet Builder with Asian lines and 1-minute interval markets — none of those is on the TAB NZ product, and none of them is on the right side of section 74AAA. The size of the offer is the cost of breaking New Zealand law, and the cost of breaking New Zealand law is paid by the operator, not the punter — but the punter pays in a different currency. A winning bet at an offshore brand that pays out is a winning bet; a winning bet at an offshore brand that does not is a different experience, and the only person who knows in advance is the operator.

A punter who weighs the offshore offers has a clear list of things to check before depositing. The licence: published, identifiable, and not a New Zealand one. The corporate entity: a company name and a registration number that can be checked on a public register, with a registered address. The payment methods: a New Zealand-friendly deposit method that does not require a workaround — a bank card that the New Zealand bank has not blocked, a crypto wallet the punter already holds, an e-wallet available in New Zealand. The safer-gambling tools: deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in the account, and a complaints route to a regulator the punter can identify. The bonus terms: a wagering multiple, a minimum odds, a deadline, a cap on winnings, a list of eligible markets, and a list of payment methods that are excluded from the offer. Every one of those is a question the punter asks before clicking deposit, and every one of them is a question the brand’s terms page answers.

The brands reviewed above do not all clear that bar. Some publish the licence; some do not. Some publish a New Zealand country selector; some do not. Some publish a comprehensive terms page; some publish a marketing page with the terms behind a link. The honest framing is that the offer is on the table, the offshore caveat is the price of taking it, and the punter who treats the welcome as a trial of the sportsbook and reads the small print before depositing is the only profile the offer suits. The punter who treats the welcome as a free ride is the profile the offer is built for.

What a reader comparing these offers must do next

A New Zealand punter with $50 to stake on a weekend of Super Rugby Pacific, NRL and the All Blacks has a narrow set of choices. The lawful choice is TAB or Betcha, with a Bonus Cash welcome on TAB and a Toolbox of odds boosts and insurance on Betcha, both running through the TAB NZ safer-gambling framework. The unlawful choice is one of the eight offshore brands reviewed above, with a larger welcome and the same offshore caveat the Department of Internal Affairs has published. The choice the punter makes is the choice between a regulated product and a larger number, and the larger number is not free.

A punter who decides to bet with TAB NZ sets a deposit limit on day one, before the welcome is claimed. The limit is in the app, it is operator-level, and it is the single most useful safer-gambling tool on the platform. A punter who decides to bet offshore sets a limit at the offshore brand as well, knowing that the limit is not enforced by a New Zealand regulator and that the same self-exclusion is not portable to TAB NZ. The punter who sets a limit at neither is the punter the offer is built for, and the offer is built to be taken.

A punter who wants to understand the wagering on a TAB NZ Bonus Cash offer checks the rules associated with that specific promotion. A punter who wants to understand the wagering on an offshore welcome reads the brand’s bonus terms page, finds the wagering multiple, the minimum odds, the eligible markets and the deadline, and checks each one against the punter’s own plan. The expected-value calculation in the section above is the same arithmetic on both sides of the comparison — the same formula, the same kind of market, the same band of values — and the result is the same kind of answer. The arithmetic does not change because the brand is offshore or the currency is USDT. The brand’s terms change, and the punter’s job is to read them.

The final word belongs to the statute. Section 74AAA says what it says, and the Department of Internal Affairs said what it said. A New Zealand punter who bets with TAB NZ is on the right side of the law, with a complaints route, a regulator and a harm-minimisation framework. A New Zealand punter who bets offshore is the subject of the regulator’s warning, and the regulator has not promised that the warning is the worst of it. The offer is the offer. The law is the law.

Frequently asked questions

Which betting site offers a free bet in New Zealand?

TAB and Betcha are 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 under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. TAB’s app lists Bonus Cash for new customers, splittable across multiple bets, and a Mega Multi bonus of up to $50 in Bonus Cash. Betcha runs a daily Toolbox of odds boosts and bet insurance. The wagering requirement on each promotion is published in the specific rules for that offer. Offshore brands also advertise free bets, but the Department of Internal Affairs has warned that they are not licensed to take bets from people in New Zealand.

Are there New Zealand rules on the size or terms of a betting bonus?

No. The Racing Industry Act 2020 and the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 do not lay down a bonus cap, a wagering multiple or a deadline for betting promotions, and the only rules a TAB NZ offer has to clear are TAB NZ’s own terms. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 caps online casino inducements at $100 or 200% of the deposit, but that cap governs licensed online casinos, not betting. A punter who wants to know the wagering on a TAB NZ offer checks the individual offer’s rules.

Why is the stake of a free or bonus bet not paid back with the winnings?

The structure is the standard one across the betting industry: a free bet pays the profit only, not the stake, because the stake is the brand’s money. A $10 free bet at decimal odds of 1.90 pays $9 of profit if it wins — the $10 stake is not returned. The expected value of a $10 free bet on a market with a 95% payout share is roughly $4.50; the same free bet on a market with a 90% payout share is roughly $4.26, and on a 3.50 price with a 90% payout share, roughly $6.43. The arithmetic assumes only the free bet is wagered and the bet settles as a winner on the published price.

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

TAB NZ is the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 took effect on 28 June 2025. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of TAB NZ, run by Entain under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023 that gives Entain a 50/50 share of gross profits, with at least $150m a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years. There is no licensing route for another bookmaker and no licence register for betting, because there is only one lawful operator.

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

The return on a winning bet is the stake multiplied by the decimal odds, and the net profit is the stake multiplied by the decimal odds minus one. A $10 stake at 2.10 returns $21, of which $11 is net profit and the $10 stake is paid back. A combination bet multiplies the odds of each leg into one price, so a two-leg multi at 1.80 and 2.50 is a 4.50 price, and a $10 stake returns $45 if both legs win. The market’s margin is the difference between 100% and the market’s payout share — for a 1.90 / 1.90 two-way market, the payout share is roughly 95.02% and the margin is roughly 4.98%, which is the bookmaker’s expected share of every unit bet on the market.

Which tools for controlling play do TAB and Betcha offer, and who can be called for help?

The TAB NZ and Betcha apps list deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion as in-app tools, and an exclusion set on one brand applies to the other. The 18+ age rule for betting is set by section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and betting under 18 is an offence under that section. The free Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 is a 24/7 line, with a text line on 8006, and Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the public-facing harm-minimisation programme. The helpline is listed in both app stores and is the single most reliable route to a counsellor. For a punter betting offshore, none of the New Zealand tools follow, and the same deposit limit and self-exclusion must be set at the offshore brand.

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