Mobile betting in New Zealand: the apps, the law, and what each path costs

Updated October 2026

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Two apps take legal online bets in New Zealand. Everything else that calls itself a sportsbook is breaking the law at its end, even if it opens cleanly on your phone. That is the single decision this page is built around, and every section that follows returns to it.

The choice the page helps with is not “which brand wins”. It is which path a New Zealand punter can actually walk down in 2026, what each path gives them, and what it quietly takes away.

*Data current as of 31 October 2026, checked against the Department of Internal Affairs’ published statement on section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020.*

The shortlist at a glance

Ten brands live on this page. Two of them are the only lawful option in New Zealand. The other eight are the apps a New Zealand reader is most likely to meet, ranked on the same criteria and labelled for what they are. None of the offshore brands is a recommendation, and none is a substitute for TAB NZ or Betcha — the law on online betting does not bend for any of them.

The two lawful brands come first because nothing else ranks against them on a New Zealand basis. From row three down, the brands are present because a New Zealand punter will encounter them, not because they offer a path the law recognises.

What mobile betting in New Zealand actually is

The phrase “mobile betting in New Zealand” sounds like a category the bettor shops across. It is not. Since the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA into the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force from 28 June 2025, only TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where the operator is resident or incorporated. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect.

That is the whole shape of mobile betting in New Zealand:

• One operator group. TAB NZ runs two online brands: TAB and Betcha. They are not competitors; they share the same licence, the same safer-betting tools, and the same pool of funds.
• One rule. Section 74AAA covers anyone offering racing or sports bets to a person in New Zealand. There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is no licence to apply for.
• One payment path. TAB NZ’s deposit and withdrawal methods are operator-level terms, not statute. There is no government-set rule on card, bank, credit, prepaid or crypto deposits for betting accounts.

The rest of this page is about what each path — the lawful one and the offshore ones a New Zealand reader is most likely to see — actually costs the person using it.

The lawful path: TAB and Betcha

TAB and Betcha are the same bookmaker wearing two different outfits. The Racing Industry Act 2020 names TAB New Zealand as the holder. Entain runs the business under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023; the deal gives Entain a 50/50 split of gross profits, with at least $150 million a year paid to TAB NZ for the first five years, and a one-off $100 million payment to the racing sector.

That arrangement matters for a punter in two ways. First, the betting line — odds, markets, race types — is set by an offshore-facing operator with deep resources. Second, the floor underneath the line — the harm-minimisation tools, the customer-protection rules, the complaints route — is set by New Zealand law on a monopoly operator. The combination is unusual and partly explains why the two brands feel different to use.

What the TAB app actually carries

The TAB app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union and rugby league and other sports, with pre-match and live betting markets. Its racing features are the reason many punters install it: Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook, Jockey Challenge tools and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals.

For racing specifically, the app supports Same Race Multis, Same Game Multis, one-tap Popular Multis and a Place Extra option that lets punters back runners to finish up to the tenth in selected races. The bet types that bookmakers in bigger markets treat as standard — Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie, Big6 — all sit inside the TAB rules.

The App Store carries the TAB listing under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board, with the app first released on 8 September 2014. It carries a 17+ age rating; the app’s own terms state that customers must be 18 or over to bet.

What Betcha adds, and what it doesn’t

Betcha is the newer face of the same operator. The app was first released on 6 August 2024 and is published on the New Zealand App Store by Entain New Zealand Limited. The 17+ age rating is the same, the safer-betting tools are the same, and a self-exclusion on TAB extends to Betcha — the brands share a harm-minimisation system.

The differences are product-level. Betcha is positioned as a sports-led brand where TAB is racing-and-sport; the racing depth, including the long-form bets like Quinella and Trifecta, lives mostly on TAB. New TAB NZ customers can receive Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets, and the TAB 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 any offer, including the wagering that goes with it, are on TAB NZ’s own page; the brand publishes them, and a punter reads them before claiming.

What the lawful path costs a New Zealand punter

Three costs are worth naming because they sit on the lawful path:

• The prices themselves. Bookmaker margin sits inside every TAB and Betcha price. The market the punter is in — racing tote, racing fixed-odds, head-to-head on a rugby test, a Same Game Multi — sets the size of that margin. There is no published TAB NZ margin number; the comparison is the price you are offered against the price the same selection carries elsewhere.
• Safer-betting tools that actually bite. TAB NZ lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in its apps, and an exclusion applies across both brands. The free Gambling Helpline at 0800 654 655 and the text line 8006 are listed in the app. The Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74% — in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028 — is paid by TAB NZ out of its own margin, not added to the punter’s stake.
• A regulator who can pull the licence. The Department of Internal Affairs monitors compliance with the betting prohibition under section 92A of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and the Gambling Act 2003 sets the wider gambling framework. A complaint about TAB NZ goes somewhere a New Zealand reader can reach.

That is the cost of lawful betting in New Zealand: an honest margin on the price, a working set of harm tools, and a regulator whose jurisdiction the operator actually sits in.

The offshore path: the eight brands a New Zealander meets

These brands are not the same path as TAB and Betcha. They are what a New Zealand punter meets when they follow a link in an ad, a search result, or a tipster page. None of them may lawfully take a bet from a person in New Zealand. None of them has a New Zealand complaints route. None of them is bound by New Zealand harm-minimisation rules.

The page covers them because the comparison has to be honest about what the punter is looking at, not because it recommends any of them. Each row in the table above carries the brand’s own claim about mobile betting; the paragraphs below carry the editorial judgement on what each brand is actually offering.

BillyBets

BillyBets runs a mobile-optimised platform that works on Android and iOS without a separate app download. Support is 24/7 through live chat and a Help Centre, which is more coverage than some of its peers offer. The brand’s cashier page lists New Zealand in its country selector, but the currency filter shows Euro only — a punter looking at BillyBets from Auckland is being routed through a euro wallet by default.

What it costs a New Zealand punter: no New Zealand licence, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, and a deposit currency that is not the punter’s own. The support is the brand’s strongest feature; the legal standing in New Zealand is its weakest, because the standing is non-existent.

Alawin

Alawin accepts customers aged 18 or over only. The site is mobile-friendly without a native app. There is no New Zealand licence; the brand names no licence that applies to people in New Zealand.

What it costs a New Zealand punter: the 18+ gate is at least a stated age policy. Everything else about the New Zealand position — dispute resolution, fund segregation, harm tools — is at the brand’s discretion, with no New Zealand framework behind it.

RTbet

RTbet runs a sportsbook on football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports. The brand names a Curaçao licence, which gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand. The mobile experience runs through a browser rather than a native app.

What it costs a New Zealand punter: the live betting and virtuals coverage are the strongest parts of the offer. The New Zealand position is the same as the other offshore brands on this list — the licence does not reach here.

FunBet

FunBet’s sportsbook covers football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and what the site describes as a bookmaker open 24/7. The brand names no licence that applies to people in New Zealand.

What it costs a New Zealand punter: a wide sport menu with rugby included, which is the one thing a New Zealand punter is most likely to want. The 24/7 framing is a marketing line; what the brand will actually do with a complaint from New Zealand is not established by anything on the page.

22Bet

22Bet is run by TechSolutions Group N.V., a Curaçao company with registration number 144920, which also runs 20Bet, Bizzo and National Casino. The Curaçao licence number tied to 22Bet is 8048/JAZ. The site runs on mobile and offers a separate app for download.

What it costs a New Zealand punter: a Curaçao licence with a corporate group behind it, which is a step up in corporate visibility from many of the brands on this list, but still no New Zealand standing. A punter who has used one of the sister brands in the TechSolutions group will know roughly what 22Bet feels like — the same platform family is the closest comparison the brand offers.

Rooster Bet

Rooster Bet is operated by Novatrix SRL, a company incorporated in Costa Rica with registration number 3-102-893958, under e-gaming licence No. 0000002 issued by the Tobique Gaming Commission. The site is mobile-friendly.

What it costs a New Zealand punter: the Tobique licence is a regulator most New Zealand readers have never heard of; the Costa Rica corporate seat puts a layer between the punter and the licence holder. Nothing on the brand’s page addresses New Zealand, and nothing on the regulator’s page addresses a punter from New Zealand.

Golden Panda

Golden Panda offers a Sports section with a sportsbook, esports and virtual sports, plus casino, live casino, crash games, rewards, cashback, a VIP Club, Golden Goals and Prediction Markets. The brand names no licence that applies to people in New Zealand.

What it costs a New Zealand punter: the brand is product-heavy in the casino sense — crash games, prediction markets, the VIP framing — and light on the kind of racing depth a New Zealand TAB punter is used to. The mobile site carries the same product set.

Winz

Winz states in its footer that it holds a licence delivered by Anjouan and Tobique. The site is mobile-friendly.

What it costs a New Zealand punter: two licences on the footer, neither of which gives any right to take bets from people in New Zealand. The casino framing is dominant on the brand; the sportsbook is one section among several.

What the law actually says

Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 is short, and the brevity is the point. No person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or incorporated. The change took effect on 28 June 2025, and the Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect.

The law does not geo-block offshore websites; New Zealand internet filtering does not block sportsbooks. The liability the statute creates sits on the offshore operator. 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 published penalty for a player was found.

The cleanest framing the page can offer: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework. Offshore brands are unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, with no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, and the warnings DIA publishes about unspent credits, large-win disputes and minimal consumer safeguards. Neither side is “the safe choice” by default.

Racing on greyhounds, esports and the edge cases

Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026. From that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either, even if they were accepting other racing before. The offshore brands that have greyhound markets on them — RTbet, FunBet, and the broader casino-led set — are touching a market that is closing under the punter’s feet regardless of which brand they use.

Esports is the open edge case. The Racing Industry Act 2020 does not clearly classify esports betting as “sports betting”. The 2026 online casino law treats virtual (computer-simulated) sport as casino gambling. A punter looking at an esports line at an offshore brand expect the legal classification to stay unsettled for some time.

What may be bet on

Racing and sports betting from TAB NZ only. TAB NZ takes fixed-odds bets and tote (pool) bets. Live betting is listed in the TAB NZ apps; any statutory restriction on in-play markets is not established. No lawful New Zealand betting exchange exists and spread betting is outside TAB NZ’s sports-betting definition. Bets on politics and novelty markets are not established. There is no statutory per-bet cap; limits are TAB NZ’s own terms.

Tax

For the punter, Inland Revenue’s general position is that recreational gambling winnings are not taxable. Prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business is a different case; the brand of advice here is general information, not tax advice, and the punter checks with Inland Revenue or an accountant if their situation is unusual.

For the operator, TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74%. Offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty at 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027. Paying a duty does not make an offer lawful; the section 74AAA prohibition is independent of the duty. The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026.

Advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code 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. Ads must not encourage harm and must be truthful with terms available. No New Zealand equivalent of a whistle-to-whistle ban for betting was found. DIA reads the prohibition as covering promotion as well as taking bets, so the page does not invite the reader to sign up with an offshore brand.

Safer betting in the app

TAB NZ lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in both apps, and an exclusion applies across TAB and Betcha. The free Gambling Helpline at 0800 654 655 and the text line 8006 are listed in the app. Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the umbrella service behind those tools. There is no single national online-betting exclusion register: the register the casino law will require is for online casinos only, and does not extend to racing and sports.

TAB NZ accounts need a verified New Zealand address and ID. The age for TAB NZ betting is 18, and betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Land-based casinos in New Zealand are 20 — the age rule is not the same across the two regimes, and the punter must not assume it is.

DIA’s published warnings about offshore operators are worth reading in full: overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins. None of those warnings is theoretical, and all of them sit on the path a New Zealand punter walks when they choose an offshore app.

Bonuses and free bets on the lawful and offshore paths

The marketing word on this page is “free”. Nothing on this page is free of cost. The marketing word on this page is “bonus”. Every bonus carries a price, and the price is in the operator’s own terms.

What “bonus bets” means on TAB

TAB NZ runs Bonus Cash promotions. New TAB NZ customers can receive 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. Both promotions are described in TAB NZ’s own terms, including any wagering and expiry that go with them; the punter reads those terms before claiming, because the headline is the smallest part of the offer.

The value of a Bonus Cash offer is not the face value. A free bet whose stake is not paid back with a win is worth, on average, the free-bet amount multiplied by (odds minus one), divided by the odds, and then multiplied by the payout share of the market the bet sits on. A $50 Bonus Cash token bet on a Same Race Multi at $4.00 odds is not a $200 payout if it wins — it is a $150 profit on a token that did not cost the punter the stake, and the average value is smaller than the headline because most markets carry a margin that takes a cut before the token’s worth is paid out. The honest summary is that the offer has worth, and the worth is smaller than the headline.

What “boosted odds” means offshore

The offshore brands use “boosted odds” the same way every sportsbook does: a price on a selected market that is higher than the underlying line, for a stake limit, for a window. The boost is funded by the marketing budget of the brand, not by a more generous margin on the rest of the book; the rest of the book is unchanged. A punter who chases boosts without checking the underlying price pays for the boost in the bets they do not place at the boosted line.

What “no deposit” means in this market

A no-deposit offer is a token the brand credits to a new account without the punter funding the account first. The wagering on a no-deposit token is the heaviest part of the offer, because the brand is giving away something on credit and pricing the credit in. The turnover a no-deposit token requires is the figure that decides whether the offer is worth taking, not the token’s face value.

What the wagering actually does

Wagering is the requirement that the punter bet the bonus amount, or the bonus plus the deposit, a set number of times before any winnings become withdrawable. The required turnover is the bonus base multiplied by the wagering factor, where the base is whichever of the two the operator’s terms name. The number of bets needed is the turnover divided by the stake per bet, and only bets at or above the minimum price the terms name count.

The cost of clearing the offer, on average, is the required turnover multiplied by the margin of the market the bets sit on. A punter looking at a $50 Bonus Cash token that requires 6x turnover on sports at single bets of $10 minimum, at a market margin in the 5–8% range that a typical sportsbook runs, can expect to spend $300 of betting turnover to clear $50 of bonus; the cost of clearing that turnover is in the order of $15 to $24 of expected margin, before the wagering is even finished. The arithmetic is a statistical estimate, not a guaranteed cost, and the margin on the exact market the punter uses is the figure that decides whether the offer is worth more than its clearing cost.

Mobile and app specifics

The TAB app and Betcha app are the only lawful mobile betting apps for racing and sports in New Zealand. Both carry a 17+ App Store age rating while stating that customers must be 18 or over to bet. Both are published by New Zealand-registered entities — TAB by the New Zealand Racing Board, Betcha by Entain New Zealand Limited — which puts the app store listing inside New Zealand’s regulatory reach.

The offshore brands run on three patterns:

• Mobile-optimised browser sites. BillyBets, Alawin, RTbet, FunBet, Golden Panda and Winz run sites designed for the small screen rather than apps in the app stores. The browser approach is faster to update and avoids the store approval process; the trade-off is that the punter does not get push notifications, biometric login, or the polish an app store submission gets.
• Native apps. 22Bet offers iOS and Android apps. SpinBetter, Megapari, BetWinner and Paripesa all offer iOS and Android apps as well; they are not on this page’s reviewed set but their app-store footprint is part of why a New Zealand reader meets them in search.
• Hybrid. The 22Bet mobile site works as a fallback when the app is unavailable in a particular country, which is closer to the offshore pattern than the native-app pattern.

The age gate the offshore sites set in their own terms varies: 18+ for Alawin and Boomerang Bet; 21+ for SpinBetter, Megapari, BetWinner and Paripesa. The 21+ gate is the brand’s own minimum; it does not bind a New Zealand punter under New Zealand law, which sets 18 for TAB NZ. A punter who is 18 or 19 in New Zealand is within New Zealand law for TAB NZ betting and outside the offshore brands’ own age gate at the brands that set 21+.

Reading the prices: what margin costs a bettor

The price a punter sees on a TAB market is the price the punter pays. Inside that price sits the bookmaker’s margin, which is what the bookmaker keeps, on average, out of every dollar bet on that market. The margin is invisible in the headline price and visible in the way the prices on every outcome of a market add up to more than 100% when converted back to probabilities.

The formula is mechanical. For a market with three outcomes, the payout share is one divided by the sum of one over each price. The margin is one minus the payout share. A head-to-head market priced at $1.85 and $2.05 has a payout share of about 96.1% and a margin of about 3.9%. A three-way soccer 1X2 priced at $2.50, $3.20 and $2.90 has a payout share of about 93.5% and a margin of about 6.5%. The wider the margin, the more the bookmaker keeps, on average, out of every bet on the market.

Same Game Multis and accumulators carry their own margin because each leg has its own margin and the legs multiply. A Same Game Multi of four legs, each on a market with a 6% margin, has a compounded margin that is meaningfully higher than 6%. The punter’s expected return on a Same Game Multi is the stake multiplied by the odds, multiplied by the probability of winning all the legs; the expected cost to the bookmaker is the margin that sits inside each leg. The compounding is why a Same Game Multi pays more when it wins and costs more when it doesn’t.

The honest framing is that margin is the cost of betting, expressed as a percentage of turnover, and the punter’s job is to find markets where the margin is low rather than where the headline price is high.

Reading an offer: what the small print costs

The small print on a bonus offer is the offer. The headline is the part the marketing team wrote; the wagering, the minimum price, the expiry, the cap on winnings, the eligible markets, the payment-method restriction — those are the part the finance team wrote.

A punter looking at any offer — TAB Bonus Cash, an offshore “free bet”, a “risk-free” first bet refunded as a free bet — must read the small print for five figures, in this order:

• The wagering factor and the base. Is the turnover the bonus multiplied by the factor, or the bonus plus the deposit multiplied by the factor? The base is the figure that decides how much betting the offer takes.
• The minimum price per qualifying bet. Bets below the minimum price do not count toward turnover. A market with most of its prices below the minimum — short-priced favourites in a one-sided market — drains the punter’s stake without counting toward the requirement.
• The expiry. A bonus that expires in 7 days and requires 6x turnover on a $50 bonus needs the punter to bet $300 in 7 days, which is roughly $43 a day at single bets of $10. The expiry is what turns a feasible offer into a panic.
• The cap on winnings. A “free bet” with a cap of $200 on winnings is not a free bet above $200; the punter’s upside is clipped.
• The eligible markets. Some offers restrict turnover to specific sports, specific bet types, or specific odds ranges. An offer that looks generous and is then restricted to a 30-market market is one Paddy punter clears slower than the headline suggests.

The audit reads a punter who has read those five figures as someone who can decide whether the offer is worth taking. The audit reads a punter who has not read them as someone the marketing team has already decided for.

How to use this page

This is the path through it:

1. Decide whether TAB NZ or Betcha is the path you want. If yes, install the app and open an account with a verified New Zealand address and ID. The rest of the page is background.
2. If you are choosing an offshore app, decide what you are choosing against. The legal position in New Zealand does not change because the app is convenient; the consumer safeguards do not extend because the brand has a Curaça licence.
3. Read the small print on any offer before claiming it. The five figures above are the ones that decide whether the offer is worth taking.
4. Set a deposit limit on the app you use, and use the helpline if the betting stops being casual.

The page is built to be read in that order, and the sections above are built to support each step in it.

The two faces of “best mobile betting app”

The phrase “best mobile betting app” appears in search terms around this subject. Two different ideas sit under the phrase, and a New Zealand punter must not confuse them.

For a New Zealand punter, the best mobile betting app is whichever of TAB or Betcha fits the betting they actually do. TAB carries the racing depth, the Trackside stream, the long-form bet types and the form tools. Betcha carries the newer sports-led layout and the same safer-betting framework. The bettor who backs horses installs TAB. The bettor who backs rugby and basketball with the occasional Same Game Multi is well served by either.

For a punter shopping outside New Zealand, “best mobile betting app” is a different question entirely: it is the offshore brand with the deepest market coverage, the lowest margin, and the cleanest payout record for the sport the punter bets on. None of those offshore brands is a New Zealand app, and none of them is the answer to the New Zealand question.

Frequently asked questions

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

TAB NZ, through its two online brands TAB and Betcha, is the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 came into force on 28 June 2025. No other bookmaker may take such bets from a person in New Zealand, regardless of where the operator is incorporated.

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

A winning single bet pays the stake multiplied by the odds, so a $10 stake at $3.50 returns $35 and a $25 net profit. A combination bet multiplies the odds of each leg together so the same $10 on four legs each at $2.00 pays $160 if all four win. The formula is the same in every currency; only the sign of the odds changes.

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

The margin is what the bookmaker keeps, on average, out of every dollar bet on a market. The payout share of a market is one divided by the sum of one over each price; the margin is one minus that share. A market where the prices imply a payout share of 95% has a margin of 5%, and the bookmaker keeps, on average, five cents out of every dollar bet.

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, the New Zealand complaints route, the regulator’s reach, and the protection of a licence holder under New Zealand law. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may not return unspent credits or pay out large wins. Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, says a player may not be convicted for placing such a bet; no published penalty for a player was 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. Opening a TAB NZ account requires a verified New Zealand address and ID. The TAB app carries a 17+ App Store age rating; the betting age is 18 in the operator’s own terms.

Are betting winnings taxed in New Zealand?

Inland Revenue’s general position is that recreational gambling winnings are not taxable, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business is treated differently under tax law, and the right place to check an unusual situation is Inland Revenue or an accountant.

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