Online bookmakers in New Zealand in 2026: who can lawfully take your bet

Updated October 2026

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Since 28 June 2025, two online brands — TAB and Betcha, both run by TAB New Zealand — are the only operators a person in New Zealand can lawfully bet with online on sport and racing. The Racing Industry Act 2020, as amended by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, says so outright, and the Department of Internal Affairs told every other provider serving New Zealand customers to stop. That makes this page a different shape from the equivalent guide in most other countries. There is no league table of ten rivals. There is one operator with two faces, eight offshore names a New Zealand reader still meets in search results and on affiliate sites, and a legal frame around all of it that decides what each of those names can actually do for someone placing a bet from inside New Zealand.

The angle here is choice — what paths exist, and who each one suits. The page looks first at the top-10 set research puts side by side, then at how the New Zealand market works, then at legality and at the harm-minimisation tools that come with the lawful option. It then turns to the offer shelf and to the new brands that have launched offshore while the New Zealand door was closing. After the operator write-ups comes a working FAQ.

Data on this page is current as of 31 October 2026 and was checked against the Department of Internal Affairs’ register of authorised betting activity and TAB New Zealand’s published terms.

How the ten brands on this list compare

The comparison table below is not a ranking. TAB and Betcha are the only lawful option in New Zealand; the other eight brands sit on the same shelf because New Zealand readers meet them, not because they have a New Zealand right to take a bet. Each is rated on the same criteria so the difference is visible. The “New Zealand status” column makes the legal split in a single glance; the “what the operator’s own terms state” column says where each brand stands on the question research provided.

Two things the table cannot say, and which the rest of the page carries. First, the legal position is not a contest: a person in New Zealand placing a bet with TAB or Betcha is inside the only frame the law provides, while a person placing the same bet with any other brand on this list is dealing with an operator the Department of Internal Affairs has told to withdraw from this market. Second, the eight non-New Zealand brands differ from each other in ways that matter to someone reading about them — a Curaçao licence is the same licence half the industry holds, an unverified operator is a step beyond that, and a brand that shows New Zealand in its country selector while holding no New Zealand licence is doing the one thing this guide cannot recommend. None of that turns a foreign brand into a lawful New Zealand bookmaker. It only changes the risk a New Zealand reader takes on when they use one.

How the New Zealand online betting market actually works

The shape of this market is set by statute. TAB New Zealand exists by the Racing Industry Act 2020, and the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 added section 74AAA, which limits online sports and racing betting to TAB NZ alone, regardless of where the operator is resident or incorporated. The change took effect on 28 June 2025, and DIA told unlicensed providers to stop serving New Zealand customers with immediate effect.

TAB NZ runs two online brands. TAB is the long-established name. Betcha is the newer mobile-first app, published by Entain New Zealand Limited and first released on 6 August 2024. Both brands are one operator; both share the same pool of markets, the same wallet and the same exclusion system. Treating them as rivals is inaccurate.

TAB NZ’s partner Entain runs the TAB business under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023 that gives Entain a 50/50 share of gross profits, with at least $150 million a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years. Entain also pledged a one-off $100 million payment to the racing sector. The deal is what pays for the racing industry in New Zealand; a New Zealand punter’s stake feeds a partnership, not a private sportsbook. That is why a section 74AAA monopoly is not the political shock it is in most other markets — TAB NZ is structured to return most of its take to the codes it takes bets on.

For someone choosing where to bet, the practical effect is straightforward. If you want to bet on All Blacks, Black Caps, Super Rugby Pacific, NRL, harness racing at Addington or a Melbourne Cup sweep from inside New Zealand, you have one lawful place to do it. The breadth of markets is the breadth of one operator, and the live betting, the same-game multis and the racing form tools all sit inside one app. A reader who wants a wider price range, an exchange, a political market, an esports market or a “boosted odds” shelf with hundreds of legs a day will not find any of that under New Zealand law.

What may be bet on, and at what age

TAB NZ takes fixed-odds bets and tote (pool) bets. Its published betting rules cover the racing staples: Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, alongside Multis and Same Game Multis. On the sports side the menu covers rugby union, rugby league, football, tennis, basketball, cricket and the major North American leagues, with live betting listed inside the apps. The TAB app carries a 17+ App Store age rating while stating that customers must be 18 or over to bet, and betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Land-based casinos in New Zealand are 20 — a reader who has turned 18 but not 20 can bet on TAB NZ but cannot enter a casino floor, and the page keeps the two ages separate.

There is no statutory per-bet cap. Limits on stake size, market depth or the maximum payout on a given race are TAB NZ’s own commercial terms, not law. Bets on politics, novelty markets and esports sit outside the Racing Industry Act’s sports-betting definition; the law is not established on whether esports betting is “sports betting” at all, so a reader looking for an esports market will find one on offshore brands rather than on TAB NZ. Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either.

The legal frame: what section 74AAA does, and what it doesn’t

Section 74AAA puts the prohibition on the operator. It limits online sports and racing betting to TAB NZ alone, regardless of where the operator is incorporated. DIA reads that as covering anyone taking bets from inside New Zealand, and DIA told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect when the section came into force. There is no licence register for betting, because there is only one lawful operator, and there is no licence to apply for. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only; it does not license sports betting, and TAB New Zealand’s right to apply for a casino licence does not extend the betting monopoly to any other sportsbook brand.

New Zealand does not block bookmaker websites. The law does not work by geo-blocking; it works by putting liability on the offshore operator that chooses to take a New Zealand bet. That is the reason an offshore site can still load in a browser in Auckland: no one has asked the network to block it. 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. The penalty for an offshore operator breaching section 74AAA is not stated in the section, and no prosecution of an offshore bookmaker was found in the public record.

For the player, the picture is deliberately softer. 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 the one the Department uses: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework; offshore options are unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, have no New Zealand complaints route, and carry the risks DIA lists. Neither is “the safe choice” by default — the lawful option is the safe choice for the player, and the offshore shelf is the unsafe one, full stop.

Tax is a separate question. Inland Revenue guidance says recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business is a different case, and the right place to read that is Inland Revenue or an accountant, not a betting guide. On the operator side, TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% (in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028), and offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty (12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027). A duty being payable does not make an offer lawful — paying tax to New Zealand is not the same as holding a New Zealand licence, and no source says otherwise.

Advertising, affiliates and what the ASA code does

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 (where accurate data exists, 25% or more of the audience counts as significant). They must not encourage harm and must be truthful with terms available. There is no New Zealand equivalent of a “whistle-to-whistle” ban for betting. Because only TAB NZ may offer betting here, the Department of Internal Affairs reads the prohibition as covering promoting or taking such bets for another operator; how DIA treats betting affiliates is not established, so this guide describes the monopoly and never invites a reader to sign up with an offshore brand.

Responsible gambling: what TAB NZ offers, and where to get it

The lawful option here carries the harm-minimisation tools the offshore one cannot. TAB NZ provides safer-gambling tools inside its app: deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. A self-exclusion applies across both TAB NZ brands (TAB and Betcha) — closing a Betcha account does not reopen TAB, and the brand a punter chose does not change the protection they get. Deposit limits let a punter set a ceiling that the app enforces before the bet is accepted, time-outs are short cooling-off windows, and self-exclusion is the longer ban.

For help outside the app, the free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa are the two services the TAB app lists by name. The Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% funds treatment and prevention work across the sector; it is paid by TAB NZ and is not a charge on the punter. None of this reaches an offshore brand. A New Zealand punter using an offshore site has no New Zealand complaints route and no harm-minimisation framework that applies to them — the framework is built around the lawful operator, and the unlawful one is outside it by design.

There is no single national online-betting exclusion register. The register the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 will require is for online casinos only. A punter who has self-excluded through TAB NZ has self-excluded through TAB NZ, not through the offshore shelf — a different operator on a Curaçao licence will not consult the TAB NZ exclusion list, and a punter who has stopped with one brand still has to stop themselves with the next.

Bonuses, free bets and what an offer actually costs

The word “free” on a betting promotion is rarely the full sentence. A free bet is a token the bookmaker credits to your account, used in place of a stake; if the bet wins, the bookmaker usually pays the profit only and keeps the stake. A “risk-free” bet is, on most shelves, a refund in bonus credit if the first bet loses, not a refund in money. A “100% bonus” matches your deposit up to a cap and ties the matched amount to a turnover requirement before it will pay out. A “boosted odds” offer lifts the price on a named selection for a short window; the bookmaker’s margin on that price is rarely published, and the boost is rarely as wide as the marketing implies.

What an offer costs the punter is the wagering requirement it carries. A matched deposit that asks the bonus to be turned over five times at minimum odds of 1.50 is not the same gift as a free bet that pays only the profit; it is a turnover target, and the cost of clearing it depends on the margin of the markets you bet on. A punter clearing a turnover requirement at a 5% margin gives back, over the long run, about 5% of the volume they bet — the bookmaker’s cut sits inside every price. A punter clearing the same turnover at a 10% margin gives back roughly twice as much. The offer is the same offer; the cost depends on the markets.

TAB NZ’s bonus shelf sits inside the lawful frame. 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 (terms and conditions apply). Same Race Multis, Same Game Multis, one-tap Popular Multis and Place Extra (backing runners to finish up to tenth in selected races) are the same kind of feature every modern bookmaker offers — none of them is a free credit; all of them carry the betting margin inside every leg. The page never prints a promo code; the relevant question is what each offer costs, and the right place to read that is the operator’s own terms.

The offshore shelf runs the offer menu other markets take for granted: deposit matches, free-bet bundles, accumulator insurance and the rest. None of it changes the section 74AAA point — the offers exist, the operators taking them are unlawful to serve New Zealand, and no offshore promotion enforces a return the Department of Internal Affairs oversees.

New bookmakers: who has launched while the New Zealand door closed

The new-bookmaker shelf is a useful one to read in this market because it tells the reader something the headline figure does not. New Zealand’s section 74AAA took effect on 28 June 2025, and the period since has not been a launch window for New Zealand-facing brands — the only new domestic product is Betcha itself, published by Entain New Zealand Limited and first released on 6 August 2024. The new names on this page all sit outside New Zealand, and most of them are aimed at markets where the licence is cheaper and the regulator further away.

A “new” bookmaker in the international sense is usually one of three things: a brand-new operator building from scratch, an existing casino group adding a sportsbook, or a rebrand of an older brand under a fresh licence. Soft2Bet’s Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the group’s sixth online sportsbook; Thunderpick is a Curaçao company (Paloma Media B.V., company number 146988) under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/677/0722; BillyBets lists New Zealand in its country selector and shows only Euro as a currency option, which is a small detail that says a lot about who the cashier is built for. None of these brands is new in the New Zealand sense; they are new in the international sense, and a New Zealand reader who meets them in search results is meeting brands whose right to take a New Zealand bet was the subject of the Department of Internal Affairs’ withdrawal letter.

A reader who wants a “new” New Zealand bookmaker has only one option. Betcha is the new New Zealand brand, and it is the same operator as TAB. Everything else on the new shelf is, from the perspective of someone in New Zealand, an offshore option dressed in fresh paint.

The operators in detail

What follows is a write-up of each of the ten brands the page compares. TAB and Betcha are the lawful pair. The other eight are reviewed against the same criteria — what licence they hold, who runs them, what their own terms say about age and identity, what markets they offer, what their offers cost — because the comparison is the point, and each brand deserves the same set of questions asked of it. None of the eight is recommended for a New Zealand customer. Each is described honestly, with its mismatch to the page’s subject named.

TAB

TAB is one of the two online brands of TAB New Zealand, and the older of the two. The Racing Industry Act 2020, as amended by section 74AAA in 2025, names TAB NZ as the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand, and TAB is the brand that carries most of that volume. The published app — “TAB – Racing & Sports Betting”, under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board, first released on 8 September 2014 — covers horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league and the other sports the bookmaker takes bets on, both pre-match and live. The app carries a 17+ App Store age rating while stating that customers must be 18 or over to bet, and account opening needs a verified New Zealand address and ID.

Inside the app, the racing menu is the menu a New Zealand punter expects: Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, with Same Race Multis and one-tap Popular Multis alongside. Same Game Multis cover sport. The Trackside live race streaming service sits inside the app with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools. A simplified wallet handles deposits and withdrawals, and the safer-gambling tools (deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion) sit in the same place. New customers can receive Bonus Cash that splits across multiple bets, with 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 verdict. TAB is the lawful option. The product is not the widest shelf on the international market, but it is the only shelf New Zealand law recognises, and the harm-minimisation framework, the racing-industry funding pipeline and the regulator’s oversight all attach to this brand. Anyone wanting to bet on the All Blacks, the Melbourne Cup or Super Rugby Pacific without leaving the regulatory frame has their answer here.

Betcha

Betcha is the second online brand of TAB New Zealand, built for mobile and released on 6 August 2024 by Entain New Zealand Limited. Like TAB, it operates under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020; the two brands are not rivals, and a punter’s choice between them is a choice of interface rather than a choice of operator. The product is the TAB NZ product: racing and sports, fixed-odds and tote, with the same Multi, Same Game Multi and Place Extra features inside the app.

What sets Betcha apart is the form factor. The app is mobile-first, the wallet is the simplified TAB NZ wallet, and the marketing language is the younger, sharper end of the TAB NZ voice. Safer-gambling tools (deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion) sit inside the app and apply across both TAB NZ brands, so a self-exclusion through Betcha closes the TAB account too. Account opening needs a verified New Zealand address and ID, and the age floor is 18.

The verdict. Betcha is the same lawful answer in a younger wrapper. A New Zealand punter who lives on their phone and wants the same market depth as TAB without the retail-channel weight will end up here by default, and that is a reasonable place to end up. It is not a wider market; it is a different door into the same one.

Millioner

Millioner is one of the offshore brands a New Zealand reader meets in search results, and one of the eight on this page that holds no New Zealand right to take a bet. The site applies Customer Due Diligence checks when anti-money-laundering triggers are reached and accepts customers over 18 only. That is the sum of what research verified about the brand’s terms on the subjects this page cares about.

What Millioner is not is a New Zealand operator. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 says no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where the operator is incorporated; Millioner names no licence that applies in New Zealand, and no New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework reaches it. A New Zealand punter who bets with Millioner is dealing with an operator the Department of Internal Affairs has told to stop serving this market, with no recourse if a payout stalls and no regulator to complain to in this country.

The verdict. Millioner is not the right brand for a New Zealand reader. The age check and the anti-money-laundering framework are ordinary for the international market; the absence of a New Zealand licence is the disqualifying feature, and it is the only one the page needs to name.

Rabona

Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group, an operator that runs multiple sportsbook and casino brands under a Curaçao licence. The licence gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand; section 74AAA applies regardless of where the operator is incorporated, and DIA has told all unlicensed offshore providers to withdraw.

What Rabona is, in international terms, is a Soft2Bet sportsbook with the typical international price range, a typical international bonus shelf and a typical international cashier. None of that reaches a New Zealand punter’s situation. It carries the standard offshore risks, and the operator-level terms are written for Curaçao-jurisdiction customers rather than for anyone placing a bet from inside New Zealand.

The verdict. Rabona is a credible international sportsbook with no lawful New Zealand application. Weighing the widest international shelf against the regulatory frame the law provides is the task, and the regulatory frame is the decisive factor.

Thunderpick

Thunderpick is owned and operated by Paloma Media B.V., a Curaçao company with company number 146988, licensed by the Curaçao Gaming Authority under licence number OGL/2024/677/0722. The brand is positioned toward crypto and esports customers; the licence is a Curaçao licence, and Curaçao licences give no right to take bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020.

What Thunderpick offers the international reader is a crypto-and-esports product. What it offers a New Zealand punter is the same offshore exposure as every other brand on this list outside the TAB NZ pair: it lacks local recourse and harm-minimisation tools, and the operator’s own terms are written for a Curaçao-jurisdiction customer. As noted, DIA has told unlicensed offshore providers to withdraw; Thunderpick is one of them.

The verdict. Thunderpick fits a crypto-curious, esports-leaning international reader who is not in New Zealand. For a New Zealand punter the legal position is the disqualifying feature, and the esports-curious reader here has a different question — does TAB NZ take esports bets? — to ask of the lawful option.

BillyBets

BillyBets is the brand on this list that asks the loudest question of itself. The cashier page offers New Zealand in its country selector, and the only currency filter shown on the page is Euro. A New Zealand reader who arrives at the cashier and tries to deposit in NZ dollars is being routed through a cashier built for someone else.

There is no published New Zealand licence. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 makes TAB NZ the only lawful provider of racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand, and BillyBets names no licence that applies here. The presence of New Zealand in the country selector does not change that — the operator has chosen to show New Zealand as an option without holding the New Zealand right to take a bet, which is the precise arrangement DIA has told providers to stop. It lacks local recourse and harm-minimisation tools, and the cashier the page describes is built for Euro balances, not NZ dollars.

The verdict. BillyBets is the clearest example on this list of the gap between an international brand’s reach and a New Zealand reader’s lawful options. The country-selector signal and the Euro-only cashier tell the same story: the brand is not built for this market, and the legal frame does not let it serve it lawfully.

RTbet

RTbet’s sportsbook covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports. That is a credible international menu. The operator names a Curaçao licence, which gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand, and DIA has told unlicensed offshore providers to withdraw.

What RTbet offers the international reader is the breadth this page describes. What it offers a New Zealand punter is the same offshore exposure: it lacks local recourse and harm-minimisation tools, and the operator’s terms are written for a Curaçao-jurisdiction customer. Virtual sports, in particular, are treated by the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 as casino gambling; the line between a sportsbook’s virtuals product and a casino’s virtuals product is one New Zealand law is currently drawing.

The verdict. RTbet is a credible international sportsbook with no lawful New Zealand application. The breadth of the menu is a real feature for a reader in another market; it is not a feature a New Zealand punter can use lawfully.

Spinbara

Spinbara advertises a first deposit bonus of 100% up to EUR 100 and a sport crypto welcome bonus of 100% up to 200 USDT, alongside a casino welcome bonus of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. That is a typical international bonus shelf. The brand names no licence that applies in New Zealand, and section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 makes TAB NZ the only lawful provider of racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand.

The offer language is worth reading carefully because it is the language the offshore shelf uses. A 100% deposit match up to EUR 100 is a turnover-gated bonus — the matched amount must be turned over a stated number of times at stated minimum odds before it pays out, and the cost of clearing that turnover is the margin of the markets the punter bets on. The EUR pricing tells a New Zealand reader they are being routed through a cashier built for someone else; the lack of a New Zealand licence means the offer, as structured, comes from an operator DIA has told to stop.

The verdict. Spinbara’s offer shelf is the international standard offer shelf. None of it changes the New Zealand legal frame, and taking the matched-deposit offer is taking an offshore bonus with no New Zealand recourse if a payout stalls.

22Bet

22Bet’s address redirects, and the site shows copyright for 2017–2026 with a 21+ age notice. The operator is TechSolutions Group N.V., licensed in Curaçao under 8048/JAZ, which gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs has told offshore providers to withdraw from the New Zealand market; 22Bet is one of them.

What 22Bet offers the international reader is the longest-established international sportsbook on this list, with the typical Curaçao-licence price range and bonus shelf. The 21+ age notice is worth pausing on: New Zealand law sets the betting age at 18, and a New Zealand punter who is 18 but not 21 is inside the lawful frame for TAB NZ betting, but 22Bet’s site itself asks them to be 21. That is the operator’s own term, not New Zealand law, and a New Zealand punter who is 18 and betting with TAB NZ is acting lawfully even if 22Bet’s site refused them.

The verdict. 22Bet is a credible international sportsbook that excludes 21+ readers on its own terms. The legal position in New Zealand is unchanged — there is no lawful route for a New Zealand punter to bet with 22Bet — and the age mismatch is one more reason the brand is the wrong fit for this market.

Alawin

Alawin accepts customers aged 18 or over only, which aligns with the New Zealand betting age.

The age alignment is the closest fit on this list — but it is not enough. A New Zealand punter who is 18 is inside the lawful frame for TAB NZ betting, and Alawin’s age floor lets them register on the brand’s own terms. DIA has told unlicensed offshore providers to withdraw from the New Zealand market; the registration is unlawful for the operator even though the punter is of lawful age, and the same offshore exposure applies: it lacks local recourse and harm-minimisation tools, with no protection if a payout stalls.

The verdict. Alawin is the closest age fit on the offshore shelf and still not a lawful New Zealand option. The age alignment is a small detail in the brand’s favour; the absence of a New Zealand licence is the deciding factor, and the brand is the wrong fit for a New Zealand punter for the same reason every other brand on this page outside the TAB NZ pair is.

What the operator landscape looks like for a New Zealand punter

Read together, the ten write-ups above describe a market with two lawful seats and a longer shelf of brands that fit other jurisdictions. A New Zealand punter’s choice is shaped by the law first and the product second. The product comparison is real (TAB NZ’s racing product is the deepest racing product a New Zealand punter can lawfully use; the offshore shelf has a wider price range and a longer bonus menu), but the legal comparison overrides it: the product is the product the law lets you use, and the wider shelf is a shelf the law says is unlawful for the operator to offer you.

What the law does not do is geo-block offshore sites. New Zealand readers can still reach them; the offshore brand’s cashier can still accept a deposit in some currencies; the Department of Internal Affairs has no power to force a Curaçao-licensed operator to return unspent credits. The honest framing is the one the Department uses: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework; offshore options are unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, have no New Zealand complaints route, and carry the risks DIA lists. A New Zealand punter who chooses the offshore shelf does not choose a wider market; they choose a market the regulator has told to withdraw from this one, and the regulator’s warning is the right place to leave the question.

The mechanics of an online bet, in plain terms

A bet returns stake multiplied by the odds. Decimal odds, which is the form a New Zealand punter reads on the TAB app, work that way directly: a $10 stake at $2.10 returns $21 if it wins, which is the $10 stake plus an $11 profit. The stake is paid back on a win and lost on a loss; the profit only is what a punter keeps above the stake. A combination bet multiplies the odds of the legs into one price, so a three-leg multi with odds of 1.50, 2.00 and 3.00 is a single price of 9.00, and a $10 stake returns $90 if all three legs win.

The bookmaker’s margin is what sits inside every price. On a two-outcome market with decimal odds of 1.90 and 1.90, the implied probability of each outcome is 1/1.90, or about 52.6%, and the two probabilities add to 105.3% — the 5.3% above 100% is the bookmaker’s margin. On a three-outcome 1X2 market with decimal odds of 2.10, 3.40 and 3.60, the implied probabilities are 47.6%, 29.4% and 27.8%, adding to 104.8% — the 4.8% above 100% is the bookmaker’s margin. A market where the probabilities add to 100% is a market with no margin, and the closer the sum is to 100%, the thinner the bookmaker’s cut. A punter comparing two bookmakers on the same market is comparing two margins, and a half-point of margin is worth more over a season than most signup offers.

For a New Zealand punter, the practical effect is that TAB NZ’s margin on a given market is the only margin that matters — the only lawful price is TAB NZ’s price. The offshore shelf has its own margins, but the punter cannot lawfully reach them.

Choosing between TAB and Betcha

The choice between the two lawful brands is a choice of form factor. TAB is the long-established product with the racing-industry depth, the desktop and mobile interfaces, the full Multis menu and the racing form tools a long-time New Zealand punter expects. Betcha is the mobile-first brand with the same markets and the same wallet, published by Entain New Zealand Limited and first released on 6 August 2024. Both brands share the safer-gambling tools (deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion), the same exclusions apply across both, and a punter who self-excludes through one brand has self-excluded through both.

For a punter who bets primarily on racing, the TAB app is the deeper product — the racing form tools, the Trackside live streaming service, the Blackbook and Jockey Challenge features, and the Quinella-through-Big6 menu are all built into the TAB side. For a punter who bets primarily on sport and wants a phone-led product, Betcha is the cleaner experience. For a punter who splits their betting across both, both apps use the same wallet and the same TAB NZ account, so the choice is a question of which interface to keep on the home screen rather than a question of which operator to use.

Frequently asked questions

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

TAB and Betcha, both run by TAB New Zealand, are the only online brands that may lawfully take sports and racing bets from people in New Zealand. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025, says no person other than TAB NZ may offer such betting, and the Department of Internal Affairs told other providers serving New Zealand to withdraw.

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

A bet’s return is stake multiplied by the odds in decimal form, so a $10 stake at $2.10 returns $21 if it wins ($10 stake plus $11 profit). On a loss, the stake is gone. A combination bet multiplies the odds of its legs into one price, and the same rule applies — 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 percentage above 100% you get when you add up the implied probabilities of all outcomes on a market. On a 1X2 market priced at 2.10, 3.40 and 3.60, the implied probabilities are about 47.6%, 29.4% and 27.8%, adding to 104.8%; the 4.8% above 100% is the bookmaker’s margin, and the rest is what gets paid back to winning punters on average.

What does a player lose by betting with a bookmaker that has no New Zealand licence?

A New Zealand punter using an offshore operator lacks local recourse and harm-minimisation tools, has no regulator to appeal to if a payout stalls, and no guarantee that unspent credits will be returned. DIA has told unlicensed offshore providers to withdraw from this market, and the operator is the one breaking New Zealand law.

From what age can bets be placed with TAB NZ, and what is checked when opening an account?

TAB NZ accepts customers from 18, and betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Account opening requires a verified New Zealand address and ID, and the same age floor applies across both TAB NZ brands (TAB and Betcha). Land-based casino age in New Zealand is 20, which is a different 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 — Inland Revenue or an accountant is the right place to read that. TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74%, and offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty, but a duty being payable does not make an offshore offer lawful.

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