Top betting in New Zealand 2026: what the law allows and what the brands actually offer

Updated October 2026

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Updated October 30, 2026 · Licence claims cross-checked against the Racing Industry Act 2020 and the Department of Internal Affairs register.

A short note before the comparison begins. The phrase “top betting sites in New Zealand” implies a competitive shelf — ten names with a star rating, a welcome offer, a payout time. That shelf does not exist here, and writing it as though it did misleads a reader more than a margin figure. Since 28 June 2025, when section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 came into force, only one operator group may lawfully take online racing and sports bets from people in New Zealand: TAB New Zealand, which runs the two brands punters know as TAB and Betcha. Everything else on a New Zealand punter’s screen is an offshore operator breaking the law by serving this market, even when its home licence looks tidy.

That changes how the choice looks, but it does not remove it. TAB NZ and Betcha still differ in product shape, in app feel and in the way the racing and sports menus are presented. Offshore brands still exist on New Zealand screens, and the reasons a punter ends up on them — a wider market range, a particular cricket line, a crypto-friendly wallet — are worth naming honestly. The rest of this page works through that choice in three passes: a landscape table, then the legal and safer-gambling ground that frames every wager, then the operator reviews and the betting side of the experience.

Landscape of brands a New Zealand punter can reach

The table below does not rank offshore brands against TAB NZ, because the two groups are not in the same field. TAB NZ and Betcha sit on one side, as the two lawful online brands of one operator, TAB NZ. The other names sit on the other side, as offshore brands that reach New Zealand screens without any licence to do so. Each row states what the brand actually offers on the subject the page cares about, drawn from each operator’s own published terms.

The shape of this list is the shape of the choice itself. Two lawful brands, run by one operator. Eight offshore brands, none of which has a New Zealand licence, none of which has a route into the Department of Internal Affairs complaints framework. A punter looking for a niche cricket market or a crypto-funded account may still end up on one of the offshore rows. The next sections explain what that path costs the punter and what the lawful path offers in return.

What the law actually says about betting in New Zealand

The Racing Industry Act 2020, as amended by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, names TAB New Zealand as the only operator allowed to offer racing and sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where the operator itself is resident or incorporated. Section 74AAA took effect on 28 June 2025, and the Department of Internal Affairs told unlicensed providers serving New Zealand customers to withdraw with immediate effect. There is no application route for a second bookmaker and no licence register to look one up in, because there is only this one lawful provider.

Two practical points follow. First, the law targets the operator, not the player. Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, makes clear that an individual cannot be convicted simply for placing a bet with an offshore bookmaker in breach of section 74AAA. No published penalty for a player was found. Offshore betting is not written here as either legal or illegal for the person betting — the honest framing is that the operator is the one breaking New Zealand law. Second, the law does not block offshore websites. A New Zealand punter can still load one, still deposit, still bet. What the punter loses by doing so is the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the New Zealand complaints route and the New Zealand-licensed safety net — exactly the things the lawful brands are built around.

The TAB NZ side of the picture is run by Entain under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023. The partnership gives Entain a 50/50 share of gross profits and commits at least $150 million a year to TAB NZ for the first five years, alongside a one-off $100 million payment from Entain to the racing sector. That money matters because TAB NZ is not a private operator maximising margin — it funds the racing codes, and the Racing Industry Act frames the arrangement around that purpose. Punters see the consequence in the product: thoroughbred, harness and (until greyhound racing closes from 1 August 2026) greyhound racing sit at the front of the menu, with the same-game multi, the racing form tools and the Trackside live-stream in the app.

The Offshore side, from the punter’s chair, looks different. The brands in the lower half of the table carry licences issued in places such as Curaçao, Anjouan and Tobique. Those licences are real in their own jurisdictions — they authorise the operator to run a sportsbook from that jurisdiction — and they do not apply to New Zealand bettors. The Department’s position is that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. That is a warning, not an indictment of every payout the brands make; it is the reason the punter knows what is behind the bet before placing it.

The greyhound shutdown belongs in this section because it changes what may be bet on from 1 August 2026. From that date, no operator — TAB NZ or otherwise — may take bets on greyhound racing in New Zealand. TAB NZ is closing greyhound racing in stages from that date, and offshore operators are bound by the same rule.

Responsible gambling: what the lawful brands offer, and what falls away offshore

The lawful side of the New Zealand market is built around harm minimisation in a way the offshore brands are not. TAB NZ accounts require a verified New Zealand address and identity document, and the platform’s safer-gambling tools sit inside its app. Deposit limits let a punter cap what goes in over a day, a week or a month. Time-outs pause the account for a chosen window. Self-exclusion closes the account for a longer period and applies across both TAB NZ brands, so an exclusion on TAB carries over to Betcha. The exclusion is not just a settings toggle — it is backed by section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020, which makes betting under 18 an offence, and by the Gambling Act 2003’s harm-minimisation duties that TAB NZ must meet as the monopoly operator.

The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655) and the text line (8006) are the two entry points for a punter who wants to talk. Both lines are run through Safer Gambling Aotearoa, and TAB NZ’s app lists them directly inside its safer-gambling menu, so the phone number is on the same screen as the time-out button. The Problem Gambling Levy funds a share of that work: TAB NZ pays 0.74% under the current three-year levy cycle, in place from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028.

The offshore half of the table carries none of this. None of those brands has a route into the New Zealand complaints framework, none of them publishes a New Zealand-specific safer-gambling menu, and none of them is bound by the section 89 age rule. They publish their own safer-gambling pages, but the routes they offer go through their home regulators and the brand’s own customer service — not through the Department of Internal Affairs and not through Safer Gambling Aotearoa. For most of them, the deposit cap a punter can set is a brand-level choice rather than a New Zealand legal minimum, and the self-exclusion applies inside the brand’s own account only. Where research found an age statement, it is in the brand’s own terms (Roobet, LunuBet and others restrict to 18); where research did not, the absence is in the brand’s own terms as well.

A short rule of thumb. If the only thing a punter wants is a wider market, an offshore brand can technically still place the bet. If the punter wants the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the regulator on the other end of the phone and the racing-funded structure behind the operator, TAB NZ and Betcha are the only options that carry it. The two paths are not symmetrical, and a comparison that treats them as if they were is hiding the cost.

Mobile and app experience: TAB, Betcha and the offshore roster

The TAB NZ app, listed on the New Zealand App Store as “TAB – Racing & Sports Betting” under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board, was first released on 8 September 2014. It covers horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league and other sports, pre-match and live, with a 17+ age rating on the store and a statement that customers must be 18 or over to bet. The app includes Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. The store listing calls out the safer-gambling controls — deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion — alongside the Helpline and the text line, which is the unusual part: most operator listings tuck those tools into the small print.

Betcha, by contrast, is a younger app: it was first released on the New Zealand App Store on 6 August 2024, published by Entain New Zealand Limited. It covers horse, greyhound and harness racing plus rugby, NRL, MMA/UFC, NBA, NFL, tennis, cricket, football, motorsports and esports, and it sits alongside TAB in the TAB NZ group. The split is product-led rather than legal: Betcha leans sports-heavy, with the racing menu shorter than TAB’s, while TAB leans racing-first. The two apps share the same wallet, the same exclusion list and the same New Zealand harm-minimisation tools.

The offshore roster varies widely in app quality and few of those brands publish through the New Zealand App Store at all. Megapari, for example, distributes through its own iOS and Android apps from a mirror site. BetWinner’s English site lists iOS and Android apps as well. SpinBetter publishes a sportsbook and casino in one app. The rest of the offshore brands in the table run a mobile-responsive site rather than a New Zealand-store app, which means the punters who use them either load the site in a mobile browser or sideload an APK from the brand’s own page.

The shape of the choice is straightforward. TAB NZ and Betcha give the punter a New Zealand-store app with the harm-minimisation tools baked in, a shared exclusion and a Trackside live stream built into the racing experience. Offshore brands give a wider menu and, in some cases, an app from a mirror rather than a recognised store. For a punter who places the occasional racing bet and wants the regulator on the other end of the phone, the TAB NZ apps carry the day. For a punter who lives in a sport the offshore menu covers better and accepts the loss of the New Zealand safety net, the offshore path is the one that exists.

How odds work — what a price actually says

Decimal odds are the standard in New Zealand. A bet of $10 at odds of $3.50 returns $35 if it wins — the $10 stake plus $25 of profit — and returns nothing if it loses. The price on offer is the punter’s only contract; there is no separate “juice” line underneath it. Two things matter at the moment of placing the bet: what the price says about the chance the operator gives the outcome, and what the operator keeps of every dollar wagered on the market.

The bookmaker’s margin sits inside the prices on both sides of a market. Take an illustrative two-way market priced at $1.90 / $1.90 — an even-money line with the operator’s take already inside it. The payout share, calculated as 1 ÷ (1/1.90 + 1/1.90), comes to about 0.953 — meaning roughly 95.3 cents of every dollar wagered is returned across all outcomes if the prices hold. The margin, 1 − payout share, is roughly 4.7%. A sharper market, priced closer to $1.91 / $1.91, lifts the payout share to about 95.5% and pushes the margin down to roughly 4.5%. A softer market, priced at $1.85 / $1.85, drops the payout share to about 92.4% and lifts the margin to roughly 7.6%. The arithmetic is the same in every case: the margin is the difference between a fair price (the true probability reflected back to the punter) and the prices actually offered, and it lives inside every leg of every market the punter looks at.

A margin is a statistical estimate of what the operator keeps across all outcomes of one market over many bets — it is not a guaranteed result for any single bettor. It is also one number for one product: the margin on a 1X2 soccer match is not the margin on the totals market, the margin on a tennis head-to-head is not the margin on the set-handicap, and the margin TAB NZ publishes on a Super Rugby game is not the margin an offshore brand publishes on the same fixture. A punter comparing two prices on the same selection looks at the decimal, not at the headline. A punter comparing two operators on the same market looks at both legs of the price, multiplied into a payout share, and at the difference that leaves.

The most useful single habit the section suggests: pick the market first, the selection second, and the price third. Markets with deeper liquidity (top-flight rugby, NRL, the Premier League) carry thinner margins than markets with thin liquidity (lower-tier basketball, niche esports). Same-game multis carry a margin per leg, compounded across the bet, which is why a four-leg SGM at $3.50 looks attractive and pays out less often than the price suggests. A punter who treats the decimal as a probability — a $2.50 price implies a 40% chance, a $1.50 price implies a 67% chance — sees the bookmaker’s margin as the difference between that implied probability and 100% across the whole market.

Promotions, bonuses and what an offer actually costs

TAB NZ runs “bonus bets” promotions through its own app. The terms live on the platform’s pages rather than in any rule the Department of Internal Affairs sets on bonus size or wagering terms. The New Zealand law does not fix a wagering multiple, a minimum price or a deadline for a bonus bet — the requirement, where there is one, is whatever TAB NZ’s own terms say for that specific promotion. Punters looking at a TAB NZ promotion read the requirement on the same screen as the offer, because the headline is the headline and the requirement is the cost.

The offshore brands vary widely and none of them is bound by a New Zealand rule on bonus terms. BillyBets runs cashback and reload bonuses on sports, with a coin shop where coins collected by depositing, betting, tournaments and challenges can be exchanged for free bets and free spins, and a VIP programme that runs across five levels. Boomerang Bet advertises a 100% first deposit bonus up to EUR 100 alongside a 100% welcome bonus up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins on the casino side. Megapari lists a free bet of 15% of the first deposit and a “Free Bet Hour” with 50% cashback on football losses returned as a free bet. Telbet’s Russian-language site advertises 200% up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins with a 5 USDT free bet. Betninja splits its offers between a EUR 1,000 casino welcome with 100 free spins and a 100% sports match up to EUR 100 on the first deposit.

A free bet whose stake is not paid back is worth less than the headline. The free-bet value calculation is the free-bet amount multiplied by (odds − 1), divided by the odds, and scaled by the market’s payout share — what the free bet is worth on average across many uses, not what it wins on a single selection. A $20 free bet at $3.00 odds on a 95% payout-share market is worth about $12.67 on average: the calculation is $20 × (3.00 − 1) ÷ 3.00 × 0.95. A $20 free bet at $1.50 on the same market is worth about $6.33 on average: $20 × (1.50 − 1) ÷ 1.50 × 0.95. The odds the punter picks change the value more than the size of the free bet does.

A bonus with a wagering requirement asks for turnover, not luck. The required turnover is the bonus base multiplied by the wagering factor (the bonus, or bonus plus deposit, depending on the operator’s terms). A $100 bonus with a 5x wagering factor on the bonus alone requires $500 of qualifying bets. A $100 bonus with a 5x wagering factor on bonus plus deposit requires $1,000 of qualifying bets — the same offer, twice the betting. The expected cost of clearing the bonus is the turnover multiplied by the margin of the market the punter plays. A $500 turnover on a 5% margin costs about $25 on average. A $500 turnover on an 8% margin costs about $40. The arithmetic is the same as the margin arithmetic above: same formula, same statistical estimate over many turns.

The honest reading of any offer is the headline minus the turnover. A “100% bonus” headline that requires $1,000 of qualifying bets at a minimum price on a thin market is a smaller offer than it looks. A “free bet” headline that pays back only the profit is half the headline. The punter who reads both sides of the offer before claiming it pays less for the same headline.

Predictions, tipsters and the betting market around the punter

New Zealand punters have a strong tipster culture around the Melbourne Cup, the NRL and the All Blacks, and the racing tipsters run through Trackside and through the TAB form tools rather than through any third-party site. The TAB NZ app carries racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools that are tuned to the local product. The same-game multi builder sits alongside the racing markets. Punters who want a tip on the Cup, the All Blacks or a specific NRL game will find it through TAB NZ’s own channels first, and the offshore brands fill in niches — Counter-Strike, FIFA esports, a deeper basketball line — rather than replacing the local tipster flow.

The headline “top bets today” sits in the middle of the tipster world and outside it. There is no system that reliably picks winning bets: every tipster service runs at a margin over the long term that the bookmaker builds into the price, and a tip that contradicts the operator’s line is either an insight the operator has missed or a marketing claim that is treated as one. The punter who reads a tip and a price together — what does the price say the operator thinks the chance is, and what does the tip say — sees the gap, and the gap is where the value lives when it lives anywhere.

The most useful predictor the section points at is the punter’s own record. A note of the price taken, the selection, the result and the market’s margin builds a picture of where the punter’s edge actually sits. A bettor who plays four-leg same-game multis on NRL at $4.00 and breaks even over a season has spent a season clearing the margin on every leg, and the price on offer never gave that punter an edge. A bettor who plays single selections at $1.90 on top-flight rugby has played closer to the margin and closer to whatever edge their reading of the form gives them.

Sports and tournaments a New Zealand punter sees on the menu

The TAB NZ menu focuses on the codes that matter to the local market. Thoroughbred racing, harness racing and (until the August 2026 shutdown) greyhound racing lead the racing menu. Rugby union carries Super Rugby Pacific, the All Blacks test matches and the Ranfurly Shield. Rugby league carries the NRL and the Warriors’ run to the finals. The cricket menu covers the Black Caps’ international calendar and the domestic competitions. Football carries the Premier League and the major European competitions. Tennis, basketball, NFL and the Melbourne Cup sit alongside, with the same-game multi tying the legs of a single game into one bet.

Betcha sits in the same TAB NZ group but leans sports-first: rugby, NRL, MMA/UFC, NBA, NFL, tennis, cricket, football, motorsports and esports. The racing menu is shorter than TAB’s, and the live-bet experience is tuned around sports fixtures rather than racing. The two apps share the wallet and the exclusion but answer different reading habits — a punter who bets rugby and NRL first may find Betcha’s menu faster; a punter whose week runs through the racing form may find TAB’s menu denser.

The offshore roster covers different ground. Alawin and Millioner list standard football and North American sports menus. Rooster.bet adds E-sports and Predictions sections to that mix. Ivibet’s menu lists Sports Betting, Live Betting, Racing, Forecasts, Boosted Odds and Copy Bets. BillyBets includes a wider range of combat and virtual sports. SpinBetter’s English site lists football, basketball, esports, badminton, tennis, volleyball, boxing, motorsport, table tennis and cricket among its top sports. Glorion groups its markets into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports. Thunderpick sits esports-first, covering CS2, League of Legends, Dota 2 and Valorant. Telbet runs a sportsbook with in-play betting and a My Bets page. Megapari publishes Live, Multi-LIVE and Turf sections on its mirror site.

The local codes — All Blacks, Super Rugby Pacific, NRL, the Warriors, the Black Caps, the Melbourne Cup, Cup Day — sit on the TAB NZ menu and on a small number of offshore menus that pick them up because the New Zealand audience exists. The wider codes — Counter-Strike, Valorant, niche tennis, lower-tier basketball — sit on the offshore menus and rarely on TAB NZ, because the local product is shaped around what the local punter actually bets on. The honest reading of the menus: TAB NZ for the codes the rest of New Zealand is watching, offshore for the codes the rest of the world is watching, and a punter’s choice depends on which codes they actually follow.

Operator reviews

The reviews below describe what each operator actually offers on the page’s subject, in the punter’s terms. They cover every brand in the table above, in the order the table sets them. The TAB NZ pair comes first, because they are the only lawful options for a New Zealand punter. The offshore brands come after, in the order the table sets them, with the same field-by-field treatment and a verdict that names what the brand is and what it is not.

TAB — the racing-led TAB NZ brand

TAB is the older of the two TAB NZ brands and the one that leans racing-first. The menu carries thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing alongside rugby union, rugby league, the NRL, cricket, football, tennis and the rest of the codes that matter to a New Zealand punter. The platform takes fixed-odds and tote (pool) bets, with published bet types including Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, plus Multis and Same Game Multis across the sports menu.

The app, listed on the New Zealand App Store as “TAB – Racing & Sports Betting” under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board, was first released on 8 September 2014. It carries a 17+ App Store age rating and a statement that customers must be 18 or over to bet. Trackside live race streaming is built into the app, alongside racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. The safer-gambling menu — deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion — sits on the same screen as the Helpline and the text line.

The 25-year partnership with Entain, signed in 2023, gives TAB NZ a structural advantage the offshore brands do not have. Entain runs the platform under the agreement and shares 50/50 in gross profits, with at least $150 million a year flowing back to TAB NZ for the first five years and a one-off $100 million payment from Entain going into the racing sector. TAB NZ, in turn, pays the Problem Gambling Levy (0.74% under the current three-year cycle, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028), which funds harm-minimisation work that the offshore brands are not asked to fund.

The verdict: TAB is the racing-first TAB NZ brand, the platform a New Zealand punter uses for the All Blacks, the Melbourne Cup, the Warriors and the rest of the codes the local calendar builds around, with the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the regulator on the other end of the phone and the racing-funded structure behind it. The 2026 closure of greyhound racing from 1 August reshapes the racing menu from that date, and TAB is the operator that walks the punter through it. For a punter who reads the racing form and bets the codes the rest of New Zealand watches, TAB is the platform that already sits on their phone.

Betcha — the sports-led TAB NZ brand

Betcha is the newer of the two TAB NZ brands and the one that leans sports-first. It was first released on the New Zealand App Store on 6 August 2024, published by Entain New Zealand Limited, and it sits inside the same TAB NZ group as TAB. The menu carries horse, greyhound and harness racing alongside rugby, NRL, MMA/UFC, NBA, NFL, tennis, cricket, football, motorsports and esports. The same-game multi builder runs through the sports menu, and the live-bet experience is tuned around the sports fixtures rather than the racing calendar.

The two brands share a wallet, a deposit-limit framework and a self-exclusion list. A punter who sets a deposit limit on TAB carries it across to Betcha, and a self-exclusion on one runs across the other. The Helpline and the text line sit on the same safer-gambling menu as the time-out and self-exclusion controls. The Betcha app does not list the older racing form tools TAB carries — the Blackbook and the Jockey Challenge are TAB’s, and the product split is built around the two menus rather than copied across.

The verdict: Betcha is the sports-led TAB NZ brand, the platform a New Zealand punter uses for the NRL, the NBA, the NFL and the wider international codes, with the same TAB NZ safety net as TAB and a menu tuned to a different week. For a punter who bets the NRL and the Premier League first and reads the racing form second, Betcha is the TAB NZ app that fits the week they already bet.

Alawin — offshore, not licensed in New Zealand

Alawin runs a sportsbook covering football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with Live Betting, Virtual Sports and esports sections on top. The brand name carries no licence that applies in New Zealand — the only operator allowed to take racing and sports bets here is TAB NZ. Alawin operates outside the local harm-minimisation framework. A New Zealand punter who opens an account at Alawin bets with an operator that ignores local law.

The menu is broad and the product sits in the European and North American codes, with esports and virtual sports as the niche extension. The platform is one of the offshore brands a New Zealand punter meets through a search result rather than through the New Zealand App Store. The brand runs its own safer-gambling page through its home regulator, not through Safer Gambling Aotearoa.

The verdict: Alawin is an offshore sportsbook with no New Zealand licence and no route into the New Zealand complaints framework. It covers the European and North American codes plus esports and virtual sports. Alawin operates outside the local harm-minimisation framework.

Rooster.bet — offshore, not licensed in New Zealand

Rooster.bet runs a sportsbook with Live, Sports Promotions, Results, Schedule, E-sports and Predictions sections, and the platform shows odds in six formats. The brand names a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002) held by Novatrix SRL — a real licence in its own jurisdiction, and one that does not extend to taking bets from a person in New Zealand. The platform is offshore for New Zealand purposes and breaks section 74AAA by serving a New Zealand punter.

The menu sits in the same shape as the wider offshore roster: European and North American sports, esports, virtual sports and a Predictions section that sits closer to a tipster wrapper than to the platform’s core product. The brand runs its own safer-gambling controls through its home regulator.

The verdict: Rooster.bet is an offshore sportsbook with a Tobique e-gaming licence, six odds formats and a Predictions section. It has no New Zealand licence and no route into the New Zealand complaints framework. Rooster.bet is an offshore option for punters seeking those display features.

Winz.io — offshore, not licensed in New Zealand

Winz.io runs a sports betting bonus promotion under a separate Sportsbook T&C, Sports Rules and Bonus Terms and Conditions pages. The brand names Anjouan and Tobique licences held by Novatrix SRL — real licences in their own jurisdictions, neither of which extends to taking bets from a person in New Zealand. Winz.io breaks section 74AAA by serving a New Zealand punter.

The product splits a casino vertical from a sportsbook vertical, with the bonus promotion tied to the sportsbook through its own T&C. The sportsbook carries a wider menu than a casino-only brand, but the New Zealand punter still sits outside the New Zealand safety net.

The verdict: Winz.io is an offshore sportsbook and casino brand with Anjouan and Tobique licences. It lacks a New Zealand licence or access to the local complaints framework.

BillyBets — offshore, not licensed in New Zealand

BillyBets runs a casino and a sportsbook under one account. The sportsbook covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football, baseball, combat sports, esports, virtual sports and live betting. It holds no New Zealand licence. BillyBets operates outside the local betting regime.

The product carries cashback and reload bonuses on sports and a coin shop where coins collected by depositing, betting, tournaments and challenges can be exchanged for free bets and free spins. The VIP programme runs across five levels. The menu is broad and the bonus structure leans loyalty-first.

The verdict: BillyBets is an offshore casino-and-sportsbook brand with no New Zealand licence. It offers a five-level VIP programme, a coin shop and a cashback-and-reload bonus structure on sports.

Glorion — offshore, not licensed in New Zealand

Glorion runs a sportsbook with pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports. It groups its markets into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports, with entertainment events such as award shows and elections on top. Glorion holds no New Zealand licence.

The product carries the widest spread of “other” markets of any brand in the table, with award shows and elections sitting alongside the standard sportsbook menu. The novelty-market angle is the differentiator, and it comes with the same offshore caveats as the rest of the lower half of the table.

The verdict: Glorion is an offshore sportsbook with no New Zealand licence and a market grouping that stretches from popular and niche sports through to entertainment events. It has no route into the New Zealand complaints framework. Glorion sits outside the local safety net.

Roobet — offshore, not licensed in New Zealand

Roobet runs a sportsbook covering soccer, basketball, tennis, Counter-Strike, FIFA, baseball, ice hockey, MMA and table tennis, and the platform’s terms require players to be 18 or older. The brand names a Curaçao licence (OGL/2024/687/0427) held by Raw Entertainment B.V. — a real licence in its own jurisdiction, and one that does not extend to taking bets from a person in New Zealand. Roobet breaks section 74AAA by serving a New Zealand punter.

The menu leans crypto-friendly and esports-heavy, with Counter-Strike and table tennis sitting alongside soccer and basketball. The 18+ age statement is in Roobet’s own terms and is not backed by the New Zealand section 89 framework. The brand runs its own safer-gambling controls through its home regulator.

The verdict: Roobet is an offshore crypto-friendly sportsbook with a Curaçao licence and an esports-heavy menu. It lacks a New Zealand licence or access to the local complaints framework.

Rabona — offshore, not licensed in New Zealand

Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group, and the platform carries a Curaçao licence. The brand holds no New Zealand licence and operates without local oversight.

The product sits inside the Soft2Bet sportsbook family and carries the standard European and North American menu, with a casino vertical alongside the sportsbook. The 2019 launch date and the Soft2Bet ownership are the differentiators, and the brand’s safer-gambling controls run through its home regulator.

The verdict: Rabona is an offshore sportsbook with a Curaçao licence and a Soft2Bet-group background. It holds no New Zealand licence and no route into the New Zealand complaints framework. Rabona is an international brand operating without local oversight.

Millioner — offshore, not licensed in New Zealand

Millioner runs a sportsbook with pre-match and live events on football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with separate Live Betting and Virtual Sports sections. Millioner holds no New Zealand licence.

The menu carries the standard offshore spread and the live-bet experience sits alongside a separate Virtual Sports section. The product is closer to the European-and-North-American mainstream than to the crypto-friendly niche, and the brand’s safer-gambling controls run through its home regulator.

The verdict: Millioner is an offshore sportsbook with no New Zealand licence, with pre-match and live events on the standard European and North American codes and a separate Virtual Sports section, with no route into the New Zealand complaints framework. For a New Zealand punter who bets the European mainstream and accepts the loss of the New Zealand safety net, Millioner is one of the brands on the shelf.

How the choice actually looks for a New Zealand punter

Two paths. The lawful path runs through TAB and Betcha, both inside TAB NZ, and carries the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the Department of Internal Affairs on the other end of the phone, and the racing-funded structure that pays the Problem Gambling Levy. The offshore path runs through any of the other eight brands on the table, each licensed elsewhere, none licensed for New Zealand, and all operating outside section 74AAA. The two paths are not symmetrical, and the cost of the offshore path is the New Zealand safety net the lawful path carries.

The shape of the choice depends on what the punter actually bets. A punter who reads the racing form, follows the Warriors through the NRL and watches the All Blacks through Super Rugby Pacific can place every bet they want on TAB or Betcha, with the same-game multi, the Trackside live stream and the safer-gambling controls baked into the app. A punter who lives on Counter-Strike, table tennis, niche basketball or award-show novelty markets cannot place those bets on TAB NZ at all — those markets sit on the offshore menus — and the choice is between taking the bet on the offshore brand that carries it or skipping the bet.

The honest reading of the page is the one the law and the table both point at. TAB NZ and Betcha are the only operators that lawfully take racing and sports bets from people in New Zealand, and they are the only options that carry the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the regulator’s complaints route and the racing-funded structure. The offshore brands sit outside that framework by design. A punter choosing between the two paths weighs the New Zealand safety net against a wider menu.

Frequently asked questions

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, and the operator’s two online brands are TAB and Betcha. The Racing Industry Act 2020, as amended in 2025, names TAB NZ as the sole lawful provider through section 74AAA, in force since 28 June 2025.

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

In decimal odds, a winning bet returns the stake multiplied by the odds. A $10 stake at $3.50 returns $35 — the $10 stake plus $25 of profit — and returns nothing if the bet loses. The decimal odds are the punter’s only contract.

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

The bookmaker’s margin is the share of every dollar wagered the operator keeps on a market over the long term. For a two-way market priced at $1.90 / $1.90, the payout share comes to roughly 95.3% and the margin to about 4.7%. A market priced at $1.85 / $1.85 carries a margin closer to 7.6%. The margin sits inside every leg of every market.

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

A New Zealand punter betting with an offshore brand gives up the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the Department of Internal Affairs complaints route, the racing-funded structure behind TAB NZ and the New Zealand safer-gambling controls. The offshore brand is breaking section 74AAA by serving the New Zealand punter, and the Department has warned that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards.

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

Betting with TAB NZ is restricted to customers aged 18 and over, with betting under 18 an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Opening an account requires a verified New Zealand address and identity document, and the safer-gambling controls (deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion) sit inside the app alongside the Helpline and the text line.

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 under Inland Revenue guidance. A person who bets as a business is treated differently, and the page notes that Inland Revenue or an accountant is the right next stop for that conversation.

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