Legal betting in New Zealand 2026: the only bookmakers allowed to take your bet, and what the rest cost

Updated October 2026

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Current as of 26 October 2026 against the Department of Internal Affairs’ Racing Policy page, the gambling regulator’s most recent published statement of who may lawfully offer racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand.

Betting in New Zealand looks, at first glance, like betting anywhere else. A punter picks a market, places a stake, waits for a dividend. The frame around it is not the same as anywhere else, though. Since 28 June 2025 the law has named one operator, and one only, that may lawfully take racing and sports bets from people in New Zealand: TAB NZ, which runs the country’s two online brands, TAB and Betcha. Every other name that turns up in a search result, an inbox, a social ad or a price-comparison site is serving New Zealand without a New Zealand licence. That is the fact the rest of this page is built on.

What follows is not a defence of the rule and not an attack on it. It is a plain reading of what the Racing Industry Act 2020 and the Gambling Act 2003 actually let a New Zealand bettor do, what the regulator warns it costs to look elsewhere, and what the named brands — the lawful pair and a reference set of offshore names a New Zealand punter will meet anyway — actually offer.

What the law now says

The statute that governs online racing and sports betting in New Zealand is the Racing Industry Act 2020, amended in 2025 to insert section 74AAA. The amendment took effect on 28 June 2025. In plain terms, 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 Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), which administers the Act, told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect on the same day. The change did not create a new licence class or open an application window; it closed one off. There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is only one lawful provider.

Two points matter for anyone weighing a bet with a name that is not TAB or Betcha. First, the prohibition covers any operator offering these bets to a person in New Zealand, no matter where the operator is incorporated or hosted. Geolocation is irrelevant; the test is whether the offer is made to someone in New Zealand. Second, the law targets the 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 in the regulator’s guidance. The honest framing is the one DIA itself uses: the offshore operator is breaking New Zealand law; the player loses New Zealand protection.

TAB NZ, TAB and Betcha

TAB NZ is the statutory body that holds the betting monopoly. TAB and Betcha are the two online brands that run on it. Betcha is not a rival bookmaker; it is the same operator under a different logo, run by Entain under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023. The deal gives Entain a 50/50 share of gross profits, with at least NZ$150 million a year flowing to TAB NZ for the first five years, and a one-off NZ$100 million payment to the racing sector when the partnership began.

This is why a comparison between TAB and Betcha on price alone is the wrong question to ask. They are one firm. The reason both brands exist is customer choice at the interface: same markets, same odds engine, same wallet in some respects, different app, different promotion schedule. Betcha skews younger and mobile-first; TAB carries the full racing and sports product and the retail counter history. A punter who wants the broadest catalogue of New Zealand and Australian racing stays with TAB. A punter who wants the cleaner sportsbook on the phone tends to end up on Betcha.

What changed in 2025 and what it locked in

The 2025 amendment is not a tightening of an old grey area. Until 28 June 2025, the offshore point-of-consumption duty collected tax from overseas operators that chose to serve the market; from 1 July 2025, that duty is gone and the prohibition is the rule. The change closed a long period in which overseas operators were able to lawfully pay tax in New Zealand while serving New Zealand customers — paying tax was not the same as being allowed to take the bets. Now it is not.

The grey that remains is narrow. A New Zealand bettor who opens an account with an offshore brand is not committing an offence under the law as it stands. The brand is. The bettor is, in DIA’s own words, in a position where consumer protections are weak, where the operator may not address gambling harm, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. None of that is a legal threat to the punter. All of it is a real one.

What you may actually bet on

The catalogue TAB NZ offers is the catalogue New Zealand law permits online. Racing: thoroughbred, harness (the trots), and greyhound races while they remain; fixed-odds and tote (pool) bets across Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First4, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6. Sports: the codes a New Zealand punter actually watches — All Blacks tests, Super Rugby Pacific, NRL, the Warriors, Black Caps cricket, ANZ Premiership netball — plus the international football, basketball, tennis and racing the platform lists in its app.

Multis (accumulator bets) are allowed, and Same Game Multis — a multi whose legs all sit on one event — are listed in the TAB NZ apps. Live, in-play betting is listed too. Whether any statutory cap applies to live markets is not established in the Act; limits are TAB NZ’s own terms, not a legal ceiling.

Three lines that matter, and that the statute did not set but that DIA states explicitly:

• Politics and novelty markets are not established as licensed products. The page does not assume they exist at TAB NZ; if the platform does not list them, they are not part of the lawful catalogue here.
• Spread betting and any betting exchange are outside TAB NZ’s sports-betting definition. There is no lawful New Zealand betting exchange, so the page writes nothing about an NZ exchange; punters who want one are, by definition, looking offshore.
• Virtual sports — computer-simulated fixtures — are treated by the 2026 online casino law as casino gambling. Esports sit in a similar grey: whether esports betting is “sports betting” under the Racing Industry Act is not established in writing, so the page does not assert it is or is not. TAB NZ’s own product list is the only thing a punt can settle that question against.

Greyhound racing closes from 1 August 2026 under the Racing Industry (Closure of Greyhound Racing Industry) Amendment Bill, passed on 2 April 2026. From that date there are no lawful greyhound bets in New Zealand, online or at the counter, and offshore brands are not a lawful substitute for them — the same section 74AAA prohibition applies to a closed racing code.

What the offshore option actually costs the punter

The cheapest cost to spell out is the legal one, and it is not on the punter. The offshore operator is the one breaking New Zealand law; the punter is not committing an offence under section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003. That is the full extent of the legal cover for the punter, and it does not move with the size of the bet.

The costs that bite are the ones DIA states. The regulator’s published warning, on its Racing Policy page, runs along four lines:

1. Weak consumer protection. The offshore operator is not overseen by the Gambling Commission of New Zealand or by DIA. A complaint about a stake not returned, a settled bet changed after the result, or a market closed mid-event cannot be routed to a New Zealand body. It goes to the operator’s own customer service and, at best, to the regulator in the jurisdiction the operator chose.
2. Harm minimisation may not be there. New Zealand-licensed betting must support safer gambling tools and the Gambling Helpline. Offshore brands carry the tools their own terms set, in the language their operators run. A punter who wants deposit limits enforced in good faith, a self-exclusion that holds across brands the operator also runs, or a referral to 0800 654 655 is on firmer ground at TAB NZ.
3. Unspent credits may not be returned. A closed account with a balance, a bonus balance left over, a voided multi: each is a credit the operator promises to pay back. New Zealand law’s leverage to enforce that promise is thin once the operator is offshore.
4. Large wins may not be paid. This is the one that scares the regulator, and it is the one the marketing never mentions. A bet that lands at six or seven digits is the kind of bet operators rewrite terms to dispute, suspend or void. New Zealand’s protection stops at the border.

The arithmetic on the other side of the page — the value a punter pays for the agency’s protection — is the expected loss a New Zealand punter carries at the monopoly. A two-way market priced at decimal odds 1.90 / 1.90 has a payout share of roughly 1 ÷ (1/1.90 + 1/1.90) = 0.95, or 95 %, and a margin of about 5 %. A monthly budget of NZ$500 staked once across that kind of market has an expected loss of about NZ$25 over the month, give or take, on the assumption the whole budget is wagered at this kind of margin. That is the cost of having a regulated bookmaker, a New Zealand complaints route, harm-minimisation tools that actually trigger, and a payout the regulator can press for. Five per cent of the stake is what the regulated book charges for the protection. The unprotected offshore book often prices sharper, sometimes — but the off-pierce promise that the win will be paid is one the New Zealand regulator cannot chase.

The honest framing is the one DIA itself uses. There is no “safe choice” by default. There is the lawful choice, which costs the margin, and the unlawful choice, which costs the protection. The maths above is illustrative, not a quote: a single price does not represent a whole product.

Responsible gambling under the new rule

The 2025 amendment did not introduce New Zealand’s safer-gambling framework; it locked it onto the one lawful operator. The framework that runs at TAB NZ is the one New Zealand punters already had at the counter: 18+ only for betting (land-based casinos are 20 — do not merge the two), verified New Zealand ID and address on account opening, deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion listed in the app, and a self-exclusion that applies across both TAB and Betcha because both are the one operator.

The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa are the points of contact. TAB NZ also pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74 % of gross profits, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028, which funds treatment and harm-minimisation services. There is no single national online-betting exclusion register: the register that the 2026 online casino law will require is for online casinos only.

For a punter who is shopping the offshore set, the relevant absence is the framework itself. New Zealand’s deposit-limit, time-out and self-exclusion rules are TAB NZ’s terms, not the offshore rules. An offshore brand’s “responsible gambling” page is its own commitment; whether it holds across an account rebrand, a change of payment method, or a new domain is the operator’s choice.

The reference set: ten brands, two of them lawful

The table below sets TAB and Betcha — the only two lawful online brands in New Zealand — against eight offshore names that a New Zealand punter meets in marketing, inboxes and search. They are listed because they are met, not because they are recommended; none is licensed to take a New Zealand bet, and a row in the table is not a route to one. The matters the table compares are the brand, its status under New Zealand law, and what the operator’s own published terms say about the question that brings a reader to this page: is this a place a New Zealand punter can actually place a bet with?

The column on New Zealand status is a single line per brand, because the legal position is a single line: lawful, or not lawful. A row for an offshore name does not mean an offshore brand is a worse product; it means the product sits outside New Zealand law, and the protection that comes from sitting inside it does not apply.

TAB

TAB is the statutory bookmaker and tote of New Zealand. It runs the retail counter history, the racing product in full, the sports product in full, and the safer-gambling framework the regulator requires. The product list reads like a New Zealand punter’s mental catalogue of what to bet on, because the New Zealand catalogue is what the statute allows and the catalogue is what TAB runs.

A TAB account needs a verified New Zealand address and ID. That is the gate; once past it, the deposit methods are the methods the platform’s own terms list. No statutory deposit ceiling exists for betting in New Zealand — the casino law introduces one for casino play, not for betting — so a TAB punter’s deposit limit is the limit the punter sets in the app.

Verdict. TAB is the place a New Zealand punter can bet lawfully, with the regulator’s protection on a payout dispute and the harm-minimisation tools that hold across the operator’s two brands. The cost of that is the margin — about 5 % on a typical two-way market at 1.90 / 1.90 — paid on every bet, on top of which sits the catalogue’s own ceiling: there is no exchange, no spread betting, no greyhound racing after 1 August 2026. For a punter who wants the lawful option and a racing product in full, TAB is the only choice by statute.

Betcha

Betcha is the second online brand of TAB NZ, run by Entain under the 25-year partnership that delivers at least NZ$150 million a year to TAB NZ for the first five years. It is the same firm as TAB; the wallet is the same in key respects, the safer-gambling tools are the same, and the catalogue overlaps. The product skew is sports-first and mobile-first. A punter who wants the racing product in full tends to land on TAB; a punter who wants the cleaner sportsbook interface on the phone tends to land on Betcha.

The terms that matter to a punter — age 18+, verified NZ address, deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion — are the same on both brands. Betcha does not offer a separate set of protection tools because it cannot: a self-exclusion at one TAB NZ brand applies across both.

Verdict. Betcha is not a rival to TAB and not a choice between two bookmakers; it is the same operator’s other front door, and the reasons to use it are the head-to-head app, the sports-led catalogue and the promotion schedule. The cost of the protection is identical to TAB’s, because it is the same bookmaker. For a punter who bets mostly on the All Blacks, the Warriors, the Black Caps and the NRL, Betcha is the smoother interface. For a punter who bets mostly on racing, TAB is the broader catalogue.

FunBet

FunBet is an offshore sportsbook listing football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and a 24/7 bookmaker. The product is broad and the price can be sharp, because offshore margins are not bound by New Zealand’s notional 5 % and frequently sit lower on headline football and basketball markets.

The cost is the one DIA states. FunBet is not licensed to take a New Zealand bet under section 74AAA; the brand names no licence that applies in New Zealand; no New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework reaches it. A FunBet account is opened on FunBet’s terms, in FunBet’s jurisdiction, with FunBet’s customer service as the only place a complaint lands.

Verdict. For a New Zealand punter who wants offshore access regardless of the law, FunBet is one of the names that turn up. The product is broad; the protection is not New Zealand’s. The arithmetic still has to balance: a margin that is 200 or 300 basis points sharper does not pay for a six-figure win that goes unpaid. For a bettor whose stake sizes are small and whose bets are settled promptly, the offshore price advantage can be real. For a bettor whose stake sizes ever reach five figures, the regulator’s warning is the one to remember.

Rabona

Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group. The group is a known operator in the offshore set, with a Curaçao licence that gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand.

The same calculus as FunBet applies. Rabona’s product sits outside the New Zealand statute; its harm-minimisation is its own; its complaints route is its own. New Zealand punter protection does not extend across the border.

Verdict. A New Zealand punter who meets Rabona is meeting it outside the law, on terms Rabona sets. For bettors whose stake is at the recreational end, the offshore option can be priced sharper; for bettors whose stake ever reaches the level where the operator has reason to dispute the payout, the protection is exactly what DIA states.

RTbet

RTbet’s sportsbook covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports. Virtual sports are treated by the 2026 online casino law as casino gambling, which means a stake on an RTbet virtual fixture sits in the casino-law frame, not the betting frame — a separate question, with a separate answer the page does not assume.

Outside the virtual question, RTbet is the same offshore profile as the rest: not licensed in New Zealand, Curaçao-licensed, with its own terms.

Verdict. RTbet is one of the names the offshore set offers a New Zealand punter who has decided to bet offshore regardless of the statute. The product is broad, the price can be sharper than the monopoly, and the regulator’s warning applies in full.

Sportaza

Sportaza’s footer states it is licensed and regulated by the Government of the Autonomous Island of Anjouan, Union of Comoros, under licence No. ALSI-202606064-FI2, while its terms (section 1.4) cite licence No. 0000067 issued by Tobique. Two licences on one site, both outside New Zealand; neither gives a right to take bets from people in New Zealand.

The Anjouan licence is the newer of the offshore frames, issued at a faster rate and at a lower compliance cost than the older Curaçao frame. Tobique is a smaller regulator with a similar profile. The product is a sportsbook and casino combination; the New Zealand question is the same as the rest of the offshore set.

Verdict. A New Zealand punter who lands on Sportaza is landing on a site licensed in a jurisdiction with minimal consumer safeguards, on DIA’s own description. The price may be sharper; the protection is not New Zealand’s; the section 74AAA prohibition on the operator’s side applies.

Rooster

Rooster 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 Tobique frame is one of the smaller offshore licences; the holder is a Costa Rica company.

Rooster is one of a small group of brands that share the same operating company and the same licence — RoyalistPlay runs on the same registration. A New Zealand punter who lands on one is, in practice, dealing with the same firm.

Verdict. Same profile as the offshore set: not licensed in New Zealand, no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework. The product is a sportsbook and casino combination on offshore terms.

RoyalistPlay

RoyalistPlay is owned and operated by Novatrix SRL — the same Costa Rica company and the same Tobique e-gaming licence No. 0000002 as Rooster. The two brands are the same firm under different logos, much as TAB and Betcha are the same TAB NZ under different logos; the difference is the law each side sits under.

A New Zealand punter who lands on RoyalistPlay is, in practice, dealing with the same operator as Rooster, on the same offshore terms. The protection that comes off TAB NZ’s terms does not extend to RoyalistPlay.

Verdict. RoyalistPlay is the same offshore profile as Rooster: not licensed in New Zealand, no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework. A punter who bets here is betting outside the statute.

Winz

Winz states in its footer that it holds licences delivered by Anjouan and Tobique. The dual-licence frame is one a small number of offshore brands use to widen the appearance of regulatory cover; neither Anjouan nor Tobique gives a right to take bets from people in New Zealand.

Winz runs as a sportsbook and casino on the standard offshore profile. A New Zealand punter who lands here is on the same footing as the rest of the offshore set: outside the law on the operator’s side, without New Zealand protection.

Verdict. Win is one of the offshore brands a New Zealand punter meets. The price can be sharper; the protection is what DIA states, and the section 74AAA prohibition on the operator applies.

Spinbara

Spinbara names no licence that applies in New Zealand. The site’s English version 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.

The bonus structure is the kind of headline that turns a search result into a click: a 100 % match on the first deposit, plus a separate crypto-led sport offer, plus a casino welcome. None of those numbers is a reason to open an account under New Zealand law. The site is not licensed to take a New Zealand bet; the bonus is paid by an operator outside the regulator’s reach; the bonus’s wagering terms — turnover, minimum price, expiry — are the operator’s own, enforced by the operator’s own customer service.

Verdict. Spinbara is the clearest example of an offshore brand whose marketing does the work the law cannot. The headline bonus is exactly the kind of offer that draws a click; the offer is paid by an operator outside New Zealand, on terms the operator sets and the New Zealand regulator cannot enforce. For a New Zealand punter who is tempted by the bonus figure, the regulator’s four-point warning is the answer.

What to do before placing a bet from New Zealand

Three checks sit before a stake. None is legal advice, and none is a substitute for the operator’s own published terms; each is the kind of thing a New Zealand punter can resolve in a minute and a half.

Is the brand one TAB NZ runs? TAB and Betcha are the only two online brands lawfully taking racing and sports bets from people in New Zealand. If the brand is not one of those two, the brand is serving New Zealand without a New Zealand licence. The product, the price and the bonus are not the question; the licence is.

What is the bonus really worth? A 100 % first-deposit bonus up to EUR 100 is a marketing headline; its value is the bonus amount times (odds − 1) divided by odds, multiplied by the payout share of the market the bonus is cleared on. At decimal odds of 1.90 and a payout share of 95 %, an EUR 80 bonus is worth about EUR 36 on average — not EUR 80. That is the average over many bets; no single bettor sees that figure as a return.

What is the stake at risk? A monthly budget of NZ$500 wagered at a margin of 5 % carries an expected loss of NZ$25 over the month, give or take. That is the price of the protection the regulator provides. The same NZ$500 on an offshore book at a sharper headline price can carry a smaller expected loss on the same market — and it carries, on top, the regulator’s four-point warning.

Frequently asked questions

Are offshore betting sites legal?

Offshore betting sites are not licensed to take bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025. The Department of Internal Affairs states that offering racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand from outside the country breaks New Zealand law. The player is not committing an offence under section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003. The practical cost to the player is the loss of New Zealand consumer protection.

How is betting on horse racing legal?

Betting on horse racing in New Zealand is legal through TAB NZ, the only operator lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025. TAB runs fixed-odds and tote (pool) betting on thoroughbred and harness racing, with bet types including Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First4, Double, Treble, Quaddie and Big6. Greyhound racing closes from 1 August 2026.

Is any online sports betting legal?

Yes. TAB NZ and its online sister brand Betcha are the only providers lawfully offering online sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025, under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casinos only and does not extend the betting monopoly. No other sportsbook is licensed to take bets from people in New Zealand.

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 online racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand. Betcha is not a separate bookmaker; it is the same operator under a different logo, run by Entain under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023. There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is only one lawful provider.

Are TAB and Betcha two different bookmakers?

TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of TAB NZ, not separate bookmakers. Both sit under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 and both are run by Entain under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023. A self-exclusion at one brand applies across both because both are the same operator. The product overlap is high; the catalogue skew and the interface differ.

Is a player punished for betting with an overseas bookmaker?

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 in the Department of Internal Affairs’ guidance. The operator is the side breaking New Zealand law; the player loses New Zealand consumer protection on the bet itself.

Prepared by the Nzlivebetting editorial staff.