Who can legally take your bet in New Zealand in 2026?

Updated October 2026

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Current as of 31 October 2026 · verified against the Department of Internal Affairs’ published guidance on the Racing Industry Act 2020 and the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025.

The question of who may take a bet in New Zealand has a short, factual answer that the marketing of overseas sportsbooks tends to blur: since 28 June 2025, TAB NZ and its online sister brand Betcha are the only operators authorised to offer racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand, under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is no other licence to issue, no application route, and no separate regulator to apply to. Anyone offering a sports or racing bet to a New Zealand resident from outside that framework is, in the Department of Internal Affairs’ own words, breaking the law here.

That changes what this page is for. A reader who wants to place a bet does not have a market to compare in the way an Australian or British bettor does, and a list of ten offshore brands ranked by odds or payout speed is not a market at all. The page is a consequence piece: what follows from the monopoly for the punter who lives with it, and what is lost the moment a bet leaves the New Zealand framework.

The shortlist: New Zealand’s two legal brands and the offshore field

The comparison below is not a ranking. TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of one operator, TAB NZ, and they appear side by side only because the Department of Internal Affairs names them both. The eight brands that follow are listed because New Zealand players encounter them, in marketing, in sponsorship or in a search result, and the page’s job is to describe each against the same criteria rather than to invite sign-ups. None of them is licensed in New Zealand; none of them offers what TAB NZ’s licence means for the punter.

Two consequences follow directly. First, the two lawful brands share one harm-minimisation framework, one exclusion regime, one identity-verification standard, and one Problem Gambling Levy contribution. A punter who self-excludes from TAB is self-excluded from Betcha in the same breath. Second, the eight unlicensed brands each name a licence that grants a right to operate in its issuing jurisdiction and no right to take a bet from a person in New Zealand, and the table above does not change that. A licence in Anjouan, Tobique or Curaçao is what the operator’s footer says it is; it does not extend to a New Zealand address.

How the brands separate

TAB and Betcha are not rivals. They share an operator, TAB NZ, and the same monopoly licence, and the partnership that runs the business is held by Entain under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023: a 50/50 share of gross profits between the parties, at least NZ$150m a year flowing to TAB NZ for the first five years, and a one-off NZ$100m payment from Entain to the racing sector. A reader who treats them as competing for the same business is reading a brand difference where there is only a product one. Betcha leans into the online-only sports experience; TAB carries the racing codes and the long history of the tote. Both reach the same pool of markets in the end.

The offshore brands separate by licence, by parent company and by the catalogue they publish. FunBet, Rabona and RTbet all describe a mainstream sportsbook with football at its centre, augmented by live betting and a handful of North American and racket sports. Sportaza, Rooster, RoyalistPlay and Winz name the small-island regulatory jurisdictions — Anjouan, Tobique — that have become the default issuer for white-label sportsbooks, and they share the same operating company, Novatrix SRL, in two of the four cases. Spinbara, the tenth, is the only one in the set whose published welcome package runs in cryptocurrency rather than euro. The catalogue differences are real; the regulatory standing in New Zealand is the same in every case.

What the law actually says in 2026

The monopoly under section 74AAA

Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, inserted by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, is the line that makes the question short. The section prohibits anyone other than TAB NZ from offering racing betting, sports betting, or “other racing or sports betting” to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or where the offer is incorporated. The Department of Internal Affairs is explicit: it is illegal under New Zealand law for any person or organisation except TAB NZ to offer racing and sports bets to people in New Zealand, and the Department told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect when the amendment came into force on 28 June 2025. The Racing Industry Act 2020 establishes TAB NZ as the sole provider; section 74AAA closes the door behind it.

The consequence for a reader is a market of one operator. There is no licence to apply for, no second regulator with a register, no appellate route if a foreign brand is rejected. Anyone marketing sports or racing bets to a New Zealand address is, in the Department’s language, doing so in breach of section 74AAA.

What the player is and is not liable for

The law points at the operator, not the customer. 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 describes a published penalty for a player. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may be based where consumer protections are weak, may not address gambling harm, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins — the warnings are framed for the punter, not as a basis for prosecution. A reader who bets with an offshore brand has broken no criminal offence a New Zealand court has been asked to try, and the Department of Internal Affairs has not set out a penalty. The reader has, in fact, stepped outside the protections the New Zealand framework gives a bet placed with TAB NZ: the harm-minimisation tools, the verified identity, the levy-funded counselling, the regulator’s complaint route. Those are real things, given up by choice.

The casino carve-out and the greyhound change

Two further changes sit around the betting monopoly. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only and does not license sports betting. A brand whose casino is licensed in New Zealand under that act has no sportsbook authority in New Zealand, and the page treats casino and betting as separate permits. The Racing Industry (Closure of Greyhound Racing Industry) Amendment Bill, passed on 2 April 2026, closes commercial greyhound racing in New Zealand from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not lawfully take bets on greyhound races either, because the racing itself has stopped. The change reduces the catalogue rather than the monopoly, and a punter who follows greyhounds loses the market at home and abroad.

The point-of-consumption tax and what it does not prove

The point-of-consumption charge that applied to offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026. Operators supplying New Zealand residents now pay an online gambling duty — 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027. A duty being payable is not a sign of legality under section 74AAA; the duty attaches to the act of supplying a New Zealand resident, and section 74AAA makes that act unlawful. The two are not in conflict — the tax exists to take a share of what the law still calls unlawful activity — and a punter who treats tax payment as evidence the operator is approved reads the law backwards.

Advertising and the code that applies

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 (25% or more of the audience counts as significant where accurate data exists); they must not encourage harm, and they must be truthful with terms available. The code does not create a whistle-to-whistle broadcast ban of the kind the United Kingdom introduced, and it does not replace section 74AAA. A sponsorship or a marketing email aimed at a New Zealand address sits in the cross-hairs of both.

How TAB NZ and Betcha run the bet

Markets, bet types and what the punter sees

TAB NZ takes fixed-odds and tote (parimutuel, or pool) bets. The published betting rules define the racing bet types New Zealand punters are accustomed to: Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, with Multis and Same Game Multis for sports. A Same Game Multi is a multi whose legs all come from one event, popular in rugby, NRL and Super Rugby Pacific, and TAB NZ’s catalogue carries them. Live betting is in the TAB NZ apps, and there is no statutory restriction on in-play markets that has been published. The bet slip accepts fixed-odds and pool bets in the same account, and the rules apply across TAB and Betcha. A reader who has used the tote and a Same Game Multi on the same card has used the same operator twice.

There is no lawful New Zealand betting exchange, and spread betting sits outside TAB NZ’s sports-betting definition. The page writes nothing about a New Zealand exchange, and a reader who wants exchange-style pricing does not have one in the lawful market. Bets on politics and novelty markets are not established; the rules address racing and sports, and a market for an election outcome is not part of the published catalogue. Virtual (computer-simulated) sport is treated by the 2026 online casino law as casino gambling, and whether esports betting counts as “sports betting” under the Racing Industry Act is not established. A punter who bets on Counter-Strike or League of Legends through an offshore brand has not found a gap in the New Zealand market; they have left it.

Identity, age and the account in practice

The age for TAB NZ betting is 18; betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Land-based casinos are 20, and the two ages must not be conflated. TAB NZ accounts need a verified New Zealand address and ID, and an account opened with a foreign address does not lawfully take New Zealand racing or sports bets. The verification is the regulator’s way of keeping the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework attached to the New Zealand bettor, and it is also the part of the process an offshore brand skips.

Safer-gambling tools that apply across both brands

TAB NZ lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in its app, and the same operator runs Betcha, so an exclusion from one applies across both. The tools are the punter’s primary line of defence, and the page treats them as the centre of the responsible-gambling offer rather than as a footnote: a deposit limit is the difference between a bad week and a serious one, and a self-exclusion is the cleanest answer a person who has decided to stop can give themselves. The problem gambling levy of 0.74% of TAB NZ’s betting revenue funds the harm-minimisation work the operator is required to do, and the levy is in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028.

How much the framework costs the punter on average

The arithmetic on this page is the one piece of calculation the page carries, and the point is to make the cost of the bet visible. Take a two-way market at decimal odds 1.90 on each side, an illustrative price, not a quoted one. The payout share is 1 ÷ (1/1.90 + 1/1.90) = 1 ÷ (1.0526) = 0.95, or 95%, and the bookmaker’s margin is 1 − 0.95 = 0.05, or 5%. Staked once at NZ$500, the expected cost to the punter over many such bets is the turnover multiplied by the margin: NZ$500 × 0.05 = NZ$25 of expected loss per NZ$500 staked at that price. That is a band, not a single bet: the result is an average over many bets, and one bet pays the stake times the odds or nothing. The figure is illustrative, drawn from the price the page names, and a real market at the same odds carries the same margin. New Zealand has no statutory deposit or loss limit, and the NZ$500 is an example budget, not a regulator’s number.

The illustration matters because the cost is the same wherever the bet is placed at that price. An offshore brand at 1.90 on each side keeps 5% of the turnover too, and the punter who switches brands to chase a price does not change the arithmetic. What the punter does change is who holds the 5% and what they do with the balance: TAB NZ returns 74 cents in every NZ$100 of betting revenue to problem-gambling services and applies New Zealand law to disputes; an offshore brand applies its own house rules to disputes and contributes nothing to the New Zealand levy. The margin is the same; the destination is not.

The offshore field, seen from the same criteria

The licence the footer names

Sportaza names an Anjouan licence (ALSI-202606064-FI2) in its footer and a Tobique licence (0000067) in its terms. Rooster.bet and RoyalistPlay name Tobique e-gaming licence 0000002, and the operating company is Novatrix SRL, registered in Costa Rica (3-102-893958), in both cases. Winz.io names Anjouan and Tobique in its footer. Rabona names a Curaçao licence. FunBet, RTbet and Spinbara name no licence that applies in New Zealand. None of these licences extends to taking a bet from a person in New Zealand, and the Department of Internal Affairs’ position is that the act is unlawful in New Zealand regardless of which licence the brand holds elsewhere. The brands describe themselves in their own terms; the description does not affect the section 74AAA position.

A reader who treats an offshore brand’s licence as a sign of regulatory standing in New Zealand reads past the section. The regulator is the Department of Internal Affairs, and the Department has not approved a sports or racing bookmaker other than TAB NZ. The page does not treat Anjouan, Tobique or Curaçao as bad regulators in their own jurisdictions; the point is narrower, that the licence is for a different bettor.

The catalogue the brand publishes

FunBet covers football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and a 24/7 bookmaker. RTbet covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports. The two are the most New Zealand-friendly catalogues in the offshore set, with rugby in the list, but a rugby market is not the same as a New Zealand licence to take it. Sportaza, Rooster.bet, RoyalistPlay and Winz.io do not publish a sport-by-sport list on the materials the page has, and the page does not invent one. A punter comparing depth at the point of choice needs to check the operator’s own markets.

The welcome packages are how the offshore brands compete. Spinbara lists a first-deposit package of 100% up to EUR 100, a sports crypto welcome package of 100% up to 200 USDT, and a casino welcome package of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. The other brands’ promotions sit behind their own terms pages, and the page does not catalogue them. The wagering requirements, minimum odds, expiry, and free-bet conditions that apply to each package are the operator’s own, and a punter who claims a package is bound by the fine print, not the headline.

The risks the Department names

The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may be based where consumer protections are weak, may not address gambling harm, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins. The warnings are not a list of accusations; they are a list of things a New Zealand punter cannot enforce at home when the operator is offshore. The New Zealand regulator has no jurisdiction to compel a payout from a Curaçao or Anjouan company; the dispute mechanism is the operator’s, and the appeal is to a regulator in the licensing jurisdiction. A punter who has had a winning bet on a Super Rugby Pacific match and finds a withdrawal delayed has, in practical terms, the operator’s word against theirs, and the regulator the punter pays taxes to has told the punter this in advance. That is the consequence of the act, applied.

Responsible gambling in the New Zealand framework

The tools the law requires

TAB NZ’s app carries deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion, and a self-exclusion applies across both brands. The deposit limit is set by the punter, time-outs are short cooling-off periods, and self-exclusion is the longest period, set by the punter with the operator’s confirmation. The Department of Internal Affairs’ broader harm-minimisation work funds counselling services and education, and the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74% of TAB NZ’s betting revenue is the line in the budget that pays for it. The levy is set at 0.74% for the period 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028.

There is no single national online-betting exclusion register. The register the 2026 online casino law requires is for online casinos only, and the betting framework does not have its equivalent. The harm-minimisation work happens at the operator, and the operator is one. The punter who has self-excluded from TAB has used the available tool; the punter who wants a national register is asking for a thing the law has not built.

The help that is one call away

The free Gambling Helpline, 0800 654 655, with a text line on 8006, is the immediate resource for a punter who has decided they want to talk. The service is free, confidential, and staffed by people trained to help. Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the public-facing education programme, and the Department of Internal Affairs publishes information on harm minimisation alongside the operator’s tools. A punter who has self-excluded and is looking for a long-term support service has the helpline as a starting point and Safer Gambling Aotearoa as the broader programme.

A practical sequence for the punter who has decided to step back

A punter who has decided to stop betting has, in this framework, three steps that work together. First, the self-exclusion at TAB NZ, set in the app or by calling the operator, which closes the New Zealand account. Second, the deposit limit, which can be set to zero and which closes the path back in. Third, the helpline call, which is the human conversation that makes the operator’s tools stick. The offshore brands do not offer the same sequence; an exclusion at an Anjouan or Tobique-licensed brand sits in that operator’s database, and the punter who has excluded from TAB and not from the offshore brands has only closed the New Zealand door. The Department names the risks; the sequence is the answer a punter can give themselves.

What changes a reader’s calculation in 2026

The case for the New Zealand brands

The case for TAB NZ and Betcha is the framework, not the brand. A punter who bets through the New Zealand channel has a verified account, a New Zealand identity check, a deposit limit set by them, a self-exclusion that works across both brands, a regulator who monitors the operator, a complaint route, a levy-funded harm-minimisation service, and a tax position (recreational winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable). The punter who bets offshore has none of these in the New Zealand jurisdiction. The price on a given market may be the same on both sides; the framework around the bet is not.

The case against the offshore brands

The case against the offshore brands is the same point from the other side. An Anjouan or Tobique-licensed bookmaker is breaking New Zealand law by taking a New Zealand bet, and the punter who places the bet is outside the New Zealand regulator’s protection. The price may be 1.90 to 1.90 on a rugby match, and a Curaçao bookmaker may keep the same 5% margin, but the punter who finds a withdrawal pending has the operator’s word against theirs, and the New Zealand regulator has told the punter this in advance. The page does not invite a sign-up; the consequence is what the Department of Internal Affairs has already published.

The greyhound gap

The closure of commercial greyhound racing from 1 August 2026 removes a racing code from the catalogue. A punter who follows the dogs loses the market at TAB and Betcha from that date, and the same change closes the greyhound market offshore, because the racing itself is stopping. The closure is the racing industry’s own policy, made by statute, and the punter’s only honest option is to follow another code or to step back from the racing bet type. The page treats the change as a reduction in the catalogue rather than a question of legality.

What the page does not know

The page does not quote a price on a named event; no such figure is in the materials the page has, and the page does not invent one. The two-way market at 1.90 is an illustrative price, used to show the margin, and a real market at any given time carries a price the punter can find on the operator’s slip. The page does not catalogue the wagering terms of each welcome package; the operator’s terms are the place those live, and a punter who claims a package is bound by the terms in front of them, not by anything this page has summarised. The page does not claim an offshore brand is unsafe; the Department of Internal Affairs has published a list of risks, and the page reports the list as the Department states it.

Frequently asked questions about betting law in New Zealand

Are offshore betting sites legal in New Zealand?

The Department of Internal Affairs’ position is that an overseas bookmaker offering racing or sports bets to a person in New Zealand is breaking New Zealand law under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025. The page does not write that placing such a bet is illegal for the player; section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 says an individual may not be convicted for doing so, and the materials available do not describe a published penalty for a player. The lawful choice in New Zealand is TAB NZ and Betcha.

How is betting on horse racing legal in New Zealand?

TAB NZ takes fixed-odds and tote bets on thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing, with the bet types Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6 in the published rules. The tote is the parimutuel (pool) product that pays a dividend (the tote payout) declared after the race; fixed-odds pays the price at bet placement. Greyhound racing is closing from 1 August 2026 under the 2026 amendment bill, and the catalogue will reduce to thoroughbred and harness.

Is any online sports betting legal in New Zealand?

Yes: TAB NZ and Betcha, both online brands of TAB NZ, are the two operators authorised to take online sports and racing bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA. There is no other licensed online sportsbook in New Zealand, and there is no licence to apply for. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only and does not extend the betting monopoly; a brand with a New Zealand casino licence under the 2026 act has no New Zealand sportsbook authority.

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

TAB NZ is the only holder of the betting licence under the Racing Industry Act 2020, and TAB and Betcha are its two online brands. Entain runs the business under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023 with a 50/50 share of gross profits and a NZ$100m one-off payment to the racing sector. The Department of Internal Affairs names TAB and Betcha as the brands authorised for online racing and sports betting in New Zealand.

Are TAB and Betcha two different bookmakers?

No: TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of TAB NZ, one operator, one licence, one harm-minimisation framework, and one self-exclusion that covers both. A punter’s exclusion at TAB applies to Betcha in the same step. The partnership with Entain runs the business, and the two brands are not rivals for the same market; Betcha leans into the online sports experience, TAB carries the racing catalogue and the tote.

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, and no source states a penalty for a player. The Department of Internal Affairs frames its warnings about overseas operators in terms of consumer-protection risks (weak safeguards, gambling harm, unspent credits, large wins) rather than prosecution, and the materials available describe the law as targeting the operator. The punter’s risk is the loss of the New Zealand framework, not a published penalty.

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