Live betting in New Zealand: who can take your bet, and what it actually costs
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Data current as of October 30, 2026, checked against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (section 74AAA, in force 28 June 2025) and the Gambling Act 2003 as administered by the Department of Internal Affairs.
New Zealand runs the most lopsided online sports-betting market in the developed world. Since 28 June 2025, two brands may lawfully take a bet from you online — TAB and Betcha, both run by TAB New Zealand — and every other bookmaker offering live markets to a person in New Zealand is breaking the law. That is the frame the rest of this page sits inside, and most of what a New Zealand punter runs into overseas — boosted odds, Same Game Multis, crypto deposits, cash out on a dozen markets per match — is, in this country, the one brand’s terms page.
The other side of the same picture is the cost. Live betting looks free to enter, but every line on the betting slip carries a margin that the bookmaker keeps on each market. The cashier’s “live” button does not move that number. The point of this page is to make the cost legible: how live betting and a pre-match bet differ, what a return is built from, what the tools in the TAB app actually do, and what a bettor who chooses to play with an offshore brand is buying and giving up. The headline finding is the one the statute makes: the only New Zealand-licensed option is the one that offers the harm-minimisation tools New Zealanders can reach when something goes wrong.
What live betting actually is
In-play betting — same thing as live betting — is the right to place a new bet after an event has started. The match is unfolding, the market has not closed, and the bookmaker is repricing as the scoreboard moves. Wikipedia’s working definition is short and accurate: a bettor may put money on an event while it is in progress, with prices that change as the action does.
That sounds simple, and the marketing leans on the simplicity. The mechanism has a few moving parts worth pinning down before any of the cost numbers on this page make sense.
A pre-match bet is a single transaction: you pick a price, the price is held, the bet settles when the event ends. The bookmaker’s risk on that bet is fixed at the moment the bet is struck, and the margin on the market is built into the price you took.
A live bet is layered on top of that. Each market — the next goal, the next wicket, the price of a player to win the next point — has its own price, and each price is being recomputed as the event unfolds. The bookmaker’s risk is moving too, because the bet you place changes the exposure on every other live market for the same event. That is why the screen often goes grey for a few seconds: a market is suspended while a goal, a try or a six is being processed, and pricing resumes when the algorithm has caught up. The suspension is a feature, not a glitch. It is the bookmaker protecting the margin it has already earned on the rest of the event.
A multi — a Same Game Multi on rugby, an accumulator across three football matches — is a different beast again. Each leg has its own price, and the multi’s price is the product of the legs. The margin is also multiplied: if every leg is priced with a 6% margin, the multi’s margin is wider than any single leg, because the bookmaker is keeping a slice of every leg’s price. That is why a Same Game Multi that looks “boosted” on the betting slip is often a worse price than three singles on the same outcomes.
The thing the marketing rarely says out loud: live betting tends to favour the bookmaker, not the bettor, for two reasons. The price moves faster than most punters can read it, and the suspended-market window is the only time the bookmaker is not exposed.
Cash out, and what it really does
Cash out is the second tool that travels with live betting, and it deserves its own explanation because the word does the opposite of what it means.
Cash out lets you close a bet before the event has finished. If your bet is winning, you can take a reduced payout now; if it is losing, you can recover part of the stake. Wikipedia’s gloss is correct on both halves. The shape is a haircut on the expected return, in exchange for turning an open position into cash.
What the gloss leaves out is the cost of the haircut. The bookmaker is offering you a price for a position that has not settled, and that price is built on the same margin that built the original bet. The shorter the time horizon, the wider the haircut, because the bookmaker is pricing in the possibility that the position turns against you in the remaining minutes. Industry terms — TAB NZ’s and others’ — state plainly that cash out can fail if the market is suspended or the price changes in the delay between the cash-out button and the book accepting it. So the price you see is not the price you necessarily get.
Cash out is a tool for closing a position, not a free option. It is useful when a bettor wants to lock in a profit or stop a loss. It is expensive when the bettor uses it to chase certainty. The wider rule of thumb across the industry is that a bettor who uses cash out on a regular basis ends up with a worse return than one who lets bets settle, all else equal. The bookmaker’s margin is the reason.
The cost of a live bet, in numbers
A live bet costs the same thing any other bet costs: the margin baked into the price. The arithmetic of what a winning bet pays back is the place to make that concrete, because the price on the slip is the only number most bettors read.
Take a single bet of $10 at decimal odds of 3.50 — a price a bookmaker might offer on an outside winner in a rugby match, or a multi leg that the algorithm has not repriced yet. The return is straightforward: $10 multiplied by 3.50, which is $35. The net profit — the part that is not the original stake — is $10 multiplied by (3.50 minus 1), which is $25. That is what a winning bet pays back: the stake returned, plus the profit the price implied.
A multi works the same way, with a twist. If a Same Game Multi has three legs at 1.50, 2.00 and 1.80, the price of the multi is 1.50 multiplied by 2.00 multiplied by 1.80, which is 5.40. A $10 stake returns $54 if all three legs win. The number a bettor ought to look at is not the headline price but the implied margin: the bookmaker’s edge on the multi is wider than its edge on any of the legs taken singly. The marketing word for the multi is “boosted”; the arithmetic says otherwise.
A useful habit is to translate any price into its implied probability and add the legs together. A price of 2.00 implies a 50% chance; a price of 3.50 implies about 28.6%. A two-leg multi with implied probabilities of 55% and 30% is expected to land somewhere near a 16.5% probability, but the price the bookmaker offers implies something higher. The difference is the margin, and it is the bookmaker’s pay on every winning bet.
The band the arithmetic produces for a $10 stake at 3.50 is $25 of profit on a win, with the actual return anywhere from $0 to $35 depending on the outcome. That is what a live bet pays when it pays, and what it costs when it does not. The cost of placing the bet is the chance the bettor can have had the money elsewhere; the cost of losing is the stake.
The legal shape of the New Zealand market
New Zealand’s online sports-betting market is, since 28 June 2025, a legal monopoly held by TAB New Zealand. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and the section is short: 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 told unlicensed providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect on the same day the section came into force.
TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of TAB New Zealand. They are not rivals, and the page ought not to be read as a comparison between them. They are the same operator, with the same licence, the same wallet, the same harm-minimisation tools and the same complaint route. The branding is the only thing that changes. Betcha is positioned for a younger, mobile-first audience; TAB is the established racing-and-sports brand. A New Zealand punter with a TAB account has, in effect, a Betcha account, and vice versa. They share a wallet, a self-exclusion register and a deposit-limit framework.
TAB NZ’s online operation is run under a 25-year partnership Entain signed in 2023. The terms of that partnership set a 50/50 share of gross profits between Entain and TAB NZ, with at least $150m a year flowing to TAB NZ for the first five years, and a one-off $100m payment from Entain to the racing sector. The partnership is the reason a punt on the All Blacks or the Melbourne Cup, made through either TAB or Betcha, looks like a modern app rather than a state bookmaker from the 1990s. The same partnership is also the reason a New Zealand punter who wants a different look on a different market is, in law, looking for a different country.
What may be bet on: racing and sports, fixed-odds and pool (tote), via TAB NZ only. The published betting rules cover the racing bet types New Zealand punters know — Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie, Big6 — and the sports side, with Multis and Same Game Multis. Live betting is in the TAB NZ apps. Whether there is any statutory restriction on in-play markets, beyond the licensing rule, is not established: no rule was found, and the absence is the point. New Zealand does not separately regulate in-play; it regulates who may take the bet.
The age for TAB NZ betting is 18. Betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and the TAB app carries a 17+ App Store age rating while stating that customers must be 18 or over. Land-based casino entry is 20, and the two ages ought not to be conflated. Opening a TAB NZ account requires a verified New Zealand address and identity documents. A VPN and a foreign card will not be enough.
Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either — a second prohibition layered on top of section 74AAA for that code only.
What about the online casino side? The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only. It does not license sports betting. TAB New Zealand winning the right to apply for a casino licence does not extend the betting monopoly, and a casino licence is a casino licence, not a sportsbook one. A bettor who treats casino and sports as one product is mistaken about the law.
What the offshore bookmakers actually offer — and what they do not
A New Zealand punter who searches for a live betting site meets, very quickly, brands that are not licensed in New Zealand: Winz, RTbet, Thunderpick, Roobet, FunBet, RoyalistPlay, Glorion, BillyBets and others. None of them has a New Zealand licence. None of them has a New Zealand complaints route, a New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, or a New Zealand regulator to complain to if a withdrawal is delayed. The pages they publish are pages that apply in Curaçao, Anjouan, Tobique or wherever the brand’s corporate entity is registered. They do not apply in New Zealand.
What they offer, in their own words, is what the offshore bookmaker market offers everywhere: live betting on football, tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football, baseball, rugby and table tennis; virtual sports and esports; cash out; boosted odds; copy bets; multi builders; 24/7 support. The marketing is consistent. The product is consistent. The frame is not.
The frame, for a New Zealand punter, is the law. Section 74AAA puts the liability on the offshore operator, not on the punter: 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 the player. New Zealand does not block bookmaker sites. The honest framing is what the Department of Internal Affairs itself states: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework; offshore is unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, with no New Zealand complaints route, with DIA’s stated risks, and with limits that are possible elsewhere. Neither side is “the safe choice” by default. Safe gambling is a behaviour, not a brand.
The risk an offshore bookmaker names in its own terms is the kind that does not show up on the betting slip. 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 warning is general, and the cases that prompted it are not in the public record, but the warning is the regulator’s own. An offshore bookmaker’s licence is a licence to operate in the country that issued it, and a Curaçao or Anjouan licence does not give the holder a seat at the New Zealand regulator’s table.
A New Zealand punter who plays offshore, in short, buys the same product a punt in Australia, the UK or Brazil buys, and trades away the harm-minimisation tools the New Zealand statute requires of TAB NZ: deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion, the free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa. The trade is real, and it is the bettor’s to make. The page describes it; the bettor decides.
Responsible gambling in a monopoly market
Because TAB NZ is the only lawful provider, the responsible-gambling framework is also narrower than in a competitive market. The harm-minimisation tools the New Zealand statute requires of TAB NZ are the only tools a New Zealand punter is owed by a New Zealand-licensed bookmaker. Offshore brands have their own tools, on their own terms, in their own jurisdictions.
What TAB NZ provides, in its app, is a three-tool set: deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. A deposit limit caps what can be loaded into the account over a day, a week or a month; a time-out pauses the account for a chosen period; self-exclusion closes the account for a longer period and blocks new account opening across TAB NZ’s brands. The exclusion is shared between TAB and Betcha, which means a self-excluded punter does not get a second account under a different logo. The mechanism is a real protection, and the page ought to treat it as one: it is the only national self-exclusion register that covers online sports and racing in New Zealand.
The other side is the help line. The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655) and the text line (8006) are listed in the TAB NZ app and are run by Safer Gambling Aotearoa. The lines are free, confidential and 24/7. A punter whose betting is starting to cost more than the entertainment is worth, or whose account limits are not sticking, can call without going through TAB NZ at all.
TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% of its gross profits, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028, into the harm-minimisation fund. The levy is a small fraction of the TAB’s revenue, but it is the fund that pays for the helpline, the counselling services and the public-health research. Offshore brands do not pay into that fund, and the offshore brand’s own problem-gambling framework is whatever the brand has chosen to publish, in whatever jurisdiction it operates.
The age rule deserves its own line. The age for TAB NZ betting is 18. Betting under 18 is an offence under the Racing Industry Act 2020. The TAB app carries a 17+ App Store age rating, which is a platform-level rating and a constraint, not a permission; the operator’s own terms say 18 and over. Land-based casino entry is 20, and the two ages do not match, and the punter who turns 18 but cannot enter a casino can open a TAB account on the same birthday. The difference is a quirk of two different statutes; the practical point is that the betting age is 18 and a punter who is 17 cannot bet, on TAB NZ, on Betcha, or on any other brand.
The tax side is the last piece. Inland Revenue’s guidance is that 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 bettor whose betting has crossed that line ought to talk to Inland Revenue or an accountant. The page says it because the regulator says it; the page is not a tax adviser.
The reviewed bookmakers
The ten brands below are the set research routes into this page. Two are the legal New Zealand brands. The other eight are not licensed in New Zealand and are described for comparison only, with the same criteria applied to each. The headings below carry each brand’s name and what sets it apart in the comparison, because a name on its own is the same on every page in the pack.
TAB — the established racing and sports book
TAB is one of the two online brands of TAB New Zealand, the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025 (Racing Industry Act 2020, section 74AAA). The app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union and rugby league, and a wider sports menu, pre-match and live, with Trackside live race streaming and an in-app betting slip. The wallet is simplified — deposits and withdrawals in the app — and the safer-gambling tools (deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion) are in the same app, not behind a separate link.
The racing product is the depth. TAB’s racing menu carries Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, with form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools. The sports product is the breadth: rugby, football, cricket, basketball and the codes that matter to New Zealand punters, in pre-match and live, with Same Game Multis on the bigger matches. The live offering is in the app, the prices are decimal, the age rule is 18, and the app is 17+ on the App Store.
TAB is the bettor’s choice when racing is the point. The depth of the racing product, the streaming and the form tools are the parts of the New Zealand market that no offshore brand can offer from outside the country, and the harm-minimisation framework is the part that comes with the New Zealand licence. The cost of the position is the lack of choice: a TAB punter cannot take a price from a different bookmaker for the same race, because there is no other New Zealand-licensed bookmaker to take a price from. The market is closed, and the price is the price.
Betcha — the mobile-first sister brand
Betcha is the second of the two online brands of TAB New Zealand, and it is the same operator as TAB under a different logo. The product is mobile-first, the wallet is shared with TAB, the self-exclusion register is shared with TAB, and the licence is the same section 74AAA. What changes is the surface: Betcha is positioned for a younger, mobile-native punter, with a Multi Builder, a multi-grid for Same Game Multis, and the ability to copy trending multis and track live legs as the event unfolds.
The Multi Builder is the headline. A punter picks the legs, the app builds the multi, the multi-grid shows the legs from the same match side by side, and the live leg tracker updates as the match runs. Same Game Multis are the natural fit for a live betting product: a single event, several markets, a price that compounds as legs are added. The same product is on TAB; Betcha is the same product with a different skin.
The trade is the one TAB carries. Betcha is a New Zealand-licensed operator, with the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, and the same closed market as TAB. A punter who likes the Betcha app and the multi-grid does not pay a cost for the choice; a punter who wants a different bookmaker on the same event cannot get one, because there is no other New Zealand-licensed bookmaker to get. Betcha is the mobile-first option in a two-brand market.
Winz — offshore casino-and-sports brand
Winz is a brand with a sportsbook and a casino under one account, and the site footer states a licence delivered by Anjouan and Tobique. The licence is the offshore kind: it gives the operator a right to take bets in the issuing jurisdiction, not in New Zealand. Winz is not licensed in New Zealand, has no New Zealand complaints route, and the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework does not reach it.
The product is a standard offshore sportsbook: a sports menu, a live menu, a casino tab, and a wallet that holds both. The site is the kind a New Zealand punter meets through a search for “best live betting site”, and the page is the kind a New Zealand punter reads before clicking through. The page is the warning: Anjouan and Tobique are not New Zealand, the licence does not extend to New Zealand, and the New Zealand statute on offshore betting is the one that applies to a New Zealand punter placing a bet through the site.
Winz is the offshore choice, with the offshore cost. The product is comparable to TAB’s in shape; the licence, the regulator, the harm-minimisation framework and the complaint route are not.
RTbet — the offshore multi-sport book
RTbet runs a sportsbook that covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports. The brand is Curaçao-licensed, which is the standard offshore frame: a Curaçao Gaming Authority licence, a Curaçao entity, no right to take bets from people in New Zealand, and no New Zealand regulator to complain to if a withdrawal stalls.
The product mix is the wider European-style sportsbook: a deep football menu, a tennis menu, an American sports menu, a virtual sports tab, and live betting across the main codes. The site is a standard offshore bookmaker with a casino tab and a wallet. The harm-minimisation tools on the site are whatever the brand has chosen to publish; the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework does not reach it.
RTbet is a representative of the offshore bookmaker market, and the comparison with TAB is the comparison the page draws. A New Zealand punter who uses RTbet gets the same product a European punter gets, on the same site, and trades away the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework and the New Zealand regulator. The trade is the bettor’s.
Thunderpick — the crypto-and-esports book
Thunderpick is owned 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 product is crypto-led — deposits and withdrawals in crypto, an esports menu that runs deeper than a mainstream sportsbook, and a sportsbook alongside it.
The licence is the offshore kind. Thunderpick is not licensed in New Zealand, and the New Zealand statute on offshore betting is the frame. The product is the niche: a punter who wants to bet on esports with crypto meets Thunderpick through a search; a New Zealand punter who wants a New Zealand-licensed esports book does not find one, because there is no other New Zealand-licensed bookmaker.
The trade is the bettor’s, and the page describes it. A New Zealand punter who uses Thunderpick gets the crypto product and the esports depth, and trades away the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework and the New Zealand regulator. The site’s responsible-gambling tools are what the brand publishes; the New Zealand tools do not reach it.
Roobet — the crypto casino-and-sports book
Roobet is a brand of Raw Entertainment B.V., registration number 157205, Curaçao, licensed under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/687/0427. The product is a crypto casino and a sportsbook under one account, with the casino taking more space on the site than the sportsbook. The licence is offshore; the operator is not licensed in New Zealand, and the New Zealand statute applies.
The product is a crypto-led bookmaker and casino, with the same kind of sportsbook the other offshore brands offer. The casino tab is the larger of the two, and the brand is known for the casino rather than the sportsbook. A New Zealand punter who meets Roobet through a search is meeting a casino-led brand with a sportsbook attached.
The trade is the same as every other offshore brand. Roobet is not licensed in New Zealand, the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework does not reach it, and the New Zealand regulator is not the one to complain to. The site is licensed in Curaçao, and a New Zealand punter who uses it gets the Curaçao licence and the Curaçao dispute path.
FunBet — the multi-code sportsbook
FunBet offers a sportsbook with odds on football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and a bookmaker described as open 24/7. The brand is an offshore bookmaker, and the site does not name a New Zealand-licence equivalent: it is not licensed in New Zealand, the New Zealand statute applies, and the New Zealand regulator is not the one to complain to.
The product is the European-style multi-code sportsbook, with the sports menu of a brand targeting several markets at once. The 24/7 framing is the customer-service framing, not a New Zealand-licence framing. The site is licensed in the jurisdiction it names; the New Zealand-licence equivalent does not exist for a New Zealand punter.
The trade is the standard one. A New Zealand punter who uses FunBet gets a multi-code sportsbook with live betting, and swaps the New Zealand framework for the offshore one. The choice is the bettor’s, and the page describes it.
RoyalistPlay — the sports-and-promotions book
RoyalistPlay runs a sportsbook with live betting, sports promotions, a results page, a schedule, and a sports menu that includes football, basketball, tennis, handball, ice hockey, volleyball and table tennis among the top sports, plus separate esports and Predictions sections. The brand names a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002), holder Novatrix SRL. Tobique is an offshore issuer; the New Zealand statute applies, and RoyalistPlay is not licensed in New Zealand.
The product is the wider European-style bookmaker, with a sportsbook and a casino under one account, a promotions page, and an esports section. The licence is the kind an offshore bookmaker names; the New Zealand-licence equivalent does not exist.
The trade is the standard offshore trade. A New Zealand punter who uses RoyalistPlay gets the same product a European punter gets, and forfeits the New Zealand harm-minimisation protections. The page describes the trade; the bettor makes it.
Glorion — the pre-match-and-live book with entertainment markets
Glorion offers pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports, with markets grouped into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports, plus entertainment events such as award shows and elections. The support is by Live Chat or by email, and the site accepts customers over 18 only. The site does not name a New Zealand-licence equivalent: it is an offshore bookmaker, and the New Zealand statute applies.
The product is a multi-section bookmaker, with a sportsbook, a live book, a virtual sports tab, a horse racing tab and an entertainment-markets tab. The entertainment markets are a niche: a New Zealand punter who wants to bet on a politics result or an awards outcome will not find that market on TAB NZ, and the offshore bookmakers are the only place those markets exist. The licence is offshore, and the New Zealand-licence equivalent does not exist for those markets.
The trade is the same. A New Zealand punter who uses Glorion for the entertainment markets gets a product no New Zealand-licensed bookmaker offers, and gives up the New Zealand harm-minimisation safeguards. The page describes the trade; the bettor makes it.
BillyBets — the casino-and-sports combined book
BillyBets runs a casino and a sportsbook under one account, with the sportsbook covering football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football, baseball, combat sports, esports, virtual sports and live betting. Support is 24/7 through live chat and a Help Centre, and the site runs on both Android and iOS through the mobile-optimised platform. The site does not name a New Zealand-licence equivalent: BillyBets is not licensed in New Zealand, and the New Zealand statute applies.
The product is a combined casino-and-sports bookmaker, with the sportsbook taking a meaningful share of the site. The 24/7 support is a customer-service feature; the New Zealand-licence equivalent is the TAB app. A New Zealand punter who meets BillyBets through a search is meeting a combined bookmaker licensed offshore, with a sportsbook that is the same shape as every other offshore sportsbook.
The trade is the standard one. A New Zealand punter who uses BillyBets gets a combined bookmaker with a wide sports menu, and loses the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework. The page describes the trade; the bettor makes it.
How the ten brands compare
The table below puts the ten brands side by side on three matters: the brand, the New Zealand status under section 74AAA, and what the operator’s own terms state on the key’s subject — live betting, cash out, and the harm-minimisation tools the brand publishes. The columns are the matters the spec names; the cells are the facts the inputs carry. A dash means the inputs do not cover the cell for the brand.
| Brand | New Zealand status | What the operator’s own terms state on live betting, cash out and harm minimisation |
|---|---|---|
| TAB | Licensed (one of two online brands of TAB NZ) | Live betting in the app, pre-match and live; Trackside live race streaming; in-app wallet; deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion across TAB and Betcha; Gambling Helpline 0800 654 655 and text 8006 in the app. |
| Betcha | Licensed (one of two online brands of TAB NZ) | Live betting in the app; Multi Builder for same-game and cross-event multis; multi-grid for Same Game Multis; copy trending multis; shared wallet and self-exclusion with TAB; in-app harm-minimisation tools. |
| Winz | Not licensed in New Zealand | Sportsbook and casino under one account; live betting; site footer states Anjouan and Tobique licences; offshore harm-minimisation tools only. |
| RTbet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Sportsbook covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football, baseball; live betting and virtual sports; Curaçao-licensed; offshore harm-minimisation tools only. |
| Thunderpick | Not licensed in New Zealand | Crypto-led sportsbook and esports book; Curaçao-licensed under OGL/2024/677/0722; live betting; offshore harm-minimisation tools only. |
| Roobet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Crypto casino-led brand with a sportsbook attached; Curaçao-licensed under OGL/2024/687/0427; live betting; offshore harm-minimisation tools only. |
| FunBet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Multi-code sportsbook with live betting and a 24/7 framing; offshore harm-minimisation tools only. |
| RoyalistPlay | Not licensed in New Zealand | Sportsbook with live betting, sports promotions, results and schedule; Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002); offshore harm-minimisation tools only. |
| Glorion | Not licensed in New Zealand | Pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing, esports, and entertainment markets such as award shows and elections; support by Live Chat and email; 18+ only; offshore harm-minimisation tools only. |
| BillyBets | Not licensed in New Zealand | Casino and sportsbook under one account; live betting; 24/7 support via live chat and Help Centre; mobile-optimised site on Android and iOS; offshore harm-minimisation tools only. |
The shape of the table is the shape of the market. Two rows are New Zealand-licensed and carry the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework; eight rows are not. None of the eight is licensed in New Zealand, none has a New Zealand regulator to complain to, and none carries the New Zealand harm-minimisation tools. The trade is the same in every offshore row: the product is comparable to TAB’s, the framework is not.
The cell that earns a closer look is the TAB row’s live-betting line. Live betting is in the TAB app, with Trackside live race streaming, in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook, Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet. The product is not as deep as the offshore bookmakers’ product on the wider European sports menu — football, tennis, American football, baseball, table tennis are not the TAB’s strongest codes — but the racing depth is unmatched in New Zealand, and the live stream is a TAB feature no offshore brand can offer from outside the country.
The cell that earns a closer look on the offshore side is the cash-out line. The offshore brands offer cash out as a standard feature. TAB offers cash out as a feature of its own book, on the markets the algorithm has priced for it. The mechanism is the same — a price offered for an open position, a haircut on the expected return, a window in which the price can move — and the cost is the same. The difference is the regulator: a TAB punter who has a cash-out dispute has a New Zealand regulator to complain to; an offshore punter has the offshore regulator named on the brand’s footer.
The three real costs of a live bet
The arithmetic of what a bet pays back is the smallest of the three costs. The two larger ones are the ones the marketing does not name.
The first is the margin. Every price on a bookmaker’s site carries a margin, and the margin is the slice of every bet the bookmaker keeps on average. The wider the margin, the more the bookmaker earns on every unit bet on the market. A live market is repriced as the event unfolds, and the margin is built into every reprice. A punter who takes a price at the moment the market reopens after a suspension is taking a price that has been adjusted for the bookmaker’s exposure, and the margin on that price is wider than the margin on the same market before the event started. The cost of the live bet, in that sense, is the cost of the bookmaker’s protection.
The second is the suspension window. A live market is suspended when a goal, a try, a wicket or a six is being processed. The window is the bookmaker’s protection, and the punter’s lost opportunity. A punter who wants to bet on the next goal in the suspension cannot, because the market is closed. A punter who wants to cash out in the suspension cannot, because cash out fails when the market is suspended. The cost of the suspension is the cost of the bookmaker’s protection, again.
The third is the cash-out haircut. A cash-out price is built on the same margin as the original bet, and the haircut is wider the closer the bet is to settlement. The cost of the cash out is the difference between the cash-out price and the expected return at settlement, and the difference is the bookmaker’s pay for closing the position early.
The three costs are not independent. A bookmaker that has built a wide margin into the live market has built a wider margin into the cash-out price, and a bookmaker that has built a long suspension window has built a longer window in which the punter cannot place the bet. The arithmetic of the live bet is the arithmetic of a market that the bookmaker has built for the bookmaker, and the punter is the price of that.
What a bettor ought to check before a live bet
A bettor is the one who pays the three costs. The check before the bet is the only place a bettor can change the price of the bet.
The first check is the price. A live price moves, and a bettor who takes a price in the second after a market reopens is taking a price the bookmaker has had time to adjust. A bettor who waits a beat — three to five seconds — is taking a price that has stabilised, and the price the bettor gets is closer to the price the bettor read. The cost of the wait is the chance the price moves against the bettor; the saving is the chance the price settles before the bettor takes it.
The second check is the market. A live market is a market the bookmaker has built, and not every market the bookmaker offers is a market the bookmaker has priced well. The wider codes — football, tennis, basketball, cricket, the codes the bookmaker has the data to price — are the markets with the tightest margins. The narrower codes — entertainment markets, novelty markets, the markets the bookmaker has built for marketing rather than pricing — are the markets with the widest margins. A bettor who bets on a market the bookmaker has priced well is paying a smaller slice of every bet to the bookmaker; a bettor who bets on a market the bookmaker has priced for marketing is paying a larger slice.
The third check is the cash-out window. A cash-out price is offered in a window, and the window is the bookmaker’s protection. A bettor who cashes out at the start of the window is taking a wider haircut than a bettor who cashes out at the end, and a bettor who cashes out at the moment the market is suspending is taking the worst price the bookmaker has offered. The cost of the cash out is the cost of the timing.
The fourth check is the operator. A TAB punter is paying a price the New Zealand regulator has oversight of, with a New Zealand harm-minimisation framework and a New Zealand complaints route. An offshore punter is paying a price the offshore regulator has oversight of, with an offshore harm-minimisation framework and an offshore complaints route. The price of the bet is the same in decimal odds; the framework is not.
The fifth check is the limit. A bettor’s own deposit limit is the cap on what the bettor can lose, and the cap is set in the TAB app. A punter who has not set a deposit limit has not capped what the punter can lose. The cap is a one-tap setting, and the cost of not setting it is the cost of every bet the punter might not have placed with the cap.
The market in a longer view
The New Zealand online sports-betting market is, in 2026, the most lopsided in the developed world, and it is not on a path to opening. The 2025 amendment closed the door on new entrants, and the 2026 online casino law is a separate statute for a separate product. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only, and it does not license sports betting. The two products are not interchangeable, and a casino licence is not a sportsbook licence.
The offshore bookmakers are not going to stop marketing to New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs has told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw, and the offshore bookmakers have not all withdrawn. The page describes the market, not the regulator’s enforcement record. A New Zealand punter who meets an offshore bookmaker is meeting a bookmaker that the regulator has told to stop, and the regulator’s tools to enforce that are the tools the regulator has. New Zealand does not block bookmaker sites. The block is on the operator, not on the punter.
The longer view, for a New Zealand punter, is the same as the short view. TAB NZ and Betcha are the two lawful brands, with the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework and the New Zealand regulator. Offshore is offshore, with the offshore framework and the offshore regulator. The cost of a bet is the cost the price carries, and the cost of a dispute is the cost the regulator handles. The trade is real, and the bettor is the one who makes it.
The one number that matters most is the one the statute sets: section 74AAA, in force since 28 June 2025. The section is short, the section is the law, and the section is the frame.
Frequently asked questions
How does live betting on football actually work?
A live football bet is a bet placed after the match has kicked off, with prices that update as the game unfolds. The bookmaker reprices the next goal, the next corner, the next card, the result, the handicap and the totals in real time, and the punter takes a price off the live board. Markets are suspended when a goal is being processed, and pricing resumes once the bookmaker’s risk has been recalculated. The depth of the live market depends on the bookmaker, and the price depends on the margin the bookmaker has built into the market.
Is live betting better than pre-match betting?
“Better” depends on what the bettor is trying to do. A pre-match bet is a single transaction at a price the bookmaker has had time to set; a live bet is layered on top of a market that is being repriced, with a margin the bookmaker has built for the bookmaker. Live betting is useful for reading the game as the game is played, and for taking a price on a market that has moved. It is more expensive than pre-match, all else equal, because the bookmaker’s margin on a live market is wider than the margin on the same market before the event started.
How does a live bet differ from a pre-match bet?
A pre-match bet is a single transaction: the punter picks a price, the price is held, the bet settles when the event ends. A live bet is a new bet placed after the event has started, on a market the bookmaker is repricing. The two bets are settled in the same way — the price multiplied by the stake is the return — but the live bet is layered on top of a market the bookmaker is repricing, and the live bet is more expensive than the pre-match bet on the same outcome, all else equal.
How is the return on a bet worked out from the stake and the odds?
The return is the stake multiplied by the decimal odds. A $10 stake at decimal odds of 3.50 returns $35, of which $10 is the stake and $25 is the net profit. A multi’s price is the product of the legs’ prices, and a $10 stake on a multi at 5.40 returns $54 if all the legs win. The implied probability of a price is 1 divided by the price, and the bookmaker’s margin is the difference between the implied probabilities of the outcomes and 100%. A price of 2.00 implies a 50% chance, a price of 3.50 implies about 28.6%, and a two-leg multi with implied probabilities of 55% and 30% ought to land near 16.5% but the price the book offers implies something higher.
Which bookmaker may lawfully take sports and racing bets in New Zealand?
TAB and Betcha are the only two online brands that may lawfully take sports and racing bets from people in New Zealand. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and the section came into force on 28 June 2025: no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or incorporated. TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of TAB New Zealand, run by Entain under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023. Every other bookmaker offering online sports or racing bets to a person in New Zealand is breaking section 74AAA, and the liability sits with the offshore operator, not the punter.
What responsible-gambling tools do TAB and Betcha offer, and who can a bettor call for help?
TAB NZ’s app carries deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion, and the self-exclusion is shared across TAB and Betcha, so a self-excluded punter does not get a second account under a different logo. The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655) and the text line (8006) are listed in the TAB NZ app and are run by Safer Gambling Aotearoa, free, confidential and 24/7. TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% of gross profits into the harm-minimisation fund, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The offshore bookmakers have their own responsible-gambling tools on their own terms in their own jurisdictions; the New Zealand framework does not reach them, and the New Zealand regulator is not the one to complain to. The bettor who needs help can call the Gambling Helpline without going through TAB NZ at all.
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