Legal betting in New Zealand: who can take a bet, and how the framework reads in 2026

Updated October 2026

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New Zealand gambling law changed on 28 June 2025. From that date, the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand is TAB NZ, and the brand most New Zealanders know as TAB now sits at the centre of an online monopoly the Department of Internal Affairs administers through the Racing Industry Act 2020. The legal change closed the door on every other bookmaker serving New Zealand customers, including a long list of offshore brands that had done so for years.

The framing matters more than the rules. Anyone in New Zealand placing a bet with an offshore operator today is dealing with an unlicensed operator whose name is also a legal risk on the supplier side. The bet itself is not, as a matter of statute, an offence for the player — section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 was rewritten in 2025 to make that explicit. But the New Zealand safeguards a punter is used to (deposit limits, the self-exclusion that crosses brands, the helpline that picks up, the levy-funded counselling service) simply do not exist for the offshore side, and that is the part most readers miss.

Currency stamp: figures current as of 30 October 2026, verified against the Department of Internal Affairs statement on the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 and against TAB NZ’s published betting and safer-gambling pages.

The state of legal online betting in New Zealand after 28 June 2025

What the law actually settled

Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, inserted by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 and in force from 28 June 2025, makes a single rule: no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or “other racing or sports betting” to a person in New Zealand, wherever that operator is resident or incorporated. The Department of Internal Affairs calls it the online betting monopoly in plain language, and it told every other provider serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect.

The same law also gave TAB NZ two online brands — TAB and Betcha — under the operator-licence umbrella, run by Entain under the long-term partnership signed in 2023. That is the short version; the long version is that the change was not a fresh policy decision but the end of a policy gap. New Zealand’s stance against private bookmaking has been on the books in some form since the Gambling Act 2003 and earlier statutes; what changed in 2025 is that the door was finally shut against operators serving New Zealand remotely, and that part of the enforcement story has now caught up with the framework.

What TAB NZ and Betcha cover

TAB NZ is the umbrella body the Racing Industry Act 2020 itself establishes. It holds the only lawful right to take bets on New Zealand racing and on overseas sporting events that are not offered by another provider here. Its two consumer-facing brands — TAB and Betcha — share the same wallet, the same harm-minimisation tools, the same self-exclusion register and the same dividend pool. Anyone punting with Betcha is punting with the TAB, in the same legal sense.

The catalogue is broad. TAB NZ takes fixed-odds bets and tote (pool) bets across racing codes (thoroughbred, harness, and greyhounds while they remain legal), and its sportsbook covers the sports an Australian and New Zealand audience watches — rugby league and rugby union, cricket, basketball, football, tennis, American sports. The multi-bet product on the same brand covers a dozen or more sports on a given day; same-game multis (SGMs) attach to the bigger fixtures. Live betting is listed in the apps, and there is no statute on the books that restricts in-play wagering as long as the bet is placed with TAB NZ.

What the offshore brands actually are

The other brands in this market — and there are many of them, judging by how often New Zealand accounts find them in search results — are not licensed to take racing or sports bets in New Zealand. They sit under overseas licences (Curaçao, the Union of the Comoros via Anjouan, the Tobique Gaming Commission, Costa Rica) that give the operator a right to do business in their home jurisdiction and that do nothing for a person in New Zealand.

Some of these brands are well-run businesses with strong sportsbooks. Some are thin. What they all share on the New Zealand side is the absence of every safeguard the section above names: no verified identity on New Zealand documents, no cross-brand self-exclusion, no New Zealand harm-minimisation levy, no recourse through the Department of Internal Affairs, no guarantee that a big win on a multi-bet is honoured when a withdrawal is requested. Those are the questions DIA poses in its own statement, and they are the questions to ask before depositing.

The ranking: the ten operators a New Zealand punter meets first

How the table reads

The table below names the ten operators a search for legal betting in New Zealand surfaces, in the order they appear most often. The first two (TAB and Betcha) are one operator group under New Zealand law; the other eight are bookmakers that players meet via search results, affiliate sites, or links from offshore media. None of the eight holds a New Zealand licence for racing or sports betting.

The “what the terms actually say” column reads each operator’s own published terms for the legal-subject key. TAB and Betcha terms were checked against the TAB NZ app-store listing and the Department of Internal Affairs statement; offshore brand terms were checked against each brand’s own footers, terms pages and public licence disclosures at the moment this page was prepared.

Columns four across the row — licence status, what the operator’s own terms say about New Zealand access, and a one-line read on whether the brand is a path a New Zealand punter follows — work the same way for every operator, in the same order, and against the same benchmark.

That is the ten-row shape of the New Zealand market as it stands: two rows that are one operator, and eight rows that are not licensed here. The middle of the table shows brands that have been around in the offshore space for years; the bottom names two newer names whose terms do not address New Zealand at all.

How each operator measures up

What follows is a closer look at each brand in the table, in the same order. The read is the same kind of read across all ten blocks: who runs it, what the licence says, where the legal-key subject lands under their own terms, and a one-sentence verdict on who the brand suits.

TAB – the only lawful option for sports and racing

TAB is the older of the two consumer-facing brands under TAB NZ, and the one most New Zealanders already have on their phone. The Racing Industry Act 2020, as amended in 2025, identifies TAB NZ as the only lawful provider; the Department of Internal Affairs names TAB specifically as one of the two brands New Zealand punters may lawfully use. Its app lists fixed-odds betting on racing and sports, multi-bets and same-game multis on the bigger fixtures, and live betting through the in-play product. Safer-gambling tools (deposit limits, time-outs, a self-exclusion that applies across both TAB brands) sit inside the app, and the helpline is published on the same screen.

TAB is the right answer for any punter who wants the bets they place to be the bets a New Zealand regulator oversees. There is no other legal choice for racing and sports.

Betcha – the second brand, the same operator

Betcha is the newer face of TAB NZ, aimed at a customer who wants a more app-led experience and a different layout on the racing card. Legally, it is the same operation: same licence (the operator is TAB NZ), same harm-minimisation tools, same self-exclusion framework, same helpline and text line. The split into two brands is commercial, not legal.

Betcha suits the punter who finds the older TAB app too dense and wants a faster in-play product. The product is the same under the hood, including the dividend pool on racing.

FunBet – offshore bookmaker, no New Zealand licence

FunBet runs a sportsbook on football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and the brand operating around the clock. The licence it does name (an offshore licence — FunBet’s own pages do not display one) does not apply to New Zealand access. The brand does not address New Zealand in its consumer-facing terms.

FunBet suits a punter already in a market where FunBet is licensed and known to honour withdrawals. In New Zealand, it is neither the right answer nor a clearly safe one.

Rabona – Curaçao licence, does not address New Zealand

Rabona was launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group, and it runs on a Curaçao licence. Its terms and consumer pages do not address New Zealand access, which is the standard Curaçao-licensed answer: the licence is for the operator’s home jurisdiction, and the operator runs without reference to the Department of Internal Affairs.

Rabona is a mid-market European sportsbook with a deep in-play product. It suits a bettor in a market where Rabona is licensed. It is a path that, in New Zealand, the regulator explicitly warns against.

RTbet – Curaçao licence, virtual sports included

RTbet covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and a virtual-sports product. The licence it names is Curaçao; nothing on the public pages addresses New Zealand. The same offshore / no-New-Zealand-access dynamic applies as for Rabona.

RTbet suits a punter who values virtual sports and a long tail of small-league markets. The New Zealand case for using it does not exist.

Sportaza – mismatched licence attribution

Sportaza is unusual on this list. Its footer cites an Anjouan licence (ALSI-202606064-FI2), and section 1.4 of its terms cites a Tobique licence (0000067). Each licence is the kind of offshore licence that does nothing for a New Zealand customer. The brand does not address New Zealand access.

Sportaza suits a bettor outside New Zealand who reads the licence footer as a confidence signal. In New Zealand, the licence is none of the licences that matter — and the footer / terms discrepancy is a red flag on its own.

Rooster.bet – Tobique licence, Costa Rica operator

Rooster.bet is operated by Novatrix SRL, a Costa Rica company (registration 3-102-893958) under a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (0000002). The terms do not address New Zealand access. Novatrix SRL is the same operating company that runs RoyalistPlay, which is the only place the two brands interact with each other.

Rooster.bet suits a punter already familiar with the Novatrix brands. The New Zealand regulator does not see this licence as one that applies here.

RoyalistPlay – same operator as Rooster.bet

RoyalistPlay is owned and operated by Novatrix SRL (the Costa Rica company with registration 3-102-893958) under Tobique e-gaming licence 0000002. Like Rooster.bet, it does not address New Zealand access in its consumer-facing terms. Reading RoyalistPlay in the same sentence as Rooster.bet is fair: the operator behind both is identical, the licence is identical, and neither is licensed in New Zealand.

RoyalistPlay is a path that suits a punter in another regulated market. In New Zealand, the same warnings DIA publishes about offshore operators apply.

Winz.io – dual licence, but no New Zealand access

Winz.io states in its footer that it holds licences delivered by Anjouan and Tobique. Neither licence applies to New Zealand. The terms do not address New Zealand access. Like Sportaza, the dual licence is a marketing statement rather than a regulatory one for a New Zealand customer.

Winz.io suits a punter who values the crypto-friendly product and accepts the gambling-harm framework of the licence Anjouan and Tobique issue. In New Zealand, the same exclusion from local protection applies.

Spinbara – no licence named that applies here

Spinbara advertises a first-deposit bonus of 100% up to EUR 100 and a sport crypto welcome bonus of 100% up to 200 USDT on its English site, with a casino welcome bonus of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins running alongside. Brand materials name no licence that applies to New Zealand customers. The bonus line is the strongest part of the offer in marketing terms; in legal terms, it is no answer at all.

Spinbara is a new sportsbook with a large casino welcome package. It suits a casino punter already familiar with the brand group. It is not a path a New Zealand reader follows for sports or racing — and the casino side is governed by the 2026 online casino law, separate from the TAB NZ monopoly for sports.

How the New Zealand legal framework divides the market

The Racing Industry Act 2020 and what it actually prohibits

The Racing Industry Act 2020 establishes TAB NZ as the sole provider for racing and sports betting in New Zealand. Section 74AAA, added by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, takes that position to its logical end: no other person, in any jurisdiction, may offer racing betting, sports betting or “other racing or sports betting” to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that operator is incorporated. Section 92A gives the Department of Internal Affairs the role of monitoring compliance.

The statute is domestic law with international reach. It does not geo-block offshore websites (New Zealand has no mechanism for that), and it does not impose criminal liability on the punter. It puts liability on the operator. What it does, every day it is enforced, is remove the operator-level legitimacy that a Curaçao or Anjouan or Tobique licence might otherwise claim to provide for a New Zealand customer.

What the Gambling Act 2003 does, and where it stops

The Gambling Act 2003 was already in force when TAB NZ was established, and it covers most gambling activity in New Zealand. The Racing Industry Act 2020 is the racing and sports betting statute, and the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 (in force from 2026) covers online casinos — a separate question. Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, as amended in 2025, says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore betting operator in breach of section 74AAA. The statute is explicit on this point.

The practical read is that an individual punter does not face prosecution for betting with an offshore operator. The risk is on the supplier side, and the published penalty for a player was not found. What does follow is the catalogue of risks DIA warns against: an operator in a jurisdiction with weak consumer protections, an operator that may not pay out a large win, an operator that may not return unspent credits when an account is closed, and an operator under no obligation to address gambling harm in the form the Gambling Act 2003 anticipates.

Player protection, where the law stops and TAB NZ picks up

The age threshold for TAB NZ is 18, set by section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Land-based casinos are 20. The threshold for racing and sports betting is the lower number; merging the two is wrong on either side.

Account opening at TAB NZ requires a verified New Zealand address and ID. Verified accounts unlock deposit limits, time-out and cross-brand self-exclusion (between TAB and Betcha — same operator, same register). The Problem Gambling Levy, at 0.74% of TAB NZ gross profits, funds harm-minimisation activity across the country for the three-year window from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa are funded through that levy.

The advertising rules that apply to betting are the Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code: the audience used to assess targeting must be the actual audience (where accurate measurement exists), the 25% threshold for “significant” young-person audience is the test, and ads must not encourage harm. There is no equivalent of the UK “whistle-to-whistle” ban for betting in New Zealand.

Tax, payments and what the money rules do

For the player, recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A bettor who runs betting as a business is a different matter, and Inland Revenue’s guidance on that case is general information, not tax advice: anyone with a meaningful edge case on this consults IRD or an accountant.

On the operator side, TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy (0.74% of gross profits, three-year window to 30 June 2028). Offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents are subject to the online gambling duty — 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027. The point that matters here is that an offshore operator being liable for online gambling duty does not make that operator legal in New Zealand; duty payment and lawful operation are different tests. The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026, removing one piece of the earlier regime.

No statutory payment rule for betting accounts (cards, bank transfers, credit, prepaid cards, crypto) was found in New Zealand law. TAB NZ’s own terms set the deposit methods and limits, and these terms are operator-level, not generalisations. DIA has not ordered payment-block or bank-level obligation to block deposits to offshore bookmakers. Nothing in the New Zealand rule book addresses crypto or VPN use, and TAB NZ’s account opening requirement (a verified New Zealand address) is the only binding rule.

Responsible gambling and what the offshore path does not cover

What TAB NZ builds in

The features TAB NZ publishes on its safer-gambling page are: deposit limits, time-outs that range from a cooling-off day to a longer break, and a self-exclusion that applies across TAB and Betcha as one operator group. The helpline and text line are listed inside the app and on the same page; the 0800 number is free from a New Zealand phone, the text number is short, and the line is staffed by people who know the gambling-harm pathway in Aotearoa.

The Problem Gambling Levy funds counselling services across the country and Safer Gambling Aotearoa as the harm-minimisation body. A self-excluded punter on TAB or Betcha is locked out of both brands at once, the dividend on unsettled bets is held for review, and the same identifier cannot open a new account on either brand. The Government is moving toward a national exclusion register, but the register the 2026 online casino law creates is for online casinos only — betting has no single national register, and the cross-brand register inside TAB NZ is what holds.

Risks of using offshore betting sites

Offshore operators have no entry point to the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework. There is no New Zealand complaints channel, no Problem Gambling Levy-funded support that an offshore brand can refer a New Zealand customer into, no Government-funded intervention when an offshore brand closes a New Zealand account without explanation, and no recourse through the Department of Internal Affairs.

DIA’s warning list — weak consumer safeguards, no obligation to address gambling harm, no commitment to return unspent credits, no guarantee that a large win pays out — is the front-line of what an offshore punter gives up. None of these is theoretical. The Department’s statement reads as a public notice that these are the questions to ask, and the absence of a New Zealand answer is the point.

The greyhound racing closure and what changes from 1 August 2026

The Racing Industry (Closure of Greyhound Racing Industry) Amendment Bill was passed on 2 April 2026, and commercial greyhound racing in New Zealand closes from 1 August 2026. From that date, the offshore greyhound-betting market remains legally what it was (offshore, unlicensed, outside the Department of Internal Affairs’s gambling-harm framework), and the betting prohibition in section 74AAA extends to greyhound races. The closure does not change who the lawful operator is. It removes a racing code from the product.

TAB NZ terms after 1 August 2026 will reflect the closure of greyhound racing; the Betcha / TAB tote product will lose the greyhound dividend pool, and the in-play product for greyhounds will be removed. Existing wagers placed before 1 August 2026 settle in line with TAB NZ’s published betting rules. The 2026 online casino law treats virtual (computer-simulated) sport as casino gambling, not as racing or sports betting — so a virtuals bet on a greyhound-style event from an offshore brand does not suddenly fall inside TAB NZ’s monopoly, because the offshore brand is still outside the law.

The cost of betting with a bookmaker that runs on a margin

Why the arithmetic matters

Every bookmaker’s price carries a margin, and that margin is what the bookmaker keeps on every dollar bet on the market. A “competitive” bookmaker keeps about 5% on football 1X2 in pre-match form; a less competitive bookmaker keeps 10% or more. The margin is the strongest single number on a betting business, and it is the number the marketing copy never names.

For a New Zealand punter, the choice between TAB NZ and an offshore brand is partly a choice about margins. TAB NZ’s published margins are the standard for the local product; an offshore brand with deep markets can offer narrower margins on a given fixture, particularly on the bigger leagues, and that competitive pressure is the argument for offshore brand’s product lines. The legal-side argument cuts the other way: an offshore brand is outside the New Zealand regulator’s reach, and a big win that the offshore bookmaker declines to pay sits in the offshore complaints framework, not the New Zealand one.

What a $500 month at a 5% margin actually costs

A representative scenario: a punter with a $500 monthly betting budget, betting once on each event, on a two-way market priced at decimal odds of 1.90 for either outcome. The bookmaker’s margin on the market is the gap between 100% and the combined implied probability of both outcomes, which works out at 1 − (1/1.90 + 1/1.90) = 1 − 1.0526 = −0.0526, expressed as a positive number: roughly 5.3%.

The margin is what the bookmaker keeps on every dollar that flows through the market, before considering the punter’s record. Across a $500 turnover, that margin translates to an expected cost in the band of about NZ$26 to NZ$27 — the central estimate of what the punter “pays” the bookmaker for the privilege of placing $500 worth of bets at prices close to 1.90 each way. The figure is the average across many bets under the assumption that each wager is priced at 1.90 and staked once; a real punter’s actual cost will spread above or below that band depending on how the bets land.

The number is the closer of the choice: a margin of 5% on a $500 turnover is the cost the bookmaker charges the punter, in expectation, for the product. A punter who picks a market with a wider margin (say 10% on a small-league cricket total) pays about NZ$50 on the same turnover. A punter who picks a market with a tighter margin (say 2.5% on a major-league football 1X2) pays about NZ$13 on the same turnover. The same arithmetic, applied to a free-bet or a bonus offer, changes the cost basis; here, the cost basis is the margin, and the margin is the only number the punter can move by changing which bookmaker and which market he bets with.

What this means for the choice

TAB NZ’s published margins sit inside the standard range for the bigger rugby and football markets — narrow margins on the headline fixtures, wider margins on the smaller ones, and a long tail of niche markets where the only quoted price may carry a much higher margin. Offshore brands that have invested deeply in pricing technology can undercut those numbers on the sports they care about. The legal framework in New Zealand does not ask a punter to optimise for margin in choosing TAB NZ; it asks the punter to make the choice knowing that the offshore path is outside the regulator’s reach.

The arithmetic in the section above is a worked example with a single, illustrative turnover and a single, illustrative pair of prices; it is the shape of the choice, not the cost in any specific punter’s real bet history.

Who each path suits

The punter who wants the bets overseen by a New Zealand regulator

TAB and Betcha are the right answer, and they sit in the same place as one operator in the legal framework. The two brands give the punter the racing product TAB has run for decades (tote, fixed odds, multi-bets, Same Game Multis), the full sportsbook across rugby league and rugby union, cricket, football, tennis, basketball and American sports, and the harm-minimisation framework the Problem Gambling Levy funds. The range of in-play markets, the quality of the SGM product, and the depth of the smaller markets are the places where TAB NZ runs behind the strongest offshore brands; the regulatory oversight, the New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, and the Dividend / Quinella / Exacta / Trifecta / First4 / Quaddie / Big6 market are the places where TAB NZ is the only legal product.

The punter weighing offshore markets and lower margins

The offshore brands in the table can offer a deeper in-play product on a fixture outside the New Zealand mainstream, narrower margins on the bigger leagues, and a wider range of niche markets that TAB NZ does not cover. The cost of going offshore for this punt is the absence of every safeguard the previous paragraph names: no verified identity, no cross-brand self-exclusion that includes the New Zealand register, no Government-funded intervention when the operator closes an account, and no recourse to the Department of Internal Affairs when the operator declines to pay a large win.

Some offshore brands are professionally run businesses with long histories in their home markets. None of them — by definition, because they are offshore — carry a New Zealand licence for racing or sports betting, and that is the difference a New Zealand punter makes before opening an account. The legal rule is the same for every brand in the second half of the table.

The punter moving between racing and casino

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 creates a separate regime for online casino gambling in New Zealand, licensed under that Act and not under the Racing Industry Act 2020. TAB NZ has won the right to apply for an online casino licence under that framework, and the betting monopoly does not extend to casino. A punter who uses TAB for racing and wants an NZ-licensed casino needs to read the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 regime on its own terms, separate from the product this page covers.

Brand names like Spinbara that pair a sports welcome offer with a casino welcome package are gambling products aimed at the casino punter, where the casino side may or may not be licensed under the New Zealand framework, and where the sports side is unlicensed in New Zealand under the same section 74AAA reasoning.

The honest summary

The two lawful brands for New Zealand racing and sports betting are TAB and Betcha — one operator, one licence, one wallet, one set of tools. The other brands in the table are not licensed in New Zealand for racing or sports betting, and the Department of Internal Affairs has told them to stop serving the market. The punter is not liable to prosecution for placing a bet with one of those offshore brands, but the safeguard framework that funds the helpline and the self-exclusion does not reach the offshore side. A punter whose calculation ends at “I want to bet on a market that TAB does not carry” has accepted the trade-off this page is built around. A punter whose calculation starts at “I want to bet under New Zealand law” has a one-line answer.

The greyhound racing closure from 1 August 2026 removes a third of the racing product, not the monopoly. The betting prohibition in section 74AAA extends to greyhound races from that date, and TAB NZ terms after that date reflect the closure. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 covers online casinos only and does not touch sports betting. The Problem Gambling Levy funds the harm-minimisation framework for the three years to 30 June 2028.

Frequently asked questions

Is any online sports betting legal in New Zealand?

Yes — online sports betting through TAB NZ, and through its sister brand Betcha. These are the only two online brands of the single operator the Racing Industry Act 2020 (as amended by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, in force from 28 June 2025) authorises. Every other online sportsbook a New Zealand punter meets is not licensed to take the bet here. Section 92A of the Racing Industry Act gives the Department of Internal Affairs the role of monitoring compliance with the betting prohibition.

Are offshore betting sites legal for a person in New Zealand to use?

A punter does not face prosecution for using one. Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, amended in 2025, says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore betting operator in breach of section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The Department of Internal Affairs has not published a penalty for the player side of the transaction. The supplier is a different case: an offshore bookmaker serving a New Zealand customer is breaking New Zealand law under section 74AAA. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that offshore operators may be in jurisdictions with weak consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay large wins. None of the offshore brands in the table above is licensed to take sports or racing bets from a person in New Zealand.

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

TAB NZ, the holder of the single authorisation under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The two consumer-facing brands that a punter uses to place the bet are TAB and Betcha. Both share the same wallet, the same harm-minimisation tools, and the same self-exclusion register. The betting product is the same on the back end — racing codes (thoroughbred and harness, with greyhounds closing on 1 August 2026), football codes, rugby league and rugby union, cricket, basketball, tennis and American sports. The operator’s long-term commercial partner is Entain, which runs the day-to-day operation under a 25-year agreement.

Are TAB and Betcha two different bookmakers?

No. They are the two online brands of one operator, TAB NZ. The split into two brand names is a commercial choice about how the consumer-facing product looks. The same authorisation under the Racing Industry Act 2020 covers both. A punter’s account on TAB is the same account in legal terms as a punter’s account on Betcha — the same wallet, the same self-exclusion register, the same harm-minimisation tools inside the apps. The Department of Internal Affairs names TAB and Betcha together in its statement on the online betting law. Treating them as rivals misreads the legal framework.

How is betting on horse racing legal under the new law?

Horse racing betting goes through TAB NZ, the same operator as the rest of the racing and sports product. The racing product is fixed-odds or tote (pool) betting, with markets Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First4, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, and a multi-bet product whose legs span the day’s card. Punters place bets on TAB’s online brand or at a retail outlet. The dividend on the tote product is calculated from the pool, less the bookmaker’s take. The greyhound racing dividend pool closes on 1 August 2026, the same date as the greyhound racing industry; the rest of the racing product continues. No other operator may take a racing bet from a person in New Zealand; section 74AAA’s prohibition covers all racing codes equally.

Prepared by the Nodepositbetsnz editorial staff.