Betting on cricket in New Zealand: who is allowed to take the bet

Updated October 2026

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18+ Only

Updated: 30 October 2026 · Licence check: the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (section 74AAA, in force 28 June 2025).

Cricket betting in New Zealand is not a question of choosing between competing bookmakers. It is a question of which single operator the law allows to take the bet, and which other brands a New Zealand resident can still reach online but not legally bet with. TAB NZ runs both lawful online brands — TAB and Betcha — under a monopoly created by section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025. The page walks through what that monopoly looks like at the counter, how the betting works, what odds and margins actually carry, and which of the ten names a New Zealand reader is most likely to meet online actually offer cricket.

The shortlist: ten operators a New Zealand reader is most likely to meet

A field of ten reads strangely when the law allows only one. The monopoly sits with TAB NZ, whose two brands run on the same platform and on the same account rules; the other eight are bookmakers a New Zealand reader can reach online but cannot lawfully bet with. They appear here because search results, comparison sites and affiliate pages put them in front of NZ readers regardless. The point of the table is not to invite a sign-up. It is to show, at a glance, who lists cricket at all.

Six things stand out from that table before a punt is placed anywhere. Eight of the ten brands are not licensed in New Zealand. Of those eight, none lists cricket in its own published terms. The two lawful brands share a single operator behind them. The lawful option is as a result both narrower and complete; the wider field is wider only on sports other than cricket.

Fundamentals of cricket betting: what a bet actually rests on

Cricket is one of the older team sports and the structure of its betting follows the structure of the game. A cricket side has eleven players, and three formats sit at the international level — Test matches, One Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 (T20) — each with its own length, its own rules and its own betting markets. A Test can run up to five days and end in a draw. An ODI gives each side a fixed fifty overs. A T20 gives each side a maximum of twenty overs (one hundred and twenty legal deliveries), with a bowler restricted to four. A tied T20 goes to a super over. The format decides which markets a bookmaker is most likely to price: a Test invites session, innings and outright markets across days; an ODI invites totals, top-bat and top-bowl markets inside a fixed overs cap; a T20 invites ball-by-ball and over-by-over markets on a short, dense fixture.

The bet itself is the familiar shape: a stake at a decimal price, settled when the event is. Return on a winning single is stake × odds; net profit on a winning single is stake × (odds − 1). A combination bet multiplies the prices of its legs into one and pays the product. The rules above the price are what change between formats — rain rules in ODIs (Duckworth-Lewis-Stern usually sets the target or result, and a match with too few overs bowled — usually twenty — is a no result), the draw in Tests, the super over in T20s — and the page returns to each of those in the section on bet types and odds.

A few terms cross formats unchanged. The leg is one selection in a multi. The same-game multi (SGM) keeps every leg in one event. The handicap, in cricket, usually shows as a runs line or a wickets line. Each-way is rarer in cricket than in racing because outright winner markets often have only two credible outcomes (or three when a draw is in play); place markets are mostly a racing concept, though bookmakers will sometimes price a top-tournament-batsman place. The shape a reader needs in their head is short: a stake, a price, an event, a settlement rule.

The statute behind the monopoly: who may take a New Zealand bet

The shape of the market is set by statute, not by competition. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, inserted by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 and in force since 28 June 2025, prohibits any person 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 incorporated. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) — the gambling regulator under the Gambling Act 2003 — told unlicensed providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect when the section came into force. There is no licence route for another bookmaker to apply for, and there is no licence register of bookmakers, because there is only one lawful provider. TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of that single provider; presenting them as rivals to each other misreads the arrangement.

TAB NZ’s online business runs under a 25-year partnership Entain signed in 2023, in which Entain operates the TAB business and shares gross profits 50/50 with TAB NZ, with at least $150m a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years and a one-off $100m payment by Entain to the racing sector. New Zealand readers see two brand names and one operator.

A few points sit beside the monopoly and are easy to confuse. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only and does not extend the betting monopoly; TAB NZ winning the right to apply for a casino licence does not change who may take a cricket bet. Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either. The ban covers events held inside and outside New Zealand: a New Zealand reader cannot lawfully bet on an IPL match, a County Championship fixture or a Test in Antigua with anyone other than TAB NZ. New Zealand does not geo-block offshore websites; the law puts liability on the offshore operator, not on the page the reader opens. An individual New Zealand punter is not, on the published wording of section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 (inserted in 2025), to be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA — but the operator is on the wrong side of the law, the operator has no New Zealand complaints route, and DIA warns of the consumer risks of dealing with overseas providers. The honest framing is as a result narrow: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework; offshore brands are unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, with no New Zealand complaints route, the DIA’s stated risks and limits that depend entirely on the offshore operator’s own house rules.

The statute, in short, gives the page a one-name lawful answer. Everything else in the table is what a search engine surfaces, not what the law recognises.

Responsible gambling: what TAB NZ provides, and what to do elsewhere

Player protection in New Zealand is built around the single lawful operator, not around a market. TAB NZ’s apps list three safer-gambling tools — deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion — and an exclusion applies across both brands. The minimum age to bet with TAB NZ is 18, set under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020; betting under 18 is an offence. A land-based New Zealand casino sets its age at 20; the two must not be merged. TAB NZ also pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% (in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028), which funds harm-minimisation work across the country.

Help lines are free. The Gambling Helpline runs on 0800 654 655, with a text line on 8006, and Safer Gambling Aotearoa runs alongside it. TAB NZ’s own apps link to these. The deposit-limit, time-out and self-exclusion tools are set inside the TAB NZ account. There is no single national online-betting exclusion register; the register the new casino law will require is for online casinos only and does not cover TAB NZ or Betcha. Anyone who wants a wider net than a single-operator exclusion needs to combine the TAB NZ self-exclusion with the practical step of removing payment methods and self-excluding from offshore sites directly — a slower, less reliable process, and one of the sharpest reasons the lawful operator carries the only end-to-end harm-minimisation pipeline.

DIA’s own warnings on offshore providers matter here as well. The regulator notes that overseas operators may sit in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins. None of those is a moral judgement; each is a practical risk a New Zealand punter carries alone, with no New Zealand complaint channel to appeal to.

A short list, then: set a deposit limit before the first bet. Use time-outs at the first sign of chasing. Self-exclude at the first sign of harm. The tools are inside the TAB NZ app and they are free.

Crypto and anonymity: what the law says, and what it does not

Crypto is the part of the page where the statute is thinest. No New Zealand rule was found that bans crypto deposits at TAB NZ, no rule that orders a bank to block one, and no rule that defines crypto use as a breach of section 74AAA on its own. TAB NZ’s accepted deposit methods are operator-level and live in TAB NZ’s own terms — the page does not generalise from them. What is established is the framework the offshore brands are running on. Roobet names a Curaçao licence (OGL/2024/687/0427) under Raw Entertainment B.V.; LegendPlay names an Anjouan Gaming Authority licence; Sportaza names an Anjouan licence (ALSI-202606064-FI2); RoyalistPlay names a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002), holder Novatrix SRL. None of those licences gives the brand a right to take bets from people in New Zealand. The age floor is 18 at TAB NZ and at Roobet, LunuBet and the rest of the listed offshore names alike, but a remote age check is not a New Zealand check and it is not a New Zealand right.

A New Zealand punter who wants to use crypto sits in a peculiar position. The bet itself is unlawful on the operator’s side once an offshore brand is in the loop; the punter is not, on the published text of section 19(4), to be convicted for placing it. There is no statutory protection on the punter’s side of that bet: no regulator complaint, no payout guarantee, no recourse through Inland Revenue or the courts when an offshore brand declines to settle a winning market. A crypto deposit adds another moving part — wallet custody, exchange-rate slippage, on-chain transaction finality — without adding any New Zealand-side protection. The shape of the choice is as a result simple: TAB NZ keeps the deposit inside the New Zealand framework, with no crypto option on the table; offshore brands offer crypto and offer no New Zealand framework.

The mobile and app picture: what runs on a New Zealand phone

TAB NZ’s mobile footprint is the lawful footprint. The “TAB – Racing & Sports Betting” app sits on the New Zealand App Store under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board, first released on 8 September 2014, and carries a 17+ App Store age rating while stating that customers must be 18 or over to bet. The app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union and rugby league and other sports, pre-match and live; it carries Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form tools, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge features, and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. Betcha is the younger sibling: a New Zealand sports and racing betting app, published on the New Zealand App Store by Entain New Zealand Limited and first released on 6 August 2024. The two apps share the same TAB NZ product and the same TAB NZ account rules, including the safer-gambling tools.

The match on a New Zealand phone is between TAB and Betcha and the eight offshore names a reader can reach in a browser. The TAB NZ apps carry cricket along with the rest of the TAB sportsbook. The offshore names — Roobet, FunBet, Alawin, Golden Panda, Glorion, LegendPlay, Sportaza, RoyalistPlay — are reachable through a browser rather than a New Zealand App Store listing, accept customers at 18, and carry sportsbooks whose published terms do not include cricket. The mobile question for a New Zealand punter as a result answers itself: the lawful option is a New Zealand App Store app, the offshore option is a browser tab, and the two are not equivalent in regulatory coverage even when they look similar on a home screen.

Live betting and cash out: what runs while the match is on

Live betting in New Zealand is again a TAB NZ question. TAB NZ’s apps list live betting across its sports coverage, including cricket, and any statutory restriction on in-play markets is not established. Cricket is a particularly rich in-play sport: overs, wickets, partnerships, the next batter out, the method of dismissal, the runs off the next over — the market list grows as the innings grows, and a same-game multi can be built leg by leg as the match unfolds.

Cash out sits beside live betting in most modern sportsbooks and is where Sportaza earns its single most specific mention: Sportaza offers cash out before an event or market is finalised, alongside a Bet Builder (in which, if one selection is void, the whole betslip is void), multiples, Asian lines and interval markets in 1, 5, 10 or 15-minute ranges. None of that tooling reaches a New Zealand punter through a lawful channel, because Sportaza is not licensed in New Zealand. The TAB NZ equivalent is whatever cash-out functionality the TAB NZ app and Betcha app expose when a live cricket match is on — covered in each app’s own terms rather than restated here.

A practical note on the live shape: in T20, the live market window is roughly three hours and the price moves ball by ball. In an ODI, the window is roughly eight hours and the price moves over by over. In a Test, the window runs across five days with overnight pauses, and in-play markets on the day’s play sit alongside outright markets on the match. The price a reader sees is set inside that window and moves with the match; the cash-out value, where it exists, moves with the price. A punter who wants the ball-by-ball experience gets it through TAB NZ; an in-play punter who wants Sportaza-style interval markets on shorter windows does not get them through a New Zealand-licensed bookmaker.

Predictions and strategy: what tips and forecasts actually move

The prediction industry around cricket is wide and loud; what it moves in a betting account is narrower. Tipsters sell forecasts of match winners, top batsmen, total runs and tournament outrights. The forecasts range from model-driven projections of expected runs to free social-media posts ahead of a one-off fixture. The thing the forecasts cannot move is the margin inside the price. A tipster can pick the right side of a market and still lose money on the bet, because the price already has the bookmaker’s edge baked in. A good tipster with a bad price is a worse investment than a fair tipster at a fair price.

The strategy that actually holds up is unglamorous. Bankroll management — a fixed unit size as a share of your bankroll, never chasing losses, stopping at the session boundary — beats any individual tip. Format-aware markets beat format-blind markets: an ODI total bet is a different bet from a T20 total bet because the underlying scoring rates are different. Tournament outrights are higher-margin than match markets, because the bookmaker has more unknowns to price in. Same-game multis look attractive because the prices multiply, but each leg has its own margin and the combined margin is the product of the legs’ margins — which is higher than any single leg’s margin. The honest summary is: read the price, read the format, read the team, then bet what the bankroll allows.

The free tip sites a New Zealand reader meets — the ones with the loud banners and the affiliate links — are not a TAB NZ problem and not a New Zealand regulatory problem; they sit outside the betting prohibition because they do not take bets. The harm minimisation is the punter’s own discipline, and it starts with a stake that the punter can afford to lose.

Bet types and odds: how the price is built, and what the margin takes

A cricket bet is a stake at a decimal price, settled on a defined event. The price carries two things: a probability estimate and a margin. The probability estimate is the bookmaker’s view of how likely the outcome is; the margin is the bookmaker’s edge on every dollar bet on this market. The arithmetic is straightforward. For a two-way market at 1.90 / 1.90 — an illustrative price, not a quoted TAB NZ line — the payout share is 1 ÷ (1/1.90 + 1/1.90), which is roughly 0.95, and the margin is 1 − 0.95, which is roughly 5%. On a market priced 1.50 / 2.75 — another illustration — the payout share might be roughly 0.90 and the margin roughly 10%. A three-way market (home / draw / away in a Test) carries a higher margin than a two-way market at the same price level because the bookmaker’s edge is spread across three probabilities that have to sum to more than 1.

The margin is not visible in any single price; it is visible across all the prices on a market. A punter who wants to see the margin reads the whole market, sums the implied probabilities, and looks at how far the sum is above 1. That excess is the margin. TAB NZ’s published cricket markets carry their own margins, which vary by market and by event. The illustrative 5% on an evenly priced two-way market is the arithmetic of how a margin sits in a price, not a measurement of any TAB NZ line on any given day.

A working example: a $10 stake at decimal odds 3.50 returns $35, and the net profit on a winning single is $10 × (3.50 − 1) = $25. A two-leg multi at 3.50 × 1.80 carries a combined price of 6.30 and the same $10 stake returns $63 on a win. A multi’s price is the product of its legs’ prices, and a multi’s margin is the product of its legs’ margins — which is why a multi is, on average, a worse-value bet than any of its legs individually, even when the legs are well-priced.

The same pattern carries into same-game multis. Each leg has its own margin. The combined price is the product of the legs’ prices. The combined margin is the product of the legs’ margins. A punter who treats an SGM as a discount bet is misreading the arithmetic.

Cash out is a separate mechanism, and a separate margin question. A bookmaker offering cash out is offering to settle the bet early at a price the bookmaker sets; that price carries its own margin on top of the bet’s margin, and the punter’s edge is whatever remains between the live price and the cash-out price. Where the cash-out price is fair, the punter breaks even on the early settlement. Where it is not, the punter pays the bookmaker twice: once on the bet margin and once on the cash-out margin.

The mathematics, then, are short. Read the market, not the price. The price is what you pay; the margin is what the bookmaker keeps of every unit bet on this market. A higher price on the same outcome is a lower margin, not a “better” bet in any sense beyond the arithmetic. A multi is a way of multiplying the legs, including their margins. Cash out is a second market on the same bet, with its own margin. None of these facts is a prediction; each is the shape of the price the punter is looking at.

Fixtures and tournaments: what to bet on across the cricket calendar

The cricket calendar carries the year’s shape. A New Zealand reader sees four ICC events in a normal four-year cycle: the ICC Cricket World Cup (ODI), the ICC T20 World Cup, the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, and the ICC Champions Trophy. The 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup ran from 7 February to 8 March 2026, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka across twenty teams; India won the final, beating New Zealand by 96 runs. Bilateral series sit alongside the ICC events: New Zealand’s Test, ODI and T20 series against Australia, England, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the rest of the full-member twelve, plus the domestic competitions the ICC governs through the year.

Domestic cricket is its own fixture list. The Plunket Shield is the first-class competition; the Ford Trophy sits on top of the fifty-over format; the Super Smash runs the T20. TAB NZ prices domestic and international fixtures on the same product; the cricket-calendar question is as a result a calendar question, not a coverage question. The Black Caps’ bilateral schedule, the White Ferns’ international calendar and the Big Bash League / Indian Premier League / Caribbean Premier League circuits all carry prices on TAB NZ’s book once they are scheduled and priced.

Tournament outrights are the markets a punter meets first, before a ball is bowled. They are also the highest-margin markets on a cricket book because the bookmaker is pricing twenty teams across six weeks with limited information early in the cycle and a wide uncertainty band. Match markets — winner, top batsman, top bowler, total runs — sharpen as the team news lands and the pitch report comes in. In-play markets on the day of the match carry the tightest margins on the book, because the price moves with the match and the bookmaker’s information set updates ball by ball. The sequence a punter follows is the sequence the calendar gives: outrights first, match markets second, in-play last.

The ten operators, in detail

Each review below describes a brand’s cricket coverage as the brand’s own terms state it, marks its New Zealand status, and closes with a verdict shaped by what the block above it actually established. The two TAB NZ brands are described as one operator group with two brand surfaces; the eight offshore names are described as they meet a New Zealand reader, with the licensing reality stated in one sentence each.

TAB — the lawful bookmaker for every New Zealand punter

TAB is one of two online brands of TAB NZ, the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand. The mobile product is the “TAB – Racing & Sports Betting” app, published on the New Zealand App Store by the New Zealand Racing Board, first released on 8 September 2014 and carrying a 17+ App Store age rating while stating that customers must be 18 or over. Cricket coverage runs across Tests, ODIs, T20s and the ICC events, with pre-match and live markets, racing-form tools, Trackside live race streaming and a wallet for deposits and withdrawals. Safer-gambling tools — deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion — sit inside the app, and the exclusion applies across both TAB NZ brands.

The product is older than the smartphone era and shows it where the app is at its thinnest — but the cricket markets and the racing markets are deep, the in-play markets move, and the account is the only one a New Zealand punter can hold under New Zealand law. Verdict: the lawful bookmaker by default; for every NZ punter for whom cricket is part of the betting mix, full stop.

Betcha — the younger TAB NZ surface, on the same product

Betcha is the second online brand of TAB NZ, run on the same TAB NZ product and the same TAB NZ account rules. The “betcha | Sports Betting” app is published on the New Zealand App Store by Entain New Zealand Limited and was first released on 6 August 2024 — newer than the TAB app by ten years and built for a younger mobile-first audience. Cricket coverage is the TAB NZ cricket coverage: Tests, ODIs, T20s and the ICC events, on the same product and the same markets as TAB. The safer-gambling tools, the age floor and the exclusion are shared across both brands.

The product is the same; the surface is different. A punter who already has a TAB account has the same cricket product on Betcha. Verdict: for the punter who wants the newer interface on the same product, and nothing else.

Roobet — Curaçao-licensed, cricket not listed

Roobet is a Curaçao-licensed brand under Raw Entertainment B.V. (licence OGL/2024/687/0427), serving an international audience from a Curaçao base. Its sportsbook covers soccer, basketball, tennis, Counter-Strike, FIFA, baseball, ice hockey, MMA and table tennis; the published terms do not list cricket. The age floor is 18. The brand has no New Zealand licence: the only provider lawfully offering sports and racing bets to people in New Zealand is TAB NZ, and a Curaçao licence gives no right to take bets from New Zealand residents.

A New Zealand punter who reaches Roobet is reaching a brand that does not carry cricket and that does not carry New Zealand regulatory protection. Verdict: for the crypto-native punter who accepts no New Zealand cover, and only if the sport they want is on the published list.

FunBet — broad catalog, cricket not in it

FunBet is an offshore sportsbook whose published terms cover football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and a 24/7 bookmaker. The terms do not list cricket. The brand names no New Zealand licence; TAB NZ alone holds the section 74AAA sports-betting right.

The breadth of the catalog is the brand’s pitch and the cricket gap is the limit. Recommendation: Pick this for 24/7 markets on the listed sports, provided they do not bet on cricket.

Alawin — football-led catalog, cricket absent

Alawin runs a sportsbook whose terms cover football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, plus Live Betting, Virtual Sports and esports. The terms do not list cricket. The brand names no New Zealand licence; TAB NZ remains the only lawful provider under section 74AAA.

The product reads as a football-led bookmaker with secondary lines on the major US sports. Verdict: for the punter whose cricket interest is incidental, and only if the cricket wager is incidental enough to give up.

Golden Panda — casino-first, cricket not advertised

Golden Panda runs a Sports section alongside a casino, live casino, crash games, rewards, cashback, a VIP Club, Golden Goals and Prediction Markets. The terms describe a “Sports” category in general terms and do not list cricket. The brand names no New Zealand licence; this site lacks a New Zealand licence.

The shape of the offer reads as a casino-first brand with a sports section attached. Verdict: for the punter whose primary product is the casino and whose sports interest is small.

Glorion — broad grouping, cricket absent

Glorion’s published terms group its markets into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports, plus entertainment events such as award shows and elections. The brand offers pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports. The terms do not list cricket.

The breadth of the catalog is wider than most, but breadth is not coverage where cricket is concerned. Rating: Use this to track entertainment and election markets alongside sports, though this brand does not offer cricket wagering.

LegendPlay — Anjouan-licensed, cricket absent

LegendPlay runs an Anjouan Gaming Authority-licensed sportsbook whose terms list Sports, Live Betting and Virtual Sports sections, with football, tennis, basketball and ice hockey among the named sports. The terms do not list cricket.

The four-sport core is the brand’s pitch. Tip: For a punter who bets the four sports on the list; check other outlets if cricket is your sport.

Sportaza — the richest market tooling of the eight, cricket still absent

Sportaza runs an Anjouan-licensed sportsbook (licence ALSI-202606064-FI2) whose terms name cash out before an event or market is finalised, a Bet Builder (in which, if one selection is void, the whole betslip is void), multiples, Asian lines and interval markets in 1, 5, 10 or 15-minute ranges. The terms do not list cricket, but the market tooling on the markets that are listed is the deepest of the eight offshore names. The brand names no New Zealand licence; TAB NZ alone holds the section 74AAA sports-betting right, and an Anjouan licence gives no right to take bets from New Zealand residents.

The tooling is the standout; the cricket gap is the limit. Comparison: Try this for deep in-play market toolkits on the listed sports, though note the absence of cricket coverage.

RoyalistPlay — broad catalog, cricket absent

RoyalistPlay’s sportsbook runs live betting, sports promotions, results and a schedule, with football, basketball, tennis, handball, ice hockey, volleyball and table tennis among the top sports, plus separate e-sports and Predictions sections. The terms do not list cricket. The brand runs under a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002), holder Novatrix SRL; the operator lacks a New Zealand licence, and a Tobique licence gives no right to take bets from New Zealand residents.

The catalog breadth is wider than the four-sport names, and the Predictions section is a curiosity worth a click. Verdict: for a punter who bets the listed sports and likes a Predictions tab beside the sportsbook, and only if cricket is not on the slip.

A closing calculation: the margin inside a price

The arithmetic of how a margin sits inside a price is worth doing once with a clean number. Take an illustrative two-way market at decimal odds 1.90 / 1.90. The payout share is 1 / (1/1.90 + 1/1.90). 1/1.90 is roughly 0.5263, the sum is roughly 1.0526, and 1 / 1.0526 is roughly 0.95. The margin is 1 − 0.95, which is 0.05 — five per cent. On an evenly priced two-way market at 1.90 / 1.90, the bookmaker keeps roughly five cents of every dollar bet on this market. State it as a band with its condition: on a market at this illustrative price, the margin sits in the roughly five per cent range, with the qualifier “kept of every unit bet on this market” rather than “of the stake” or “of the return” — a five per cent margin on stake and a five per cent take of return are not the same number. The illustration is the shape of the arithmetic; the actual TAB NZ margin on any given cricket market is whatever its own price carries on the day the market is read.

Frequently asked questions

How does betting on cricket actually work?

Cricket betting is a stake at a decimal price on a defined event. You pick an outcome — match winner, top batsman, total runs, method of dismissal, an in-play market on the next over — and if the outcome lands, the bet is settled at stake × odds. The format matters: a Test can end in a draw, an ODI can be tied or no result (Duckworth-Lewis-Stern applies in rain-affected matches), and a tied T20 goes to a super over. TAB NZ’s cricket terms lay out the format-specific settlement rules.

What does a cricket bet pay back when it wins?

Return on a winning single is stake × odds; net profit on a winning single is stake × (odds − 1). A $10 stake at 3.50 returns $35 and the net profit is $25. A multi’s return is stake × (price of leg 1 × price of leg 2 × …). The return figure is a payout, not a prediction of whether the bet wins — the bet still has to settle on the right outcome.

How do I place a cricket bet from New Zealand?

Open an account with TAB NZ or Betcha, the two online brands of the single provider lawfully offering sports and racing bets to people in New Zealand under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Verify your New Zealand address and ID, set a deposit limit before the first deposit, find the cricket market on the app, and place the bet. Offshore brands a New Zealand reader meets online do not lawfully take bets from people in New Zealand, and DIA warns of the consumer risks of dealing with them.

Which bookmakers are licensed to take bets in New Zealand?

Only TAB NZ, through its two online brands TAB and Betcha. The Racing Industry Act 2020 (section 74AAA, in force since 28 June 2025) prohibits any other person from offering racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand. There is no licence route for another bookmaker and no licence register of bookmakers, because there is only one lawful provider.

What is the bookmaker’s margin and how does it show up in the odds?

The margin is the share of every dollar bet on a market that the bookmaker keeps, on average. It is not visible in any single price; it is visible across all the prices on a market. Sum the implied probabilities (1/odds for each outcome); the excess of that sum above 1 is the margin. On an evenly priced two-way market at 1.90 / 1.90, the implied probabilities sum to roughly 1.0526, the payout share is roughly 0.95 and the margin is roughly five per cent. A multi’s margin is the product of its legs’ margins and is as a result higher than any single leg’s margin. The same shape carries into same-game multis; each leg carries a separate margin and the combined margin multiplies across the legs.

Published by the Nodepositbetsnz team.