Crypto betting in New Zealand 2026: a market narrower than it looks
Available in USTwo words pull a New Zealand reader to this page — crypto and betting — and the second turns out to be the load-bearing one. Since 28 June 2025, section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 lets only one operator group take online racing and sports bets from people in New Zealand: TAB NZ, through its two brands TAB and Betcha. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) told unlicensed providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. There is no licence register for bookmakers in New Zealand because there is only one lawful provider, and there is no published rule that governs crypto deposits for betting. What a bettor in New Zealand actually faces is a single licensed doorway into the market and a long list of offshore crypto brands that will take deposits but offer no New Zealand protection. Written from TAB NZ’s own terms, the Inland Revenue guidance and the statutes and registers research carries; current as of 26 October 2026 and checked against the Department of Internal Affairs register.
How New Zealand regulates online betting
The gambling framework runs on two statutes. The Gambling Act 2003 established DIA as the gambling regulator and covered most gambling activity. The Racing Industry Act 2020 created TAB NZ as the body that holds New Zealand’s racing and sports-betting monopoly, and the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA, which makes that monopoly explicit: no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where the operator is resident or incorporated. The amendment took effect on 28 June 2025.
The penalty for breaching section 74AAA is not stated in the section and no prosecution of an offshore bookmaker was found. DIA’s statement frames the rule as targeting the operator, not the player. 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 operator in breach of section 74AAA; no published penalty for a player was found. New Zealand does not block bookmaker sites. The lawful shape is: one domestic operator with a regulator, a complaints framework and harm-minimisation tools; an offshore list that takes bets but offers none of those.
A second law sits next to the betting rules. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only and does not license sports betting. TAB NZ winning the right to apply for a casino licence does not extend the betting monopoly. Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either.
What TAB NZ is allowed to take
TAB NZ takes fixed-odds and tote (pool) bets, and its published betting rules cover Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6. Multis and Same Game Multis (a multi whose legs come from one event) are also listed. Live betting is available through the TAB NZ apps; any statutory restriction on in-play markets is not established. No lawful New Zealand betting exchange exists, and spread betting sits outside TAB NZ’s definition of sports betting.
There is no statutory per-bet cap. Limits come from TAB NZ’s own terms. Bets on politics and novelty markets are not established as either allowed or banned under the Racing Industry Act; the day-to-day answer comes from whatever TAB NZ publishes in its betting rules at the time the bettor checks. Virtual sport (computer-simulated events) is treated by the 2026 online casino law as casino gambling; whether esports betting is “sports betting” under the Racing Industry Act is not established. The ban on offering bets other than through TAB NZ covers events held inside and outside New Zealand alike.
How the partnership with Entain runs
TAB NZ’s online operation runs under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023 with Entain, the global operator listed on the London Stock Exchange. The split divides gross profits 50/50 between TAB NZ and Entain, with at least $150 million a year flowing to TAB NZ for the first five years of the deal. Entain also pledged a one-off $100 million payment to the racing sector at signing. TAB NZ keeps the public face — the brand, the regulator relationship, the harm-minimisation levy — while Entain supplies the platform, the trading and the product build. The result for a New Zealand bettor is two customer-facing brands, TAB and Betcha, both owned by TAB NZ, both run on Entain’s stack, neither a competitor to the other.
Responsible gambling inside the TAB NZ envelope
TAB NZ accounts are limited to people aged 18 or older; betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Land-based casinos in New Zealand have a higher age of 20 — the two numbers are not interchangeable. Opening an account requires a verified New Zealand address and identity documents; the check is what closes the door to anyone the regulator calls underage. Accounts from people outside New Zealand are not lawful under section 74AAA even where the technology lets them in.
The harm-minimisation layer is built into the TAB NZ app. The listed tools are deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. A self-exclusion applies across both TAB and Betcha because both brands share the TAB NZ account system; excluding yourself from one excludes you from both. No single national online-betting exclusion register exists in New Zealand for sports betting: the register the 2026 online casino law will require is for online casinos only. TAB NZ also funds treatment and prevention through a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% of its revenue, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028.
DIA’s published advice for anyone using an overseas operator is to recognise that offshore brands sit in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. The Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa offer free, confidential support regardless of where the bet was placed — the only New Zealand help line that follows the bettor across both sides of the monopoly.
A second layer — advertising — sits around the operators rather than inside them. The Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code applies to betting advertisements in New Zealand and sets three working rules: ads must not target children under 14 or young people aged 14 to under 18, judged by context, appeal and expected audience share; ads must not encourage gambling harm; and terms that carry a material condition must be presented truthfully and made available. No New Zealand equivalent of a “whistle-to-whistle” broadcast ban for betting was found. Because only TAB NZ may lawfully offer betting here, DIA reads the prohibition as covering the promotion of another operator’s bets to a New Zealand audience; how DIA treats affiliate sites is not established, and the page does not invite readers to sign up with an offshore brand.
Crypto on the betting side of the market
Bitcoin’s protocol defines what a crypto deposit can ever mean to a betting operator. The genesis block was mined on 3 January 2009 by the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity remains unknown. The protocol caps total issuance at 21 million coins, with the final fraction expected to be mined around the year 2140; the ledger is secured by proof-of-work, where miners compete to find a block hash below a network-set difficulty target. Those mechanics are why a crypto deposit is a normal payment rail for an offshore sportsbook and a more complicated one for TAB NZ.
TAB NZ’s deposit methods come only from its own terms. The published set does not include any cryptocurrency. A bettor who wants to stake with TAB NZ deposits with the methods TAB NZ names, in New Zealand dollars, into a New Zealand bank. The Offshore Crypto Brands section names what a New Zealand player meets on an offshore site in case the search leads there; each of those brands does accept crypto deposits, settles bets in crypto, and runs on licences granted by Curaçao, Anjouan, the Tobique Gaming Commission or Costa Rica.
The regulator’s view of crypto on the betting side has not been written down as a rule. No payment-blocking order or bank obligation was found; no rule on VPN use was found; no rule on crypto wallets or self-hosted wallets was found. DIA’s standing warning, that an overseas operator “may be in a jurisdiction with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins”, is the regulator’s plain-language answer for what a New Zealand player meets on the offshore side of the line, and the only unambiguous published statement of the regulator’s view on crypto-funded bets on offshore sites.
Where a crypto deposit actually stands
A New Zealand bettor sending bitcoin or USDT to an offshore sportsbook is using a payment rail the offshore operator accepts. The transaction settles on a public ledger the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department treats as a chargeable asset: HMRC’s UK guidance treats disposal of cryptoassets by individuals — selling, swapping for another token or spending them on goods and services — as a chargeable event for Capital Gains Tax. New Zealand’s Inland Revenue has its own treatment; for the player the headline is that recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand, but the disposal of crypto used to fund the bet may itself be a taxable event depending on the gain over the cost base. The Inland Revenue Cryptoassets Manual sets the rules; for an ordinary recreational bettor the practical effect is to keep records of what was paid for the crypto and what the crypto was worth when used.
A second line runs through the FCA in the United Kingdom, where New Zealand bettors do not bet but where the regulatory map is still worth reading: the FCA became the anti-money-laundering supervisor of UK cryptoasset businesses on 10 January 2020 under the amended Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017. The FCA will open applications for authorisation of cryptoasset firms under a new FSMA-based regime on 30 September 2026, with the regime due to start on 25 October 2027. HMRC published its first cryptoassets tax guidance for individuals on 19 December 2018, since expanded into the dedicated Cryptoassets Manual. None of those rules reaches a New Zealand bettor’s offshore sportsbook directly, but they show the regulatory state of crypto in a peer jurisdiction and the point at which tax on a crypto disposal is established in the file. Nothing in the New Zealand file either extends TAB NZ’s betting monopoly or lifts it.
How the comparison was put together
Seven brand reviews follow this section. Two of them — TAB and Betcha — are the online brands of TAB NZ, the only lawfully licensed group for online racing and sports betting in New Zealand since 28 June 2025. The other five are offshore crypto brands that take bets from players in many countries, do not hold a New Zealand licence and offer no New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework. Each offshore brand is described for what it is and rated against the same criteria; none is recommended. Reading them in order, the choice between them shows up in three places — the licence footprint, the welcome offer and the product surface — and a bettor decides on what each of those three is worth in his own case.
The table in the primer section underneath this paragraph sets the same comparison across one row per brand: the New Zealand status, and what the operator’s own terms state on the page’s key subject. “On the page’s key subject” here is the operator’s stated position on New Zealand players, because that is the only subject where the comparison makes sense at all.
The primer comparison
| Brand | New Zealand status | What the operator’s terms say about New Zealand |
|---|---|---|
| TAB | Licensed in New Zealand (TAB NZ) | Verifies New Zealand address and identity; lists NZD deposit methods in its terms |
| Betcha | Licensed in New Zealand (TAB NZ) | Same TAB NZ account system; New Zealand-only offering on its own domain |
| Telbet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook |
| Winz | Not licensed in New Zealand | Lists Anjouan and Tobique licences in its site footer |
| Rooster | Not licensed in New Zealand | Names Tobique e-gaming licence 0000002, holder Novatrix SRL in Costa Rica |
| Thunderpick | Not licensed in New Zealand | Names Curaçao licence OGL/2024/677/0722, holder Paloma Media B.V. |
| Roobet | Not licensed in New Zealand | Names Curaçao licence OGL/2024/687/0427, holder Raw Entertainment B.V. |
The columns repeat the only judgement the New Zealand framework allows a reader to make: whether the brand is the licensed operator or one of the many that are not. The second column is the comparison the law forces; the third column is the comparison the reader makes if the second column were equal. It is not.
The seven brands, judged
TAB (the licensed New Zealand brand)
TAB is one of two online brands of TAB NZ, holder TAB New Zealand, the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025. Because there is only one lawful provider, there is no licence register for bookmakers. The site is the address TAB NZ publishes.
The product surface is shaped for the New Zealand racing calendar. The TAB NZ app lists Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, plus a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. Deposits and withdrawals come through the methods TAB NZ’s own terms list, in New Zealand dollars, against a bank account the platform has verified belongs to the bettor. The platform is Entain’s, run under a 25-year agreement that splits gross profits 50/50 between TAB NZ and Entain, with at least $150 million a year flowing to TAB NZ for the first five years and a one-off $100 million payment already pledged to the racing sector.
The harm-minimisation layer is built in. The tools are deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion; an exclusion crosses both TAB and Betcha because both brands share one TAB NZ account. TAB NZ funds a 0.74% Problem Gambling Levy and lists the Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) in its app. The minimum age is 18, with verified New Zealand address and identity required at account opening, and section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020 makes betting under 18 an offence.
The verdict is simple: TAB is the only lawful path into online racing and sports betting in New Zealand, and the only one with regulator oversight, a complaints route and harm-minimisation tools. It is the option for the bettor who wants to bet from New Zealand and have the bet on the lawful side of the line. The price of that is the absence of crypto as a payment rail on TAB NZ’s terms; the bettor pays in New Zealand dollars from a New Zealand bank.
Betcha (the other licensed New Zealand brand)
Betcha is the second online brand of TAB NZ, the same licensed holder, under the same section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025. The site is the address TAB NZ publishes for Betcha. Betcha is not a separate bookmaker — it is the TAB NZ product under a different name, aimed at a slightly different audience, run on the same platform and the same account system as TAB.
The product surface is the TAB NZ product surface, restyled. Betcha lists the same betting rules — fixed odds and tote, multis and Same Game Multis — and the same safer-gambling tools (deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion) because the platform is one. Marketing for Betcha runs through TAB NZ’s domestic channels and out through the TAB NZ verified-account flow; the licensed status never changes from brand to brand.
The verdict is the same as TAB’s, narrowed: Betcha fits the bettor who prefers the second TAB NZ product surface to the first one. The choice between TAB and Betcha is a choice between two licensed brands of the same operator, on the same terms, in the same lawful envelope. There is no edge either way that is not skin-deep.
Telbet (not licensed in New Zealand)
Telbet is a crypto casino and sportsbook that takes bets from customers in many countries but holds no licence that gives it any right to take bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA. No New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework reaches it. The site describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook and publishes a welcome offer of 200% up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins, with a 5 USDT free bet on its Russian-language site; the figures here come from the operator’s own terms, and a New Zealand reader treats them as a description of an offshore product, not as a New Zealand offer.
The product surface is a crypto-nativesportsbook built on a casino chassis. Crypto deposits are normal; settlement can be in BTC or USDT at the brand’s stated rates. The site is reached by a browser, not through a regulated New Zealand channel, and nothing in Telbet’s terms adds a New Zealand-specific safeguard.
The verdict is the standard one for the offshore list: the brand is described honestly. A reader picks Telbet because the crypto-focused product surface outweighs the absence of a New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework. The price of crypto acceptance is the absence of any redress through DIA if a withdrawal stalls or a bet is disputed; the bet has to clear in Telbet’s own framework, on Telbet’s own clock. Telbet is the option on this list for a bettor who has decided crypto and product surface outweigh the regulator’s standing warning.
Winz (not licensed in New Zealand)
Winz lists Anjouan and Tobique licences in its site footer, with the holder not named in the same footer line as a corporate entity. Neither licence gives the brand any right to take bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA. New Zealand readers reaching the brand do so through the offshore crypto-channel, not through a regulated New Zealand channel.
The product surface is a crypto sportsbook and casino with a withdrawal-limits ladder that NZD players appear on. The terms of an affiliated brand group list NZD in the withdrawal table, from 1,000 per day and 13,000 per month at level 1 to 3,000 per day and 35,000 per month at level 5 — the figure comes from a sister brand’s terms under the same ownership and is the closest published window into what the brand pays out in NZD. The ladder runs through five verification levels; higher levels lift the daily and monthly withdrawal caps.
The verdict is the offshore standard: the brand is described honestly. A reader picks Winz.io because the listed licences are what the reader’s risk frame accepts and the crypto withdrawal-ladder is what the reader’s bankroll can clear on a level-by-level basis. The price is the absence of any New Zealand protection beyond what Anjouan and Tobique provide, neither of which is designed for a New Zealand bettor.
Rooster (not licensed in New Zealand)
Rooster is operated by Novatrix SRL, a company incorporated in Costa Rica with registration number 3-102-893958, under e-gaming licence No. 0000002 issued by the Tobique Gaming Commission. A New Zealand player reaches the brand through the offshore channel.
The product surface is a sportsbook-and-casino build aimed at the same audience as the other four offshore brands in the comparison. Crypto is the deposit rail; withdrawal terms come from the operator’s own rules, in the operator’s own currency, on the operator’s own schedule. The corporate address is in Costa Rica; the licence sits with the Tobique Gaming Commission.
The verdict is the offshore standard. Rooster.bet is the option on this list for a reader who wants the Tobique licence footprint as a starting point and accepts the absence of any New Zealand protection beyond the licence’s own framework — which is not, and is not designed to be, a New Zealand framework.
Thunderpick (not licensed in New Zealand)
Thunderpick is owned and operated 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 surface is built around esports and sports betting with a casino alongside, settled in crypto. The Curaçao licence is the licence the brand advertises, on the Curaçao regulator’s licence register, against the operator’s stated Curaçao address; that is what a New Zealand reader sees when checking the brand.
The verdict is the offshore standard. Thunderpick is the option on this list for a reader who wants the Curaçao licence footprint — a much larger market than Tobique or Anjouan, with a regulator that publishes more operator data — and accepts that no part of the Curaçao framework reaches a New Zealand dispute. The brand is described, not recommended.
Roobet (not licensed in New Zealand)
Roobet is a brand name of Raw Entertainment B.V., registration number 157205, Korporaalweg 10, Curacao, licensed under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/687/0427. That licence gives the brand no right to take bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA.
The product surface is a crypto casino and sports betting site with a long-standing brand presence in the crypto-gambling market. Deposits settle in crypto against the brand’s stated wallet; the operator’s terms govern the sportsbook and the casino alike. The licence sits on the Curaçao register; the operator is at a Curaçao address; that is what the regulator publishes and what a New Zealand reader checks.
The verdict is the offshore standard. Roobet is the option on this list for a reader who knows the brand’s crypto-gambling track record and accepts Curaçao as the licence footprint. The price is the same as for every other brand on the offshore side: the bettor’s protection is what the brand’s own framework provides, not what New Zealand law provides, because New Zealand law does not provide anything on the offshore side.
Where the bookkeeping ends and the bet begins
The Inland Revenue treatment of recreational gambling winnings is the second-most-asked question on this page, and the cleanest answer is the shortest: recreational gambling winnings from TAB NZ racing and sports bets are generally not taxable in New Zealand, prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable, and a person who bets as a business is a different case — general information, not tax advice, consult Inland Revenue or an accountant. Operator side: TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy (0.74%); overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty (12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027). The duty being payable does not make an offer lawful — a tax point is not a licence — and the offshore crypto brands in this comparison are not made lawful by the duty their group of operators pays. The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026, so any appearance of that charge on a bill from before that date is a closed line.
The betting side and the casino side keep being conflated on the search page. Under the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, an online casino licence is a separate permit from a betting licence. A casino-branded operator does not automatically take bets, and a betting operator does not automatically take casino play; the products and the permits are different. The greyhound-racing closing from 1 August 2026 is also a separate slice of the betting calendar, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either.
Frequently asked questions
How does a New Zealand bettor place a bet with crypto?
TAB NZ does not list crypto among its deposit methods, and a player who wants to bet on the lawful New Zealand side of the market funds the TAB NZ account in New Zealand dollars from a bank account TAB NZ has verified belongs to the player. Crypto is the normal rail at offshore crypto sportsbooks, none of which is licensed for New Zealand players; a crypto deposit at an offshore brand is normal in the brand’s own framework but has no New Zealand protection. Either way, the bet is funded; the difference is the framework that follows.
What is the lawful status of online betting in New Zealand 2026?
Only TAB NZ, through its TAB and Betcha brands, may lawfully offer online racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 took effect on 28 June 2025. The Department of Internal Affairs told unlicensed providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. An overseas company offering these bets here is breaking New Zealand law; an individual may not be convicted under section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 for placing such a bet, and no published player penalty was found.
What does a player lose by betting with a brand that has no New Zealand licence?
The player loses the New Zealand complaints framework, the harm-minimisation tools (deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion) the TAB NZ app provides, the regulator’s oversight and the consumer-protection laws of New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that an overseas operator may be in a jurisdiction with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. None of those losses is automatic, and none of them is the player’s fault, but each one is a cost of betting outside the lawful envelope.
Which bookmaker may lawfully take online sports and racing bets in New Zealand?
TAB NZ may, through its two online brands TAB and Betcha, under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025. There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is only one lawful provider. Entain runs the TAB NZ business under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only and does not extend the betting monopoly; the greyhound-racing closing from 1 August 2026 also narrows the calendar for offline betting.
Are betting winnings taxed in New Zealand?
For the player, recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand, prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable, and a person who bets as a business is a different case — general information, not tax advice, consult Inland Revenue or an accountant. For the operator, TAB NZ pays a 0.74% Problem Gambling Levy; overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty at 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027. The duty is a tax on the operator’s profits and does not make any offshore offer lawful.
From what age may bets be placed with TAB NZ, and what is checked at account opening?
From 18. Account opening requires a verified New Zealand address and identity documents; the verification is what closes the door to underage play, and betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Land-based casinos in New Zealand have a higher age of 20. TAB NZ lists the Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) in its app for any player who needs help at any age.
Published by the Nztennisodds team.
