What betting offers in New Zealand are actually worth under the new monopoly

Updated October 2026

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Since 28 June 2025 there has been one lawful answer to “which betting site can take my bet?”, and that answer has reshaped what “betting offers in New Zealand” even means. TAB NZ and its sister brand Betcha are the only operators permitted to offer online racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand. Offshore welcome offers still arrive in inboxes and on screens, but they are not the offers a careful Kiwi punter acts on. This page is a plain-language working-through of what the new law does to the offer market, what a TAB NZ bonus bet costs to clear, and how the offshore brands that line up beside TAB on comparison sites stack up against the same set of questions. Where the figures are drawn from TAB NZ’s own terms, the date checked is given in the line under the lead; where a figure is not in the public record, the gap is left a gap rather than filled with a guess.

Currency and licence status current as of 26 October 2026; verified against TAB NZ’s own published terms and the Department of Internal Affairs’ statement on section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020.

What the New Zealand betting market actually looks like in 2026

Before the 2025 amendment, the phrase “betting offers in New Zealand” pointed at a market that was officially closed but practically porous. International bookmakers ran welcome bonuses, free bets and odds boosts at Kiwi customers through web and app; the law said they were unlawful, the regulator said it lacked the tools to stop them, and the offers kept landing. That arrangement ended on 28 June 2025, when an amendment to the Racing Industry Act 2020 inserted section 74AAA and gave the Department of Internal Affairs a clear line to enforce. The department told unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect, and the offer landscape shrank to two brands run by one operator group.

That operator group is TAB NZ, the state-owned betting business that runs the tote and fixed-odds racing and sports markets. TAB NZ has two online faces: the established tab.co.nz platform and the newer Betcha brand, which is aimed at the sports and casual punter rather than the racing regular. Both brands share the same licence, the same New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the same customer account rules, and the same exclusion system. They are not rivals, and a comparison that pits them against each other is a comparison inside one set of house rules.

The rest of the brands a Kiwi punter meets — the names that come up on aggregator pages, in Google results, in social media ads — are offshore bookmakers with no right to take bets from people in New Zealand. Some carry Curaçao, Anjouan or Comoros licences, which give them nothing here. A few, like BillyBets or LunuBet, include New Zealand in their country selector and accept NZ dollars at the cashier; that is a payment convenience, not a regulatory one. The brands below are described on the same set of criteria as the TAB pair, with their New Zealand status flagged plainly on every review.

That is the whole landscape: two lawful brands and a long tail of offshore operators, and the difference between them is not a question of which bonus looks better on a screen.

The law behind the monopoly and what it leaves out

Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 states the rule in plain terms: no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or incorporated. The provision took effect on 28 June 2025, and the Department of Internal Affairs used it to tell providers serving New Zealand customers to withdraw with immediate effect. The section places liability on the offshore operator, not on the punter — section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, makes it clear that an individual cannot be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore betting operator in breach of section 74AAA. That is the correct framing: the law targets the operator, the regulator warns the player of the risks, and no published penalty for a player was found.

The monopoly sits inside a wider gambling framework. The Gambling Act 2003 sets the general rule that gambling in New Zealand must be conducted lawfully; the Racing Industry Act 2020 establishes TAB NZ as the sole betting provider for racing and sports; the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 regulates online casino gambling only. TAB New Zealand’s recent move into the online casino market, where it holds the right to apply for a casino licence, does not extend the betting monopoly — it is a separate permit with separate rules. A casino limit is never a betting limit, and a casino licence never converts an offshore bookmaker into a lawful New Zealand bookmaker.

What may be bet on is set by TAB NZ’s own betting rules. Fixed-odds and tote (pool) bets are both available. The racing bet types listed by TAB NZ cover Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, alongside multis and same-game multis. Live betting is available in the TAB NZ apps; any statutory restriction on in-play markets is not established in the public record. Bets on politics and novelty markets such as award shows or elections are not established either. There is no statutory per-bet cap — limits are set by TAB NZ’s own terms. Greyhound racing is being wound down in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either.

What is missing from the picture matters as much as what is in it. There is no licensing route for another bookmaker and no licence register for betting, because there is only one lawful operator. The Department of Internal Affairs does not geo-block offshore websites, so the offshore brands remain reachable; the law works by putting liability on the operator, not by walling off the screen. Esports betting sits in a grey zone: whether it counts as “sports betting” under the Racing Industry Act is not established. Virtual (computer-simulated) sport is treated by the 2026 online casino law as casino gambling, not as a betting product. Spread betting and a New Zealand betting exchange are not part of the lawful offer, and a reader who meets a comparison site that lists either is being shown something that is not on the menu here.

Responsible gambling: the tools TAB NZ builds in and where to turn if they are not enough

A monopoly does the reader no good if the player-protection framework is thin. The framework around TAB NZ is built into three layers — the law, the operator, and the help services that sit outside both.

The statutory layer starts with age. The age for TAB NZ betting is 18, and betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. That is not the same as the land-based casino age of 20, and a punter who is 18 may place a TAB bet but cannot enter a casino floor. TAB NZ accounts require a verified New Zealand address and ID; an account cannot be opened from a VPN or with a foreign address. TAB NZ must keep the risks of problem and underage gambling minimised, and it pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% — a rate in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028 — that funds the harm-minimisation work done by the Ministry of Health and its contracted providers.

The operator layer sits inside the TAB NZ apps. The platform lists three safer-gambling tools in its app: deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. A deposit limit caps how much can be loaded into the account over a chosen window; a time-out is a short break that pauses betting for a set period; a self-exclusion closes the account for a longer term. The exclusion applies across both TAB NZ brands — TAB and Betcha — so a punter who has self-excluded through one channel cannot reopen through the other. Both apps carry a 17+ App Store age rating and list the free 24/7 Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655, with a text line on 8006.

The help-services layer sits outside the operator. The Gambling Helpline is the single national number, free and available around the clock. Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the public-facing name for the Ministry of Health’s harm-minimisation programme, and it operates alongside other services that take referrals from the helpline. None of these tools is unique to TAB NZ — the offshore brands below do not offer them under any banner that reaches New Zealand, and the Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. That is the structural reason a self-exclusion registered with TAB NZ is worth registering, and one set against a Curaçao-licensed brand is not.

For a punter comparing the safer-gambling frame across the brands reviewed below, the question to ask is whether the harm-minimisation tools and complaints route reach a New Zealand body at all. On TAB and Betcha, the answer is yes. On every other brand in the review set, the answer is no.

How TAB NZ’s bonus bet offers work and what they cost

There is no statutory rule on bonus size or wagering terms for betting in New Zealand — that part of the Gambling Act 2003 governs online casinos and is not the rule TAB NZ works under. Every figure in this section comes from TAB NZ’s own published terms and the description of its app on the New Zealand App Store.

New TAB NZ customers can receive Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets. The standard mechanic is simple: the punter places bets using the bonus funds rather than cash, and any winnings are paid back in cash rather than in bonus funds. The Mega Multi bonus, listed in the app, returns up to $50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs — that is, one or more legs do not win and the rest of the multi is close. Same Race Multis, Same Game Multis, one-tap Popular Multis and a Place Extra option that lets punters back runners to finish up to 10th in selected races round out the standard product set on the racing side. Betcha layers a daily Toolbox with odds boosts and insurance tools for bets that do not land, a Bet Social section where punters chat, follow tipsters and share bets or pools, and a Playbook with tips and match analysis. The two brands share the same promotion rules at the back end.

What that costs to clear is the question most punters do not ask until they have already accepted the offer. The bookmaker’s margin sits inside every price on the platform, and a bonus bet accepted on a price lower than the true odds of the outcome gives up that margin twice — once to the operator on the bet itself, and once to the offer’s mechanics. The mathematics of a bonus bet’s worth is set out in the next section, and it shows that the headline number — “$50 in Bonus Cash” or a similar figure — is not the same number as what ends up in a punter’s cash balance after the offer clears.

The offer that does not exist is also worth naming. There is no welcome offer for new punters in the sense of a deposit match; the bonus bet mechanic is the standard introduction. There is no “risk-free” bet — a phrase that reads like an empty promise unless the terms say exactly which stake is refunded, in what form, and on what conditions. There is no loyalty ladder advertised at the level of a casino VIP club; TAB NZ does not publish a tiered loyalty scheme of the kind BillyBets or Boomerang Bet run. There is no “boosted odds” promotion on the racing side beyond the standard product; the only odds-boost feature mentioned in the public record is the daily Toolbox on Betcha. None of these absences is a weakness in itself; each is a feature the page does not have to evaluate.

The honest summary: TAB NZ’s offers are simpler than the offshore competition’s, and that simplicity is part of what the punter pays. A $50 Bonus Cash offer is closer to a fixed number with a clear mechanic than a multi-stage welcome package, and the terms are short enough to read in one sitting.

What a bonus bet is worth: the calculation

The mechanic that distinguishes a bonus bet from a cash bet is that the stake is not paid back with the winnings. A $10 free bet at odds of 3.00 returns $20 in cash — the $20 of profit, not the $30 a $10 cash bet at the same odds returns. That changes the offer’s value materially, and the size of the change depends on the price the bet is placed at.

The formula for the average value of a bonus bet whose stake is not paid back is:

value = bonus amount × (odds − 1) ÷ odds × payout share of the market

For an illustrative two-way market priced at decimal odds of 1.90 on either side — an example, not a quoted price — the payout share is roughly 0.526 and the margin is roughly 0.474. The implied margin is high because the example uses even money; real two-way markets sit closer to a 5 to 8 percent margin in practice, but the figure is used here to show what the formula does.

For a $50 Bonus Cash bonus placed at the example price:

value = $50 × (1.90 − 1) ÷ 1.90 × 0.526 ≈ $24.86

That is the average value across many such bets, not what any single bet pays. The result is a band — a number the punter expects to land near when the bet is placed at a competitive price, and a number that falls sharply when the price moves further from even money. At odds of 1.50, the formula gives roughly $17.50 of value on the same $50 bonus. At odds of 5.00, it gives roughly $42. That spread is the part of the offer a punter can move by choosing where to place the bet; the rest is set by the market’s margin.

The honest reading of the result: a $50 Bonus Cash headline is worth closer to $20 to $30 in average cash to the punter, depending on the price chosen. The Mega Multi bonus, which returns up to $50 in Bonus Cash when a multi falls short by a set number of legs, sits inside the same band — its value depends on the price of the multi legs and on how often the “short by one” condition triggers on the punter’s chosen slips. The point of running the calculation is not to size the offer exactly; it is to show what the headline figure leaves out.

The assumptions behind the calculation are explicit. Only the bonus amount is wagered — the punter is not adding cash to clear the offer. The bet is placed at a price the market sets, not at a price the operator has boosted. The payout share reflects the average of the market the bet is placed on, not the long-run return of a specific outcome. Where any of those assumptions fails — a boosted-odds offer, a bonus that requires cash alongside it, a market with a much wider margin — the average value moves, sometimes lower.

A punter who treats the headline number as the real number has not yet met the offer. A punter who treats the headline number as a starting figure and reads the terms to see what is and is not paid back has.

The ten brands reviewed, ranked by what they offer a New Zealand punter

The ranking that follows is not a “best to worst” list. TAB NZ’s two brands are not in competition with each other, and the eight offshore brands listed below are not lawful options for a New Zealand punter as the law mandates. The order groups the lawful pair at the top, then lists the offshore brands at a distance. The same set of questions is asked of each brand: what its licence position is, what its product looks like, what promotion it runs, what the safer-gambling frame reaches, and what the brand’s own terms say about the subject this page covers — what the offer is worth, what it costs to clear, and what the punter is left holding when the offer closes.

TAB — the state-owned online brand built around racing

TAB is the older of TAB NZ’s two online brands and the one that racing regulars tend to default to. Its product is built around New Zealand and Australian racing — thoroughbred, harness (trots) and, until greyhound racing closes on 1 August 2026, greyhounds — with a sportsbook that covers Rugby League, Super Rugby Pacific, the NRL, the All Blacks, international football, basketball, tennis and the Black Caps in cricket. The bet types published by TAB NZ cover the racing side in depth — Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie, Big6 — and on the sports side the standard set: head-to-head, line (handicap), totals, multis, Same Game Multis and same-race multis on racing. Place Extra lets a punter back runners to finish up to 10th in selected races, which is a longer tail than most offshore books offer.

The promotion set is simple. New customers can receive Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets, and the Mega Multi bonus returns up to $50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs. Both promotions are described in TAB NZ’s app listing on the New Zealand App Store. There is no deposit match in the offshore style, and there is no loyalty ladder advertised at the level of a casino VIP club. The bonus bet is the standard introduction to the platform.

The platform runs on TAB NZ’s terms and under the Department of Internal Affairs’ monitoring. Accounts need a verified New Zealand address and ID; the deposit-limit, time-out and self-exclusion tools are built in; the exclusion applies on both TAB and Betcha so a punter cannot reopen the door through the other brand. The free 24/7 Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 sits inside the app. For a Kiwi punter who bets mostly on racing and wants a New Zealand harm-minimisation framework behind every dollar, TAB is the centre of the offer market and has been since 28 June 2025.

The verdict is the simple one. TAB is the lawful choice for a Kiwi punter who wants racing and sports in one place with a New Zealand complaints route. A punter who wants the bigger headline bonuses of an offshore bookmaker is, by definition, choosing the unlawful side.

Betcha — TAB NZ’s sports-led brand aimed at the casual market

Betcha is the newer face of TAB NZ and the one the operator group has built for the casual sports punter rather than the racing regular. It shares the licence, the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the customer account rules and the exclusion system with TAB, so a punter using Betcha is using TAB NZ in a different wrapper. The product is sports-first. The Multi Builder lets punters build multi bets, copy trending multis and track live legs, and a new multi-grid builds Same Game Multis from a single event. The app’s daily Toolbox is the standout product feature: odds boosts, insurance tools for bets that do not land, and a Bet Social section where punters chat, follow tipsters and share bets or pools. Playbook carries tips and match analysis.

The promotion set runs on the same Bonus Cash and Mega Multi mechanics as TAB, so the calculation in the previous section applies here in full. There is no separate welcome package, no deposit match, and no tiered loyalty scheme. The Bonus Cash and Mega Multi bonuses are described in the Betcha app listing on the New Zealand App Store.

The safer-gambling frame is identical to TAB’s — same age requirement (18), same verified New Zealand address and ID, same deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion, same cross-brand exclusion, same 17+ App Store age rating and same free Gambling Helpline number. Betcha is built for a punter who wants the social and sports features on top of the TAB NZ product. For a punter who wants a single racing-first account, Betcha is the wrong tool and TAB is the right one.

The verdict belongs to the reader’s habit. A punter who bets mostly on sports and wants a multi builder, odds boosts and a social feed gets the better tool here. A punter who bets mostly on racing gets the better tool on TAB.

BillyBets — Curaçao-licensed sportsbook with a coin-shop loyalty mechanic

BillyBets is a Curaçao-licensed sportsbook and casino that accepts New Zealand customers at the cashier and lists NZD in its country selector. The platform shows three odds formats — Decimal (2.00), American (+100) and Fractional (1/1) — and a sportsbook that covers the standard set of markets. The promotion set on the sports side is cashback and reload bonuses, and a coin-shop mechanic where coins collected through depositing, betting, tournaments and challenges can be exchanged for free bets and free spins. A five-level VIP programme sits on top of the coin shop.

The BillyBets cashier page offers New Zealand in its country selector, and the only currency filter shown on the page is Euro — so a Kiwi punter funding the account pays in Euros with the conversion cost that implies. The platform is not licensed in New Zealand as the law mandates, which means there is no New Zealand complaints route and no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework reaching it. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. The safer-gambling tools on the platform are operator-level and do not connect to the New Zealand Gambling Helpline or to Safer Gambling Aotearoa.

The verdict belongs to the same trade-off that runs through every offshore brand reviewed here. BillyBets offers a deeper promotion menu than TAB NZ — cashback, reload, a coin shop, a five-level VIP — but it does so without the New Zealand licence, the New Zealand complaints route, the New Zealand self-exclusion register or the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework. A Kiwi punter who chooses BillyBets is choosing the bonus menu over the legal frame, and the menu is what the operator wants a punter to choose.

Telbet — crypto sportsbook and casino with a Bitcoin-denominated welcome

Telbet describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook. Its Russian-language site carries a welcome offer of 200% up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins and a 5 USDT free bet; the English site is the one a Kiwi punter is most likely to land on, and the offer terms on the English site are not the same as the Russian-language headline. The sportsbook offers in-play betting and a My Bets page, and the site publishes separate sports betting rules, bonus terms and responsible-gambling and AML policies.

Telbet is not licensed in New Zealand. The Bitcoin-denominated welcome and the 5 USDT free bet are the kind of headline numbers a comparison site lifts; the page does not. The licence the brand names applies in the jurisdiction it was issued in, not in New Zealand, and the Department of Internal Affairs’ warning about minimal consumer safeguards abroad applies in full. A Kiwi punter who funds a Telbet account in crypto, wins, and asks for a payout in fiat has three layers of risk: the exchange rate on the way in, the exchange rate on the way out, and the operator’s own terms on withdrawals. None of those layers is covered by a New Zealand complaints route.

The verdict is the honest one. Telbet’s headline is built for a market where Bitcoin-denominated bonuses are tax-relevant, and that market is not New Zealand. A Kiwi punter reading this review is reading about a brand that does not reach them lawfully and offers no protection when it does reach them.

RTbet — Curaçao-licensed sportsbook with a 30-selection multi cap

RTbet runs a Curaçao-licensed sportsbook and casino under house rules that set a minimum bet per event of 0.5 in the customer account currency and cap multi-bets and system bets at 30 selections. The minimum is low enough that a small-budget account can place a bet on any single event on the platform; the multi-cap is the kind of rule a punter who builds long-tail accumulators can check before placing a slip. The platform does not publish its sportsbook licence position for New Zealand, and it does not name a New Zealand regulator.

The promotion set is the standard Curaçao-sportsbook menu — a deposit match and reload bonuses that vary by region. The specific terms for New Zealand customers were not established in the public record, and the page does not invent them. The brand’s New Zealand status is the same as every other offshore bookmaker on this list: not licensed under section 74AAA, no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework reaching it.

The verdict is the rule rather than the exception. RTbet’s licence gives it no right to take bets from people in New Zealand, and a Kiwi punter using RTbet is using an offshore bookmaker at the operator’s risk, not theirs. The 30-selection cap is a useful operational fact for a punter who builds multis on other books; it is not a reason to use RTbet from New Zealand.

Glorion — Curaçao-licensed sportsbook with novelty markets

Glorion runs a Curaçao-licensed sportsbook and casino that offers pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports. The market menu is grouped into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports, and the platform extends into entertainment events such as award shows and elections. The novelty-market menu is broader than TAB NZ’s, and the breadth is what the marketing leans on.

The novelty-market line is also where the regulator’s warning bites hardest. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. A novelty market that pays out on an award show result or an election outcome is a market where the resolution mechanism is the operator’s own, and the operator’s own complaints route is not in New Zealand. The platform holds no New Zealand licence.

The verdict is the trade-off in plain form. Glorion offers a wider market menu than TAB NZ, including entertainment and novelty bets, and offers none of the New Zealand licence, complaints route or harm-minimisation framework. For a Kiwi punter who wants novelty markets and is willing to accept that the operator’s resolution is final, the brand is one of several offshore books offering the same product; for a punter who wants a New Zealand harm-minimisation framework behind every bet, the brand is not on the menu at all.

Spinbara — Curaçao-licensed sportsbook with a crypto sports welcome

Spinbara carries a first-deposit bonus of 100% up to EUR 100, a sports crypto welcome bonus of 100% up to 200 USDT, and a casino welcome bonus of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. The platform runs on a Curaçao licence and the offers vary by region; the specific terms for New Zealand customers were not established in the public record. The sportsbook covers the standard set of markets — football, basketball, tennis, motorsport, esports — alongside the casino.

The platform’s New Zealand status is the same as every other offshore brand reviewed here: not licensed in New Zealand, no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework reaching it. The Department of Internal Affairs’ warning about minimal consumer safeguards abroad, unspent credits and large-win payouts applies in full. The EUR-denominated offers show in Euros with the conversion cost that implies for a Kiwi punter funding the account in NZD.

The verdict belongs to the offer-versus-frame trade-off that runs through every offshore review. Spinbara’s headline is the kind of figure comparison sites lift; the licence position is what a Kiwi punter can check, and the licence position means the brand is not a New Zealand option.

Sportaza — Anjouan-licensed sportsbook with cash out and Bet Builder

Sportaza runs an Anjouan-licensed sportsbook and casino (licence ALSI-202606064-FI2) with cash out before an event or market is finalised, a Bet Builder (where one void selection voids the whole betslip), multiples, Asian lines and interval markets in 1, 5, 10 or 15-minute ranges. The sportsbook product is one of the more developed in the offshore set reviewed here. The Anjouan licence is what the brand names; it is not a licence to operate in New Zealand.

The promotion set is the standard Anjouan-sportsbook menu, with specific terms for New Zealand customers not established in the public record. The platform does not name a New Zealand regulator and does not connect to a New Zealand complaints route. The safer-gambling tools on the platform are operator-level and do not connect to the New Zealand Gambling Helpline or to Safer Gambling Aotearoa. The Department of Internal Affairs’ warning applies in full.

The verdict is on the product-versus-frame trade-off. Sportaza’s sportsbook is more developed than TAB NZ’s on a few features — Asian lines, short-interval markets, Bet Builder — and the brand is not licensed in New Zealand. For a Kiwi punter who wants those features and is willing to accept that the operator’s complaints route is not in New Zealand, Sportaza is one of several offshore books with the same product; for a punter who wants the New Zealand frame, the brand is not on the menu.

BetNinja — Comoros-licensed sportsbook and casino

BetNinja is licensed by the Union of the Comoros and runs a casino welcome of EUR 1,000 bonus and 100 free spins alongside a sports welcome of a 100% match up to EUR 100 on the first deposit. The platform covers the standard sports and casino product set. The Comoros licence is what the brand names; it is not a licence to operate in New Zealand.

Specific offer terms for New Zealand customers were not in the public record. The platform does not name a New Zealand regulator and does not connect to a New Zealand complaints route. The Department of Internal Affairs’ warning about minimal consumer safeguards abroad applies in full.

The verdict is the same trade-off in a different wrapper. BetNinja’s headline is the kind of figure a comparison site lifts; the licence position is what a Kiwi punter can check, and the licence position means the brand is not a New Zealand option.

Roobet — Curaçao-licensed crypto sportsbook and casino

Roobet is the brand name of Raw Entertainment B.V., registration number 157205, registered at Korporaalweg 10, Curaçao, and operating under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/687/0427. The brand runs a crypto casino and sportsbook; the licence gives no right to operate in New Zealand.

The platform is one of the better-known crypto sportsbooks in the offshore set, and the product covers the standard sports and casino menu. The specific offer terms for New Zealand customers were not established in the public record; the page does not invent them. The brand does not name a New Zealand regulator and does not connect to a New Zealand complaints route.

The verdict is the closing trade-off. Roobet’s brand recognition and crypto product put it among the better-known offshore sportsbooks; the licence position is what a Kiwi punter can check, and the licence position means the brand is not a New Zealand option. For a punter who wants a New Zealand harm-minimisation framework behind every bet, Roobet — like every other brand below TAB NZ’s two — is not on the menu.

Reading the offer terms before you take one

The maths in the calculation section is built on the assumption that the offer’s terms are read honestly and the headline is treated as a starting figure. Three rules apply whether the offer is a TAB NZ Bonus Cash offer or an offshore welcome package, and they apply whether the price is at the TAB NZ short end or the offshore long end.

The first rule is on what is paid back. A bonus bet whose stake is not paid back with the winnings is worth less than its cash equivalent at the same price, and the calculation shows by how much. A “risk-free” bet that refunds the stake as a free bet rather than cash is not a refund in money — it is the same bonus-bet mechanic in a different wrapper. A boosted-odds offer that raises the price but only on a restricted market is a price the market has set, and the margin inside that price is what closes it back. Each of these is the same trade dressed in different words, and the trade is that the operator’s margin is what the punter is paying.

The second rule is on the wagering terms. A deposit-match bonus that requires the bonus and the deposit to be turned over a fixed number of times at a minimum price is a bonus whose cost is the turnover multiplied by the market margin, and the calculation shows that arithmetic in a different form. A bonus that requires only the bonus amount to be turned over is cheaper than one that requires bonus plus deposit; the difference is the deposit’s own contribution to the turnover. The minimum price on a qualifying bet sets which markets the bonus can be cleared on, and a minimum price below the market’s typical price moves the bonus onto a thin slice of the platform.

The third rule is on the deadline and the cap. A bonus that must be turned over within seven days is a different offer from the same headline that must be turned over within thirty. A cap on free-bet winnings is a cap on what the offer can return; a maximum stake that counts toward turnover is a cap on how fast the bonus can be cleared. None of these caps is hidden in the small print — they are in the terms a careful punter reads in full before clicking accept.

For TAB NZ offers, the terms are short and the rules are the standard three: stake not paid back, simple turnover, clear deadline. For offshore offers, the terms are longer and the rules compound; a brand with a five-level VIP programme has five different term sets, and the terms a punter reads on day one are not the terms that apply on day ninety.

The cost of clearing an offer: an honest summary

The arithmetic of what a bonus costs to clear is built on two figures: the turnover the offer requires and the margin of the market the bonus is cleared on. For a TAB NZ Bonus Cash offer split across multiple bets at standard markets, the turnover is the bonus amount itself — there is no wagering multiple on top of it in the standard product, and the offer closes when the bonus funds have been used. The Mega Multi bonus works the same way, returning up to $50 in Bonus Cash on a multi that falls short by one or more legs; the bonus is paid in Bonus Cash and runs through the same Bonus Cash mechanics.

The expected cost of clearing a bonus is the turnover multiplied by the margin of the market. For a $50 Bonus Cash offer placed across standard markets with a margin of 5–8%, the expected cost is in the range of $2.50 to $4.00 — the operator’s take on the betting volume the bonus generates, paid out of the bonus pool rather than out of the punter’s cash. That figure is the operator’s, not the punter’s; the punter pays the margin on each bet regardless of whether the bet is a bonus bet or a cash bet. The bonus does not change the margin a bet is placed at; it changes which stake pays the margin.

The offshore offers work on a different scale. A 100% deposit match up to EUR 100 with a 5x wagering multiple on bonus plus deposit means EUR 1,000 of turnover before the bonus is cleared, and at a 5–8% margin the expected cost is in the range of EUR 50 to EUR 80. A 200% welcome up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins runs at a higher turnover, a higher currency exposure and a higher conversion cost. The number a comparison site lifts from the headline is the bonus, not the cost.

The honest summary is that the offer’s headline number is the offer’s price tag, and the cost to the punter is the turnover multiplied by the margin. For a TAB NZ offer, both numbers are small and the terms are short. For an offshore offer, both numbers are larger and the terms are longer, and the difference between the two is not a question of which bonus is bigger — it is a question of which licence frame covers the bet when the bonus closes.

Frequently asked questions about betting offers in New Zealand

Which betting site offers a free bet in New Zealand?

TAB NZ and Betcha are the two online brands that may lawfully offer free bets and bonus bets to people in New Zealand under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, which took effect on 28 June 2025. Offshore brands that advertise free bets are not lawful options here; the Department of Internal Affairs told such providers to withdraw from the New Zealand market with immediate effect.

Are there New Zealand rules on the size or terms of a betting bonus?

No statutory rule on betting bonus size or wagering terms was found for sports and racing betting, so every figure in this guide comes from TAB NZ’s own published terms rather than from a regulator’s rule. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 has a $100 / 200% inducement cap, but that cap applies to licensed online casinos and does not govern TAB NZ’s betting offers. TAB NZ’s terms are the binding document a punter reads before accepting any offer.

Why is the stake of a free or bonus bet not paid back with the winnings?

The mechanic is what makes a bonus bet cheaper for the operator than a cash bet: the punter’s stake is the bonus amount, and the return is the winnings on that stake, not the stake plus the winnings. A $50 Bonus Cash bonus at odds of 3.00 returns $100 of profit, not $150, because the $50 stake is the operator’s money and not part of the payout. The calculation in the section above shows how that mechanic affects the offer’s average value.

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

TAB NZ, operating through its TAB and Betcha brands, is the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025 under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. There is no licence register for other bookmakers because there is no licensing route for them. TAB NZ’s racing and sports betting business is run by Entain under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023 that gives Entain a 50/50 share of gross profits, with at least $150m a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years, alongside a one-off $100m payment to the racing sector.

How is the return on a bet worked out from the stake and the odds?

For a decimal-odds bet, the total return is the stake multiplied by the odds. A $10 bet at odds of 2.50 returns $25 in total, of which $15 is net profit and $10 is the original stake. For a combination bet with multiple legs, the odds of the legs multiply into a single price; a two-leg multi at odds of 2.00 and 3.00 carries combined odds of 6.00, so a $10 stake returns $60 in total. The stake of a bonus bet is not paid back with the winnings, which is the only adjustment the rule needs.

Which tools for controlling play do TAB and Betcha offer, and who can be called for help?

TAB and Betcha list deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in their apps, and an exclusion applies across both brands. The free 24/7 Gambling Helpline is on 0800 654 655, with a text line on 8006, and Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the Ministry of Health’s harm-minimisation programme. TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% — in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028 — that funds these services, and betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020.

Published by the Nzhoopsbets team.