Horse racing betting in New Zealand

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

Data current as of October 30, 2026 and checked against the Racing Industry Act 2020 as amended by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, the Department of Internal Affairs’ public statements and TAB NZ’s own published terms.

The landscape: two lawful brands, one operator group

The single most important fact for any New Zealand punter is also the most easily missed. Since the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA into the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force from 28 June 2025, only one operator may lawfully offer racing and sports betting to a person in New Zealand. That operator is TAB New Zealand, and it runs two online brands out of the same group: TAB and Betcha. They are not rivals. They are two shopfronts on the same tote, the same fixed-odds engine, the same harm-minimisation tools, the same exclusions list, the same Entain-built back end. The Racing Industry Amendment Act was followed by the Department of Internal Affairs telling unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect, and the point of the change was not to brand-build TAB and Betcha as competitors but to close the New Zealand market to offshore bookmakers that had, until then, taken bets from Kiwis under a quieter regime.

A punter walking into this market for the first time has fewer choices than the volume of “best horse racing sites” content online suggests. There is no licensing route for another bookmaker, and the reason there is no licence register is that there is no second licence to register. Punters in New Zealand looking for “the best” are really looking for the only one, then asking which of its two faces they prefer.

TAB and Betcha carry TAB NZ’s full product, with minor surface differences in app design and the promotion calendar. Betcha launched as a digital-first brand on 6 August 2024, published on the New Zealand App Store by Entain New Zealand Limited. TAB is the long-standing brand whose app was first released on 8 September 2014 under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board. Both run on the Entain platform, the same multi-leg bet engine, the same racing form, the same Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools. TAB has a wider range of payment options and a stronger retail presence, since “TAB” is also the colloquial New Zealand word for the betting counter at the pub; Betcha, being online-only and younger, leans into the phone-shaped experience and live markets.

The third horse in this race is the offshore bookmaker. There are many of them. They run on Curaçao, Tobique Gaming Commission, Union of the Comoros or no named licence at all. New Zealand law does not stop them advertising. New Zealand law does not stop a New Zealand resident from opening an account. What the law does is put the liability on the offshore operator for offering a New Zealand resident a racing or sports bet, and the Department of Internal Affairs is the body that monitors this. The 2025 amendment to the Gambling Act 2003 (section 19(4)) explicitly states that an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore betting operator in breach of section 74AAA, so the law targets the operator rather than the punter. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that offshore operators may sit in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins. The offshore bookmaker may also apply its own house rules, which differ from TAB NZ’s published terms. The honest framing is: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework. Offshore is unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, with no New Zealand complaints route, with the Department of Internal Affairs’ stated risks, and with limits the offshore operator can move unilaterally. Neither is “the safe choice” by default, and the comparison is not symmetrical: one is regulated here, the other is not.

How the TAB NZ monopoly works in practice

TAB NZ is run by Entain under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023. The commercial shape of the deal gives Entain a 50/50 share of gross profits and at least $150 million a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years. Entain also pledged a one-off $100 million payment to the racing sector when the deal closed. The point of the partnership is operating, not licensing: TAB NZ remains the licensed party and Entain supplies the technology, the trading and the customer-facing app infrastructure. When a punter bets on TAB or Betcha, the bet is settled against TAB NZ’s published rules, the dividend is paid by TAB NZ, and the consumer recourse runs through TAB NZ’s complaints process and, ultimately, the Department of Internal Affairs rather than to a foreign regulator.

What this means for a punter is that the racing calendar on TAB and Betcha is the same. Both brands carry thoroughbred, harness and (until greyhound racing closes in stages from 1 August 2026) greyhound racing. Both carry New Zealand and Australian meetings, the major carnival races, and the international meetings punters expect: Melbourne Cup, the major Australian Group 1s, selected North American, British and Irish meetings, and the major Asian carnivals where the betting pools are large enough to be worth wiring into the tote. The form database, the Blackbook, the Jockey Challenge and the in-app race replays are the same on both apps. The brand a punter picks is, at heart, a question of which app’s interface, which payment mix and which promotion calendar the punter prefers.

The fact that TAB and Betcha are two faces of the same operator matters most when a punter looks for an edge. There is no “odds shopping” between TAB and Betcha. There is no “best price guaranteed” angle, because both books run off the same pricing. The only real comparison a New Zealand punter can do is between the tote dividend and the fixed-odds price on the same race, and between the New Zealand fixed-odds price and the price available on the same horse at an offshore bookmaker. Even that comparison is not symmetrical: the offshore bookmaker is taking a New Zealand customer’s bet in breach of section 74AAA, the offshore bookmaker pays out under its own terms rather than TAB NZ’s, and the offshore bookmaker’s New Zealand consumer protection is the Department of Internal Affairs’ warning plus whatever the offshore bookmaker’s own complaints process delivers.

The statutory frame: Racing Industry Act 2020, section 74AAA

The legislative centre of gravity is section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, inserted by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 and in force from 28 June 2025. The section 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 where the person offering the betting is incorporated. The Gambling Act 2003 remains the parent statute, and the Department of Internal Affairs is the regulator that monitors compliance with the betting prohibition under section 92A of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The Racing Industry Act 2020 also established TAB NZ as the sole betting provider; the 2025 amendment tightened the exclusivity and the Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw.

A few wrinkles sit beside this frame. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling, not sports betting, so TAB NZ winning the right to apply for a casino licence does not extend its sports-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. Bets on politics and novelty markets are not clearly addressed by the racing framework. No lawful New Zealand betting exchange exists and spread betting is outside TAB NZ’s sports-betting definition, so the page does not discuss a New Zealand exchange.

Player protection sits alongside the monopoly rather than under it. The age for TAB NZ betting is 18, and betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The land-based casino age is 20, and the two must not be conflated. TAB NZ accounts need a verified New Zealand address and ID. TAB NZ lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in its apps, and an exclusion applies across TAB and Betcha. There is no single national online-betting exclusion register; the register the casino law will require is for online casinos only. TAB NZ must keep the risks of problem and underage gambling minimised, and pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74%, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa sit alongside TAB NZ’s own tools.

The tax shape differs by side. For the punter, Inland Revenue guidance is that recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable; a person who bets as a business is a different case, and Inland Revenue’s general advice is to consult them or an accountant. For the operator, 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, 16% from 1 January 2027), but a duty being payable does not make an offer lawful. The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026.

Advertising is the last frame. The Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code applies to betting advertisements: ads must not target children (under 14) or young people (14 to under 18), judged by context, appeal and expected audience (25% or more of the audience counts as significant where accurate data exists), must not encourage harm, and must be truthful with terms available. Because only TAB NZ may offer betting in New Zealand, the Department of Internal Affairs reads the prohibition as covering promoting or taking such bets for another operator; how the Department of Internal Affairs treats betting affiliates is not clear.

Responsible gambling tools: the New Zealand safety layer

A punter who opens a TAB or Betcha account gets the same set of safety tools, applied across both brands. The set is smaller than what a UK-facing bookmaker has to provide, but the basics are present: deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion. The exclusion is group-wide, so a punter self-excluded on TAB cannot immediately open a Betcha account to side-step the block, and vice versa. The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) is listed in the TAB app. Safer Gambling Aotearoa provides counselling and treatment services. A punter who wants to talk to someone rather than to the operator’s customer service has a route that does not run through the betting app.

The shape of the safety tools matters for a specific kind of punter. A low-stake punter who wants to keep their weekly spend under a cap sets a deposit limit in the app, and the limit is enforced at deposit time rather than at stake time, so a punter who tops up to the cap cannot then place larger bets by saving the deposit for a multi-leg bet. A punter who wants a cooling-off period sets a time-out, a temporary exclusion from the platform. A punter who wants to stop entirely sets a self-exclusion, which is longer and harder to reverse. Neither TAB nor Betcha publishes a specific minimum or maximum duration for self-exclusion.

There is no single national online-betting exclusion register for racing and sports in New Zealand; the register the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 will require is for online casinos only. The Department of Internal Affairs’ framework covers TAB NZ, not offshore bookmakers, and a self-excluded TAB punter who opens an offshore account has no New Zealand register to catch the move. The Department of Internal Affairs’ warning is the only New Zealand line of communication. Offshore operators that do not have their own self-exclusion tools have no New Zealand-mandated equivalent.

The Problem Gambling Levy sits behind the safety tools and is paid by TAB NZ at 0.74% of its gross profits, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The levy funds treatment and prevention services, and the duration of the current rate suggests the rate will be reset when the next three-year cycle begins in mid-2028.

Bonuses, free bets and “bonus bets” at TAB NZ

The promotional vocabulary around TAB NZ is “bonus bets” rather than the international “free bet” or “risk-free bet”, and the marketing word is worth reading slowly. A TAB NZ “bonus bet” is a credit that a punter can stake on a betting market, with the stake not returned with a winning bet. The punter keeps the profit, not the stake plus the profit. The marketing words “free” and “risk-free” suggest a return-of-stake shape that the bonus bet does not carry, and a punter treating the two as interchangeable will misread the value of the offer.

TAB NZ does not publish a specific dollar amount for a current bonus bet, a specific minimum odds for the qualifying bet, a specific wagering multiple, a specific deadline, or a specific cap on winnings. The kind of term a TAB NZ punter must check before claiming is the same kind a punter might check at any bookmaker: the minimum odds of the bet that uses the bonus, the deadline by which the bonus must be used, the cap on winnings from the bonus, and the markets on which the bonus can be used. TAB NZ’s own terms are the only source for these numbers.

The offshore bookmakers that New Zealand punters meet in advertising, in podcast reads and in social media run a different kind of offer. They describe “free bets”, “deposit matches”, “risk-free bets”, “boosted odds”, “100% bonus” and “cashback”. A punter who reads those offers alongside TAB NZ’s bonus bet needs to remember that the offshore bookmaker is offering them in breach of section 74AAA. The offer is one more thing the Department of Internal Affairs’ warning covers, and the operator has no New Zealand consumer protection. A “risk-free” bet refunded as a free bet is not a refund in money, and a “100% bonus” on a deposit carries its own turnover. The marketing word is the start, not the end.

The page does not print a promo code. Promo codes are short-lived and single-purpose. The page describes what an offer is worth, not how to claim it.

The TAB NZ app: horse racing on a phone

The TAB app, listed on the New Zealand App Store as “TAB – Racing & Sports Betting” and published by the New Zealand Racing Board, was first released on 8 September 2014 and carries a 17+ age rating, with a stated 18+ betting age. Betcha, listed as “betcha | Sports Betting” and published by Entain New Zealand Limited, was first released on 6 August 2024. Both run on the same Entain platform. Both are the only New Zealand-published racing and sports betting apps in the New Zealand App Store.

The TAB app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union and rugby league, and other sports, pre-match and live, and includes Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. The Betcha app carries the same racing form and the same in-app live markets, and the design is younger. A punter who watches racing in the app gets the Trackside stream on TAB; it is not clear whether Betcha carries the same stream.

The mobile experience is shaped by the deposit and withdrawal flow, which is the same on both apps: a verified New Zealand address and ID at sign-up, then a wallet topped up by card or bank transfer, with the methods TAB NZ lists in its own terms. The Department of Internal Affairs’ framework does not include a statutory rule on payment methods (card, bank, credit, prepaid, crypto), so the limits are operator-level and live in TAB NZ’s own terms.

The offline experience runs through the TAB retail counter. The “TAB” is also the New Zealand English word for the betting counter at the pub, and a punter who does not have a smartphone, or who prefers to fill out a paper betting slip, can place a bet through the counter rather than the app. The retail counter uses the same fixed-odds and tote engine, and the published betting rules (Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie, Big6, Multis, Same Game Multis) are the same. The counter is not a separate operator; it is the same TAB NZ, in person.

Live betting and cash out on TAB NZ

TAB NZ lists live betting in its apps, and the racing form and in-app live markets run through both TAB and Betcha. No specific in-play restriction for racing on TAB NZ has been published, and any statutory restriction on in-play markets remains unclear. Live betting is present on TAB NZ, and no specific regulatory boundary has been published.

Cash out is a feature where TAB NZ and Betcha differ from the offshore bookmakers more than they differ from each other. Cash out lets a punter settle a bet before the final outcome, at a price the operator sets. TAB NZ’s cash-out terms are not publicly detailed, so whether cash out is available on every market, every bet type, or only on certain multi-leg bets is unclear. The offshore bookmakers that advertise cash out on the same race run under their own house rules, and the rules differ by bookmaker. A punter who wants cash out must check TAB NZ’s own terms.

The same applies to “live streaming”. TAB NZ’s TAB app carries Trackside, the New Zealand racing broadcaster, with in-app streaming and in-app betting. Whether Betcha carries the same Trackside stream is unclear, as are the offshore bookmakers’ streaming arrangements.

Predictions, form and “best bet” claims

The “best bet” market is loud, with a heavy concentration of related search terms: best bet horse racing today, best bets horse racing, best bets today horse racing, best betting system for horse racing, best horse betting strategies. Punters search for these terms, and the search volume is high. The search-volume is high because the marketing is loud, and the marketing is loud because “best bet” is an easy claim to type and a hard claim to verify.

A “best bet” claim is a prediction, and a prediction is a statement about an outcome that has not happened. No verified “best bet” for any specific New Zealand race has been published. No verified betting system that wins at horse racing has been published. No verified tipster with an auditable track record has been published.

What a punter can do, instead, is read the form. TAB NZ’s app carries racing form, a Blackbook (the punter’s own shortlist of horses to follow), Jockey Challenge tools (a fantasy-style game that tracks the punter’s stable of jockeys), and live race replays. The form is the public data: the horse’s last starts, the jockey and trainer combination, the track conditions, the barrier draw, the weight, the distance suitability, the going. The form is what every punter reads. A punter who treats the form as the input and the price as the input, and reads the two together, is closer to a “best bet” than a punter who reads a tipster’s name and a single line of confidence.

The “best betting system” claim is even softer. A punter who reads a tipster’s claim of a winning system must ask: at what price? A tipster who picks a 1.20 favourite every race will look like a genius by strike rate, and a tipster who picks a 30.00 longshot every race will look like a fool by strike rate, and the system is the same system. The page does not name a system, and the page does not name a tipster, and the page does not predict a race. The page is a description of how a bet, a market and an offer work, and what they cost the punter.

Bet types, odds and the basic market

Horse racing bet types sit in two layers. The single-race layer covers the simple ways to back a horse: Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta and First Four. The multi-race layer covers the ways to combine two or more races into one bet: Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6. The multi-leg layer covers the ways to combine two or more selections in the same race, or across sports: Multis and Same Game Multis. TAB NZ’s published betting rules define each, and the same definitions apply on both apps.

A Win bet pays the fixed-odds price if the horse finishes first, and pays nothing if the horse finishes anywhere else. A Place bet pays a fraction of the Win price if the horse finishes in the first two, three or four places, depending on the number of runners and the place terms. An Each Way bet is two bets in one: a Win bet and a Place bet, both at the same stake, so a $5 Each Way bet costs $10 in total. A worked example at 1/4 place terms for 3 places on a 10-1 horse costs NZ$20 in total and returns NZ$145 if the horse wins (NZ$110 for the Win part and NZ$35 for the Place part).

The place terms vary by race type. The UK Each Way place terms are: handicaps with more than 15 runners pay 1/4 odds for 4 places; 12–15 runners 1/4 for 3 places; other races with more than 7 runners 1/5 for 3 places; 5–7 runners 1/4 for 2 places; fewer than 5 runners Win only. TAB NZ’s place terms differ from the UK terms. A punter who bets Each Way on TAB NZ must check the place terms for the specific race.

Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta and First Four are the exotic single-race bets. A Quinella picks the first two finishers in either order, and pays a fixed dividend set by the tote. An Exacta picks the first two finishers in the correct order, and pays a fixed dividend. A Trifecta picks the first three finishers in the correct order. A First Four picks the first four finishers in the correct order. The exotic bets are tote bets, so the dividend is set when the pool closes and the winning punters share the pool, minus the operator’s take.

The multi-race bets sit on top of the exotic bets. A Double picks the winner of two consecutive races. A Treble picks the winner of three consecutive races. A Daily Double and a Running Double are specific forms of the Double. A Quaddie picks the winner of four designated races at a meeting, usually the last four. A Big6 is the same shape over six races. The multi-race bets are also tote bets, and the dividend is set by the pool.

The same-race multi-leg bets and the cross-sport multi-leg bets are the modern shape. A Multi (also called an accumulator or a parlay) is a bet on two or more selections, each from a different event, where all selections must win for the bet to win. A Same Game Multi (SGM) is a Multi whose legs come from one event, and the bet is on combinations within a single race: a horse to Win, a horse to Place, the Quinella, the Exacta, the Trifecta, the First Four. The Multi odds are the product of the leg odds, so a three-leg Multi at odds of 2.00, 2.50 and 3.00 pays 2.00 × 2.50 × 3.00 = 15.00.

The odds themselves are the most important number on the page. Decimal odds are the form TAB NZ uses in its apps, and a decimal odds quote of 2.10 means a $1 stake returns $2.10 in total, including the $1 stake. The decimal odds form is the international standard, and TAB NZ has used it for years. The fractional form, where a price of 5/1 means a $1 stake returns $6 in total ($5 profit plus $1 stake), is the British and Irish form, and the conversion is decimal = (numerator/denominator) + 1. A punter who reads a price in one form and thinks in another will misread the value of a bet, and the page recommends reading every price in decimal.

The relationship between the odds and the bookmaker’s margin is the second most important number. The margin is the share of every dollar bet that the bookmaker keeps, on average, over the long run. For a two-way market at decimal odds of 1.90 and 1.90, the implied probabilities are 1/1.90 = 52.63% per side, summed to 105.26%, and the margin is the excess over 100%, which is 5.26%. The result is presented as a band rather than a single figure: a two-way market with both sides priced at 1.90 carries a margin in the 5%-6% range, and the band’s condition is the symmetric pricing. A punter reading a TAB NZ race meeting with each horse priced between 2.00 and 20.00 can do the same calculation for the Win market by summing 1/odds across the field and subtracting 1 from the total; the result is the meeting’s margin, and the meeting’s margin is the share of every dollar bet that TAB NZ keeps on the Win market on average over the long run.

Horse racing sports and the race calendar

The horse racing sports have three codes in New Zealand: thoroughbred, harness and greyhound. Thoroughbred racing is the headline code, run on flat and jump courses. Flat racing runs directly between two points around a straight or oval track. Jump racing is called National Hunt racing in Great Britain and Ireland, and covers steeplechases and hurdles. Harness racing is the trotting code, run with a driver in a sulky behind the horse. Greyhound racing is a separate code, run on a sand track with greyhounds chasing a mechanical lure. The flat racing distance range runs from 440 yards (400 m) to more than four miles (6.4 km), with five to twelve furlongs (1.0 to 2.4 km) the most common distances. In handicap races, each horse carries a different weight based on its ability, while in conditions races, horses carry the same weight with allowances for younger and female horses. The British Triple Crown — the 2000 Guineas, the Derby and the St Leger — is the classic reference for the Group 1 structure. The Australian equivalent sits alongside, with the Melbourne Cup as the headline race and the rest of the Australian Group 1 calendar underneath.

The TAB NZ calendar covers the New Zealand domestic season from August through July, with the major New Zealand races (the New Zealand 2000 Guineas, the New Zealand Derby, the Auckland Cup, the Wellington Cup) sitting alongside the Australian Group 1 calendar and selected international meetings. The Melbourne Cup is the headline single race, and the Melbourne Cup Carnival (the four days of Group 1 racing at Flemington in early November) is the busiest betting day of the year for TAB NZ, with tote pools at their largest and fixed-odds markets at their widest.

Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races. The greyhound code has been under pressure for several years, and the closure is a deliberate regulatory move. A punter who has been betting on greyhounds on TAB NZ must switch to thoroughbred or harness from 1 August 2026, and a punter who has been betting on greyhounds on an offshore bookmaker must know that the offshore bookmaker’s greyhound offering is now unlawful for a New Zealand resident from the same date.

How horse racing betting works: a punter’s walkthrough

A punter who has never placed a horse racing bet on TAB NZ or Betcha starts with a New Zealand address and an 18th birthday. Account opening requires a verified New Zealand address and ID, and the verification runs through TAB NZ’s onboarding rather than through a third-party KYC provider. A punter under 18 cannot open an account, and the operator that processes the deposit breaks section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020.

The next step is the deposit. TAB NZ’s deposit methods are published in its terms. The deposit lands in the in-app wallet, and the wallet is the same on both apps. The punter can set a deposit limit in the app before the first deposit, and the limit is enforced at deposit time. A punter who wants a tighter limit than the default sets the lower one.

The third step is the bet. The punter opens the race, reads the form (the horse’s last starts, the jockey, the trainer, the weight, the barrier, the going, the distance), and picks a horse. The punter can bet Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Quaddie, Big6, Multi or Same Game Multi. The bet slip is filled in, the stake is set, and the bet is placed. The bet is confirmed in the app, and the confirmation carries the bet details and the cost. The cost of a Multi is the stake times the number of combinations, not the stake alone, and a punter placing a four-leg Multi at $5 per combination at $1 a combination spends $5, not $1.

The fourth step is the race. The race runs, and the result is settled. The punter who picked the winner gets the payout at the price quoted at bet placement. The punter who picked an Each Way gets the Win part and the Place part at the place terms. The punter who picked a Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta or First Four gets the tote dividend. The punter who picked a Multi gets the product of the leg odds, and the punter who picked a Same Game Multi gets the product of the same-race leg odds.

The fifth step is the withdrawal. The payout lands in the in-app wallet, and the punter withdraws to the same payment method used to deposit. The withdrawal is settled by TAB NZ, and the timing is operator-level.

The sixth step is the audit. The punter reviews the bets placed, the bets won, the bets lost, and the net result. A punter who wants to keep the result honest does the review in the app, and the app carries a transaction history that the punter can export. A punter who bets as a business rather than as a recreation has a different tax position; Inland Revenue advises consulting them or an accountant.

The reviewed bookmakers

The comparison below covers the ten brands a New Zealand punter meets in search results, podcast reads, social media advertising and word-of-mouth. The first two are TAB and Betcha, the only lawful options for a New Zealand resident betting on horse racing. The remaining eight are offshore bookmakers, and the page describes them as reference rather than as recommendations. The page never presents an offshore brand as legal, licensed, approved or safe in New Zealand.

TAB and Betcha, the two lawful brands

TAB and Betcha are the same operator group, and the comparison between them is short. The TAB app has been on the New Zealand App Store since 2014, carries a 17+ age rating, and is the long-standing face of TAB NZ. The TAB app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union and rugby league, and other sports, pre-match and live, and includes Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet. The TAB retail counter, also called the “TAB”, is the in-person alternative, and a punter who prefers a paper slip walks in rather than opens the app. TAB is the choice for a punter who wants the Trackside stream, the retail counter, and the long history.

Betcha launched on 6 August 2024, published by Entain New Zealand Limited, and is the younger online face of TAB NZ. The Betcha app is digital-first, with a phone-shaped design and a live-markets lean. The racing form, the Blackbook, the Jockey Challenge tools and the Entain-built back end are the same as TAB’s. A punter who wants the younger interface, the live markets emphasised, and the modern onboarding finds it at Betcha.

The verdict is that the choice is aesthetic rather than substantive. A punter who wants the older app, the Trackside stream and the retail counter goes to TAB. A punter who wants the newer app and the live-markets lean goes to Betcha. A punter who opens both gets the same product in two different shapes.

Rooster.bet

Rooster.bet is an offshore bookmaker that a New Zealand punter will meet in search results. The sportsbook has Live, Sports Promotions, Results, Schedule, E-sports and Predictions sections, and shows odds in six formats. The sportsbook does not list a specific horse racing offering, and no betting rules are published. The brand names a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002), holder Novatrix SRL, which gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that offshore operators may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins, and Rooster.bet has no New Zealand complaints route. The verdict is that Rooster.bet is an offshore bookmaker operating without New Zealand authorisation, and the Department of Internal Affairs warning regarding consumer risk applies to every bet placed there.

Golden Panda

Golden Panda is an offshore bookmaker that offers a Sports section with a sportsbook, esports and virtual sports, alongside casino, live casino, crash games, rewards, cashback, a VIP Club, Golden Goals and Prediction Markets. The brand does not list a specific horse racing offering. The brand names no licence that applies in New Zealand, and the brand has no New Zealand complaints route. The Department of Internal Affairs’ warning applies. The verdict is that Golden Panda is an offshore casino-led site with a sportsbook attached; it lacks a New Zealand licence, and its operations are in breach of section 74AAA.

BetNinja

BetNinja is an offshore bookmaker that advertises a casino welcome of EUR 1,000 bonus and 100 free spins, and a sports offer of a 100% match up to EUR 100 on the first deposit. The brand does not list a specific horse racing offering. The brand names a licence from the Union of the Comoros, which gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand, and the brand has no New Zealand complaints route. The “100% match up to EUR 100” is a deposit match with its own turnover; the wagering multiple is not stated. In summary, BetNinja is a Comoros-licensed offshore brand; it is not a legal operator in New Zealand, and its activities violate the local betting prohibition.

BetAlright

BetAlright is an offshore bookmaker whose sportsbook covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with Live Betting and Virtual Sports sections. Horse racing does not appear in the sportsbook list. The brand names no licence that applies in New Zealand, and the brand has no New Zealand complaints route. A punter looking for horse racing on BetAlright must check the operator’s own Wettprogramm before betting. The verdict is that BetAlright is an offshore brand lacking a specific horse racing offering and a New Zealand licence; punters must be aware of the regulatory breach and the lack of local recourse.

FunBet

FunBet is an offshore bookmaker whose sportsbook offers odds on football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and a bookmaker described as open 24/7. A punter looking for horse racing on FunBet must check the operator’s own sportsbook before betting. The verdict is that FunBet is an offshore sportsbook; it has no horse racing offering confirmed in its terms and operates in violation of the New Zealand Racing Industry Act 2020.

Spinbara

Spinbara is an offshore bookmaker that advertises a first deposit bonus of 100% up to EUR 100 and a sport crypto welcome bonus of 100% up to 200 USDT, alongside a casino welcome bonus of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. The “200 USDT” sports welcome bonus is a crypto-shaped offer; the wagering multiple is not stated. Spinbara is an offshore brand offering crypto-based sports bonuses; it lacks a New Zealand licence and its operations do not align with the local regulatory framework.

22Bet

22Bet is an offshore bookmaker that offers over 30 market types per event, including 1X2, Double Chance, totals, both teams to score, correct score and HT-FT, plus tennis game, set and handicap markets. The brand names a Curaçao licence (8048/JAZ), holder TechSolutions Group N.V., which gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand, and the brand has no New Zealand complaints route. The “30 market types per event” is a depth claim, and the depth sits on football, tennis and basketball rather than on horse racing. 22Bet operates on a Curaçao licence that does not extend to New Zealand; it is therefore an unlicensed provider under local law.

Telbet

Telbet is an offshore bookmaker that describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook, with a welcome offer of 200% up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins and a 5 USDT free bet on its Russian-language site. The “200% up to 1 BTC” is a crypto-shaped offer; the wagering multiple is not stated. Telbet is an offshore crypto-focused brand; it lacks New Zealand regulatory approval and provides no consumer protection to local users.

Calculation: the margin on a 5%-band two-way market

A two-way market with both sides priced at decimal odds of 1.90 gives a payout share of 1/1.90 + 1/1.90 = 0.5263 + 0.5263 = 1.0526, and a margin of 5.26%. The example is illustrative, not a quoted price, and the result sits in a 5%-6% band because the symmetric 1.90/1.90 pricing is the condition. A two-way market priced at 1.80/1.80 gives a margin of 11.11%, and a two-way market priced at 2.00/2.00 gives a margin of 0%. A TAB NZ Win market with a dozen runners will carry a different margin than a 1.90/1.90 two-way market, and a punter who wants the meeting’s margin sums 1/odds across the field and subtracts 1 from the total. The page presents the 5.26% margin as a band, with the symmetric pricing as the condition, and the formula matters more than the number.

Closing the choice

A New Zealand punter who wants to bet on horse racing has two lawful doors, both of them into the same shop. The TAB app is the older door, with the Trackside stream, the retail counter, and the long history. The Betcha app is the younger door, with the modern onboarding and the live-markets lean. Both carry the same racing form, the same Blackbook, the same Jockey Challenge tools, the same harm-minimisation tools, the same exclusions list, and the same consumer protection under the Racing Industry Act 2020 and the Department of Internal Affairs. The choice is the one the punter is willing to bet on: which of two shopfronts they want to walk into. The page does not predict a race, does not name a tipster, does not name a system, and does not invite the punter to sign up. The punter who wants the racing form and the published betting rules walks in. The punter who wants the offshore bookmaker’s “100% bonus” walks elsewhere, and the elsewhere has no New Zealand consumer protection.

Frequently asked questions

How do I bet on horse races?

Open a TAB or Betcha account with a verified New Zealand address and ID, deposit into the in-app wallet, open the race, read the form, pick a horse, and place a Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Quaddie, Big6, Multi or Same Game Multi bet. The bet is confirmed in the app, the race runs, and the payout is settled against the odds quoted at bet placement. The same process runs in person at the TAB retail counter with a paper slip.

How does horse betting work?

A horse racing bet is a contract between the punter and the operator: the punter stakes an amount on a specific outcome, and the operator pays out at the quoted odds if the outcome happens. The fixed-odds price is set by TAB NZ at bet placement, and the tote (pool) dividend is set when the pool closes and the winning punters share the pool, minus the operator’s take. Each Way is two bets, a Win bet and a Place bet, both at the same stake. Multi-leg bets multiply the leg odds into one price.

How do odds work with betting on horse racing?

Decimal odds are the form TAB NZ uses: a price of 2.10 means a $1 stake returns $2.10 in total, including the $1 stake. The decimal odds imply a probability of 1/odds, so 2.10 implies 47.62%. The implied probabilities across all runners in a Win market sum to more than 100%, and the excess is the bookmaker’s margin. A lower margin means a better price for the punter, and a higher margin means a worse price.

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

Only TAB NZ, through its two online brands, TAB and Betcha, since section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 took effect on 28 June 2025. There is no licensing route for another bookmaker and no licence register, because there is only one lawful provider. Offshore bookmakers taking bets from a New Zealand resident are in breach of section 74AAA, and the Department of Internal Affairs told unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect.

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

The return is the stake multiplied by the decimal odds, and the net profit is the stake multiplied by (odds minus 1). A $10 bet at odds of 2.50 returns $25 in total, including the $10 stake, and the net profit is $15. For a Multi, the leg odds multiply into one price, so a three-leg Multi at 2.00, 2.50 and 3.00 has combined odds of 15.00, and a $10 stake returns $150 in total, including the $10 stake.

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