New Zealand online sports betting 2025: a new era

Sports bettors in New Zealand face a new world from mid-2025. Well-known international and Australian sportsbooks have stopped offering their sports betting platforms to Kiwi customers as a result of two pieces of new legislation. In 2025, New Zealand announced that A) it is developing a locally regulated, legal market for online casinos and B) offshore sportsbooks, though once legal to use, were to become illegal. The only legal options for online sports betting in New Zealand going forward would be TAB NZ and Betcha.

Slots (pokies) and casino games are the bread and butter for online gaming companies - and all the top brands want their piece of the new New Zealand online casino market. To do this, they all needed to immediately stop offering their sportsbook platforms to Kiwis. You name the sports betting brand, whether they be those we previously recommended like bet365 or Betway, or the countless Australian betting companies that will soon offer online casinos to New Zealanders, they've all halted Kiwis' sportsbook access.

So if you want to bet on sports online in New Zealand, your legal options are TAB NZ and Betcha, from global gaming giant, Entain. Be careful out there if you look to the now illegal, offshore market of betting sites from a Kiwi perspective. There is a countless amount of terrible operators to avoid. It's actually a little bit sad if you're a sports betting fan, as your available consumer choice was just obliterated with this new legislation.

However, at least Kiwis have reputable operators that continue to legally offer New Zealand online casinos, for pokies and live dealer games until the new local online casino regime is ready to launch. Crucially, all the brands that we discuss for Kiwis support direct accounts and casino payment methods in New Zealand Dollars, so you avoid costly and unnecessary FX fees that come at sites that only support other currencies. Don't take NZD accounts for granted at online casinos.

Why were Australian online bookies poor options for New Zealanders? We delve into the history of Aussie sportsbooks serving Kiwis.

Essentially all Aussie online bookies no longer even serve Kiwis. When they did, put simply, regulated Australian betting sites are designed for Aussies first, not with New Zealand customers in mind.  Due to the relatively close proximity and shared sporting interests, these highly visible Australian operators looked to serve New Zealand's punters, since it was legal for them to do so, and because most Kiwis didn't know that there were far better options available to them. 

There were three main issues where Australian sports betting sites proved to be far inferior options compared to those we recommended for players in New Zealand prior to the recent seismic regulatory shifts: The issues of 1) NZD account availability.  2) New customer bonus availability. 3) Highly-limited sports betting platforms and online gaming options. We delve into these now.

Australian bookies didn’t offer NZD accounts, requiring FX fees

The first reason not to play at Australian bookies from New Zealand came down to the fact that with every deposit or withdrawal, you were subjected to costly currency exchange fees.  Online sports betting brands within the Australian regime only offer Australian Dollar accounts (AUD).  In the past, if you registered and played at any Australian betting site, you were required to convert your New Zealand Dollars for each deposit. When you looked to withdraw funds, you had to convert from AUD back to NZD.  

The expense of this foreign exchange could be significant.  Be it your bank or e-wallet provider, they would charge anywhere from 1.5% to over 5% of the overall transacted amount for each currency exchange. A lot of people miss this as an issue because the fee itself is integrated into the rate of exchange: an amount of one currency simply becomes an amount of a second currency. As a result, people don’t generally see how big the fee is, or how much value destruction has taken place, but this significant cost happened on each transaction. Why should Kiwis pay for this unnecessarily?  Just because Australia is relatively close and their operators are so visible within sports media properties and broadcasts? 

There was no need for this waste.  All the brands that we recommended previously offered New Zealand Dollar betting accounts and payment methods, so you could play directly in your native currency and you never, ever had to pay currency exchange fees. All of your money went toward your own enjoyment. But now, your only legal online betting options are those of TAB and Betcha regardless.

Australian sportsbooks did not have new customer bonus offers or deposit bonuses for Kiwis

The second reason New Zealanders may have wished to avoid Australian betting sites in the past, is their lack of new customer offers. As a result of their large at-risk population, regulations prohibit operators from offering any kind of inducement offers, like a “free bet” or “deposit bonus” or “bet credits”.  Thus, if you wished to get started at a betting site with an incentive offer, you needed to look outside the Australian regime prior to the new legislation.

Australian sportsbooks only offered pre-match online sports betting: No live online betting, casino or poker

The final reason Kiwis should not have looked to play at Australian online bookies is the stripped-down gaming platforms on offer, which bears explanation. Australia is one of the oldest, regulated online gambling markets in the world. This came about out of necessity.  Historically, Australia as a nation had one of the highest per capita gambling spend rates.  As the Internet was exploding in the late 1990s, the government knew they needed to provide a safer environment for certain kinds of “approved” online gambling, while other kinds were banned.

As a result, regulated online bookies in Australia were only allowed to offer pre-match online sports betting. None of them are allowed to offer “live” or “in-play” online betting through their sites or apps, which is otherwise available in essentially all other jurisdictions around the world.  This kind of in-play online betting is seen as perhaps too stimulative for at-risk Australian audiences, so in-play wagers in Australia may only be placed by phoning in your bet.  Thus, if you wished to place online bets for sporting events as they happen, you could not do this from New Zealand on Australian betting sites or apps. 

Furthermore, Australian betting sites are for just that – sports betting only.  None of the regulated Australian providers are allowed to offer other gaming types, including online pokies, jackpots or live dealer casino games. Thus, if you wanted the option to play these other kinds of games from the same account as your sportsbook, you needed to use ones outside the Australian regime.  

All the online gambling brands that we recommended for New Zealand offered a combination of top-tier pre-match and live online sports betting, plus premier casino gaming platforms. With the new legislation, that's now off the table on the sports betting side, but we can recommend brands outside of Australia that continue to offer Kiwis a tailored online casino experience.

The dangers of offshore betting site scams from New Zealand

Beyond Australia, there is a huge world of “offshore” betting sites and online casinos.  Due to the relative wealth of the New Zealand market, many of these operators will try to cater to New Zealanders in some of the ways that we’ve outlined: NZD accounts, tailored bonus offers and broader gaming options compared to Australian ones.  The reality however, is that many of the more reputable brands have chosen to exit their “offshore” operations, while moving to only serve locally regulated markets. Along with the local New Zealand regulatory shift, this means that there is actually only a very small number of reputable offshore gaming sites that offer everything that New Zealand players could want.

Many of the thousands of offshore gaming brands that will serve Kiwis are actually scam operations. They may well look to offer all the things that New Zealanders would want, but once you’ve signed up and made your deposit, you’re at risk of having your money confiscated from a gaming account that is situated outside of New Zealand’s laws, often with little-to-no oversight.

We take the hassle and confusion out of this process for you. Only bet online with TAB NZ or Betcha - they are your legal New Zealand online sports betting options now. We would not recommend any other online sportsbook to New Zealanders. However, we can help you to avoid the scam betting brands that you might have questions about, given various advertisements or sporting sponsorship deals that allow shady operator brands to become very visible to you.

Is it legal to gamble at offshore sports betting sites from New Zealand?

It was, until mid-2025, but no longer, no. It was legal for Kiwis to bet offshore as expressed in a literal fashion within the New Zealand government’s website, in a review of online gambling in the country. There, you can read it was explicitly stated that: “Today, while it is illegal for online gambling to be provided domestically, except by authorized providers (Lotto NZ and the TAB), it is legal for New Zealanders to gamble on offshore websites."  However, at the top of the linked page, you can now also see a notice stating that new legislation now supersedes this text. That new legislation makes offshore sports betting illegal.