BetFair New Zealand Review - Is BetFair available in NZ?

BetFair is well-established brand within both the UK and Australia markets. It may be especially familiar to cricket fans, as BetFair has had significant past sponsorship deals in both countries that could have been visible to New Zealand audiences. This is key, because yes indeed, people based in New Zealand may register and play at the BetFair exchange.  If you visit their site, they will actually detect your location and forward you to their .com.au version, dedicated to Australia.  It's completely legal for Kiwis to participate at BetFair, or any other offshore betting or exchange site for that matter. However, crucially, BetFair, like all Australia-based operators, does not cater to New Zealand bettors in some important ways. We touch upon these first, as they should very much affect whether or not Kiwis really want to play at BetFair.

Does BetFair have New Zealand Dollar accounts?

No, BetFair, only supports AUD, GBP and EUR accounts among others.  NZD is not available as your base account currency at BetFair.  This is one of the main reasons that we would never recommend BetFair to interested sports bettors in New Zealand.  With no NZD accounts available, if you play at BetFair from New Zealand, you will experience a 2% to 5% devaluation of your transacted deposits or withdrawals as a result of the foreign exchange carried out by your bank, card provider or e-wallet.  You won't even see how substantial these fees are. 

For example, if you make a deposit of $250 AUD, you need to "buy" this amount with your NZD source funds. Your funding method will simply charge you a rate of exchange that is well about their own rate in order to supply your AUD. This rate is also well above the rate at which you will be able to sell your AUD back for NZD when looking to withdraw funds.  In other words, you get hit both in both directions. There is no need for Kiwis to submit to this manner of value loss, before you've even laid a wager.  Save your money for your own enjoyment and register with a top-tier betting site that supports NZD accounts.

Does BetFair offer live, in-play betting for New Zealand?

Again, the answer is 'no.'  First, BetFair.com.au, is an exchange only, not a typical sportsbook. Exchanges don't offer in-play betting. Second, since BetFair forwards New Zealand-based players to their .com.au site, which is regulated in Australia, Kiwis have to play within their stricter guidelines, which ban the offering of in-play betting. So even if BetFair.com.au added a sportsbook in addition to the exchange, if you want to bet live during rugby, rugby league, football, cricket, basketball or any other events, you just cannot do it at BetFair from New Zealand. However, since all our recommended brands are outside of the Australian, regime, you may bet in-play at all of our recommended sportsbook providers.

Does BetFair have new player bonus offers for New Zealand?

The answer is 'no,' again. Since Kiwis would have to play at the BetFair site as governed by Australian regulations, new player bonuses or 'inducements' are banned.  So if you'd like to get started at your betting site of choice with a little something extra, you simply cannot get it at BetFair from New Zealand.  Since all our recommended sportsbooks are based in other jurisdictions, they all are able to have new player bonus offers for Kiwis.

Does BetFair offer casino games or poker to players in New Zealand?

Since players based in New Zealand must play at the Australian version of BetFair, there are no casino games or poker rooms available. These forms of online gambling are banned within the Australian gaming regime, so if you'd like to play these other kinds of games in addition to the sportsbook, you just cannot do it at BetFair from New Zealand.  Since all the operators that we recommend for New Zealand are based outside Australia, you will have access to online and live dealer casino games at all of them. Poker is not offered by every gaming brand, but several our top-ranked provider also has a premier online poker room, in bet365.

BetFair New Zealand payment methods

For players in New Zealand, BetFair supports Visa and Mastercard credit & debit cards, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller and bank payments. While we can't recommend BetFair for players in New Zealand, since they do not support NZD accounts, we applaud how transparent they are about the issues Kiwis will have in using their service. Here is a notice on the betfair.com.au payment methods page:

*No processing fees are charged by Betfair, Cash Advance fees may be charged by banks. Currency conversion fees may apply if the card is in a different currency than your Betfair account.

In other words, if your funding method at BetFair.com.au is in AUD, you're OK, no FX fees.  Any other currency, and you get currency exchange fees. Furthermore, they say that if you use a credit card, you will be hit with "Cash Advance" fees and interest.  This is great to see as most companies will not point out these truths to players beforehand, as it could be seen as a deterrent by players that only have a credit card available to them as a funding source.

BetFair New Zealand in summary

From New Zealand, there are very few people that are well-suited to play at BetFair.  In having to play at their Australian site, access live, in-play betting is restricted. There are no other forms of gaming available, no new customer offers and worst, no NZD accounts. Even if you think you might get better pricing as a result of BetFair being an "exchange" rather than a sportsbook, the huge and hidden cost of currency exchange will erode that value.  Unless you have funding sources in AUD that you can use, we certainly could not recommend BetFair to sports bettors in New Zealand.