Is BetFair available in NZ? - BetFair New Zealand Review

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. Although BetFair used to serve Kiwi customers through its .com.au Australian site, recent regulatory developments in New Zealand has caused BetFair and numerous other gaming brands to close their sports betting products to New Zealand-based players.

What happened? New Zealand is developing a regulated local market for online casinos, but not sportsbooks or exchanges. The only local legal sports betting option will remain TAB. But all the major online gaming companies that once served Kiwis from offshore want to move into the new regulated casino market. The cost of this is the shuttering of any sports betting products that were once open to New Zealanders. This is why so many big Aussie and international bookie brands have closed themselves off to Kiwis over the the summer of 2025. 

Did BetFair have New Zealand Dollar accounts?

No, BetFair, only supported AUD, GBP and EUR accounts among others.  NZD was not available as your base account currency at BetFair.  This is one of the main reasons that we did not recommend BetFair to interested sports bettors in New Zealand when there were still a lot of available NZD options.  With no NZD accounts available, if you played at BetFair from New Zealand, you would have experienced 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 made a deposit of $250 AUD, you needed to "buy" this amount with your NZD source funds. Your funding method would simply charge you a rate of exchange that is well above 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 got hit both in both directions. There was no need for Kiwis to submit to this manner of value loss, before you've even laid a wager.  Now however, with such a seismic market shift, the remaining reputable sportsbook options for Kiwis is much smalller, and currency conversion is more likely.

Did 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 forwarded New Zealand-based players to their .com.au site, which is regulated in Australia, Kiwis had 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 wanted to bet live during rugby, rugby league, football, cricket, basketball or any other events, you just could not 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.

Did BetFair have new player bonus offers for New Zealand?

The answer is 'no,' again. Since Kiwis would have had to play at the BetFair site as governed by Australian regulations, new player bonuses or 'inducements' are banned.  So if you wanted to get started at your betting site of choice with a little something extra, you simply could not 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 had to play at the Australian version of BetFair, there were no casino games or poker rooms available. These forms of online gambling are banned within the Australian gaming regime, so if you wanted to play these other kinds of games in addition to the exchange, you could not do it at BetFair from New Zealand.  

BetFair New Zealand payment methods

For players in New Zealand, BetFair supported Visa and Mastercard credit & debit cards, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller and bank payments - but no longer. While we could not recommend BetFair for players in New Zealand, since they did not support NZD accounts, we applauded how transparent they are about the issues Kiwis would have encountered in using their service. Here is a notice on the betfair.com.au payment methods page when they still served Kiwis:

*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 was 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 was 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. Kudos to their parent company, Flutter.

BetFair New Zealand in summary

From New Zealand, the BetFair exchange is simply no longer an option, since New Zealand regulations have created the conditions that made gaming operators choose to offer their preferred gaming vertical: the online casino. BetFair's parent company, Flutter, will no doubt open various online casino brands within the eventual New Zealand online casino market - but Kiwi sports betting exchange fans are out of luck.