New Zealand Betting Sites – Why You Should Bet Online

When discussing betting in New Zealand, first thoughts probably involve our many tabs, pub tabs, RSL clubs and racecourses. Despite the many places possible to make a punt with cash, our licensed online betting sites are where the real value can be found. Whilst I’ll conclude with a bit on our gambling history, and will cover our wagered sports, the bulk of what I’ll discuss in this article is internet betting. If you’re in a hurry to get started, the websites below are the ones I most recommend to Kiwi punters.

Best Horse Racing Odds

One of the best reasons to use NZ licensed bookmakers over the tabs is for betting horses. At most of the sites listed above there is a best odds guarantee. Imagine walking into a TAB venue and arguing your ticket should pay higher than it reads, for reason another tote paid more? You’d be dill to attempt this; it is not going to work. However, online this is often exactly how it works. For many races the internet bookies guarantee the best payout from the starting price or the three major totes (TAB, SuperTAB and TattsBet).

There are many other racing promos too. Centrebet, Sportingbet, and Bookmaker all offer off a protest payout. If a protest against the first horse to finish is upheld, bets on both the interim winner and official winner are paid.

Are you starting to see why online betting is a far better option than punting down the local TAB? The same is true for other forms of sports betting as well.

Betting Sports at NZD Bookmakers

There are so many features that make using online bookmakers a much better choice. For starters it is easy online to use multiple betting sites to find the best odds and line handicaps. Always betting with the highest odds and/or line handicap improves your chances of being a winning punter. In addition to the new account bonuses already mentioned, there are many more promotions too.

Sportingbet and Centrebet are both famous for refunding losing bets. Here you’ll find offers such as “Man United v Arsenal! Losing bets refunded if Van Persie or Rooney score first!”. They also offer similar promos for AFL, NRL, netball, cricket and even American sports. What I just mentioned is only some of the many promotions offered. If you check the promotions tab of each bookmaker you’ll find many more reasons to make your punts online.

Sports Betting Basics

If you’ve never bet sports online before figuring it all out is not too difficult. Once you open an account you’ll need to make a deposit. The most frequently used methods for depositing include credit card, PayPal and internet banking from Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ, NAB and most our credit unions using POLI. With a funded account you can bet any amount up to your stored balance.

If you have $300 in your account and bet $50 at even money, the $50 is taken instantly from your account balance leaving your balance at $250. If the bet wins you get the $50 stake returned and $50 winnings added to your account to bring your balance to $350.

When you want to withdraw some or all of your balance visit the cashier and request a payout. The options for getting paid are many including, but not limited to PayPal, cheque and bank transfer.

As far as the actual betting is concerned, there are many options for this. All sports odds are quoted in dollar or decimal format and show what you’ll be paid on a win. Take the case of the AFL playoffs in a match between Hawthorn Hawks and the Adelaide Crows. In this match the bookmakers had the Hawks as a large favourite. For match winner their odds were $1.14, meaning a $1.00 stake returned $1.14. Only $0.14 of that was profit as $1.00 was the stake. Shopping the odds on the other side you could have found odds $6.80 on the Hawks. Had they won each $1.00 staked would return $6.80 of which $5.80 was profit and $1.00 the stake.

Match winner is however only one way sports such as New Zealand Football League can be wagered. Another option on the same match was line handicap. In this case Hawks were a -37.5 favourite and the Crows a +37.5 underdog with both offered at odds $1.91. In order for those betting the Hawks to win on this market the Hawks needed to win match by 38 points or more. If not, those who had a punt on the Crows +37.5 won. Other ways to bet matches include over/under on total points, whether the final score will be odds or even, first time/half time results, goal scorers and literally dozens of exotic wagering opportunities.

Which Sports Can I Bet Online

One of the best features of New Zealand bookmakers is virtually every sport and league from around the world is available for wagering and the betting markets are many. No matter whether you want to bet on the most popular Kiwi leagues such as New Zealand Football League (AFL), National Rugby League (NRL), A-League Soccer and cricket, or are betting domestic netball, volleyball, or any other sport you’ll find plenty of odds at online bookmakers.

You can also find soccer from all over the globe including Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and countless others. American sports are offered as are all the top European and Asian leagues for nearly every sport. Tennis, golf, Formula 1, boxing, UFC, these are all covered too. It is even possible to bet field hockey online. In short, you name it and it can be wagered online.

Are Online Betting Sites Safe?

The short answer is generally online betting sites are safe to use. There are however some underfinanced bookmakers and certain gambling commissions are better than others at detecting this. When dealing with reputable regulators that only provide licences to top-class companies, deposited funds are very secure.

The most reputable commission in New Zealand is no doubt the Northern Territory Licensing Commission. In 1993 they issued the first ever NZ bookmaking licence to Centrebet. In 1996, Centrebet became the first bookmaker licensed in the Southern Hemisphere to offer internet betting. This is the oldest, most mature and reputable regulator of online gambling, perhaps in the whole world. Some of the many sites licensed by this body include Sportingbet, IASBet, Centrebet and Tatts Sport.

Understand that New Zealand has the highest number of gamblers per capita with nearly 80% of adults gambling on a regular basis. Though this figure includes pokies, housie, keno, poker and casino games if you look around it is easy to see we love to make punts on sports and races. Betting is discussed right on our league website and during television broadcasts. We have tabs all over the country including inside many pubs and RSL clubs. The situations like Sports Alive are far from the norm. We’ve had legal sources for betting sports since 1961 and online betting since 1993. That one situation is the industry’s only black eye and it came from ACT which barely regulates any online betting sites. If you stick to Northern Territory, and possibly the others mentioned above, you can rest assured that you’re dealing only with reputable bookmakers.