Online betting in New Zealand in 2026: TAB NZ, the offshore choice, and the moves that sit between them

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

Current as of 30 October 2026; checked against the Department of Internal Affairs register and the Racing Industry Act 2020 as amended.

A punt in New Zealand used to land on one of two sides of a line that nobody quite agreed on. Offshore bookmakers took bets from people here, New Zealand authorities warned about it, and the actual penalty sat somewhere the law chose not to look. On 28 June 2025 the line moved. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 took effect, and with it a single household name became the only lawful provider of online sports and racing betting to anyone in New Zealand: TAB NZ, running two online brands. The unusual shape of this market, rather than its depth, is what a New Zealand bettor has to understand first. The picks and the prices are ordinary; the legal floor underneath them is not.

What the sports and tournaments calendar looks like from a New Zealand account

A New Zealand betting calendar starts early in the morning and runs late into the evening, because the country stretches into markets across Asia, Europe and the Americas. TAB NZ covers horse and harness racing, rugby union and rugby league, and a wider set of other sports, pre-match and in-play. The app carries a 17+ App Store age rating while the betting age is 18. A punter picking the Melbourne Cup from a café in Wellington is doing what every punter in the country does, and the races and codes that fill a New Zealand day are the same ones the apps lead with.

Racing codes Australians bet on and New Zealand punters follow

Thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing are the three codes the TAB takes bets on. Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either. So a punter who follows the trots at Addington or the dogs at Hatrick will notice the menu shrinking over the next year, without much change to the way a bet on a horse race is struck.

The published betting rules define the bet types a punter meets most often: Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, and the multi and same-game multi variants layered on top. A punt on the Melbourne Cup and a Same Race Multi on the first at Ellerslie are written in the same decimal odds a rugby multi carries.

Codes that carry the year around: rugby, cricket and the other winter sports

Rugby union and rugby league dwarf everything else for volume. All Blacks test matches, Super Rugby Pacific, NPC, NRL and State of Origin are the fixtures a TAB multi leads with. Cricket runs long into the New Zealand summer through the Black Caps’ home internationals and the IPL, and football runs year-round on the English Premier League and the Champions League. American sports such as basketball and baseball are also on the menu, with TAB NZ’s app running live betting across them. The menu is broad; the volume lives in three codes, and most recreational multis lean on them.

Racing, cricket, NFL: how the depth varies across the menu

Coverage of rugby runs deep. Racing form and tools (the Blackbook, Jockey Challenge) are built into the TAB NZ app, and race-day multis carry the heavy lifting. Cricket sits in the middle: internationals and major franchise leagues (IPL, Big Bash) get full markets, smaller franchise leagues thin out. NFL, NBA and MLB coverage is solid on the headline fixtures and lighter on the second-tier lines. The honest summary: a New Zealand punter is well-served on the codes the country follows, and the menu elsewhere is broad enough to find a market, not deep enough to find an edge.

The new bookmakers a New Zealand punter meets in 2026

TAB NZ is the only lawful provider for sports and racing bets to anyone in New Zealand since 28 June 2025. There is no licence to apply for in this market and no licence register for bookmakers, because the law names one provider. A bookmaker that is merely new and holds no such status is not lawful for New Zealand customers, whatever it calls itself.

What “new” actually means in this market

A bookmaker that New Zealand customers hear about for the first time in 2026 is rarely new to the world. Telbet, RoyalistPlay and Glorion operate from outside New Zealand with licences in their own jurisdictions; some carry crypto-first products; a few lean hard on casino side-products. None of them may lawfully take a sports or racing bet from a person in New Zealand, and the Department of Internal Affairs has told unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect. A punter comparing two new brands is comparing two offshore operators on their own offers and house rules; the legal status is the same for all of them.

The pattern offshore bookmakers selling to New Zealand follow

Most brands aimed at this part of the world run on the same shape: a Curaçao or Anjouan licence, a wallet that takes crypto, a sportsbook and a casino running side by side, and bonus terms written for an international audience rather than a New Zealand one. Some add a sportsbook à la Rabona, that group having launched as its sixth online sportsbook. Several display a 21+ or 18+ age notice in line with the markets they actually serve. Almost none carry the New Zealand harm-minimisation tools or have a complaints route back to a New Zealand regulator. The point is the menu, not the choice: many brands, identical status here.

How online betting actually works in New Zealand

A New Zealand punter opening an account with the only lawful provider goes through the same mechanics a punter anywhere does: deposit, choose a market, set a stake, place the bet, watch the result settle. The mechanics are simple; the local specifics sit in the account rules and the kind of bet a TAB slip can hold.

Opening a TAB NZ account and getting a deposit on it

TAB NZ accounts need a verified New Zealand address and ID. The app uses a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. Deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion sit inside the app, and an exclusion covers both TAB NZ brands. A punter who wants to back a winner on race night is doing it through a wallet that came set with a ceiling and an off-switch, which is not how every offshore wallet is built.

Placing a bet: fixed odds, tote, and the multi that does the heavy lifting

TAB NZ takes fixed-odds and tote (pool) bets. A Win bet on a single runner pays the dividend fixed at the time of placement; a Quinella or Trifecta pays the pool dividend after the race settles. Same Race Multis and Same Game Multis let a punter combine legs from one event, the one-tap Popular Multis take a curated set, and the Place Extra option extends the place finish out to tenth in selected races. Most recreational betting volume in New Zealand sits in multis, and the multi format is what the TAB app has invested in.

The bonus bet, by another name

The TAB NZ approach to a multi bonus is a “Bonus Cash” structure that can be split across multiple bets, with a Mega Multi bonus of up to $50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs. Bonus Cash is the TAB’s local answer to a free bet, and the same caveat applies: the stake is not paid back the way a winning cash bet is, and the terms around the bonus decide what the offer is really worth.

Top 10 online betting options in New Zealand: TAB NZ first, the rest for reference

The “Top 10” label fits only the two lawful online brands of TAB NZ: TAB and Betcha. Every other bookmaker a New Zealand punter meets is named here for reference, rated by the same criteria (sportsbook depth, racing markets, mobile product, payment options, harm-minimisation tools), and marked clearly as not licensed to take bets from people in New Zealand. The list is ordered with the lawful operator group first, by published review order. The scoreboard for the rest is the bookmaker’s own product on its own terms.

The two-way split of the field is the headline result of the 2025 amendment. Some readers arrive wanting to know who is the best; the honest answer is “only two operators are lawful here, by name”. The rest of the list is for readers who want to know what an offshore option looks like in the wild.

1. TAB — the legacy brand of TAB NZ

TAB is the original brand of TAB NZ, the only provider lawfully offering online racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025. The desktop and mobile site carries the full racing catalogue (Win, Place, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Quaddie, Big6), the multi structure the app also exposes (Same Race Multi, Same Game Multi, Popular Multis), and the regular horse and harness meeting the country follows. TAB is the brand a punter meets first because it carries every racing code and every rugby fixture on the calendar.

The TAB NZ app first shipped on 8 September 2014 under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board, and the listing on the New Zealand App Store runs a 17+ age rating while the betting age stays at 18. The verdict: this is the only lawful option for full-licence punters and the brand the comparison comes back to.

2. Betcha — the newer of the two lawful online brands

Betcha is the second online brand of TAB NZ, published on the New Zealand App Store by Entain New Zealand Limited, first released on 6 August 2024. Betcha sits as an app-first product alongside TAB, sharing the same account infrastructure and the same licence position under section 74AAA. New Zealanders meet Betcha as a sharper, mobile-first interface aimed at the same racing and sports menu the TAB brand carries, with the same fixed-odds and pool products behind it.

The verdict: Betcha and TAB are two fronts of the same operator group, not two rivals. Punters pick the one whose interface they prefer, knowing that the licence and the markets sit behind both.

3. Glorion — Live Chat and a basic crypto cashier

Glorion’s support is available by Live Chat or by email, and the site accepts customers over 18 only. Glorion holds no New Zealand licence and provides no local harm-minimisation framework.

The verdict: punters who pick Glorion are picking a non-NZ product whose protections and complaints routes sit outside what a New Zealand regulator oversees.

4. RoyalistPlay — a Tobique-listed bookmaker and casino

RoyalistPlay is owned and operated by Novatrix SRL, a Costa Rica company (registration number 3-102-893958), stating it holds e-gaming licence No. 0000002 from the Tobique Gaming Commission. RoyalistPlay is unauthorized in New Zealand; it offers no local complaints route or harm-minimisation tools.

The verdict: a small international bookmaker, not a New Zealand option in any sense the law recognises.

5. Sportaza — Anjouan and Tobique in the footer

Sportaza’s footer states it is licensed and regulated by the Government of the Autonomous Island of Anjouan, Union of Comoros, under licence No. ALSI-202606064-FI2, while its terms (section 1.4) cite licence No. 0000067 issued by Tobique. Sportaza has no standing in New Zealand, lacking local complaints routes or harm-minimisation oversight.

The verdict: marketed through two offshore licences, neither applicable here.

6. Telbet — a crypto casino and sportsbook that runs the welcome offer hard

Telbet 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. Telbet is unlicensed in New Zealand; it operates outside local harm-minimisation protections.

The verdict: built around a crypto deposit and a high-percentage headline, neither of which transfers to a New Zealand account under the current law.

7. Alawin — a 18+ policy and not much else in the local frame

Alawin accepts customers aged 18 or over only. Alawin is unlicensed in New Zealand and lacks local harm-minimisation policies.

The verdict: a basic offshore product with no local hooks, comparable to the rest of the field below.

8. FunBet — football, basketball, rugby and 24/7 sportsbook

FunBet’s 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. FunBet is not licensed in New Zealand.

The verdict: a wide menu of sports, the same status under NZ law as the others outside TAB NZ.

9. BetNinja — licensed by the Union of the Comoros only

BetNinja states that it is licensed to conduct online gaming operations by the Union of the Comoros. BetNinja has no New Zealand licence, and it offers no local harm-minimisation protection.

The verdict: one offshore licence, no New Zealand application of it.

10. 22Bet — a Curaçao-licensed heavyweight aimed offshore

22Bet’s address 22bet redirects to 22bet4u.com, and the site shows copyright for 2017-2026 and a 21+ age notice. 22Bet is not licensed in New Zealand; only TAB NZ may offer racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand under section 74AAA. 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 no New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework reaches it.

The verdict: a heavy international sportsbook with the same status here as the field around it.

What sits underneath online betting in New Zealand: how the law is built

New Zealand’s betting framework rests on two statutes and a single monopoly the newer of the two created. The shape of the law is unusual, and the unusual parts are exactly what a New Zealand punter has to know.

The Racing Industry Act 2020 and the 2025 amendment

The Racing Industry Act 2020 establishes TAB NZ as the betting provider for racing and sports in New Zealand. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA: no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or incorporated. The change took effect on 28 June 2025, and the Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. There is no licensing route for another bookmaker and no licence register for betting, because there is only one lawful operator.

The 25-year Entain deal, briefly

TAB NZ’s partner Entain runs the TAB business under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023 that gives Entain a 50/50 share of gross profits, with at least $150m a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years, and Entain pledged a one-off $100m payment to the racing sector. The deal names Entain as the operator of the lawful bookmaker, with TAB NZ retaining the licence position. The financial plumbing under the monopoly is what makes it sustainable, and the partnership runs TAB and Betcha together.

What the law does not do

The law does not geo-block offshore websites; it puts liability on the offshore operator. New Zealand does not block bookmaker sites, and section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 (inserted in 2025) says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore betting operator in breach of section 74AAA. The penalty for a player was not found in the published material. The honest read: TAB NZ and Betcha are the lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework; offshore is unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, and carries no New Zealand complaints route.

What the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 does not change

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only; it does not license sports betting, and TAB New Zealand winning the right to apply for a casino licence does not extend the betting monopoly. So the casino market in New Zealand has its own separate licensing framework, and a punter mixing a casino session with a sports multi is moving between two different legal regimes. The two are deliberately separate.

Tax, advertising and what a player actually owes the IRD

Inland Revenue guidance says 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. Operator side: TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74% (in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028). Overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay an online gambling duty, which the legislative framework sets at 12% of profits since 1 July 2024 and 16% from 1 January 2027. A duty being payable does not make an offer lawful — the offshore operator must still be authorised, and a duty alone is not that authorisation.

The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026. So the offshore layer lost a tax at the same time the law tightened the monopoly, and a punter watching the offshore headlines may see one rule retract while another hardens.

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. No New Zealand equivalent of a “whistle-to-whistle” ban for betting was found.

Safe gambling in New Zealand: the tools that actually reach a TAB account

The age for TAB NZ betting is 18 (betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020); land-based casinos run 20 — the two ages are deliberately separate; punters do not collapse them. 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 both of its brands (TAB and Betcha). No single national online-betting exclusion register exists; the register the casino law will require is for online casinos only.

Help lines sit with TAB NZ’s app listing: the free New Zealand Gambling Helpline is 0800 654 655 and the text line is 8006, with Safer Gambling Aotearoa carrying the wider network. TAB NZ also keeps the risks of problem and underage gambling minimised as part of its licence position.

A punter who wants to keep betting small has a working off-switch inside the TAB app. A punter who opens an offshore account leaves that protection behind, and the operator does not know the helpline number exists.

Crypto, anonymity and the offshore cashier

No statutory payment rule for betting accounts (card, bank, credit, prepaid, crypto) was found; TAB NZ’s deposit methods and limits are operator-level and come only from its terms. Nothing in the published material states a rule on crypto or VPN use, and the Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins.

Several offshore bookmakers aimed at this part of the world run a crypto cashier (Telbet, RoyalistPlay, Thunderpick-style products). Crypto at the cashier does not change the legal status of an offshore bet: the operator still breaks section 74AAA by taking the bet, and the player protection layer still sits elsewhere. Account opening at TAB NZ requires a verified New Zealand address, so the offshore’s “pseudonymous” pitch has no counterpart under the local brand.

How the bonus and free-bet system actually works

Because only TAB NZ may offer betting here, the Department of Internal Affairs reads the prohibition as covering promoting or taking such bets for another operator; how DIA treats betting affiliates is not established, so the local frame describes the monopoly and never invites readers to sign up with an offshore brand. TAB NZ runs its own “bonus bets” promotions; no New Zealand rule on bet-bonus size or wagering terms was found, so quote only TAB NZ’s own terms.

The TAB NZ Mega Multi bonus and what it actually pays

New TAB NZ customers can receive Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets, and the app lists a Mega Multi bonus of up to $50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs, terms and conditions apply. The headline is up to $50; the product is Bonus Cash, which carries the bookmaker’s stake-not-returned compromise and a set of legs that must miss by a particular margin.

Foreign bonus formats, briefly

A free bet whose stake is not paid back has an average value determined by the price at which it is placed. The headline percentage on a 200% deposit bonus or a USDT free bet is the marketing layer; the qualifying turnover, the minimum price on each leg, the deadline, the cap on winnings, and whether the bonus is paid in cash or as further free bets decide what the offer is actually worth. A punter optimising between offers is comparing those requirements, not the percentages.

What to read before claiming anything

The terms that decide an offer’s worth are the same set every bookmaker hides in the small print: turnover, minimum price, deadline, market restrictions, cap on winnings, payment method carve-outs, and whether the bonus is paid back as cash or as further bonus. A punter reads those before the headline. No reading of the headline is reliable without them.

Mobile and apps: how a TAB account sits on a phone

The TAB NZ app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union and rugby league and other sports, pre-match and live, with Trackside live race streaming and in-app betting. The interface carries racing form, the Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. The app’s 17+ age rating is the App Store constraint, not the betting age, which remains 18.

What the TAB NZ app does that a browser window does not

The app layers the racing form and live race streaming on top of the betting slip, so a punt from the couch and a punt from the track run through the same product. The mobile-only fields are Same Race Multis and the Place Extra option that lets punters back runners to finish up to 10th in selected races. The browser experience carries the same markets but loses the streaming window.

What Betcha adds on top

Betcha sits as the app-first face of the same operator group, released on 6 August 2024. Where TAB carries the full product, Betcha tightens the interface for mobile betting. Punters used to the legacy TAB site move to Betcha for the cleaner multi builder; those who want every market stay with TAB.

Live betting, in-play and the place where TAB NZ’s product sits

Live betting is listed in the TAB NZ apps; any statutory restriction on in-play markets is not established. The TAB NZ in-play product covers the same sports as pre-match, with rugby, football, basketball and tennis leading the volume. Same Game Multis (a multi whose legs come from one event) carry most of the in-play multi volume.

Where live betting adds real edge

Live markets price in momentum and injury news on the run; the punter who watches the game has information the price has not caught yet. Same Game Multis get sharper as the match evolves, because each leg reflects the in-play position rather than the pre-match number. The trick is to back a leg the price has mispriced because the markets have not caught up — and that costs watching, not just betting.

Where the in-play product gets thin

Tennis live betting on smaller tours, basketball quarters in less-followed leagues, cricket powerplays in franchise cricket: the markets exist but the prices move slowly and the limits are tighter. A recreational punt works fine; an edge-seeker finds more friction.

Bet types and how the math decides what a winner pays

A bet’s price is the decimal number that decides both the payout and the implied chance. Reading the price tells a punter everything the marketing copy tries to hide.

Decimal odds, stake and the return that lands in the wallet

For a single bet at decimal odds the return is the stake multiplied by the odds, and the net profit is the stake multiplied by the odds minus one. A $10 bet at $2.10 returns $21 with a $11 profit. For a combination bet (a multi), the odds of the legs multiply into one price, and the same calculation runs with the combined number. A four-leg multi at odds of 1.50, 1.80, 2.00 and 1.70 carries combined odds of about 9.18, so a $10 stake returns $91.80 with a $81.80 profit.

The bookmaker’s margin sits inside every set of decimal odds on a market. It is the percentage the bookmaker keeps of every unit bet on that market, and it is the number that decides whether a product is cheap or expensive to bet into. A margin of 5% on a market leaves 95% of stake returned in a perfect outcome pricing across all selections. Markets with margins of 8-10% cost the punter several times what the headline price suggests.

How to read a price and what the margin between prices tells you

The bookmaker’s margin is the difference between the payout share (1 ÷ (1/odds₁ + … + 1/oddsₙ) summed across all outcomes of one market) and 100%. A market where the bookmaker’s margin is 5% is cheaper than a market where it is 8%, and a punter who watches the margin over time finds the markets where the bookmaker keeps less and the price is sharper.

A useful comparison: a market priced 1.91 / 1.91 has a margin of about 4.7%, while a market priced 1.80 / 2.00 has a margin of about 5.3%, even though both look close to even money. The shape of the price pair on each side carries the margin, and a sharp punter reads the pair rather than the headline favourite.

Same Race Multi and Same Game Multi, math-wise

A Same Game Multi and a Same Race Multi carry the legs in combination, and the combined odds multiply to give the price the slip is offering. The bookmaker’s margin is layered on top of each leg and on the combination, which is why same-game multis on busy fixtures are popular and same-event multis on small fields carry wider margins. The same arithmetic that decides a single bet’s return runs on the multi, with the wider price reflecting the chance the bookmaker has built in.

Where the choices sit for a New Zealand punter in 2026

The 2025 amendment narrowed the menu in law while leaving the menu in fact unchanged. Most New Zealand punters will keep betting with TAB NZ or Betcha for the same reasons they did before: the licence, the harm-minimisation tools, the local payment rails, and the integration of racing form, racing streaming and the wagering slip. A small group will open an offshore account for a particular market or a particular price, knowing the legal position. Both paths are visible in the published material; what is not visible is any planning move by the Government to license more bookmakers.

The depth question underneath is whether more bookmakers will make this market sharper. The math is straightforward: more competition compresses margins, and tighter margins pay better prices. The legal framework in 2026 points the other way. The practical effect for a punter is that the menu is narrow on brands and broad on offer: TAB NZ and Betcha cover most of what a recreational punter wants, and the offshore bookmakers behind them sit for the markets they don’t. That is the realistic shape of the choice in 2026.

The landscape of online betting in New Zealand at a glance

Frequently asked questions

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

Since 28 June 2025, only TAB NZ may offer racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand. Its two online brands are TAB and Betcha; both carry the same licence position and the same markets, run by Entain under a 25-year partnership. There is no licence to apply for in this market, and no licence register for bookmakers, because section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 names a single provider.

How can I bet on the Melbourne Cup online?

TAB NZ is the lawful route for New Zealand punters, with Win, Place, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta and Same Race Multis on the Melbourne Spring Carnival. Some offshore bookmakers also take bets on the Cup, but doing so with an operator that has no New Zealand authorisation exposes the punter to the regulator’s warning that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards and may not pay out large wins.

How do I bet on horses online from New Zealand?

TAB NZ’s full racing menu sits behind a verified New Zealand account: Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6. Pool bets pay the dividend after the race settles, and fixed-odds bets pay at the price at placement. The TAB app carries racing form, the Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and Trackside live race streaming in-app.

How do I bet on Lotto online from New Zealand?

Lotto is run by Lotto NZ and is not part of the TAB NZ betting product. The online Lotto product is operated through the MyLotto account and is not the same as a racing or sports bet, and the betting monopoly in section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 does not extend to it. A punter looking for a “Lotto” bet inside a sportsbook has crossed markets and expects the product to be a number-based fixed-odds game rather than the official Lotto draw.

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

The return on a single bet equals the stake multiplied by the decimal odds. Net profit equals the stake multiplied by the odds minus one. A $10 bet at $2.10 returns $21, with $11 of that being profit. For a combination bet, the odds of the legs multiply into a single price and the same calculation runs on the combined number — a four-leg multi at 1.50, 1.80, 2.00 and 1.70 has combined odds of about 9.18, so a $10 stake returns $91.80 with a $81.80 profit.

What is the bookmaker’s margin and how can it be seen in the odds?

The bookmaker’s margin is the percentage kept of every unit bet on a market, calculated as 1 minus the payout share (1 ÷ (1/odds₁ + … + 1/oddsₙ)) summed across all outcomes. A market where the implied share is 95% leaves a 5% margin; a market where it is 90% carries a 10% margin. Markets with margins of 5% cost the punter less over the long run than markets with margins of 8-10%, and the pair of prices on either side of a market carries the margin a sharp reader sees by running the math.

Published by the Kiwirugbybetting team.