Cricket betting in New Zealand: who can lawfully take your bet

Updated October 2026

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The New Zealand cricket betting market looks open on the surface and is in fact one of the narrowest in the world. Since the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 took effect on 28 June 2025, section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 allows only one provider to offer racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand: TAB NZ. TAB NZ runs two online brands — TAB and Betcha. Every other betting site a New Zealand punter has heard of is, in the strict legal sense, breaking New Zealand law by serving them. This page compares those ten operators on the same criteria, walks through the bet types and odds formats cricket punters meet, lays out what responsible gambling tools the lawful operator offers, and shows what a margin actually costs the person paying it.

Current as of October 30, 2026 · licence status verified against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (as amended on 28 June 2025) and the Department of Internal Affairs register of authorised operators.

The Ten Reviewed Brands at a Glance

The table below lines up the ten operators covered on this page by New Zealand status and by what their own terms say about cricket. Two of them — TAB and Betcha — are the same operator under different brands. The other eight are listed because New Zealand players meet them in search results and on socials, and they need to be compared on equal terms, but their lawful status in New Zealand is settled: only TAB NZ may take bets from people in New Zealand.

Eight brands, no cricket. None of the eight offshore brands in this set publish cricket markets on their own sportsbook landing pages — Roobet covers soccer, basketball, tennis, Counter-Strike, FIFA, baseball, ice hockey, MMA and table tennis; FunBet covers football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball; Alawin lists football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball with Live Betting, Virtual Sports and esports; Golden Panda runs a Sports section with sportsbook, esports and virtual sports; Glorion offers pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports; LegendPlay’s Sports, Live Betting and Virtual Sports sections list football, tennis, basketball and ice hockey; Sportaza terms mention Bet Builder, Asian lines and interval markets but its cricket section is not part of the published landing inventory covered here; RoyalistPlay’s top sports are football, basketball, tennis, handball, ice hockey, volleyball and table tennis. Cricket is not among them. The contrast is the point: a New Zealand punter looking for a cricket line gets it from TAB NZ, or they get a generic football-and-tennis site.

What TAB NZ and Betcha Actually Are

TAB NZ is the trading name of the New Zealand Racing Board, the statutory body that has held the New Zealand betting monopoly for decades. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 codified that monopoly as an exclusive right: no other person, whether resident in New Zealand or incorporated anywhere else, may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand. TAB NZ may run multiple brands. It currently runs two.

TAB is the established brand, with a betting app first released on 8 September 2014 and trading under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board. The app carries a 17+ App Store age rating and states that customers must be 18 or over to bet. It covers horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league and other sports, pre-match and live, with Trackside live race streaming in-app, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals.

Betcha is the newer brand, an app published by Entain New Zealand Limited and first released on 6 August 2024. Entain runs the TAB business under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023. The deal 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 a one-off $100m payment pledged to the racing sector. Betcha is the same operator as TAB on different branding — never present it as a rival bookmaker. A player who self-excludes at one brand is excluded across both.

The practical meaning for a New Zealand punter: there is one account wallet at TAB NZ and a separate one at Betcha, both operated by Entain, both paying the Problem Gambling Levy, both subject to the same betting rules. The two brands exist so the same legal monopoly can present itself twice — once as the legacy tote operator, once as a sharper sportsbook.

The Eight That Cannot Serve You Legally

The other eight brands in this set — Roobet, FunBet, Alawin, Golden Panda, Glorion, LegendPlay, Sportaza and RoyalistPlay — are listed because New Zealand players meet them. None is licensed to take bets in New Zealand. Their licences (where they name one) come from jurisdictions with no authority over a New Zealand customer:

• Roobet names a Curaçao licence (OGL/2024/687/0427) under Raw Entertainment B.V.
• LegendPlay names an Anjouan Gaming Authority licence.
• Sportaza names an Anjouan licence (ALSI-202606064-FI2).
• RoyalistPlay names a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002) under Novatrix SRL.
• FunBet, Alawin, Golden Panda and Glorion name no licence that applies in New Zealand.

None of those licences confers any right to take bets from a person in New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect when section 74AAA came into force. A licence held overseas does not turn that around. A punter who opens an account with any of the eight does so with no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework and no guarantee that unspent credits will be returned or a large win paid out — those are the Department of Internal Affairs’ stated risks of betting with overseas operators.

The page covers them anyway, because comparing on the same criteria is what a New Zealand punter shopping around needs. The line is honest: TAB NZ and Betcha are the lawful options, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework; the other eight are unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, with no New Zealand complaints route and the regulator’s stated risks. Neither is “the safe choice” by default — that framing is a marketing line, not an editorial one.

How Cricket Betting Markets Are Built

A cricket betting market is a set of possible outcomes of one event, each with a decimal price. The price is what a winning $1 stake returns, including the stake itself. So a price of 2.10 on New Zealand to win returns $2.10 on a $1 stake: $1.10 net profit plus the $1 back. A price of 1.50 returns $1.50 on a $1 stake: 50¢ net. The shorter the price, the more the bookmaker thinks that outcome will happen — but shorter does not mean safer, because a heavy favourite still loses sometimes.

Cricket has three international formats, and the market structure differs in each.

Test cricket is the longest. A Test match is scheduled for up to five days, with up to four innings in total — at most two per side. A minimum of 90 overs is scheduled per day. A match that neither side wins is a draw. Draw markets exist for a reason; the bettor who only backs a winner misses the most common five-day outcome.

One Day Internationals (ODIs) are the middle format. Each side bats a fixed 50 overs. If the chasing side is all out or runs out of overs with the scores level, the match is a tie. Rain is the regular complication: the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method adjusts the target or result when overs are lost. If too few overs are bowled — usually under 20 — the match is a no result and most markets are voided. A bettor who picks a market they did not realise was rain-sensitive finds their stake returned at settlement, not at a loss, but loses the time and the chance to bet elsewhere.

Twenty20 (T20) is the shortest. Each team bats a maximum of 20 overs, which is 120 legal deliveries. A bowler may bowl at most four overs. A tied match goes to a super over. T20 markets run hottest in tournaments because each game is short and live prices can swing an over or two at a time.

A cricket side has 11 players. The three formats share that number but nothing else of consequence for the bettor: the over count, the innings structure and the result type change which markets exist and which settle how.

The Tournament Calendar and What It Does to Prices

Cricket is governed by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has twelve full members holding Test status. The ICC runs the World Test Championship, whose inaugural season started in 2019. Beyond that, the calendar breaks into bilateral series, domestic franchise leagues (the Indian Premier League, the Big Bash, the Caribbean Premier League and others) and the ICC’s own events.

The 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was held from 7 February to 8 March 2026, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka with 20 teams. India won, beating New Zealand by 96 runs in the final. The tournament matters for prices because live markets on a knockout fixture price in form, weather, toss and the fact that one loss ends the campaign — a market pricing a league game at 1.80 may price a knockout at 1.60, and the difference is not the form of the sides.

For Black Caps fixtures specifically, the calendar runs heavier in the southern summer (roughly November to March) when New Zealand hosts, lighter the rest of the year. A New Zealand punter watching a home Test sees more liquidity on the match-winner market, more sophisticated totals lines, and more scope for in-play betting than a one-off ODI against a touring associate. Live prices react to wickets and to run-rate shifts between overs; the in-play section below works through how that reactivity costs the punter.

What Live Betting and Cash Out Cost

Live betting on cricket means placing a bet after the first ball has been bowled, with prices updating as the match unfolds. TAB NZ’s apps list live betting in their markets; any statutory restriction on in-play markets is not established.

Cash out is the second live product, offered by some sportsbooks as a way to lock in a profit or a loss before the market settles. TAB NZ’s published products include fixed-odds singles and multis as well as tote/pool bets; the cash-out feature on any specific market is a TAB NZ terms question, not a New Zealand-law question.

A live market is a sharper market than a pre-match one, and that sharpness costs the bettor in three ways.

First, the price moves. A wagering market on a market that matches the price the bettor saw three seconds ago is rare; the bookmaker’s algorithm has re-priced it in the time the bettor reached for the bet slip. The price they get is the price at the moment they confirm, not the price they looked at.

Second, the margin is wider. Live markets carry more uncertainty for the bookmaker because the in-play state changes fast, and bookmakers price that uncertainty in. A market that pre-match was at 1.90 / 1.90 may run to 1.85 / 1.95 live once the favourite takes an early wicket, and the size of the change is partly margin and partly information.

Third, suspension is real. A market suspends in the brief interval before a ball is bowled and resumes after. A bettor who tries to place at the moment a wicket falls finds the market closed; they get the price when it reopens, not the price they wanted. Suspension is what keeps the bookmaker honest about its own risk; it also keeps the bettor from arbitraging the bookmaker’s own lag.

The cost is built into the price. A bettor who wants the live thrill pays the live margin to get it.

What “Odds” and “Margin” Mean, and What They Cost

A bookmaker’s margin is the slice of every dollar bet on a market that the bookmaker keeps on average. It is the same market seen from the other side as the payout share. The calculation is simple.

Take a two-way market priced at decimal odds of 1.90 and 1.90. The implied probability of each side, before margin, is the inverse of the price: 1 / 1.90, or about 52.6%. Two sides sum to about 105.3%. The 5.3 percentage points above 100% are the bookmaker’s margin — the share of every dollar staked on this market that the bookmaker expects to keep on average. The payout share is 100% minus the margin: about 94.7%.

The arithmetic, in plain prose: at decimal odds of 1.90 / 1.90 on a two-way market, the margin sits around the 5% mark and the payout share around the 95% mark, with the exact figure depending on how the bookmaker rounds the price. A bookmaker that rounds 1.90 to 1.85 / 1.95 keeps a wider margin on the same outcome — about 8% — and pays the bettor less on average.

The cost to the punter is the difference between the two margins. On a $100 turnover — 20 bets of $5 each at the 5% margin — the expected cost is roughly $5 of stake retained by the bookmaker. On the same $100 turnover at the 8% margin, the expected cost is roughly $8. Both numbers are averages over many bets, not outcomes of a single bet. The bettor wins individual bets and loses individual bets in both cases; what changes across margins is the long-run cost of betting the same way.

The same arithmetic carries over to other market types — totals, handicaps, player performance, combination bets — but the inputs differ. A 1X2 market on a Test has three outcomes, not two, and the price sums to a different number. A handicap line is priced off the line’s spread, and the margin sits inside the spread. A multi is priced by multiplying the legs, and the margin compounds: a four-leg multi with a 5% margin per leg carries roughly a 19% effective margin across the whole bet.

The point of the calculation is not to teach anyone arithmetic. It is to give the bettor a way to read a price: the difference between 1.85 / 1.95 and 1.90 / 1.90 on the same event is the size of the bookmaker’s haircut, and the bettor pays it on every dollar they stake.

Bet Types a New Zealand Cricket Punter Meets

TAB NZ publishes a list of bet types that includes Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6 for racing, and Multis and Same Game Multis for sports. The cricket-specific list is shorter than the racing list, but the structure is the same.

A win bet is the simplest: the punter backs one outcome at one price, and the bet wins if the outcome lands. A $10 stake at 2.10 returns $21: $11 net.

A multi (also called an accumulator or combination bet) multiplies the prices of several legs into one price. A two-leg multi with legs at 1.50 and 2.00 has a combined price of 3.00. A $10 stake returns $30 on a win, but the bet loses if either leg loses. The more legs, the higher the combined price, and the higher the bookmaker’s compounded margin.

A same-game multi (SGM) takes all its legs from one event. TAB NZ offers same-game multis where a Black Caps match combines match winner, top run-scorer and total match sixes into one betslip. One thing to read: Sportaza’s terms say that if one selection is void the whole betslip is void — that is the standard SGM rule but a bettor checks each operator’s own terms before placing.

A handicap (also called a line bet) gives one side a notional advantage to balance the prices. A Black Caps handicap of -1.5 in a Test means Black Caps must win by more than one wicket for the bet to win. The price reflects the line, and the line reflects the bookmaker’s view of the gap in class.

A total is a bet on a number — total match runs, total match wickets, total sixes — being over or under a line set by the bookmaker. Lines move with team news, weather and market weight, and the bettor gets the line at the moment of bet placement.

A player performance market is a bet on an individual — top run-scorer, top wicket-taker, man of the match. The bettor needs the player to play, and a withdrawal before the match voids most markets. Player markets price in player form and opposition, but the unknown — a last-minute scratch — is the bettor’s risk.

What none of these markets change is the margin. The bettor pays it on every dollar staked, regardless of the type.

The Mobile Apps: What TAB and Betcha Actually Offer

The TAB app is published by the New Zealand Racing Board and first released on 8 September 2014. It carries a 17+ App Store age rating and states that customers must be 18 or over to bet. It covers horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league and other sports — cricket sits in “other sports” alongside the racing and rugby coverage. Pre-match and live markets are both offered; Trackside provides live race streaming in-app; racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools are part of the build; the wallet is a single simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals.

Betcha is the sharper product on the sports side, published by Entain New Zealand Limited and first released on 6 August 2024. Same engine, same wallet logic, same sports markets, presented under a sportsbook-first brand. A New Zealand punter who finds TAB’s racing-first product clunky for cricket often lands on Betcha for the in-play experience.

The mobile product is the only product for most New Zealand punters. The retail TAB network still exists at racecourses and outlets, but a punter placing a cricket bet does it through one of the two apps. What that means for the bettor’s experience: any feature that does not live in the app is not really a feature. Live streaming of cricket is not listed on either TAB NZ app’s store page, so the in-app experience for a Test match is the betslip, the live score and the live market — not a video feed. A bettor who wants the video opens a separate browser tab on a separate network. The two apps are not streaming products; they are betting products.

Responsible Gambling Tools at TAB NZ

The lawful operator’s harm-minimisation tools are part of the legal frame, not a marketing extra. TAB NZ’s apps list deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion as standard account tools. A punter who sets a deposit limit on TAB carries that limit across the Betcha brand as well — the exclusion is operator-wide, not brand-wide, because the operator is the same operator.

The free New Zealand Gambling Helpline — 0800 654 655, with a text line on 8006 — is the national number for gambling harm. Safer Gambling Aotearoa runs alongside it as the broader service. The Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% (in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028) funds treatment and prevention, paid by TAB NZ on its gross profits.

The age for TAB NZ betting is 18. Land-based casino gambling in New Zealand is 20 — the two thresholds are different and a punter who turns 18 can place a TAB bet before they can walk into a casino floor. Betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. TAB NZ accounts need a verified New Zealand address and identity; offshore operators that accept a New Zealand address without verification are not meeting the standard the lawful operator meets by default.

A punt at one of the eight offshore brands carries none of those safeguards. No New Zealand self-exclusion register covers them. A punter who excludes at TAB NZ and then opens an account at Roobet or Sportaza has not excluded themselves from Roobet or Sportaza; they have excluded themselves from the lawful operator only. The eight offshore brands do not participate in the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, and they do not participate in the Gambling Helpline or Safer Gambling Aotearoa. The Department of Internal Affairs warns players of the risks of betting with overseas operators; the harm-minimisation services listed above are services a New Zealand punter can still call, but the framework that triggers them is the TAB NZ framework, not the offshore one.

Crypto, VPN and the Offshore Question

None of the ten operators has any direct line on the lawful status of crypto betting in New Zealand because the underlying market — online sports and racing betting from a person in New Zealand — is not lawful except for TAB NZ. What research found: no New Zealand statutory rule on crypto payments to TAB NZ accounts, no rule on VPN use, and no payment-blocking order requiring banks to refuse gambling transactions.

TAB NZ’s own deposit methods and limits are operator-level terms. The deposits and withdrawals route through a wallet that holds New Zealand dollars and is settled in New Zealand dollars. A punter who holds bitcoin cannot deposit bitcoin at TAB NZ in the way they can at Roobet.

The eight offshore brands — Roobet, FunBet, Alawin, Golden Panda, Glorion, LegendPlay, Sportaza and RoyalistPlay — accept crypto at the brand level: that is part of how they target markets where bank rails are blocked or slow. The same features that make them attractive to crypto-native bettors in jurisdictions where online betting is licensed make them unlawful in New Zealand: the operator is still taking bets from a person in New Zealand, and section 74AAA still applies regardless of the payment method.

The penalty for breaching section 74AAA is not stated in the section itself and no prosecution of an offshore bookmaker has been published. New Zealand does not geo-block bookmaker sites at the network level, so the access route is not the barrier — the operator’s willingness to serve the New Zealand punter is. 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; no source states a penalty for the player. Honest framing: the law targets the operator, and the regulator warns the player, but the punter is not the one the law punishes.

Advertising, Bonuses and the No-Code Rule

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 (a 25% share of the audience counts as significant where accurate data exists). Ads must not encourage gambling harm and must be truthful, with terms available. No New Zealand equivalent of the United Kingdom’s “whistle-to-whistle” pre-watershed broadcast ban was found.

Because only TAB NZ may offer betting in New Zealand, the Department of Internal Affairs reads section 74AAA as covering promoting or taking such bets for another operator. How DIA treats betting affiliates is not established — the page describes the monopoly and does not invite readers to sign up with an offshore brand, and the comparison above rates the eight on equal criteria for awareness rather than for joining.

TAB NZ runs “bonus bets” promotions. No New Zealand rule on bonus-bet size or wagering terms was found. The comparison on this page describes each operator’s offer qualitatively rather than printing a code, because a working code is a marketing artefact and the editorial task is to describe what an offer is worth, not how it is claimed. A punter who wants to evaluate a TAB NZ promotion reads the terms on the TAB NZ app before placing, and compares the wagering multiple, the minimum price, the deadline and any cap on winnings — not the headline amount of the bonus.

Tax: What a Cricket Punter Owes Inland Revenue

Inland Revenue guidance says recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable in New Zealand, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business is a different case. The editorial line is general information, not tax advice, and a punter with a tax question asks Inland Revenue or an accountant.

The operator side: TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74% of gross profits. Offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents pay the online gambling duty at 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027. The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026. A duty being payable does not make an offer lawful — a punter who sees a tax number on an offshore brand’s terms and reads it as a sign of legality is reading a number sideways. Tax and licence are different things.

Why the Comparison Still Includes the Eight Offshore Brands

A New Zealand punter searching “cricket betting in New Zealand” meets the offshore brands in search results, on socials and through affiliates. Comparing on equal criteria is what a shopping punter needs. The point of including Roobet, FunBet, Alawin, Golden Panda, Glorion, LegendPlay, Sportaza and RoyalistPlay is not to recommend them — the law does not allow that — but to give a reader a way to see what each offers relative to TAB NZ and Betcha, and to make the lawful-vs-unlawful status visible on the page rather than hidden in a footnote.

The section above on the eight covers what each publishes as its own sportsbook. Cricket is not on any of their published landing inventories in this set; the contrast is the editorial point. A New Zealand punter looking for cricket on those brands goes looking and does not find it. They find cricket at TAB NZ and at Betcha.

What This Page Costs the Punter

The angle of this page is cost — what this costs the reader — and the cost is not just the price of a bet. The costs a New Zealand cricket punter pays:

• the bookmaker’s margin on every market they bet, built into the price and invisible unless they calculate it themselves;
• the compounded margin on a multi, which rises with each leg added;
• the wider margin on a live market, paid in exchange for the in-play experience;
• the lost wagering time on a no-result market after rain wipes a 35-over ODI to 18;
• the loss of the lawful harm-minimisation framework when betting with an offshore brand — the deposit limits, the time-outs, the self-exclusion, the Gambling Helpline referral;
• the loss of the New Zealand complaints route when an offshore brand declines a payout;
• the loss of recourse to the Department of Internal Affairs, the regulator that watches TAB NZ but has no jurisdiction over a Curaçao or Anjouan or Tobique licence.

The page does not recommend an operator; it describes what each costs and lets the punter choose. The recommendation is the punter’s, on the punter’s own numbers.

The Verdict on Each Reviewed Brand

TAB is the lawful option with the legacy product: tote, racing form, Blackbook, Jockey Challenge, and a sports section that includes cricket. A punter who likes one wallet, one set of limits, one self-exclusion and one operator under New Zealand oversight gets the full package. The trade-off is a sportsbook that was built around racing and treats cricket as one of several sports.

Betcha is the same operator under a sharper brand — Entain’s sportsbook product, the same wallet logic, the same limits, the same harm-minimisation tools. A punter who finds TAB’s racing-first layout awkward for cricket picks Betcha and gets the cricket-first feel. The trade-off is that the brand is newer and the racing tools (Trackside, form, Blackbook) are thinner on the Betcha side.

Roobet offers a Curaçao-licensed crypto casino with a sportsbook that does not list cricket. The cost to a New Zealand punter is the operator’s unlawful status under section 74AAA, the lack of a New Zealand complaints route, and the regulator’s stated risks. What it offers that the lawful operator does not is irrelevant to a New Zealand punter because the offer is unlawful for the operator to make.

FunBet offers a sportsbook with no cricket listing, no New Zealand licence, and no complaints framework a New Zealand punter can use. The “open 24/7” framing is operational, not regulatory.

Alawin lists football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with Live Betting, Virtual Sports and esports. No cricket. No New Zealand licence.

Golden Panda runs a sportsbook alongside a casino, esports, virtual sports and prediction markets. No cricket landing inventory in the published coverage. No New Zealand licence.

Glorion offers pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports, with markets grouped into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports. No cricket landing inventory. No New Zealand licence.

LegendPlay has Sports, Live Betting and Virtual Sports sections listing football, tennis, basketball and ice hockey. No cricket. Anjouan licence that gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand.

Sportaza names cash out before settlement, Bet Builder (void if any selection is void), multis, Asian lines and interval markets at 1, 5, 10 or 15 minute ranges. No cricket in the published landing inventory. Anjouan licence (ALSI-202606064-FI2) gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand.

RoyalistPlay lists football, basketball, tennis, handball, ice hockey, volleyball and table tennis as top sports, with e-sports and Predictions sections. No cricket. Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002) under Novatrix SRL gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand.

The single common shape of verdict across the eight offshore brands: not licensed in New Zealand, no cricket market on the published sportsbook landing pages, no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, no recourse to the Department of Internal Affairs. A punter who chooses one of the eight chooses it knowing all of the above.

How to Use This Page

Read the comparison table for the high-level contrast. Read the section on TAB NZ and Betcha for what the lawful operator actually offers. Read the section on the eight for why each is unlawful in New Zealand and what each carries that the lawful operator does not — knowing that the answer is mostly nothing for cricket specifically. Read the section on margin for the calculation that lets the punter read a price. Read the section on bet types for what each market is and how it settles. Read the responsible-gambling section for the tools the lawful operator carries and the offshore brands do not.

The rest is the punter’s call. The page describes; the punter decides.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does cricket betting work?

A cricket bet is a contract between the punter and the operator: the punter picks an outcome of a cricket match — winner, top scorer, total runs, handicap — and the operator offers a decimal price. A decimal price is what a winning $1 stake returns, including the stake. A price of 2.50 returns $2.50 on a $1 stake: $1.50 net profit plus the $1 back. The bet wins if the outcome lands at settlement, and the bet loses otherwise. The bookmaker’s margin sits inside every price, and it is the same market seen from the other side as the payout share.

How does betting on cricket work in New Zealand?

In New Zealand the only operator lawfully offering racing and sports betting online is TAB NZ, which runs two brands — TAB and Betcha. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025, gives TAB NZ that exclusive right. No other person, whether resident in New Zealand or incorporated anywhere else, may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand. A punter looking for a cricket line gets it from TAB NZ or Betcha, or they get it from an offshore brand whose offer is unlawful for the operator to make in New Zealand.

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

TAB NZ, through its two online brands TAB and Betcha. There is no licence register for bookmakers in New Zealand because there is only one lawful provider. The Department of Internal Affairs monitors compliance with the betting prohibition and told unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect when section 74AAA came into force on 28 June 2025. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only and does not extend the betting monopoly; TAB New Zealand winning the right to apply for a casino licence does not let another bookmaker take bets.

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

The return is the stake multiplied by the decimal odds. A $10 stake at decimal odds of 2.10 returns $21: the $10 stake back plus $11 net profit. A combination bet multiplies the prices of the legs into one combined price, and the stake is multiplied by the combined price. A free bet whose stake is not paid back with a win works differently: the punter keeps the winnings only, and the calculation is the stake multiplied by the price minus 1, divided by the price, times the payout share of the market.

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

The margin is the share of every dollar staked on a market that the bookmaker keeps on average. It is the inverse of the payout share. To see it in a two-way market priced at decimal odds of 1.90 and 1.90, take the inverse of each price — about 52.6% per side — and add them. The result is about 105.3%, and the 5.3 percentage points above 100% are the margin. A bookmaker that prices the same market at 1.85 and 1.95 keeps a wider margin — about 8% — and pays the punter less on average. The same arithmetic applies to other market types, and the margin compounds across the legs of a multi.

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