Sports betting with Trustly in New Zealand: what it really costs a punter
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Betting with Trustly sounds like a small decision — a payment rail, a bank login, a cleared deposit. In New Zealand, where one statutory monopoly now decides which bookmaker may lawfully take a bet, that small decision sits on top of a much larger one. This page is the cost read: what Trustly is, who can take a Trustly-funded wager in New Zealand, who cannot, and what an NZ punter pays — in fees, in speed, in legal protection, and in recourse — when they choose one over the other.
The figures and dates in this article are current as of October 30, 2026 and have been checked against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (as amended in 2025) and TAB NZ’s own published terms.
What Trustly actually is, and why a New Zealand punter cares
Trustly is a Swedish payment institution that lets a customer pay directly from a bank account, using online banking credentials, without a card or a separate wallet. It is open banking dressed for the checkout page: the punter chooses Trustly at the cashier, picks their bank, logs in with the usual credentials, and the money moves from their account to the merchant in seconds. The merchant, in a betting context, receives the funds the way they did receive a card payment — but without the card rail, its interchange, and most of its chargeback surface.
Trustly was founded in Stockholm in 2008, originally as Glue Finance, by Carl Wilson, Joel Jakobsson and Lukas Gratte. In 2016 it launched Pay N Play, a product aimed at the gambling sector: a single step that combines the deposit, the player’s identity check and the start of play, so a casino or sportsbook can verify the customer against their bank at the moment of first deposit rather than after the first withdrawal request. The company reports connections to roughly 12,000 banks and 650 million consumers globally, and use by over 9,000 merchants.
Two regulatory points matter for any punter using Trustly, and both pre-date any individual transaction. In the EU/EEA, Trustly is licensed and supervised by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. In the United Kingdom, the same business falls under the Financial Conduct Authority. In February 2022, the Swedish FSA issued Trustly a formal warning and a SEK 130 million fine over anti-money-laundering deficiencies — a published record that any operator integrating Trustly must be aware of, and any customer using it must know about.
For a New Zealand punter, what Trustly is not matters as much as what it is. It is not a New Zealand payment system. It is not a credit or debit card. It does not decide whether the bookmaker taking your deposit is allowed to take it from you. Trustly moves the money; the law decides who may ask for it. In New Zealand that decision is made by the Racing Industry Act 2020, not by the cashier.
The New Zealand betting landscape in plain terms
New Zealand does not run a licensing regime for bookmakers in the way Australia or the United Kingdom does. There is no licence register for sports-betting operators, no application process, and no second lawful provider. Since section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 came into force on 28 June 2025, TAB NZ — and only 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. TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of TAB NZ; they are not rivals, and any ranking that pits them against each other is misreading the statute. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect when the law changed.
TAB NZ’s operations are run by Entain under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023. Entain holds a 50/50 share of gross profits, TAB NZ is guaranteed at least $150 million a year for the first five years, and Entain paid a one-off $100 million into the racing sector at signature. The casino side is a different question: the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only and does not extend the betting monopoly, and a TAB NZ casino licence, if granted, cannot turn a third party into a legal sportsbook.
Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either. What may be bet on with TAB NZ today is set out in its published rules: fixed-odds and tote (pool) bets on Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, plus Multis and Same Game Multis whose legs come from one event. Live betting appears in the TAB NZ apps; no statutory restriction on in-play markets was found. There is no lawful New Zealand betting exchange, and spread betting is outside TAB NZ’s sports-betting definition, so this page does not pretend one exists.
The cost of that landscape, for a punter, is that the entire “shop around for the best line” exercise the offshore world is built on has nowhere to land inside New Zealand law. The choice at the cashier is the choice the law has already made.
Responsible gambling in the New Zealand frame
Responsible gambling in New Zealand is built into the only lawful bookmaker, not enforced against a competitive market. TAB NZ lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in its apps; an exclusion applies across both brands of TAB NZ, so closing one account closes both. The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa sit beside those tools, funded in part through TAB NZ’s Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% — in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028 — rather than through a competitive market’s marketing tax.
The age for TAB NZ betting is 18, set by section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020; betting under 18 is an offence. The land-based casino age is 20, and the two are not the same number, so a punter reading about the casino age in passing must not transplant it. TAB NZ accounts require a verified New Zealand address and identity. There is no single national online-betting exclusion register: the register the 2026 online-casino law will require is for online casinos only and does not cover the betting side.
For an offshore bookmaker, none of these structures apply. There is no New Zealand exclusion register to add a punt to, no New Zealand complaints body to escalate a dispute to, and no statutory levy funding helplines the punter can dial. The Department of Internal Affairs’ published position is that overseas operators may sit in places that offer minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins. None of that is automatic — many offshore operators do pay out — but none of it comes with a New Zealand backstop either.
Payments and payout speed at the cashier
Trustly’s pitch at a cashier is fast and direct. The punter picks Trustly, picks their bank, logs in with online banking credentials, authorises the deposit, and the bookmaker receives it. The deposits clear into the betting account in seconds rather than the minutes cards sometimes take, and there is no card number to key. Withdrawals follow the same rail in reverse: the bookmaker initiates a Trustly transfer back to the same bank account, and the funds arrive in minutes or hours rather than the one to three banking days a card withdrawal can take.
The cost of that speed, where there is one, sits on the merchant side rather than the punter’s. Standard Trustly deposits carry no fee to the customer; the merchant pays a percentage of the transaction, the way it does for card processing. There is no published currency-conversion surcharge applied by Trustly itself; if a New Zealand punter is betting in NZD with a New Zealand bank on a euro-denominated site, the punter’s bank applies its own exchange rate and may apply its own foreign-transaction fee. That fee is the bank’s, not Trustly’s, and is the line item most likely to appear on the punter’s monthly statement.
Payout speed has two layers. The first is the bookmaker’s internal approval queue — how long it takes the operator to release the withdrawal after it has been requested. TAB NZ’s own wallet is built for fast turnaround on deposits and withdrawals inside its app. The second layer is the rail itself: Trustly is near-instant once the operator has released the funds; card rails take one to three banking days; bank transfers vary by bank. On offshore sites, the same Trustly rail is used, but the approval step is the operator’s and sits outside New Zealand law.
For an NZ punter weighing an offshore site, the practical question is what happens when a payout is contested. New Zealand cannot compel an overseas bookmaker to release funds; the punter is left with the operator’s own dispute process, the licensing regime of whatever jurisdiction issued the licence, and any chargeback rights their bank extends through their card network. None of those is a New Zealand remedy, and the absence of one is the cost the convenience is paid for.
The two-bookmaker shortlist: TAB and Betcha
The plan routes two operators into this ranking — TAB and Betcha, both online brands of TAB NZ. They are not rivals, and any ranking between them is a thin exercise, but they do differ in what they put in front of the punter.
TAB
TAB is the longer-established of the two brands. Its app carries Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, and a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. Safer-gambling tools — deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion — sit inside the same app. As one of the two online brands of TAB NZ, TAB is one of the two brands that may lawfully take online sports and racing bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025.
TAB is the right pick for the punter whose betting is centred on New Zealand and Australian racing — thoroughbred, harness, greyhounds before the August 2026 close — and on the headline New Zealand and Australian sporting codes: All Blacks, Super Rugby Pacific, NRL, Black Caps, Warriors, the Melbourne Cup on Cup Day. The Trackside integration and the racing form tools are the reason TAB exists as a product; the sportsbook is the same product under a wider net.
Betcha
Betcha is the second of TAB NZ’s two online brands. It carries the same betting catalogue under the same statutory cover as TAB, because both brands sit inside TAB NZ’s single lawful-supplier status. The product positioning is the part that differs: Betcha is the brand TAB NZ uses for a more streamlined sports-betting interface, with the racing code still present but framed more around fixed-odds sports than around Trackside-led racing.
For a punter who bets mostly on sports rather than racing codes, and who wants the cleaner sportsbook layout without giving up the statutory cover of a TAB NZ account, Betcha is the more natural fit. The safer-gambling tools, the wallet, the helpline and the Problem Gambling Levy contribution are the same — what changes is the surface the bettor sees.
Why a third name is not on this shortlist
Twenty offshore sportsbooks accept Trustly. None of them appears on this shortlist, and the reason is the Racing Industry Act 2020 rather than anything about Trustly itself. Since 28 June 2025, no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where the punter is resident or incorporated. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. The monopoly does not require the offshore site to know the punter is in New Zealand — it puts liability on the operator regardless. The cost the offshore site is offering to waive, by accepting a Trustly-funded New Zealand account, is the cost of being the only one on the hook if the DIA’s attention turns their way.
Comparison table: what each operator does at the cashier
The table below sets the two lawful New Zealand brands side by side. The third column states, in each operator’s own terms, what the operator says about Trustly.
| Brand | New Zealand status | What the operator’s own terms state on Trustly |
|---|---|---|
| TAB | One of the two online brands of TAB NZ, the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 (in force 28 June 2025) | Trustly is not listed as a TAB NZ deposit method; the wallet described in the TAB NZ app uses the operator’s own rails and supported cards |
| Betcha | One of the two online brands of TAB NZ, the same statutory status as TAB | Trustly is not listed as a deposit method; Betcha runs on the same wallet and the same deposit set as TAB |
The pattern in that table is the article’s cost read in one line: the lawful operator does not list Trustly, because Trustly is a European open-banking rail and TAB NZ’s deposit set is built around what works for a verified New Zealand bank account in New Zealand dollars. The operator set offshore accepts Trustly precisely because their deposit pages were built for a European market, and the New Zealand punter is arriving at a checkout designed for someone else.
The cost read, block by block
What does this cost the reader, in concrete terms? The cost is not a single line item; it is a stack of choices, each of which has a price.
The price of going where Trustly is
Trustly is the rail of choice across most European-licensed sportsbooks. A punter on a Trustly-funded offshore account pays nothing to Trustly for the deposit itself, gets a near-instant credit to the betting wallet, and gets a near-instant withdrawal back to the same bank account when the operator approves it. That is the headline price, and it is genuinely cheap. It is also the headline price for an offer the New Zealand statute says may not be made. The cost the headline does not name is what happens when the operator and the regulator disagree — and the operator is offshore, with no New Zealand presence to lose. The punter is the one left holding the open bet and the unprocessed withdrawal.
The price of staying with TAB NZ
TAB NZ charges no fee to deposit through its own wallet. The deposit is in NZD from a New Zealand bank to a New Zealand operator, and the exchange rate is the bank’s, applied once, on the punter’s side. Safer-gambling tools, identity verification, the helpline, the levy that funds it — all are inside the one operator, under one regulator. The price is the catalogue: the markets are TAB NZ’s, the odds are TAB NZ’s, and there is no second domestic bookmaker to take a competing line. The “best odds” question does not have a TAB NZ answer, because no other lawful line exists.
The price of a bonus bets promotion
TAB NZ runs “bonus bets” promotions as part of its marketing mix. No New Zealand rule on bonus-bet size or wagering terms was found, so the only published terms are TAB NZ’s own. A “bonus bet” in TAB NZ’s wording is a token stake the punter uses to place a bet; the stake is typically not returned with a win, only the profit, and any conditions on minimum odds, expiry or eligible markets are stated in the promotion’s own small print. The cost a punter pays for a bonus bet is the gap between its headline value and the value it actually clears at, after the wagering terms are honoured. The arithmetic is the same on any bookmaker, offshore or domestic — only the size of the gap changes.
The price of a contested payout
A contested payout on TAB NZ has a New Zealand route: the operator’s own complaints process, then the Gambling Commission where applicable, and a regulator (the Department of Internal Affairs) that knows the operator’s name and address. A contested payout on an offshore site has the operator’s own process, the licensing regime of whatever jurisdiction issued the licence, and any bank chargeback rights — none of which sits inside New Zealand law. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may not return unspent credits or pay out large wins. That warning is the published cost a New Zealand punter takes on when the cashier sits outside the statute.
Offshore operators a New Zealand punter meets, named without ranking
The plan routes only TAB and Betcha into the ranking, but a New Zealand punter meets offshore brands in marketing, in commentary and at search results. A short note on what those brands say about Trustly, named plainly, is the honest treatment.
Winz.io accepts BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, DOGE, USDT, BNB, ADA, TRX, XRP and SOL; deposits are made by connecting a crypto wallet, and the site advertises no deposit limits and instant withdrawals. Trustly does not feature in Winz.io’s deposit set.
Rooster.bet takes card deposits by Visa and Mastercard with a 20 €/$ minimum, instant processing and no fees; card withdrawals take one to three banking days. Trustly does not feature in Rooster.bet’s deposit set.
Thunderpick advertises a 100% deposit bonus up to EUR 600 on its English site and recommends crypto for fast deposits, with other payment methods also available. The site’s terms set the minimum withdrawal at EUR 10 (or equivalent) per transaction, and a closing fee of EUR 20 applies when an account is closed with a balance at or below EUR 20.
Millioner states that e-wallet deposits and payouts are fast while credit card transactions take longer because a bank processes them. Trustly is described as a fast e-wallet rail on sites that list it; Millioner’s wording describes the same speed difference without naming Trustly directly.
Spinbara advertises a first deposit bonus of 100% up to EUR 100 and a sport crypto welcome bonus of 100% up to 200 USDT on its English site, alongside a casino welcome bonus of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. Trustly is one of several deposit methods listed by Spinbara, alongside cards and crypto.
Roobet operates under a Curaçao licence (OGL/2024/687/0427) issued to Raw Entertainment B.V. Trustly is not in Roobet’s headline deposit set; its cashier is built around the brand’s crypto rails.
Megapari lists a free bet of 15% of the first deposit, a Free Bet Hour with 50% cashback on football losses returned as a free bet, and sports cashback. The amounts on the Singapore version of the site are shown in SGD, and no New Zealand version of these terms was seen; the deposit set varies by region and includes Trustly on some localisations.
Golden Panda offers a sports section with a sportsbook, esports and virtual sports, alongside casino, live casino, crash games, rewards, cashback, a VIP Club, Golden Goals and Prediction Markets. Trustly is among its deposit methods.
Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group. Trustly is among its deposit methods.
BillyBets runs cashback and reload bonuses on sports, a coin shop where coins earned through depositing, betting, tournaments and challenges can be exchanged for free bets and free spins, and a five-level VIP programme. Trustly is among its deposit methods.
Boomerang Bet runs a casino, live casino and sportsbook on one account, and advertises a first deposit bonus of 100% up to EUR 100 and a welcome bonus of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. Trustly is among its deposit methods.
Betninja advertises a casino welcome of EUR 1,000 bonus and 100 free spins, and a sports offer of a 100% match up to EUR 100 on the first deposit. Trustly is among its deposit methods.
None of those brands is licensed in New Zealand. Each is named here for what its own terms state, not for the reader to bet with. Each accepts a New Zealand punter’s deposit at the cost the statute puts on the operator, and at the cost the Department of Internal Affairs’ warnings put on the punter.
What the choice comes down to
A New Zealand punter with a verified TAB NZ account has a wallet, a helpline, a levy-funded harm-minimisation regime, a regulator that knows their operator’s address, and a deposit set that does not include Trustly. A New Zealand punter on an offshore site has Trustly, near-instant deposits, near-instant withdrawals, and no New Zealand backstop for any of it. The price of the second option is not the deposit fee — there is none — and not the rail speed — it is faster. The price is the catalogue of things that go wrong outside the statute: an unprocessed withdrawal, an unreturned credit, a dispute with no New Zealand escalator, and a regulator whose only published remedy is to tell the operator to withdraw.
For a punter who bets within their means, on markets that are open in New Zealand, with money they can afford to lose, TAB NZ is the lawful choice and the only choice that keeps the New Zealand harm-minimisation frame in place. For a punter who goes offshore, the choice is real, the rail is convenient, and the statute is clear: section 74AAA puts liability on the operator that takes the bet, the Department of Internal Affairs has told those operators to withdraw, and no published penalty for the individual player was found. The honest reading is that the offshore option is faster at the cashier and slower everywhere else.
Frequently asked questions
Can Trustly be used on betting sites?
Trustly can be used at any sportsbook or casino that lists it as a deposit option. It is a Swedish open-banking rail supervised by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in the EU/EEA and by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Trustly itself does not decide whether the betting site is licensed where the punter sits; that is the punter’s regulator’s question.
Do any sports betting sites accept Trustly?
Many European-licensed sportsbooks list Trustly among their deposit methods, and several offshore brands do as well. Trustly does not feature in the deposit set of TAB NZ, the only lawful New Zealand sports-betting provider under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025.
What betting apps use Trustly?
Trustly appears in the cashier of betting apps run by European-licensed operators and by a number of offshore brands. The TAB NZ app does not list Trustly; its wallet is built around the operator’s own rails and supported cards for a verified New Zealand bank account.
Which payment methods does TAB NZ accept, and where are they listed?
TAB NZ’s accepted deposit methods are set out in the operator’s own terms — in the help pages of its app, on the wallet screen and in the deposit-method list at checkout. No statutory rule on payment methods for New Zealand betting accounts was found, so the deposit set is the operator’s own choice.
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 under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of TAB NZ. There is no licence register for other bookmakers because there is only one lawful operator.
What does a player lose by betting with a bookmaker that has no New Zealand licence?
The player loses the New Zealand backstop: there is no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand exclusion register to add a punt to, and no statutory levy funding the Gambling Helpline on that operator’s side. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may not return unspent credits or may not pay out large wins. 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 operator in breach of section 74AAA; the law targets the operator, not the punter.
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