Score betting in New Zealand: the legal playing field, the bookmakers who touch it, and what the price is really saying

Updated October 2026

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A punter asking about “score betting” in New Zealand usually wants three things at once: a working definition of what a score bet actually is, a shortlist of where one might place it, and a sense of what the bookmaker’s number means. New Zealand answers the second question with one name and a date. Since 28 June 2025, the Racing Industry Act 2020, as amended, allows TAB NZ — operating under the TAB and Betcha brands — to take online sports and racing bets from people in New Zealand. No other bookmaker may lawfully offer such bets here, there is no licence to apply for, and no register lists rival operators. That single fact reshapes every comparison a reader is expected to see.

What follows is current as of October 30, 2026 and was checked against the Department of Internal Affairs’ public statements on section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020.

Live betting and cash out in New Zealand

Live betting means placing a wager while an event is already under way, with a price that moves as the action unfolds. In New Zealand the legal menu is the TAB NZ app and the Betcha app, and both carry live markets on racing and on a sporting schedule that includes rugby union, rugby league, cricket, football and basketball. A live bet on TAB works the same way a pre-match bet works: the punter picks a market, takes a price, and the bet is logged on the bet slip at the odds shown at the moment of confirmation.

Cash out is the feature that lets a punter settle a wager before the final whistle or the last race. TAB NZ’s apps list cash out on selected markets; Betcha’s wider product range, built under the same Entain technology stack, also offers the function on eligible selections. The mechanic is straightforward: at any moment while the bet is open, the bookmaker offers a cash-out value, the punter accepts or passes, and on acceptance the bet is closed at that figure regardless of the eventual outcome. The value is not guaranteed and may disappear if the price moves before the punter taps accept. The cash-out amount is the bookmaker’s own valuation of what the open position is worth at that second, and it almost always sits below the full payout that a win might have yielded. That gap is the cost of locking in certainty early.

Cash out and live betting work together, but they are not the same thing. A live bet is a fresh stake on a market that is in play; cash out is a way to close an existing bet before it settles. The punter who wants to act on a momentum shift in the course of a football match can do either — place a new wager on the next goal, or cash out an earlier wager on the final result. Both have a place in a working strategy; neither turns a bad price into a good one.

A small but worth-knowing wrinkle: a wager that was placed with a bonus bet or a promotional stake often cannot be cashed out. The house treats bonus money as house money, and lets the punter run it to settlement rather than buying it back early. The TAB NZ terms spell this out on the relevant promotions; a punter who plans to use a bonus bet on a long multi is, in practice, locked in until the last leg settles.

Predictions, tips and the strategy of score betting

“Tips” and “predictions” are words punters use a lot and which mean very little on their own. A correct-score tip is a forecast that one specific scoreline will end the match: 2-1, 0-0, 3-0, anywhere on a long list. Both-teams-to-score is a binary market: yes or no, did each side find the net. Each is a market TAB NZ offers; each is a market whose price the punter can take or leave.

The honest strategy for score markets is the same as for every other market. There is no system that beats the bookmaker’s margin over a long run, and no tipster whose published picks beat it consistently without also selling subscriptions. What a punter can do is read the price as a probability statement and act when the price is bigger than the punter’s own estimate of the true chance. The mechanic is simple: a decimal price of 3.00 implies a one-in-three chance of winning; a decimal price of 7.00 implies a one-in-seven chance. If the punter’s read of the match gives a real chance of one in five, and the price offered is 7.00, the bet carries value. If the real chance is one in five and the price is 4.50, there is no value.

That framing matters more in score markets than in most. Correct score is a low-hit, high-payout market: a 1-0 scoreline at 7.00 pays seven times the stake, but most matches do not end 1-0. Both-teams-to-score is the opposite shape: a near-coin-flip with both outcomes priced between 1.50 and 2.20 on most football matches. The punter who runs an accumulator of six correct-score selections on a Saturday is buying six low-probability events at a combined margin that compounds across every leg. The punter who runs six single both-teams-to-score bets is paying six small margins on six near-fair bets. Neither is wrong on its own; the punter is expected to know which kind of bet is being placed, and at what price.

TAB NZ’s apps include form and statistics panels on each event, and Betcha’s “Playbook” section carries match previews and tips. They are useful as research material, but they are not forecasts. A punter who treats them as analysis rather than gospel is the punter who makes fewer surprises of himself.

Bet types, odds formats and what settles what

“Both teams to score” and “correct score” sit inside a wider family of score markets. The TAB NZ betting program on a football match will typically include: 1X2 (home, draw, away), double chance, both teams to score, correct score, total goals over/under, total goals banded (0-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6+), Asian handicap, half-time/full-time, first goalscorer, anytime goalscorer, and a Same Game Multi that lets the punter combine any of the above into a single multi. Each market settles on its own rule, and the rule is published on the bet slip or in the betting rules. A 1X2 bet settles on the result after ninety minutes plus stoppage time, unless the competition’s own rules extend it; a correct-score bet settles on the exact scoreline at the same point; a both-teams-to-score bet settles on whether each team has scored at least once, regardless of who wins.

Decimal odds are the standard form on TAB NZ and Betcha. The number is the total return per unit staked, stake included: a $10 bet at 3.00 returns $30 if it wins, of which $20 is profit. Some of the offshore brands in the wider market display fractional or American prices, and the punter can switch between them on the bet slip. The price is the same number in three different costumes.

A quick walk-through of how a Same Game Multi settles: the punter picks two, three, four or more selections from the same event — for instance, “home win” combined with “both teams to score” combined with “over 2.5 goals” — and the prices multiply into one combined price. A 1.60 combined with 1.00 combined with 1.80 gives a combined price of 2.88. Every leg has to land for the bet to win; one voided leg drops out and the price recalculates on the others; one losing leg costs the whole stake. The TAB NZ “Mega Multi” promotion pays a bonus on a multi of four or more legs that misses by a set margin — usually one leg short of the full house.

Sports and tournaments the New Zealand punter actually bets on

Racing is the foundation of TAB NZ’s business and the reason the racing industry carries weight in how the law is written. The three codes are thoroughbred, harness (called “trots”), and greyhound. Thoroughbred racing takes the largest share of betting volume; harness sits second; greyhound racing is being closed in stages from 1 August 2026, which means TAB NZ’s greyhound markets will wind down and offshore brands may not step in. The headline races on the New Zealand calendar include the Melbourne Cup in November, which draws heavy Australian and New Zealand interest, and the major New Zealand racing festivals through the spring and autumn.

Sport by sport, the New Zealand punter’s main diet is rugby union, rugby league, football, cricket and basketball. Rugby union sits at the top: the All Blacks in test matches, Super Rugby Pacific for club rugby through the southern winter, and the NPC for domestic rugby through the New Zealand summer. Rugby league runs through the NRL, with the Warriors carrying New Zealand interest from February to October. Football is global rather than domestic — the English Premier League, the Champions League, La Liga and the A-League all move real money through TAB NZ’s markets on a Saturday and Sunday. Cricket runs through the Black Caps’ test calendar in the southern summer and the IPL through the New Zealand winter. Basketball runs through the NBA through the New Zealand summer.

Tennis, golf, American football, baseball, ice hockey and the major UFC cards are all priced. The punter looking for a less common sport will find darts, snooker, handball, volleyball and Australian rules. Each is a smaller menu than the headline sports, with fewer markets per event and more frequent limits on stakes, but the same betting mechanics apply. TAB NZ’s live schedule at any given moment is determined by what is being played in the world at that hour; the punter looking at the app at 3 am New Zealand time will find mostly the late-night basketball and the early rounds of European football.

A word on novelty and politics markets: TAB NZ offers some novelty markets on racing and sport. Outright markets on the All Blacks or the Warriors to win their season are common; markets on political outcomes are not a routine TAB NZ product. Where research has not established a market, the page does not assert one.

The ten brands a New Zealand punter meets: a side-by-side comparison

The table is the comparison, not a recommendation. The two top rows are TAB NZ’s own online brands — lawful for New Zealand residents, governed by section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, and run by Entain under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023. The eight rows below are offshore brands a New Zealand punter may encounter through affiliates, advertising or word of mouth; none is licensed to take bets from people in New Zealand, and the Department of Internal Affairs has told unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect. The table makes that distinction in plain language under “New Zealand status”; it does not endorse any of the brands. Each brand row also states what the brand’s own terms and product page say about score betting, both-teams-to-score, correct score, live markets or bet builders, to the extent research has confirmed it.

The spread says the obvious in plain words. Two brands may lawfully take a New Zealand bet; eight cannot. The two lawful brands share the same TAB NZ back end and the same sportsbook mechanics; the offshore brands differ from each other in product features but are united in their lack of a New Zealand licence. The punter who wants New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, a local complaints route and a regulator who has jurisdiction here has, in practice, one choice of provider. The punter who wants the wider product range of an offshore sportsbook is taking a position outside New Zealand law, with the consequences the Department of Internal Affairs has flagged.

The bookmaker’s margin, and how it lives inside the price

The single number that decides whether a betting market is worth playing is the bookmaker’s margin, also called the overround. Every price on a market is the bookmaker’s estimate of the implied probability, marked down a little. The little is the margin, and it is the bookmaker’s edge on every dollar wagered, before any individual punter’s edge is considered.

The arithmetic is best seen on a simple two-way market with decimal odds of 1.90 on each side. The implied probability of a 1.90 price is 1 ÷ 1.90, which is about 52.63%. Two such prices together imply 105.26% — that is, the two outcomes together have a stated chance of more than 100%. The excess, around 5.26% on a 1.90 / 1.90 line, is the margin. The other way to see it: the “fair” price on a two-way coin toss is 2.00 on each side; 1.90 on each side is what 2.00 becomes once the bookmaker has taken roughly five cents in the dollar off the top.

The exact figure moves with the market. The fairer the matchup, the closer the two prices get to 2.00 and the lower the margin. The more unbalanced the matchup, the wider the gap — a heavy favourite will be priced at 1.20 and an outsider at 5.50 on the same match, and the implied probabilities across all outcomes will still total more than 100%. Three-way markets (1X2 on a football match with three possible results) carry a higher margin than two-way markets because the bookmaker has to widen the overround to keep all three prices workable.

What this means for a punter choosing a market: a margin of around 5% is typical for a two-way market, 7% to 10% is typical for a three-way 1X2 market on football, and anything above 12% is a market to approach carefully. Margin compounds across multi bets: six legs at 7% margin each is not a 7% margin overall, it’s a more punishing figure than that. The punter who pays attention to the price pays attention to the margin.

TAB NZ’s published prices are not the cheapest in the offshore market, but they are the only prices with a New Zealand regulator’s eye on the operator behind them. Offshore brands often advertise tighter margins to attract volume; the punter is expected to weigh the price against the regulatory frame, because a price that is a fraction tighter on an unregulated site is not a free lunch.

The legal framework, in plain language

The law that defines who may take a New Zealand bet is the Racing Industry Act 2020, as amended by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025. Section 74AAA, in force from 28 June 2025, says 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 Department of Internal Affairs is the regulator, and the Gambling Act 2003 sits behind it as the broader gambling-control statute.

There is no licence register for bookmakers because there is only one lawful operator. The punter looking for an “approved bookmaker list” in New Zealand will not find one; the list has one name. TAB NZ runs the betting operation through its TAB and Betcha brands, and Entain runs the business day-to-day under a 25-year partnership that gives both sides a 50/50 share of gross profits, with at least $150m a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years. The punter who asks how the law is enforced reads the statute as: TAB NZ may offer; anyone else may not; the regulator has told providers to withdraw.

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 is sometimes confused with sports betting. It is a separate statute that opens a licensing route for online casino gambling only. TAB New Zealand’s casino licence does not change the sports-betting monopoly. A punter who hears “online gambling is being licensed in New Zealand” and assumes that means sports betting has misread the law.

The greyhound code is closing in stages from 1 August 2026. From that date, TAB NZ will wind down its greyhound markets and offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either. The thoroughbred and harness codes are not affected.

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 are 20 — that is a casino rule, not a betting rule, and the two are not interchangeable. A TAB NZ account needs a verified New Zealand address and ID; the offshore brands in the wider market have their own KYC rules, which New Zealand’s regulator does not enforce against them.

For the player, the law targets the operator, not the punter. Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 (inserted in 2025) makes clear that an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA; no source establishes a penalty for the player. The Department of Internal Affairs has nevertheless flagged the consumer-protection risks of betting offshore — operators in jurisdictions with minimal safeguards, possible refusal to return unspent credits, possible refusal to pay out large wins. None of that is a punishment; it is a warning. The punter who bets offshore has fewer backstops than the punter who bets with TAB NZ; the punter who bets with TAB NZ has fewer markets than the offshore punter. Neither choice is a moral one. Both are choices the punter makes with the frame in front of him.

Staying in control: the responsible-gambling picture

TAB NZ’s apps carry a set of safer-gambling tools. A punter can set a deposit limit, take a time-out, or self-exclude entirely. A self-exclusion applies across both TAB NZ brands — TAB and Betcha — so the punter who has stepped away from one has stepped away from the other. The 0800 654 655 Gambling Helpline is free and runs across New Zealand, with a text line at 8006 for those who prefer to text than call. Safer Gambling Aotearoa is the public-facing name for the support services funded in part by the Problem Gambling Levy.

TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% for the period 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The levy funds research, treatment and prevention services; it is the operator’s contribution to the harm-minimisation framework New Zealand runs alongside the betting monopoly.

The offshore brands do not sit inside this framework. A punter who self-excludes from TAB NZ cannot self-exclude from an offshore site through the same mechanism; the offshore site may have its own self-exclusion tool, but it is not connected to the New Zealand register, and the New Zealand regulator has no jurisdiction over it. The punter who has decided to step back from betting is best served by using the New Zealand-registered operator’s tool, where the regulator’s enforcement power gives the decision weight.

A short list of practical moves a punter can make before logging in: set a deposit limit the first time the account is opened, not after a bad run; pick a time-out window in the course of a planned break rather than after one; keep the gambling budget in a separate account so the punter sees the spend as spend; and read the self-exclusion terms in full before activating, because re-opening a closed TAB NZ account is not a quick process.

The punter who notices that betting has moved from entertainment to necessity, who is chasing losses, or who is betting money earmarked for bills, has crossed a line the gambling-harm services exist to help with. The Gambling Helpline is the first call; a GP is the second. Neither is a judgment; both are available.

Bonuses and free bets, in the New Zealand frame

Bonuses in New Zealand exist in the TAB NZ ecosystem. The TAB NZ app describes new-customer offers that include Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets, and a “Mega Multi” promotion that pays up to $50 in Bonus Cash on a four-leg-or-more multi that misses by one leg. Both are subject to terms that the punter reads before claiming. The offshore brands in the wider market offer their own promotional packages — deposit matches, free bets, accumulators with insurance — and the punter who is tempted by them is advised to remember that the same offshore site may not be lawful to bet with from New Zealand, and that an attractive bonus does not change that.

A “free bet” is a promotional stake the house gives the punter to play with. The stake is usually not paid back on a win: a $10 free bet at 3.00 returns $20 in cash, not $30. The “value” of the free bet, mathematically, is the free-bet amount multiplied by the price minus one and divided by the price, then multiplied by the payout share of the market — the punter gets roughly 70 cents of free-bet value per dollar on a typical 2.00 market. A “bonus bet” that returns the bonus stake on a win is the rarer and more generous form, and the punter who finds one is looking at something closer to real money.

A deposit-gated bonus is one that requires the punter to deposit before claiming. The base for turnover — the total amount the punter must wager before any winnings can be withdrawn — is usually the bonus amount, sometimes the bonus plus the deposit. A punter who has $200 to play with and accepts a 100% bonus with a 10x turnover on the bonus alone owes the site $2,000 in wagering; the same bonus with a 10x turnover on bonus plus deposit owes the site $4,000. The punter reads the base before claiming.

The expected cost of clearing an offer is the required turnover multiplied by the margin of the market the punter plays through. A $2,000 turnover at a 7% margin costs the punter around $140 on average before the bonus is cleared; a $4,000 turnover at the same margin costs around $280. These are averages, not guarantees. A punter who plays through a bonus at a market with a 12% margin pays more for the same turnover; a punter who plays through at 4% pays less. The market choice in the course of clearing is as important as the bonus headline.

What never goes on the page is the bonus code itself. New Zealand law targets the operator that takes the bet, not the punter who claims a promotion; the page describes how an offer works, never prints a working code.

Mobile and the app experience

The TAB NZ app is published as “TAB – Racing & Sports Betting” on the New Zealand App Store under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board; it first appeared in the store on 8 September 2014. The app carries a 17+ age rating while stating that customers must be 18 or over to bet. Inside, the punter finds the racing program — horse, harness, and greyhound until that market closes — and a sports program covering rugby union, rugby league, football, cricket, basketball, tennis, golf and the major North American codes. Pre-match and live markets sit side by side, with a popular-multis feed and a same-race-multis feed for the racing product.

The Betcha app is the TAB NZ online sister brand, built on the same Entain technology stack and aimed at a younger, more social product. It carries a daily Toolbox of boosts and insurance tools, a Bet Social section for following tipsters and sharing bets, and a Playbook of match previews and tips. The mechanics of a Same Game Multi are the same on both apps; the surface feel is different.

Trackside live race streaming is built into the TAB NZ app, with in-app betting alongside the picture. The app also includes form, a Blackbook tool for tracking runners, and a Jockey Challenge game. A simplified wallet handles deposits and withdrawals inside the app, with the usual card-and-bank options New Zealand banks allow.

The punter who wants to bet on a Saturday afternoon race meeting does not need to be at a TAB outlet; the app carries every TAB NZ market from anywhere in New Zealand. The punter who wants in-play betting on a Champions League match at 4 am can find the live market on the app and place the wager in three taps.

The offshore brands run their own apps. Each has its own onboarding flow, its own KYC rules, and its own deposit and withdrawal set. None is connected to the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework. The punter who wants the app experience and the New Zealand backstops is, in practice, in the TAB NZ or Betcha app.

Bonus offers at TAB NZ and Betcha, in qualitative terms

TAB NZ’s newer-customer Bonus Cash promotion lets a first-time punter take a Bonus Cash amount and split it across multiple bets of the punter’s own choosing, rather than a single fixed wager. The Mega Multi promotion adds a Bonus Cash sweetener — up to $50 — to a four-leg-or-more multi that misses by a set margin. The Place Extra option extends place-payout ranks in selected races to as far back as tenth.

Betcha’s daily Toolbox rotates boosts and insurance tools through the day. The punter checking in once a day will see a different set of offers each visit; the punter who logs in twice a day will see more. Bet Social and Playbook sit alongside the sportsbook as part of the product, not as add-ons. A punter comparing TAB NZ and Betcha is comparing two windows into the same betting program, with the surface and the social layer being the difference.

The expected cost of a bonus at TAB NZ or Betcha is the wagering turnover multiplied by the market margin the punter plays through. The punter who plans for a 7% margin in the course of clearing is planning for an expected cost of seven cents per dollar of turnover. The punter who plans for a 5% margin — selecting the tightest markets the program offers — is planning for five cents per dollar of turnover. The difference is not large per dollar, but it adds up over the volume of bets needed to clear the bonus.

A punter who treats a bonus as an extra layer of free money rather than as a marketing device that costs real money in the course of clearing is a punter the offer was built for. The honest read is the read that respects the wagering requirement, the market choice in the course of clearing, and the deadline for completion.

Payments, in the New Zealand frame

There is no statutory rule on payment methods for betting accounts in New Zealand. TAB NZ’s own terms list the deposit and withdrawal set the punter works with: bank transfer, debit card, POLi and a small set of prepaid options. Credit cards are not a deposit method at TAB NZ. Crypto is not a deposit method at TAB NZ. The punter who wants to deposit in Bitcoin is, by definition, working with an operator other than TAB NZ — and that operator is not lawfully taking New Zealand bets.

The Department of Internal Affairs has warned that overseas operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. No payment-blocking order or bank obligation exists; there is no rule on crypto or VPN use at the player level. Account opening at TAB NZ requires a verified New Zealand address and ID; an offshore operator will have its own KYC flow that New Zealand’s regulator does not enforce.

The punter’s read on payments is straightforward: if the deposit method requires the operator to be offshore, the operator is offshore; if the operator is offshore and is offering sports or racing bets, the operator is breaking section 74AAA. The mechanism the punter uses to fund the account does not change the legal frame the operator sits inside.

Tax, briefly

For the recreational punter, Inland Revenue guidance says gambling winnings are generally not taxable and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A punter who bets as a business is a different case, and the right reading of that is to consult Inland Revenue or an accountant rather than to take general information as tax advice.

On the operator side, TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74%. Overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty of 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027. A duty being payable does not make an offer lawful; the offshore operator paying duty in New Zealand is still the offshore operator breaking section 74AAA. The punter who is advised not to read tax payment as a sign of regulatory approval.

Advertising, and the code the ads sit under

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; must not encourage harm; and must be truthful, with terms available. The 25% audience threshold applies where accurate data exists. There is no New Zealand equivalent of a “whistle-to-whistle” ban for betting advertising.

Because only TAB NZ may offer betting here, the Department of Internal Affairs reads the prohibition as covering the promotion of betting by another operator. The treatment of betting affiliates is not established; the page describes the monopoly and does not invite readers to sign up with an offshore brand. The punter who is moved by an affiliate ad to an offshore sportsbook is moving to a site whose offer in New Zealand is not lawful.

What a punter actually does, in sequence

The working sequence for a punter placing a score bet in New Zealand is short. Open or sign in to the TAB NZ or Betcha app. Verify identity and address on first use. Set a deposit limit before the first deposit, not after. Choose the sport, the event and the market — for instance, an upcoming football match, both-teams-to-score. Read the price and the implied probability; decide whether the price is bigger than the punter’s own read of the true chance. Place the bet at the price shown. Settle at full-time, or cash out if the market offers it and the value works.

The punter who plans a multi on a Saturday is advised to read the combined price carefully and watch the margin compound. The punter chasing a correct-score tip from a tipster is advised to treat the tip as one input among several, not as a forecast. The punter who has hit a losing run is advised not to chase it with a bigger stake; the bookmaker’s margin does not move to help the punter in the course of a losing streak.

The punter who has decided that betting has become a problem has the Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655), the text line at 8006, Safer Gambling Aotearoa, and a TAB NZ self-exclusion that covers both brands. None of those is a substitute for the punter’s own decision; all of them are available.

The New Zealand punter’s actual choice

The landscape is the landscape; this page has described it twice, and a third description constitutes padding. The punter who wants the New Zealand-licensed bookmaker, the New Zealand regulator, the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the New Zealand complaints route, and the New Zealand deposit limits and self-exclusion, is choosing TAB NZ, and the choice inside TAB NZ is between the TAB brand and the Betcha brand — same back end, different surface. The punter who wants a wider market, an offshore sportsbook, and a different promotional set, is choosing outside New Zealand law, with the consumer-protection gap the Department of Internal Affairs has flagged and without the backstops the New Zealand framework provides.

Neither is “the safe choice” by default. The honest frame is the one the regulator gives: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option in New Zealand, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework; offshore brands are unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, with no New Zealand complaints route, the regulator’s stated risks, and a different set of limits on what the punter can do if something goes wrong. The punter who reads both halves of that frame before placing the first bet is the punter the page was written for.

Frequently asked questions about score betting in New Zealand

How does a both-teams-to-score bet work?

A both-teams-to-score bet is a yes/no wager on whether each team will score at least once in the course of the match, regardless of who wins. A “yes” bet wins if both sides find the net; a “no” bet wins if either side fails to score. The bet usually settles after ninety minutes plus stoppage time, unless the event’s own rules extend it. TAB NZ and Betcha list both-teams-to-score on football matches alongside the 1X2, correct-score and total-goals markets. The price reflects the bookmaker’s estimate of the chance each team scores; the punter’s edge comes from reading the price as a probability and acting when it is bigger than the punter’s own read of the match.

How do you place a score bet?

A score bet — a wager on a scoreline, a goal total, or a both-teams-to-score outcome — is placed by signing in to the TAB NZ or Betcha app, choosing the event and the market, selecting the price, and confirming the stake on the bet slip. The bet is logged at the odds shown at the moment of confirmation. A same-game multi lets the punter combine several selections from one match into a single wager, with the prices multiplying into a combined price. The wager settles on the rules published for the market, and a winning bet returns the stake multiplied by the decimal odds shown.

What does “correct score” mean in betting?

Correct score is a market in which the punter picks the exact final score of a match — 1-0, 2-1, 0-0, anywhere on the published list. The bet wins only if the chosen scoreline is the actual scoreline at full-time (or the competition’s equivalent endpoint); any other outcome loses. The market carries long prices because each scoreline is a low-probability event; a 2-1 correct-score line is typically priced between 7.00 and 12.00 depending on the matchup. The market is a high-payout, low-hit shape, and the punter is expected to treat each selection as one low-probability leg.

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

TAB NZ is the only provider that may lawfully offer racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand. The Racing Industry Act 2020, section 74AAA, in force from 28 June 2025, sets this out; there is no licence route for another bookmaker. TAB NZ operates through its TAB and Betcha online brands, both run by Entain under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023. Other brands a New Zealand punter may see — Roobet, Glorion, Golden Panda, Sportaza, RoyalistPlay, Telbet, Rabona, Winz — are not licensed to take bets from people in New Zealand; the Department of Internal Affairs has told unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect.

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

For a single bet, the return is the stake multiplied by the decimal odds. A $20 bet at odds of 3.50 returns $70 if it wins, of which $50 is net profit. The decimal odds already include the stake, so the punter reads the number as the total return per unit staked, not as the profit. For a combination bet, the odds of each leg multiply into one combined price, and the same stake-times-odds calculation applies to the combined price. The combined price is the product of the legs, and the punter who wants to know the implied probability of the combined bet divides one by the combined price.

What is the bookmaker’s margin, and how does it show up in the odds?

The bookmaker’s margin is the percentage the bookmaker keeps of every unit bet on a market. It shows up as the gap between the sum of the implied probabilities of all outcomes and 100%. On a two-way market priced at 1.90 / 1.90, each side implies about 52.63%, so the sum is 105.26% and the margin is roughly 5.0%. On a 1X2 football market priced at 1.50 / 4.00 / 7.00, the implied probabilities sum to higher than 100% and the excess is the margin. The wider the gap above 100%, the more the bookmaker keeps, and the harder the punter has to beat the line to come out ahead.

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