The passing of the Racing Industry Amendment Bill extends TAB’s existing land-based betting monopoly to online platforms, positioning it as New Zealand’s sole legal provider of sports and racing wagering.

The change is designed to prevent offshore leakage of gambling revenue and ensure robust funding for domestic racing and sport – this is great news for those sports with TAB NZ contracts as we would expect increased revenues over time.

In 2023, TAB NZ formed a 25-year partnership with Entain NZ, with them handling day-to-day betting and broadcasting operations, and TAB NZ maintaining management of regulations and funding.

Because of the partnership, Entain NZ will provide a NZ$100 million upfront payment post-legislation change to TAB NZ. TAB NZ has agreed to pass on $20 million of that payment to Sport NZ with that payment not tagged to a specific initiative or programme. This is in addition to the $150 million paid from Entain NZ to TAB NZ as part of a ‘sign on’ agreement.

Sport NZ will work through options for allocating the funding, aligned to both Sport NZ and High Performance Sport New Zealand strategies. We expect to be able to go to the Board over the coming months with a proposal.

This funding is one-off with no expectation of further funding in the future. 

To 31 July 2025, TAB NZ will have paid out $15 million in one-off payments to NSOs and $20.5 million in one-off payments to Sport NZ from its strategic partnership with Entain NZ, as well as increased betting payments across the sporting sector.