Sports betting is one of the oldest forms of gambling. Before there were casinos, pokies, or even poker tables, people were placing wagers on horseracing, dog-racing, and just about any other form of competitive sport out there.
The introduction of the internet has opened endless possibilities within the sports betting industry, bringing betting right into the home for your convenience. Kiwis are no strangers to sports, being avid lovers of rugga, cricket, football, boxing, tennis, golf, and the like.
Now that betting is available at our fingertips, a normal day watching sports on TV could take on a whole new dimension of entertainment and excitement.
The only challenge with sportsbook is finding the perfect site for you. While most of them provide fairly standard service, some can be downright dodgy. At CasinoKiwi, we don’t only want our punters to enjoy a bad or even okay experience, we want you to have a blast!
Read through our useful guide on what to look out for when choosing the best sportsbook websites.
Trustworthy and Safe
The foremost requirement when choosing a top sports betting site is the reputation and trustworthiness of the site. Usually well-regulated, licensed sites will provide you with the best service. Not only do licensed sites operate under ethical guidelines, but they offer the best security available, too.
For the sake of your privacy, make sure that the sportsbook you visit has a security certificate for Secure Socket Layer encryption. This way, you know your money and your details are completely safe from prying eyes on the website.
Prime gambling regulatory jurisdictions include the Malta Gaming Authority and the UK Gambling Commission offshore, while New Zealand’s own TAB regulated sites offer a closer to home option.
Good Variety of Sports
Being a sports-loving nation, the best sports betting sites for Kiwis must cover a large number of sporting options. New Zealand favourites would include Rugby Union, Sevens Rugby, Aussie Rules Football, Cricket, Soccer (football), tennis, athletics, netball, and others.
We know that sporting tastes are diverse, so you will need to do some hands-on investigation in this area to make sure that at least all your favourite sports are available on the site.
Wide Selection of Betting Options
In sports betting, there is a diverse array of betting options available in the market. Not only can you bet on game outcomes but on the number of goals scored, who will score, how many points each side will score, etc. A good selection of these sorts of gaming options makes for enhanced entertainment and multiple options to rake in the wins.
Besides these betting types, the sportsbook should at least offer you:
- Live Betting Options: We strongly encourage avid sports betters to seek out a site offering live betting options. This allows you to enter bets on games that are already in play. Often, the stakes are far higher in these instances, warranting better payouts for successful bets.
- Accumulative Betting: Also known as ‘acca’ bets, this form of betting involves wagering on a series of outcomes. Only if all outcomes are successful, will you reap any dividends. Sometimes close calls, where one of your betting legs lets you down, will you get rewards offered to you as bonus bets.
- Enhanced Odds Betting: You generally get offered Enhanced Odds (also called Odds Boosts) on selected major races. If you take this option you’ll get a better price than the regular odds, and if your bet wins you get an immediate payout at SP, and the winnings that come from the boosted odds are credited to you as bonus bets.
- Best Odds Guaranteed: The majority of our recommended online sportsbooks offer ‘’Best Odds Guaranteed’’ on all horse and greyhound racing (and some offer it on Premier League matches as well). With Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG), if the horse or dog you back wins but the SP is a better price than you received, you’ll get paid out at the higher odds.
Aside from these checkboxes above, some of the best sites allow you to livestream the sports you are betting on from the site, giving you live updates on how well your bets are doing.
User-friendly Interface
The interface on the site determines how easy it is for you to interact with the controls and find the betting options and sports you are after. If it is too difficult to navigate the site or make sense of all the tabs and options, it is best you steer clear. Sports betting is supposed to be easy.
Look for a site that allows you to customise your odds displays to suit your preferred format. You should be able to toggle through at least three formats, including decimal display, fractional odds, or American style odds.
Compatibility
While desktop betting was an industry breakthrough around 2 decades ago, the last half a decade has been dominated by mobile users. If you are a phone or tablet user, make sure that you look for a top brand that supports this platform.
Fortunately, most modern sites are underpinned by HTML5 browser software, meaning that you can load up and place your bets from your browser without downloading the sites software or any additional applications.
Banking
Online betting requires that you use online payment solutions to transfer your deposits and withdraw your winnings. The best sports betting sites for Kiwis, will offer payment solutions that are available to New Zealanders.
Some of the most prominent and popular betting solutions used at Kiwi betting sites include the likes of Visa, Mastercard, Neteller, Skrill, Paysafecard, and Ecopayz. It’s a bonus if you can find sites that support POLi and Neosurf products too, as these Instant Banking and Pre-paid voucher options are Kiwi friendly.
These betting brands all allow for instant deposits. If you use an e-wallet like Skrill, Neteller, or Ecopayz, your withdrawals can be equally as fast.
Be sure to shop around when it comes to banking at an online sportsbook, because the fees for deposits and withdrawals can vary considerably from one site to the next.
Bonuses
Just like online casinos, sports betting sites use bonuses and promotions as tools to attract punters to their sites. Be sure to select a site that offers regular bonuses that you will actually use. Most online sportsbooks offer Welcome Bonuses to get you started as a hardy welcome to the club. These can come in various forms, but the two most popular bonuses at sports betting sites include:
- Free Bets: Free bets work on the premise that if you deposit and settle bets on a predetermined amount of money, the sportsbook will give you bonus cash to place other bets with. The main stipulation is that you usually spend it on stakes with odds of 2.0 or higher.
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- Example: An offer could be a Free bet of $5 on a Deposit and a Wager of $10. Once you have settled a bet worth $10 of your own cash, the site will give you bonus cash of $5 to bet on sports with odds of 2.0 or greater.
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- Match Deposits: Like casino bonuses, these offers will match your deposit by a certain percentage, up to a capped amount.
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- Example: 100% Match Deposit up to $20. Any deposit of $20 or less will be matched by the site, giving you effectively double the amount to bet with. These do come with wagering requirements, so be aware of the terms.
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Support
It is critical that the support team is helpful and easily accessible at an online sports betting site. While you never plan on contacting them, you want to be able to, should the need arise.
Some of the top sites have agents on call 24/7, which is especially helpful if the site is in a different time zone to you. A helpful Live Chat portal is a real plus, as your query or complaint can be attended to in seconds.
Casino Fun
Perhaps you are a gambling fanatic and enjoy all forms of betting. There are many top sites out there that combine online casino and sports betting under one umbrella. This way, you can bet on both types of entertainment using one account and bank balance.
CasinoKiwi Round-Up
Be sure to use this helpful guide as a checklist when choosing your sports betting home. We at CasinoKiwi will do everything from our side to bring you a selection of the finest online sports betting sites for Kiwis. When it comes to choosing between them, you will have to combine your taste with some of the criteria mentioned on this page to make the best choice for you.