The Best Sports Betting New Zealand Has to Offer
Source: Unplash - Austris Augusts
If you’re interested in betting on sports events and are based in New Zealand, you’re certainly not alone. As much as Kiwis love video, classic and progressive jackpot online pokies and mobile casinos, they’re also huge fans of watching, playing and wagering on various sports. The country has a long history of great athleticism, and by engaging in sports betting New Zealand punters are honouring that heritage.
You’ve got a huge range of sporting events to choose from, and each one offers a variety of different betting options known as markets. So, what are the sports that are most highly recommended? This is a tough call, and as you spend more time investigating them all you’re sure to find your own favourites. To get you started, you can learn more about the 6 most popular sports categories, with the greatest variety of markets, and their major events for 2020, right here.
Horse Racing
Source: Unsplash - Julia Joppien
New Zealand’s first horse race meeting was held in 1835, in the Bay of Islands, so the popularity of racing is hundreds of years old. However, strong opposition by Protestant churches led to very strict sports betting restrictions being imposed, and from 1910 bookies weren’t actually allowed at the events.
Luckily for us, that ruling ended in 1950 and now there are dozens of markets to choose from when it comes to horse racing sports betting, New Zealand style. You can put money on Win and Place wagers, predicting who will come first, second and even third. Don’t forget about the potentially lucrative Betting Without offers, which remove the favourite to win from the stakes and often offer superior odds to straight Wins.
In Each-Way Bets, you put half your money on a particular horse winning, and the other half on it placing in the race. The size of the field determines how many places there are; sometimes only the first three horses can place; at very large events up to the first six finishers might do so.
Like many of the options for sports betting New Zealand offers, horse racing markets often include Accumulators which allow for more than one wager to be placed on a slip. Your total wins are multiplied together, so the payout is bigger, but you have to be right about every race, so your risk is higher too.
Exotic and Proposition bets are possible too, and are excellent ways to challenge yourself after you’ve been wagering for a while. Put your knowledge and skills to good use by predicting the outcome in exciting horse racing events in New Zealand and further afield. The Great Northern Steeplechase offers the richest steeplechase purse in the country, and is held in early September.
Other key races include Australia’s incredible Melbourne Cup held on the first Tuesday in November, Britain’s most valuable meeting Royal Ascot in June, and the USA Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May. Whatever bets you decide to place, make sure you do your homework! Research the horse’s form, the relationship between jockey and animal, recent past performances, weather reports, weight, race distance and ground, and any other information you can find.
Cricket
Source: Unsplash - sefton Marks
Kiwis really love Cricket so when it comes to the list of sports betting New Zealand indulges in most, you can bet that it’s right at the top! Until 1963 the only type of Cricket games played were the ones that took five days, called First-Class matches if they were played locally, and Test matches if they were between different nations.
Then in the 1960s Limited Overs Cricket developed in Britain and was almost accidentally introduced to the international stage. A rained-out match between Australia and England in 1971 led to some hasty reorganisation, and the Limited Overs format of a single innings for each side was used. Now One Day Internationals, as we know them today, are just as popular as Tests.
The Cricketing world was taken by storm once again in 2003, when Twenty20 – or T20 - was launched by the England & Wales Cricket Board. Their aim was to have each innings be a maximum of 90 minutes, so that the games could fit around offers and school hours. This format also started out domestically and then took off worldwide, and the first international T20 was actually played in Auckland.
Unsurprisingly, the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup currently being held in Australia and finishing on the 8th of March, and the ODI Women’s World Cup happening in New Zealand until the 7th of March. The Men’s ICC World Cup returns to Australia from the 18th of October to the 15th of November this year, and there are also plenty of Tests to look forward to.
In Test Matches you can bet on which player will make 100 runs, and what the score will be at the end of the first innings. General wagers include Totals, whether the first and second innings will be odd or even, who will win the coin toss, and what the first method of dismissal on the field will be. Oh, and on who will win the game of course!
Tennis
Source: Unsplash - Prashant Gurung
Tennis is also one of the options for sports betting New Zealand gamblers like best. You can place various Propositions, like who will score first, along with who will win each game, set and match. Handicaps are possible too, where you bet that the favourite will win by more than a specified amount of points, or that the underdog will lose by less than a specified amount.
The 4 Grand Slams are the absolute pinnacle of Tennis playing, spectatorship, and betting. The Australian Open was held in January, and will be followed by the French Open or Roland Garros from the 24th of May to the 7th of June.
Wimbledon is held in late June and early July – from the 29th of June to the 12th of July this year, before the year’s final Grand Slam which takes place in the United States. The US Open always runs from August to September, and in 2020 it will start on the 24th of August and finish on the 13th of September.
Fans also look forward to the team-based Davis Cup from the 23rd to the 29th of November, and the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour which started on the 3rd of January and culminates on the 29th of November.
Cycling and Mountain Biking
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Putting money on cycling and mountain biking events is becoming increasingly popular the world over, and the sports betting New Zealand community is certainly not being left behind. The biggest cycle events in the world are, the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, respectively held over May and June, in July and in September each year.
Since they’re so close together, the same teams supporting the cyclists, and even the star riders themselves, are unlikely to participate in each major tour. Do your research very carefully, and find out who is actually going to be at each race and what you can expect their level of fitness – and/or exhaustion! – to be.
The other big cycling event is the Olympics, which as we all know is due to be held in 2020 in Japan; if Coronavirus doesn’t cause its cancellation. This is a little different from the tours because the Olympic events are much shorter. They don’t involve the day-long stages - which are classified as flat, mountain or time trials – of the tours.
You don’t need to look at which cyclist performs best on which kind of stage, since the Olympic terrain is all a flat track or a slightly rougher road. This also means you can’t bet on who will finish first in each particular stage, but only on the overall winner.
In addition to cycling and track racing, the Olympics covers BMX and mountain biking events – and that’s not the only place you can see or bet on this type of action. The 18-24-inch wheels on a Bicycle Motocross – or BMX – bike allows for racing on earthen tracks and performing daredevil tricks.
The USA Cycling Championship, Lone Star Nationals and British Open SX are about to get started, and the BMX thrills continue with races throughout the year. Before the Olympics, you can also check out some world-class mountain biking action in Crankworx, a series of festivals held in Canada, Austria, France and right here in New Zealand.
Crankworx Rotorua 2020 kicked off on the 1st of March, and is running until the 8th. The lush semi-tropical forest setting helps to make endurance test more enjoyable for riders, whose skill and stamina is pushed to the limit.
If you’re able to get there you can even join in the fun yourself and ride a few trails, or take in the warm natural mineral pools, incredible food, and other entertainment and activities. When it comes to betting on the event, you can predict the overall and stage winners, and can even try your luck with various Prop bets.
If you enjoy wagering on Crankworx Rotorua, keep going with the later Crankworx events and the European Downhill Cup, MTB Marathon Series and Enduro World Series which will see you all the way through to May this year.
Golf
Golf might have been thought of as a little stuffy and staid in the past, but it’s come a long way. Today it’s considered a pretty cool sport to play and bet on, especially when the courses are as magnificent as those in the 2020 New Zealand Open.
The NZ Open is one of the highlights of the Professional Golfers’ Association, or PGA, Australasia and Asian Tours. While the New Zealand Open is over, having run from the 27th of February to the 1st of March and crowning Brad Kenny as the new champion, there’s plenty of other action in 2020, with the 4 annual Majors – the British Open, the US Open, the Masters and the US PGA Championship – as well as other competitions of various sizes still coming up. And that’s not even including all the women’s stand-offs. The British Open is held before the third Friday in July, the US Open in June, the Masters in April and the US PGA Championship in May.
Your best bet is to start with the bigger contests, get familiar with the various markets and what kind of research you need to do, and then try your luck on smaller events. Wagering options include outright winners, which of two players will do better in individual mashups, and the finishing order. Often, Propositions such as predicting a Hole-in-One or Double Eagle for a specific player, are possible too.
Football
Source: Unsplash - Marvin Ronsdorf
Ah, Football. The Beautiful Game, and the most popular among bettors, spectators and players around the world. Very little is better than watching world-class athletes perform at their peak in this sport – it’s literally poetry in motion – but betting and winning on the events is simply the cherry on top.
For Football, sports betting New Zealand customers can put money on outright winners, Point Spread Bets, Totals and Propositions. Prop bets can be based on skill, such as who will score the first goal of the game, or other events like who will get a red or yellow card.
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association – FIFA – World Cup is held every four years, and is the most eagerly anticipated event in the Football world. The biennial Under-20 World Cups are also well worth looking out for, and the Women’s Under-20 World Cup this year promises to be as exciting as the Men’s version was in 2019.
This March also brings the second leg of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League, the first and second legs of the Europa League, and the Quarter Final of the Football Association (FA) Cup. April sees first and second legs of Quarter and Semi Finals for all these events, including the FA Cup Semi Final.
The FA Cup Final will be held on the 18th of May, and the Semi Finals for the Champion League and Europa League also take place in May. The Europa League’s Final is on the 29th of May, followed by the Champions League Final on the 1st of June.
When you bet on any of these or any other Football events, make sure you consider injury reports, recent performances, and ladder standings. And most importantly of all, don’t forget to appreciate the beauty of the game!
