Sports Betting

Sports betting has been part of the New Zealand culture for many years. Whether it is a quick punt on a local rugby game or a serious bet on a horse race, punters all over the country have made a bet at some point or another. In the days before online betting, punters would have to physically drive to the track or phone up their local bookmaker to place a wager. Today, betting online is easier, safer and far more efficient than land-based betting. With online betting, anyone with a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone can go online and place multiple wagers on multiple games with just a click of a button.

Where to Start?

If you are keen to bet on sports in New Zealand online, but you have no idea where to begin, here is how it all works.

If you haven’t yet done so, the first step in the whole process is to sign up with a local online betting website. In New Zealand there are plenty of sites to choose from and a simple web search will bring up a good list of candidates. Before signing up the first site you can find, there are a few things to consider. For starters, you should ensure that your prospective betting site is easy to use and offers multi-platform access, meaning online and mobile betting.

Secondly, you should be looking for a site that offers a wide range of betting options including local and international sports, election betting and financial betting. Even if you want to start off with rugby betting, there might come a time when you want to branch out. It would be silly to have to sign up with a different betting site because your first site doesn’t offer the type of betting you are interested in. You should also be looking for a betting site that runs encryption technology and is 100% secure. To add to this, you should check out their banking options as well as betting bonuses and site promotions.

Signing Up with a Local Sports Betting Site

Once you have found a New Zealand sports betting site that ticks all your boxes, you can sign up for a free account and transfer funds into your online account. Punters who make their very first deposit into their betting account will be rewarded with an instant cash match betting bonus. The best online betting sites in New Zealand offer lucrative bonuses of up to 100% cash match up to a certain cash limit. This means that the site will double whatever amount your first deposit into your account. From then on, every time you make another deposit or place big wagers, you should be rewarded with additional betting bonuses.

Once you have funds in your account, you can get down to the business of betting. It is important to realise that online sports betting is different to casino gambling. Sports betting requires skill, luck and lots of research in order to find a winner. Unlike most casino games where everything is left up to chance, sports betting is about acquiring knowledge and using it to predict a winner. This significantly improves your chances of winning online.

Choosing a Betting Market

The most important part of betting online is choosing the right betting market. This decision should not be based on what market is offering the best odds, it should really be based on what sport or market you know the most about. There would be no point in placing a bet on a local rugby game if you have no idea of how each team is fairing, who the players are and if there have been any changes in the coaching staff. Online sports betting is all about doing the research and predicting a result based on your knowledge of the teams or individuals involved.

Online betting sites offer a wide range of betting markets from cricket to basketball, AFL to soccer, tennis to snooker, badminton to rugby and just about every sport in-between. Sometimes finding a niche market is a good idea as the odds would be more competitive. It is also possible to bet on elections, entertainment and the financial market. Once you have selected the sport or betting market, you can click on the betting market to bring up the list of available events.

Fixed Odds Betting

Each event will offer a range of betting options. In New Zealand, the most popular type of bet is the fixed odds bet. This is a bet where the odds are set at the start of the bet and do not change. Even if the odds fluctuate before the event, the punter will be paid out the agreed odds if they have a winning bet. An example would be if you place a bet on Roger Federer to win Wimbledon. At the time of the bet, the odds are set at 4.00. By the time Roger reaches the final, the odds would have dropped to around 1.50 or lower. If he wins, your bet will still pay out 4.00.

Understanding Betting Odds

When browsing through the list of available events, it is important to look for competitive odds. In New Zealand, the odds are mostly expressed in decimal format such as 2.50 or 4.30. To understand how much you can win, simply put a monetary value on each number. For example, odds of 4.30 means that for every $1.00 you bet, you will win $4.30. Using this example we can see that higher odds will pay out much more than lower odds. You can use this to determine which team/horse or individual is picked as the favourite.

In horse racing the horse with the lowest odds is the bookies pick to win. Sometimes the odds can be so low that that the potential payout is not worth the risk involved. The key is to find competitive odds on events where you are confident you know which team will win. Once you have found the right betting market, an available event and competitive odds, you can place your bet online, then sit back, watch the action unfold and hopefully make some money in the process.