Kiwi gamblers could soon be able to bet on novelty events from politics to Hollywood. But which overseas betting firms want to team up with NZ’s TAB for a chance to grab punters’ money?
Punters might get to place fun bets and the Government would collect tax, writes Tom Pullar-Strecker.
Kiwi gamblers should soon find out whether they will get better odds and more betting options from the TAB.
These could include the chance to gamble on political events such as international elections.
About 160,000 New Zealanders have accounts with the TAB, which is facing growing competition from overseas gambling sites.
The New Zealand Racing Board, which runs the TAB, has responded by weighing up whether to outsource its fixedodds betting business to one of those international competitors or buy in better technology from one of them.
It has tipped a change could slash its annual operating costs by between $20 million and $30m, which would amount to up to a 15 per cent cost reduction.
Two of the overseas companies the Racing Board has reportedly been talking to – Britain’s Ladbrokes and Ireland’s Paddy Power Betfair – offer political betting alongside their sports and racing bets.
Partnering with either firm could give TAB punters the opportunity to gamble on events such as whether former prime minister Helen Clark will be appointed United Nations secretary-general, or whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will triumph in the United States presidential election.
The odds of Boris Johnson quitting as British foreign minister this year are 6-1) and if Marine Le Pen is elected president of France, punters get a 7-2 return on their stake.
The TAB is currently only allowed to take bets on sports, but the Government is consulting on a law change that would let it expand its offerings to include ‘‘novelty prediction events’’.
The other company the Racing Board is in discussions with has been confirmed as Australia’s Tabcorp.
The Racing Board had originally expected to make a decision on the direction it would take with its fixed-odds betting business by the end of last month.
Spokeswoman Kate Gourdie said the matter was discussed at its July board meeting but a decision was still pending.
A Government working group chaired by former Internal Affairs Minister Chris Tremain estimated last year that 40,000 Kiwis gambled through overseas websites, including Betfair, Ladbrokes and Tabcorp.
That was up from 23,000 in 2010 despite a ban on such sites advertising or promoting their services within New Zealand and sometimes clunky sign-up procedures for Kiwi punters.
The working party said overseas gambling sites offered more betting options, wider services and better odds than were available from the TAB.
Overseas providers could be more profitable because of their size and also because they don’t have to contribute to local sporting events they take bets on, which the Government hopes to change through a new tax.
The Racing Board said in its latest interim report that it aimed to boost its revenues by $15m a year through other initiatives, and cut its costs by another $10m to $15m a year by changing the way it sells bets.
The TAB announced in June that it would cut 43 jobs in Christchurch as it moved to a fully-automated phone betting system, but that may not be an end to the economies.
Gourdie said the ’’channel strategy’’ savings involved a number of measures which would become clearer when the Racing Board released its next ‘‘statement of intent’’ in a couple of weeks.