No overseas sports betting hurting NZ market

Sports blackout is impacting commission paid to sports organisations through global betting activity.

New Zealand.- Betting on overseas sports could help sports organisations in New Zealand as they struggle under financial pressure during the Coronavirus pandemic.

But lockdown measures across the globe have seen the shutdown of the majority of sporting events and as a result, the sports betting market in New Zealand and beyond has seen a sharp decline in revenue.

This has caused huge consequences for Kiwi sporting bodies, which could be on the brink of collapse because they rely heavily on commission payments made to them by the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB).

Each country code gets a cut of wagered money on the sport through the TAB, whatever the competition is.

Sport in New Zealand like basketball has a very big handout, thanks to the NBA’s high volume of fixtures and major global profile.

In the year to July 31, 2018, Basketball New Zealand received $2million from the TAB, representing around 30 per cent of BBNZ’s total income.

This figure represented approximately 80 per cent of NBA betting.

BBNZ Chief Executive, Iain Potter, told TVNZ: “It’s impacting us at every level, right down to our associations and communities having to consider the activities that they’re running and how they manage their way through this period that we are all facing.

“If the NBA does not resume its season, we will be approximately $650,000 short of what revenue we thought we would get.”

Horse racing is continuing in New Zealandbehind closed doors, but it is unknown what impact that has had on the industry.