By Michael Guerin
New Zealand racing and sports punters will get the opportunity to win more off the TAB and Betcha under rule changes coming into play on Thursday.
The TAB and its new brand Betcha will boost the limits on what punters will be guaranteed to be allowed to win, providing more clarity for its most successful customers.
Bookmakers around the world restrict their more successful punters to how much than can bet to win on fixed odds markets otherwise risk being cleaned out by professional or smart punters and those using complex computer programmes.
To balance that some racing jurisdictions have what are called Minimum Bet Laws (MBL), meaning the standardized minimum amount punters have to be allowed to win on most races or sporting events.
In some betting jurisdictions these are written into law or agreed upon with the racing and/or sporting bodies to ensure punters are given a fair go but in New Zealand the TAB has got out in front of that by setting their own MBLs.
They only affect a very small percentage of punters because the vast majority of racing and/or sports bets placed here are for $50 or less, which should be automatically accepted without needing any vetting.
But as sports betting increases its percentage of total New Zealand betting turnover and the market matures here, some punters could become more inclined to have bets trying to win upwards on $1000 on major sporting events.
The TAB have moved to increase the MBL to mean over 99 per cent of bets placed should be automatically approved.
For racing punters the minimum limits a punter should be able to win on a Saturday thoroughbred or Friday night harness racing meeting will be boosted from $2000 to $5000 for fixed odds win bets.
That means a punter wanting to back a horse paying $2 to win on the fixed odds market in a New Zealand gallops race or Friday night harness race will be able to have at least $5000 on it.
Or at least $1000 on a $6 chance, as the limits are on the minimum that punters have to be allowed to win on the bet, with both of those bets having a $5000 profit.
Very few punters would, or ever should, approach those limits and increasing limits is by no means being marketed by the TAB as an incentive for punters to bet more.
But it will provide certainty around what punters who do bet at that top level on what they will be allowed to attempt to win.
For some that will ease frustrations and also ensure most punters stay betting in New Zealand rather than being lured to sometimes illegal overseas bookmakers, although that is not seen as a major issue in New Zealand yet.
Punters who are not in any way restricted may be allowed to bet more but punters in New Zealand who bet to win more than $5000 on any horse race are a tiny minority.
The MBLs for New Zealand thoroughbred and harness racing on other days of the week will stay at $2000, with those meetings having less overall turnover.
The MBLs for Australian metropolitan thoroughbred meetings will increase to $2000, other Australian gallops at $1000, the same limit for all Australian harness races.
Australian greyhound races will have a MBL of $500 on fixed odd win bets.
The MBLs do not apply to place betting but it’s understood in most cases punters will be allowed to win a minimum of $1000 on most New Zealand horse racing place bets.
The $2000 MBL will now also apply to Futures win bets on New Zealand thoroughbreds and harness racing.
Crucially, while those MBLs will be available to all punters they will only be for bets placed on TAB accounts, with those limits not applying to the newer second brand Betcha.
For sports punters the MBLs will be to win at least $1,000 on named major markets in 12 sports, and the key fixtures/tournaments in those sports placed with TAB accounts.
Betcha’s MBLs for sport will align with those available on the TAB sites but rather than being known as Punters Promise it will be branded as the Betcha Guarantee, for the same $1,000 amount for named major markets in 11 sports on those key fixtures/tournaments.
The limits won’t apply to obscure sports, which are often only bet on as a novelties by New Zealand punters.
Horse and dog racing will not be part of the Betcha Guarantee.
The new MBLs, particularly the $5000 ones for NZ gallops on Saturdays and Friday night harness will be world-leading.
They come just weeks after the TAB and its business partner Entain, who operate the betting business, were granted a virtual monopoly on racing and sports betting in New Zealand via a new law banning overseas bookmakers from accepting bets from New Zealand-based punters.
So there is an obvious element of the Entain bosses recognising they are in a privileged position.
The new limits appear to have been “soft launched” over recent days but officially start on Thursday.
