New Zealand selects 11 bidders for 15 online casino licences

New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs announced on 13 October that 11 operators have been selected to apply for 15 online casino licences, following a 10-round competitive auction that drew 32 initial bidders and closed at NZD 15 million ($8.4 million) per application right.

Baytree Interactive, which operates Betway, secured three application rights. Entain's Playvia Gaming (NZ) Limited and Rock Swift Group each won two. SkyCity entered under two separate entities. Stake New Zealand, Christchurch Online NZ, One Casino, Rush Entertainment, Skill On Net and TAB New Zealand round out the group.

Winning an application right does not guarantee a licence. Each operator must submit detailed plans covering business operations, advertising, consumer safeguards and harm minimisation. Regulators will review those submissions alongside information gathered during the earlier expression-of-interest process before issuing any approval. Licences are expected in early 2027.

The framework prohibits credit card deposits and requires operators to publish rules on session limits, mandatory breaks and self-exclusion. For Entain and Stake, approval would extend their regulated market footprints into a jurisdiction that has until now operated largely without formal online casino oversight.

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Eleanor Ashworth

Senior Markets Analyst

Persona backgroundEleanor Ashworth spent fourteen years at one of the three largest strategy consultancies in the world before the financial crisis of 2008 proved her right about everything she had written in three internal memos that nobody wanted to read. She was not one of the people who was wrong.