iGaming Business – The New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB) experienced growth in betting and gaming turnover during the six months to January 31, 2014, despite having described the first half of the year as “challenging” The national bookmaker recorded turnover of NZ$1.1 billion (€654.2 million/$896.8 million) for the first-half of the year, an increase of 2% on the NZ$1 billion achieved in corresponding period last year. Total income also increased from NZ$157.8 million in the previous year to NZ$159.9 million in the latest period. However, the board did suffer a slight drop in net profit before distributions, which fell from…

In New Zealand, TAB bookmakers have been advised to prohibit all professional groups from placing fixed-odds wagers due to concerns over so-called ‘arbitrage’ wagers. Arbitrage wagering involves punters taking odds with the New Zealand TAB before off-laying them at a lesser dividend with a betting exchange such as Betfair. The practice is more common in bigger and more sophisticated betting markets with many professional bettors using computer programmes loaded with software that has been designed to seek out anomalies. According to a report from The New Zealand Herald newspaper, TAB bookmakers have been told to cull approximately 20 fixed-odds punters…

From The New Zealand Herald Health Ministry problem gambling strategy blames bigger jackpots and says SkyCity deal will add to problems. New Zealanders are forecast to spend more on Lotto, casinos, racing and sports betting in the next three years. A three-year problem gambling strategy, released by the Health Ministry yesterday, forecasts that spending on Lotto and other NZ Lotteries games will grow by 8 per cent between last year and 2016. It says the continuing strong growth is because of bigger jackpots in the past few years. Racing and sports betting through the Totalisator Agency Board is forecast to…