Entain doubles down on online casinos in New Zealand ahead of license awards

Through its Australia & New Zealand unit, Entain is sharpening its focus on online casinos in the country ahead of the launch of a new licensing regime. The company is considering a scenario in which it could secure multiple licenses at once, building a long-term strategy in a market where the regulatory rules were expected to be significantly overhauled as early as late 2025.

The rationale behind the move is tied not only to expectations of growth. Entain assumes that its current position in sports and racing betting could serve as a lever for expansion into casinos if the regulatory setup allows it to bundle products into a single offering. In the gambling industry, this effect is often compared to a transit hub, where transfers between routes increase the value of the entire network.

“This is huge”: Andrew Vouris’s position

Entain’s head of Australia & New Zealand, Andrew Vouris, in comments to Australian Financial Review, framed the company’s key thesis around the idea of a unique product mix. “We will be the only operator in the market that can offer sport, racing and potentially casino. This is huge,” he said, describing the competitive landscape Entain is counting on.

The point of this remark is that a combination of verticals, i.e., business lines within a gambling operator, can deliver economies of scale and stronger customer retention. Sports and racing betting provide high-frequency engagement with players, while casinos traditionally offer a broader range of gameplay scenarios and can increase revenue per customer. At the same time, it remains unclear exactly how far the regulator will allow such bundling in practice and whether it will be equally available to all licensees, since the final license terms and product requirements are not disclosed in the initial statements.

How Entain established itself in the country and what changes in December 2025

The foundation of Entain’s current business in New Zealand is tied to a partnership model and regulatory protections. In mid-2023, Entain Australia and TAB New Zealand entered into a 25-year partnership to provide retail (land-based) betting, and already in mid-2024 the company received confirmation of legislative protection that extended exclusivity to the online segment.

Key elements of this setup are typically described as a protective perimeter that limits access by unlicensed operators from offshore jurisdictions to the local audience. In practice, this means the following:

• exclusivity for sports and racing betting extends to the online delivery channel
• unlicensed overseas operators cannot legally offer wagers to New Zealanders
• the role of local partners and local infrastructure becomes central to meeting requirements

Against this backdrop, December 2025 looks set to be the point when the system becomes more competitive. During this period, the online market was planned to be opened more broadly, and as many as 15 licenses could appear in the market. Such an outcome changes the balance of power, as it reduces the importance of the previous exclusivity as the only barrier to entry and shifts competition toward product quality, marketing, responsible gambling, and technological efficiency. At the same time, the cost of getting it wrong in choosing the pace of expansion and the license portfolio increases, since launch and compliance costs can rise quickly.

With competition for players’ attention intensifying, operators have to focus not only on technological efficiency, but also on the quality of game content and platform usability. For players themselves, this translates into a wider choice: today, online casinos offer a wide variety of formats — from classic slots to live dealer games with real hosts.

Major platforms, for the most part, have already pushed usability as far as it can go and now compete by offering player bonuses. Given that the game providers themselves place their products across different platforms, a logical consequence has been the emergence of review sites dedicated to specific games — with descriptions of mechanics, a list of online casinos, and bonuses. For example, on this site there is such a review for the game Monopoly Big Baller Live; however, it isn’t always beneficial for online casinos when a single game becomes that popular — a less discerning user may simply click the top-ranked listing in the site’s ranking. Often on such resources, rankings are compiled by the site’s authors, and some platforms end up at the bottom of the list.

Competition is growing, and Entain is banking on scale

Competitors are already responding to the upcoming licensing cycle. SkyCity Entertainment Group has publicly stated its intention to become “a trusted local leader” in the online market and “to spearhead change” in the market. For Entain, this means that a quasi-monopoly dynamic in certain segments will sit alongside the need to compete with strong local brands that understand audience habits well and have recognition in the country.

Entain, in turn, draws on its experience managing a large portfolio of digital brands in other regions, including BetMGM and PartyCasino. The company speaks of its ability to stand up operations quickly and scale up, using already well-established processes and analytics tools. Among the factors typically cited in favor of accelerated growth are the following:

• management of around 15 online brands as a base for rolling out technologies and compliance practices, i.e., meeting regulatory requirements
• leveraging the existing customer base and cross-promotion of products within the ecosystem
• current momentum in New Zealand, where the company’s business, according to the figures cited, is growing by about 28% per year

At the same time, public statements leave gaps on several key questions that matter for assessing the outlook. It is not specified how aggressive the plan to buy licenses could be, what restrictions on advertising and player protection will look like, and whether operators will be able to combine different products under one brand without additional barriers. These details will largely determine whether December 2025 becomes the start of a gradual liberalization or the beginning of a fierce race for digital market share.