New Zealand has finished the auction that decides who may even ask for an online casino licence. On 13 October 2026 the Department of Internal Affairs said 11 entities had won the right to apply for the 15 licences on offer. The auction drew 32 bidders, ran for 10 rounds, and stopped at NZ$15 million a licence. That price buys a place in the assessment. It does not put a brand on the public register.
Who won the right to apply
The department published legal entities, not the brands players will see. It has said those brands can still change during the application, and that approved names will go on a public register only after a licence is granted. The 11 successful participants, and the number of applications each may file, are:
- Baytree Interactive Limited, three rights. Trade coverage, including iGaming Business, identifies this company with Betway. Three is the most any one operator can be granted in this round.
- Playvia Gaming (NZ) Limited, two rights. The same coverage identifies this company with Entain.
- Rock Swift Group Limited, two rights.
- SkyCity NZ Online NO1 Limited and SkyCity NZ Online NO2 Limited, one right each. They are listed as separate companies, and coverage treats both as part of SkyCity.
- Christchurch Online NZ Limited, One Casino Limited, Rush Entertainment Limited, and Skill On Net Limited, one right each.
- Stake New Zealand Limited, one right. Coverage identifies it with the Stake brand.
- TAB New Zealand, one right. TAB is the country’s racing and sports betting operator. This auction is about online casino licences, not that betting monopoly.
Fifteen rights, eleven companies. Baytree’s three applications would use the whole cap the law allows for one operator. Everyone else is applying for one brand per right, because each licence is meant to cover a single brand and the platforms that carry it.
What the auction sold
The format was an ascending clock. Everyone saw the same price at the same time and chose to stay or leave. The price rose until the number of bidders still in the room matched the 15 rights. There were no sealed bids. The department’s point was that the closing price, NZ$15 million, is what the remaining bidders were willing to pay for a right to apply.
The licence itself, if the later assessment succeeds, can run for up to three years and be renewed for a further five. Nothing in the auction result shortens that assessment. The Secretary must not grant a licence unless the applicant has shown it is suitable and able to comply. The file has to include the auction payment, a business plan, and strategies for advertising, consumer protection, harm prevention, and compliance.
Advertising is already banned. Online casinos must not advertise casino gambling to customers in New Zealand, and no new provider is supposed to enter the market while this transition runs. Only providers already operating there may continue, and only on the transitional terms in the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026.
What happens on 1 December
Applications from the successful bidders open in October 2026. The hard date is 1 December 2026. A provider that has not applied by then must stop offering online casino gambling in New Zealand. A provider that has applied may keep operating, without advertising, until the department decides. A refusal means it has to leave.
The licensed regime is not expected to be fully in place until 2027. The department’s own process outline marks 1 June 2027 as the end of the exemption from the prohibition. Until a name is on the public register, a company on the auction list is an applicant, not a licensed casino.
What this changes for players
For someone in New Zealand, the useful distinction is between a right to apply and a licence to operate. The eleven names above have bought the first. They have not been told they may launch, and the brands on those future sites have not been published. Treating a familiar international name as locally licensed, because it appears in a news story about this auction, gets ahead of the register.
The practical questions do not change while that register is empty. Who is allowed to accept you, what a bonus will actually cost in wagering, whether the cashier pays back on a method you can use, and which games are really in the lobby. Those are the filters in how to choose an online casino, and they apply to a future licensed room the same way they apply to one you could open today.
Sources: Department of Internal Affairs, updated 13 October 2026, and iGaming Business.
Published: 13. October 2026
Anything incorrect or missing?
