The Unlikely Windfall Transforming New Zealand Sport
While sporting organisations worldwide grapple with financial pressures, New Zealand has discovered an extraordinary revenue stream through a unique legislative approach to sports betting. The system has transformed the fortunes of numerous sports bodies, with some experiencing funding increases that have left international counterparts astonished.
From Surprise Payments to Strategic Investments
The revolution began quietly when Table Tennis New Zealand received its first unexpected payment from the country's monopoly gambling provider, TAB NZ. The amount nearly doubled the organisation's entire annual budget, creating what administrators described as a "virtually unheard of" challenge in their annual report.
Rather than facing financial crisis, Table Tennis NZ found itself confronting an entirely novel problem: how to manage an income source that dramatically exceeded all expectations. The organisation now collects more than NZ$1 million annually from sports betting - equivalent to approximately NZ$1,000 for each of its 1,000 amateur players.
The windfall has enabled significant organisational improvements. Table Tennis NZ has professionalised operations, addressed governance challenges, expanded staffing, and increased grant programmes from NZ$60,000 to NZ$150,000. The organisation has developed an investment portfolio worth over NZ$1.7 million, ensuring table tennis in New Zealand enjoys unprecedented financial health.
The Basketball Boom and International Interest
Basketball New Zealand has experienced similar transformative effects. Iain Potter, who stewarded the organisation for a decade, recalls how revenue "doubled overnight, it just went boom". Sports betting now contributes approximately one-third of Basketball NZ's total income.
Potter vividly remembers conversations with Australian counterparts who were "gobsmacked" by the New Zealand model. "I would have explained it six times and every time it was just shaking heads in disbelief", he says, highlighting the clear advantage New Zealand sports enjoy.
The system's foundation dates to the 1990s when a public servant decided that racing and sporting bodies should directly receive their sport's share of total TAB bets. It took more than two decades for the full implications to materialise, but today betting on sports like football, cricket and basketball approaches wagering on horse racing.
The Crucial Difference: Global Betting Benefits Local Sports
What makes New Zealand's approach particularly remarkable is that sports bodies benefit from all betting on their sport, regardless of where the event occurs. As Potter explains, "Any form of basketball in the world that somebody in New Zealand bets on, New Zealand Basketball gets the benefit of that. It doesn't have to be a New Zealand basketball product."
This explains Table Tennis NZ's unexpected funding boom. When TAB NZ began offering betting on international table tennis - which grew in popularity during Covid - the local organisation received the financial benefits. In the year to July, TAB NZ distributed NZ$28.5 million to individual sports and Sport and Recreation New Zealand under various local laws.
Meanwhile, Table Tennis Australia reported revenue of $3.5 million last financial year, with $2.2 million coming from government and other grants. Chief executive Nicole Adamson says her organisation "aims to maintain a level of distance from gambling" on table tennis while acknowledging the funding challenges facing smaller sports.
Integrity Funding and Australian Comparisons
Potter argues that the betting revenue has been crucial for developing financial resilience and funding integrity measures. "Revenue allows you to build in robust integrity mechanisms", he says, including integrity officers, tribunals, and education programmes for participants.
Australian sporting organisations like the NRL, Cricket Australia and Tennis Australia receive millions annually in product fees, but none benefit from bets on overseas competitions. At the same time, Responsible Wagering Australia notes the industry pays roughly $1.9 billion per year in taxes, mostly to state governments.
In Australian states like New South Wales and Victoria, significant portions of betting tax revenue are directed to racing industries, with no similar provisions for other sports. Potter suggests sports would prefer receiving money directly from wagering companies rather than through government redistribution, but acknowledges the powerful racing lobby would resist such changes.
As the wagering debate continues in Australia, New Zealand's sporting bodies continue to benefit from their unique system. While some might question whether Table Tennis NZ is now overfunded, Potter defends the policy's intention, asking why Australian sports shouldn't benefit from wagering on international events that their development helps generate interest in.
