Sports betting
markets explained.

Walk into the world of sports betting and the biggest hurdle is rarely the maths — it is the jargon. Moneyline, handicap, over/under, SGM, BTTS, first try scorer, draw no bet, cash out, overround. Every one of those words is just a label for a way of predicting what happens in a sporting contest, and once you can read the labels, the whole thing becomes a lot less intimidating. This guide unpacks all of them, one market at a time, written for the way Kiwis actually bet: decimal odds, NZD accounts, and a weekend calendar built around the All Blacks, the Warriors and the Black Caps.

New Zealand punters are lucky in one important way. Recreational gambling winnings here are, in the general case, tax-free — Inland Revenue does not treat casual betting as taxable income, so a well-judged multi on a Test match is yours to keep in full. That does not change the mechanics of the markets, but it does mean that when you compare a potential return of $27.50 on the table below with the same figure at an Australian or UK book, the Kiwi number is a genuine take-home figure. What matters far more to your bottom line is understanding which markets offer value, where the bookmaker's margin sits, and how to size your bets sensibly. Everything on this page feeds into those decisions.

We will move roughly from the simplest markets to the most exotic. If you are brand new, read it top to bottom. If you already know your moneyline from your handicap, use the section headers to jump straight to what you need — whether that is the correct-score market, the difference between a same-game multi and a bet builder, or the decimal-odds conversion table that every punter should have bookmarked.

This is the market everyone starts with, and it is the backbone of Kiwi betting. Depending on the sport and the bookmaker you will see it labelled moneyline (an American term that has crept into common use), head-to-head or H2H (the standard label at most sites serving New Zealand), or 1X2 (used mainly for football). Whatever the name, the idea is identical: you are betting on who wins the match. Nothing about the margin, the score or the manner of victory matters — only the final result.

In codes where a draw is rare or impossible after full time — rugby league, cricket in its limited-overs formats, basketball, tennis — the head-to-head is a simple two-way market. You back the Warriors or you back the opposition, and one of you is right. When the All Blacks are favourites against a lesser side you might see them priced around 1.10 to 1.25, meaning a $10 bet returns only $11 to $12.50; the underdog, carrying far more risk, might sit at 5.00 or higher. Odds are simply the market's estimate of probability with the bookmaker's margin folded in.

Football uses the three-way 1X2 market because a draw after 90 minutes is a genuine, common outcome. The "1" is the home win, the "X" is the draw and the "2" is the away win. That extra outcome is why you will often reach for draw no bet or double chance (covered below) when you fancy a side but fear the stalemate. Rugby union can also be quoted three-way, though draws are uncommon enough that many punters ignore the option.

A handicap (called the point spread or simply the line in American sports) levels the playing field by giving one team a virtual head start or deficit before a ball is kicked. The bookmaker sets a number designed to make the two sides roughly even-money, and you bet on which side covers it.

Say the All Blacks are given a handicap of −12.5 against a mid-ranked opponent. To win your bet, they must triumph by 13 or more points; the +12.5 on the other side wins if the underdog loses by 12 or fewer, or wins outright. The half-point (the "hook") exists to eliminate the possibility of a tie. A −12.5 favourite that wins by exactly 12 is a losing bet — the margin matters as much as the result, which is what makes handicaps so engaging on games the moneyline has already decided.

Asian handicap

The Asian handicap, most common in football, refines the idea further and removes the draw entirely by shifting the line onto the goals rather than the result. Whole and half lines behave like a normal handicap, but Asian markets also use quarter lines such as −0.25 or −0.75, which split your stake across two handicaps. A bet on −0.75 is effectively half your stake on −0.5 and half on −1.0. If your team wins by exactly one goal, the −0.5 half wins and the −1.0 half is refunded (a "half win"). This push-and-refund mechanic reduces variance and is why serious football punters often prefer Asian lines to the standard 1X2 market.

The over/under — or totals — market ignores who wins altogether and asks a different question: how many points, goals or runs will be scored in total by both teams combined? The bookmaker posts a line and you decide whether the real figure lands above (over) or below (under) it.

If a Warriors NRL match has a total set at 44.5, an over bet needs 45 or more combined points, while an under needs 44 or fewer. For a Black Caps ODI you might see a first-innings total, and for football the classic line is 2.5 goals, which sorts matches into the "over 2.5" (an open, attacking game) and "under 2.5" (a tight, defensive one) camps. Totals are popular because they let you have an opinion on a game — say you expect a defensive arm-wrestle in a Test match — without having to pick a winner at all. They also combine beautifully with the moneyline inside a same-game multi.

Futures (also called outrights or ante-post bets) are wagers on the outcome of an entire competition rather than a single match. Who will win the Rugby World Cup, lift the NRL premiership, take out the ICC tournament, or finish as top try scorer for the season — these are all futures markets.

Because the outcome sits weeks or months away with many variables in play, the odds are generally longer and the potential returns bigger. Backing the All Blacks to win a World Cup well before the tournament will pay far more than backing them in a single pool match. The trade-off is that your money is tied up for a long time, and a futures bet cannot usually be undone as easily as a match bet — though many books now let you cash out outrights early as the picture changes. Watch the margin too: futures markets with a dozen or more runners often carry a chunky overround because the implied probabilities of every possible winner have to be added up.

A multi — known as a parlay in the US and an accumulator (or "acca") in the UK — combines two or more separate selections into a single bet. The odds of every leg are multiplied together, so the potential return balloons quickly. The catch, and it is a big one, is that every leg must win. A single loser sinks the entire bet.

Picture a Saturday multi: the All Blacks to beat Australia at 1.50, the Warriors to win at 1.80, and the Black Caps to win their ODI at 1.70. Multiply those together (1.50 × 1.80 × 1.70) and you get combined odds of about 4.59, turning a $10 stake into roughly $45.90 if all three land. Add a fourth leg and the number climbs again. That escalating payout is the whole appeal, but the probability of collecting shrinks with every leg you add.

The same-game multi — labelled SGM at most books serving New Zealand and SGP (same-game parlay) elsewhere — is one of the biggest growth areas in modern betting. Instead of combining legs from different matches, it lets you build a multi entirely from a single game. On an All Blacks Test you might combine the All Blacks to win, over 45.5 total points, and Beauden Barrett to score anytime, all in one bet.

The key difference from a standard multi is correlation. The legs within one game influence one another — if the All Blacks are romping to a big win, it is far more likely both that the total goes over and that a star back crosses the line. Because those outcomes are linked rather than independent, the bookmaker cannot simply multiply the individual prices together. Instead it uses its own model to price the combined SGM, which is why the quoted odds are usually a fair bit shorter than a naïve multiplication would suggest. That pricing power is exactly why bookmakers promote SGMs so heavily.

Bet builder is the interface many sites use for constructing a same-game multi — the terms are used more or less interchangeably. You pick your legs from a menu of markets within one fixture (result, totals, try scorers, cards, and so on) and the platform prices them together in real time. A few practical points every builder should understand:

• Correlation and pricing: as above, related legs are priced by the book's model. Some combinations that are heavily correlated may be blocked outright — you often cannot pair a team to win by a huge margin with the same team's individual player under-performance market, for instance.
• Single-bet status: a bet builder settles as one all-or-nothing wager. There is no part-payment for getting most legs right — every leg must win for the ticket to pay.
• Extra time and injury time rules: read the terms carefully. Most bet builder markets settle on 80 or 90 minutes of regulation (or full-time in rugby), excluding extra time in knockout matches, unless the market specifically states otherwise. A try scored in golden-point extra time may not count for an "anytime" leg.
• Cash out availability: many bet builders can be cashed out as the game unfolds, though availability drops away once one leg has already failed — at which point the whole ticket is a loser and no cash-out value exists.

Props (short for proposition bets) are wagers on specific events within a game that are not tied to the final result. They split broadly into two groups.

Player props

These focus on an individual's performance: a rugby player to score a try, a league forward to run for over a set number of metres, a cricketer to top-score or take a certain number of wickets, a footballer to have over 1.5 shots on target. Player props are the raw material of most same-game multis and they let you back a specific read on how a match will unfold — say you rate a particular Black Caps opener to fire on a batting-friendly pitch.

Game props

These concern the match itself rather than any one player: the time of the first try, whether there will be a penalty try, the winning margin band, which half will have more points, or the method of the first score. Props are a rich, fast-growing corner of the market. They can offer value where the book's model is thinner than on the headline lines, but they can also carry a wide margin, so shop around.

The correct score market asks you to predict the exact final scoreline. It is most associated with football, where a limited range of plausible results (1–0, 2–1, 0–0 and so on) makes it a recognisable market, but you will also find scoreline and margin-band versions in rugby and league. Because you have to nail the precise figure, the odds are long — a specific football scoreline can pay anywhere from around 6.00 to well over 20.00 for an unlikely result.

Correct score is a low-strike-rate, high-reward market. It is a poor choice for steady returns but a fun small-stakes bet when you have a strong feeling about how a tight game will play out, and it is a popular leg to drop into a same-game multi for a price boost.

Both teams to score — usually shortened to BTTS and sometimes shown as "Goal/No Goal" — is a simple two-way football market. You bet Yes if you think each side will find the net at least once, or No if you expect at least one team to be kept out. The final result is irrelevant: a 3–2 thriller and a 1–1 draw both settle BTTS Yes, while a 4–0 rout settles No.

BTTS is popular because it is easy to reason about, sidesteps the who-wins question entirely, and combines neatly with the match result inside a bet builder — "home win and BTTS Yes" being a classic pairing for an attacking home side you expect to concede at least once.

Given how central rugby is to New Zealand sport, the try-scorer markets deserve real attention — and they are surprisingly under-covered elsewhere. There are three main variants:

• Anytime try scorer: your player scores a try at any point in the match. This is the most forgiving version and the shortest-priced, and it is the try-scorer leg most often used in an All Blacks SGM.
• First try scorer: your player must score the very first try of the game. Far harder, so the odds are considerably longer — an outside back might pay several times what their anytime price is.
• Last try scorer: your player scores the final try of the match. Similar in difficulty and pricing to first try scorer, and impossible to judge until late in the game.

Football's equivalent is the first goalscorer and anytime goalscorer markets, which work identically. A crucial rule to know across both codes: settlement rules vary on what happens if your player is not in the starting line-up, or comes on after the first try or goal has already been scored. In many first-scorer markets, if your player enters the field after the opening score, bets are voided and stakes refunded — always check the specific terms before you back a bench player.

Both of these markets exist to tame the risk of a drawn result, and they are most useful in three-way sports like football.

Draw no bet (DNB)

Draw no bet removes the draw as a losing outcome entirely. You back a team to win; if they win you collect, if they lose you lose, and if the match is drawn your full stake is refunded. It is effectively insurance against the stalemate. The odds are shorter than a straight win market because your risk is lower — you are only exposed to an outright defeat.

Double chance

Double chance lets you cover two of the three possible outcomes in one bet: home win or draw, away win or draw, or either team to win (no draw). Because you are covering more ground, the odds are shorter still — often below evens — but your chance of collecting is much higher. Double chance suits situations where you narrowly favour a side but want a safety net, or where you are confident an away underdog will avoid defeat.

Chiefly football markets, cards and corners are among the most popular "side" markets and they behave a lot like totals. In the cards market you bet over or under a number of bookings (with yellows and reds usually assigned points), which appeals when a fierce derby or a card-happy referee is on duty. In the corners market you bet over or under the total number of corners, back a team to win the most corners, or bet on the match corner handicap.

Both markets can also be built into a bet builder — "over 10.5 corners and both teams to score", for example. As with all niche markets, the margin can be wider than on the headline lines, so treat them as opportunities rather than sure things, and always check the settlement rule for a card shown to a non-player such as a coach.

Teasers

A teaser is a multi (most common in American sports, but you will see them offered here) in which you adjust the handicap or totals lines in your favour across every leg in exchange for a lower combined price. If you tease a −7.5 favourite and an over 44.5 total by six points, they become −1.5 and over 38.5 — much easier to hit. You still need every leg to win, and the payout is reduced to pay for the friendlier lines, but a teaser can turn a couple of shaky spreads into a more realistic ticket.

Round robins

A round robin takes a group of selections and automatically breaks them into multiple smaller multis. Pick three teams and a round robin can create three separate two-leg doubles (A+B, A+C, B+C) from them. The advantage over a single three-leg multi is that you do not need all three to win to see a return — if just two of your three land, some of your doubles still pay. The trade-off is a larger total outlay, because you are funding several bets at once. Round robins spread risk across your selections at the cost of a bigger stake.

Cash out lets you settle a bet before the event has finished, taking a value the bookmaker calculates in real time from the current live odds. If your bet is winning it offers a locked-in profit; if it is going wrong it offers a way to rescue part of your stake rather than lose the lot.

Imagine a $10 multi that has landed its first two legs and is now showing strongly. The book might offer to cash out for $32 with one leg still to play. Take it and you bank $32 no matter what happens next; leave it and you either win the full amount or lose everything if the last leg fails. That decision — guaranteed money now versus a bigger, riskier payout later — is the heart of cash out.

Partial cash out is a middle path: you take some money off the table now and leave the rest of your stake running on the original bet. It lets you secure a profit while keeping some skin in the game for the full return. Cash-out offers move constantly with the live odds and can vanish entirely at busy moments — a penalty about to be taken, for example.

Cash out comes into its own during in-play betting. If you want to go deeper on trading a live position, see our live betting guide.

Odds boosts (sometimes called price boosts or enhanced odds) are promotional prices where the bookmaker temporarily lifts the odds on a specific selection above its standard price — say boosting an All Blacks win from 1.40 to 1.55, or enhancing a popular multi. They are a genuine value-adder when the boosted price is one you were going to back anyway, because you are getting more return for the same risk.

The caution is that boosts are a marketing tool designed to drive turnover. A boost on a selection you would never normally take is not value — it is the book nudging you toward a bet that still carries an edge in its favour. Treat boosts as a bonus on bets you already like, check whether they carry stake caps or wagering conditions, and never let the enhanced number itself talk you into a market you do not fancy.

Every price a bookmaker offers has its commission baked in. This is the vig (short for vigorish), also called the margin, the juice or the overround. Understanding it is the single most valuable concept on this page, because it explains why the odds never quite reflect the true chances of an outcome — and why comparing prices matters so much.

Here is the mechanism. If you convert every outcome in a market to its implied probability (divide 1 by the decimal odds) and add them up, a fair market with no margin would total exactly 100 percent. In a real market it totals more. Take a two-way head-to-head priced at 1.90 each side: each implies 52.6 percent, and 52.6 + 52.6 = 105.2 percent. That extra 5.2 percent is the overround — the bookmaker's built-in edge and the reason it profits over time regardless of who wins.

Margins vary enormously by market. A big, competitive market like an All Blacks head-to-head might carry an overround of only 4 to 6 percent. A niche prop or a crowded futures market with many runners can run to 15, 20 percent or beyond. The practical lesson is simple: lower-margin markets and lower-margin bookmakers hand you better value, and having accounts at more than one site so you can take the best available price is the closest thing to a free edge that exists in betting. Our betting strategy guide digs into line shopping and bankroll management in detail.

New Zealand uses decimal odds as standard, and they are the easiest format to reason about. The decimal number is your total return per $1 staked, stake included. Multiply by your stake for the full return; subtract the stake for the profit. To get the implied probability — the market's estimate of how likely the outcome is, margin included — divide 1 by the odds. The table below maps common decimal odds to their implied probability and the total return (and profit) on a $10 bet. Because NZ recreational winnings are tax-free, these figures are what you actually take home.

Two quick habits worth building. First, use the implied-probability column as a value gauge: if you genuinely believe the Black Caps have a better than 50 percent chance in a match priced at 2.20 (implied 45.5 percent), that is a bet worth considering. Second, remember that in any market those implied probabilities add up to more than 100 percent — the difference is the margin you are paying, and it is the reason disciplined punters always compare odds before placing a bet.

You now have the full vocabulary. A weekend of Kiwi sport might see you back the All Blacks on the head-to-head, take the Warriors on the handicap to make a lopsided match interesting, play the under on a Black Caps total you think will stay low, and finish with a small-stakes same-game multi for a bit of fun. Each of those is a deliberate choice about risk, value and the margin you are willing to pay — and that is exactly the mindset that separates a thoughtful punter from someone chasing the biggest number on the screen.

Ready to go further? Learn how these markets shift in real time in our live betting guide, sharpen your approach with our betting strategy guide, or head back to the main sports betting hub to compare the best bookmakers for New Zealand players.