New Zealand authorities are concerned about the prevalence of offshore betting on the country’s domestic football league, according to reports from local media.

RNZ reported today that NZ$212m (€105.4m) was bet on the amateur New Zealand National League during 2024, with between $500,000 and $1.4m bet on each game that season.

Although the top division of football in New Zealand, the National League has always been an amateur league, with the country’s two biggest professional clubs, Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix FC, competing in Australia’s A League.

The sheer level of betting on its national amateur league has rung integrity alarm bells for New Zealand’s sports authorities, according to RNZ, with organisers concerned that the contest may become a target for match fixing.

As amateur players make no financial gains from their sports, the susceptibility of their leagues to match manipulation is hardly uncommon. These concerns abounded in the US, for example, during the rollout of regulated sports betting from state-to-state over the past seven years.

In America, college sports were at the centre of this. Although many collegiate athletes do get financial rewards for their work, this is not unanimous, varying from division to division and college to college.

Similar concerns have also been seen in Europe. Back in 2024 German authorities initiated investigations into 17 matches across the 3. Liga, Regionalliga and the Oberliga competitions. Interwetten, one of the country’s biggest sportsbooks, withdrew all betting markets on amateur competition a month later.

Asian betting markets

The development showcases not just the integrity and athlete protection concerns that arise as a result of betting on amateur sports but also the global concerns about the widespread and hugely valuable betting markets that exist in Asia.

These markets are, as stated above, hugely valuable, but are also very legally contentious – given that betting is a legal grey area in many Asian countries and outright banned in many more, such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Japan, among others.

Sports betting laws in India were also recently tightened with the federal real-money games ban. However, despite sports betting being illegal in many of these countries, wagering on international sports leagues exists.

As expected, much of this betting will be on the Premier League, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A, among some of the world’s other most high profile leagues. The challenge New Zealand is facing is that its National League plays games at times when these other leagues are inactive due to time differences.

RNZ’s revelations show that challenges surrounding Asian betting markets will continue to dog the regulated industry as 2025 draws to a close and going into 2026, with organisations ranging from the Isle of Man government to the United Nations having highlighted the impact of criminal syndicates involved in gambling.

The impact of these markets has also been felt in the debate around advertising and sponsorship, particularly in the UK. Sponsorships of Premier League football clubs by the likes of Kaiyun Sports, which was not even active in the UK during the course of the deal, helped fuel negative perception of and discourse around betting sponsorships.