New Zealand Thoroughbred, Harness and Greyhound racing will be broadcast to a bigger audience than ever before, following an announcement from the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) that it has entered into a deal with Sportsbet to supply a livestream of New Zealand racing on its digital platforms across Australia.

“The new deal involve them taking live vision of all three codes of New Zealand racing, getting our racing in front of a big new audience in the Australian market that we’ve never been in, while bringing in a new revenue source for the industry” says TAB General Manager, Media and International Andy Kydd.

“Sportsbet are the largest Corporate Bookmaker in Australia by a stretch and the second biggest operator in the market behind Tabcorp. To give you an idea of the scale of their presence in the market, they have over a million active digital customers,” says Kydd.

The TAB’s long-term broadcast and wagering partner Tabcorp will facilitate the delivery of the vision and is a key enabler of the agreement with Sportsbet.

“We are very grateful to Tabcorp for delivering the vision to Sportsbet, their biggest competitor in Australia, and this is a further example of their value as a partner for us internationally,” says Kydd.

The new relationship with Sportsbet is in addition to the arrangement secured with Betfair earlier this year to pay product fees to the TAB for New Zealand racing and discussions with other operators in the Australian market are ongoing. 

The agreements with offshore bookmakers follows the recent introduction of the Racing Reform Act, intended to provide critical revenue for racing in New Zealand.