Stake sports review: New Zealand 2025
- 40+ sports available
- Over 20 payment options
- 24/7 support
- No mobile app
- No virtual sports
- Withdrawal fees
Expert verdict
In some ways, Stake is a fantastic online sportsbook that we can highly recommend, but it is slightly lacking in other areas. Ultimately, whether Stake is right for you will be exactly what you want from your online sportsbook.
Let’s start with the good news. The number of sports covered at Stake, as is the live betting odds. The welcome bonus customer support, number of payment options and mobile website are also excellent.
As this is an honest review, we must mention the minus points. The big negatives are the underwhelming pre-match betting odds and the fact there is a mobile app. The lack of virtual sports is also a bit disappointing.
So you need to think about what matters to you when online sports betting. If it is fantastic odds and a huge range of sports to bet on, Stake could be exactly what you seek.
Bonuses at Stake sportsbook
When you join Stake sports betting, you can benefit from various promotions and special offers, including a welcome bonus. The welcome bonus is a deposit offer of up to NZ$500. Of course, you must make a qualifying deposit to claim it.
Some other offers are money-back programs relating to teams sponsored by Stake. If you bet on an Everton soccer game, you double your odds if they win without conceding a goal. Likewise, bet on a UFC fighter sponsored by Stake, and you double your winnings if they win by knockout.
The rest of the promotions at Stake are timely offers relating to major upcoming events. For example, if you bet on an upcoming Formula One race, you can get a full refund if your winner selection finishes second.
Bonus facts
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Welcome bonus | 200% up to NZ$500 |
| Bonus code | N/A |
| Wagering requirements | 40 x deposit + bonus |
| Minimum qualifying bet | NZ$100 |
| Risk-free bets | N/A |
| VIP rewards | N/A |
| Other bonuses | Enhanced winnings, ‘races’, insurance |
Stake sportsbook also runs daily, weekly and monthly bonuses in the form of ‘Races’. These races reward players who accrue the largest winnings over a specified time. You can follow your position by looking at the Race Leaderboards.
Bonus rating
- Existing customer bonuses
- Double winnings on football
- Winnings leaderboard
- High minimum deposit amount
- Above-average wagering requirement
Simply put, there is a welcome bonus for new players, but it comes with a relatively high minimum deposit amount of NZ$100. That is a huge disappointment and severely limits Stake’s score in this category.
It is incredibly disappointing when you look at Winz.io sportsbook. Its current welcome offer gives new players a $20 risk-free bet and a matched first deposit bonus of up to NZ$500 for only NZ$20.
Of course, not all welcome bonuses are as lucrative as those at Winz.io. But even relatively small offers, such as William Hill’s $30 in free bets, add potential value to your betting. As such, those brands receive higher scores than Stake in this category.
There is a good range of existing promotions at Stake. This ensures I don’t have to hand out a low score here. Evaluating the deals is difficult as they change regularly, but they can all add value to our sports betting.
Stake sports and betting markets
Stake currently has cash betting markets for around 40 different sports. As you might expect, this includes pre-match and in-play markets for all the most popular sports in New Zealand. Cricket, soccer and tennis are all strongly featured at Stake.
There are also a considerable number of minor sports covered at Stake. This selection features niche sports and events such as bandy, stock car racing and ski jumping. Stake betting also includes many esports tournaments, including League of Legends, FIFA and Call of Duty.
Within each eSport event, you can place cash bets on the winners of individual maps and the correct final score. On top of that, you can even place bets on the overall winner.
Sports facts
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Number of sports | 41 |
| Betting markets — Basketball | 120+ |
| Betting markets — Football | 150+ |
| Betting markets — Rugby | 200+ |
| Esports | Yes |
| Other markets (politics/event betting) | Yes |
If you want to bet on something different, Stake online sportsbook has a Politics and Entertainment section. Out Stake sports review found several markets for upcoming elections and awards ceremonies in this section. However, there are no virtuals to bet on.
Available events
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La Liga
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MLB
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MLS
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NBA
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NFL
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NHL
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NRL
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PGA
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Premier League
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Super Rugby Pacific
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UFC
Featured betting markets
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Novelty
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Politics
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American Football
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Baseball
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Basketball
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Boxing
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Cricket
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Esports
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Golf
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Hockey
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Horse Racing
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Racing
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Rugby
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Soccer
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Tennis
Sports & markets rating
- 40+ sports available
- Extensive esports markets
- Politics and entertainment betting
- No virtual sports
Stake makes it two in a row with another fantastic score. I was delighted to discover markets covering around 40 sports, including some events you will struggle to find at other sportsbooks.
This volume of sports covered puts Stake on a par with Bet365, who are widely regarded as being the best around when it comes to this category. Unsurprisingly, it also received a 90+ rating from us.
The esports markets are especially vast and cover many leagues you will not find on other sites. Royal Panda sportsbook also covers esports, but their range of leagues is vastly inferior to the one at Stake.
The only minor negative is the lack of virtual sports markets. Virtuals are becoming increasingly popular, so I would have liked to have seen these. Nevertheless, this is another superb category for Stake.
Additional market details: Rugby union is a hugely popular sport with betting fans in New Zealand. To legislate for this, Stake provides markets for all major international and domestic games, plus a wide selection of leagues and competitions worldwide.
Additional market details: Soccer also features heavily at Stake. At any given time, you can bet on markets covering 50 or more leagues and tournaments worldwide. Major fixtures have 100+ markets attached to them, including a good range of player prop bets.
Betting features at Stake
The betting features at Stake sportsbook include live betting markets, in-depth statistics and bet builders. These features aim to enhance your overall betting experience and improve your chances of success.
The match-in-play betting options can be accessed via the left-hand menu on the Stake website. You can then see a list of the available sports in-play betting markets. This typically covers sports such as cricket, soccer, tennis and esports.
Bet builders are available on major fixtures such as EPL games, rugby union test matches and AFL fixtures. These bet builders allow you to create the same game accumulators that combine odds from different markets.
Feature facts
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Bet Builder | Yes |
| Cash Out | Yes |
| Live betting | Yes |
| Live streaming | No |
| Virtual betting | Yes |
When you go to an event at Stake sportsbook, you can see a good range of statistics relating to the fixture. This can include head-to-head records and player/team statistics. For live events, Stake provides graphics displaying the latest action. However, we could not see any live streams.
Betting features rating
- In-play features and markets
- Bet builders
- In-depth statistics
- No live streams
Although all the features at Stake sportsbook are not quite as impressive as the range of sports covered, this is another strong area for the operator. I was more than satisfied with Stake’s performance in this section.
The bet builders are well-presented and easy to use. Indeed, the fact it has bet builders at all puts them ahead of rivals such as TAB, who does not have options for same-game accumulators.
The one area where Stake underperforms is live streaming. Unlike competitors such as Betway, Stake does not provide streams of live fixtures. The graphics that accompany live events are okay, but let’s be honest, it is a poor substitute for being able to watch live betting streams.
The cashout options at Stake are the same as those at many other operators. They are displayed and easy to use. It provides a useful option to secure a profit on your bet.
In conclusion, Stake is a few live streams away from a 90+ score here. This is a great selection of betting features because it is relatively new to the online sports betting market.
Additional features: The above cashout options allow you to accept reduced instant payouts on your bets during the event. This option guard against the bet ultimately losing but prevents you from winning the full amount of the bet. The value of the cash out offered to you will reflect the likelihood of the bet winning from the current position.
Stake sports betting odds
The average payout for sports bets in New Zealand is around 95%. With this in mind, we found the overall average payouts at Stake sportsbook to be slightly below that mark at 94.63%
Naturally, this percentage has minor variations when you look at different sports. For instance, you can enjoy pre-match payouts averaging 94.23% for cricket markets, but this amount rises to 95.24% when looking at soccer markets.
Unusually, the match-in-play betting markets at Stake provide payouts that are on par with the pre-match payouts. Most other sportsbooks have payouts of around 92% for live markets, but Stake offers live betting payouts (94.59%) that are virtually identical to their pre-match payouts.
Odds facts
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Average payout | 94.63% |
| Boosted odds | No |
| Parlay boosts | No |
| Line movement | Moderate |
When it comes to payouts, in-play soccer markets are especially attractive at Stake website. You regularly find in-play betting and pre-match betting payouts above 95%.
Odds rating
- Soccer payouts over 95%
- Competitive in-play odds
- Good for cricket
- No odds boosts
- Slightly below average overall
This is a real mixed bag for Stake sportsbook. The huge plus point is the excellent live betting odds. Seeing in-play odds of almost 95% was extremely pleasing and puts Stake near the top of the tree.
Most other sportsbooks have vastly inferior match-in-play betting odds than their pre-match odds. For instance, the payouts at LeoVegas drop from 93% to 87% when comparing pre-match and live betting markets.
Unfortunately, the pre-match odds are slightly lower than I would like. 94.63% puts Stake well below leading brands like NEDs with 97.78% in this category. It’s no surprise that NEDs comfortably outscores Stake here.
The lack of enhanced betting odds is also disappointing. I love perusing the markets to see which events have special promotions offering boosted odds. Not being able to do that at Stake adversely impacts their score here.
So overall, I think Stake has room for improvement in this area. It is not miles behind most other operators, but it would be good to see the average pre-match payouts increase slightly.
Stake crypto betting: payment methods
As Stake is a crypto gambling site, players can use their crypto wallets to make deposits and withdrawals from their sports betting account. At present, there are at least 18 different cryptocurrencies accepted at Stake.
As many players prefer traditional payment options, Stake also allows deposits and withdrawals to be made using various other methods. This includes Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, MasterCard, Visa and Google Pay.
Minimum payment amounts can vary at Stake. For example, if you use Bitcoin, payments start at 0.0002BTC, but for Litecoin, the minimum is 0.0004LTC. You can check the minimum and maximum deposit and withdrawal amounts allowed for your chosen currency by visiting the Wallet section of your account.
Payment facts
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Number of payment methods | 20+ |
| Popular payment | Crypto |
| Minimum deposit | NZ$1 |
| Maximum deposit | N/A |
| Average deposit time | Instant |
| Minimum withdrawal | NZ$1 |
| Maximum withdrawal | N/A |
| Average withdrawal time | 5 – 24 hours |
| Deposit fees | None |
| Withdrawal fees | None |
Stake does not charge a fee for any deposits. However, check with your provider to see if they apply any deposit fees. Withdrawals from your account carry a small fee, please check your Wallet to see the fee applicable to your payment choice. For instance, if you withdraw via Bitcoin, you will pay a fee of 0.00007 BTC. The number of payment options at Stake is second to none, and it fully deserves its score of 93/100.
Deposit methods
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Crypto
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Samsung Pay
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Google Pay
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Apple Pay
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Mastercard
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Visa
Withdrawal methods
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Crypto
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Samsung Pay
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Apple Pay
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Google Pay
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Mastercard
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Visa
Payments rating
- Over 20 cryptocurrencies
- Other popular methods available
- Instant deposits
- Withdrawal fees
With over 20 payment methods available, Stake is way ahead of any competitor betting sites in NZ. Even though most options are cryptocurrencies, this is still a great number.
The quantity of the payment methods at Stake is especially impressive when you compare it to standard brands such as PlayUp, with only five different payment methods – vastly inferior to what is on offer at Stake.
I am always reluctant to award scores of over 90 plus in this category. Even William Hill, with 7 options and no fees, only manage a score of 88 in this category.
The obvious negative comes in the form of the withdrawal fees. Were it not for those, I would have awarded Stake sportsbook an even higher score here. Nevertheless, this is still a hugely impressive section for the operator.
Safety features
Stake casino and sportsbook are owned by Medium Rare Limited, an iGaming company based in Cyprus and Curaçao. Medium Rare Limited is fully licensed and regulated by the Government of Curaçao.
Stake is on the Crypto Gambling Foundation network as a verified operator. This means Stake sportsbook is a trusted provider of provably fair games and trustworthy NZ sports betting via many crypto wallets.
The Stake website also links to GambleAware – a responsible gambling service that can help anybody experiencing problem gambling habits. The brand also has a safer gambling policy.
Safety facts
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Auditing seals | Crypto Gambling Foundation |
| Responsible gambling seals | BeGambleAware |
| Licences | Curacao Gaming Control Board |
| SSL encryption | 128-bit |
| Two-factor authentication | No available |
| Ever blacklisted? | No |
| Deposit, wager, time, and loss limits | All available |
| Self-exclusion | Available |
| Cooling-off period | Available |
Stake sportsbook also allows you to set self-exclusion periods. That means you can opt to lock your account for a specified amount of time, meaning you cannot place any bets.
Licensed by
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Curacao Gaming Control Board
Trusted by
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BeGambleAware
Safety rating
- Never been blacklisted
- Links to GambleAware
- Responsible gambling tools
- Only licenced by Curaçao
Stake does tick the bare minimum boxes regarding safety, but overall, this is a pretty thin provision. I would have liked to see more responsible Stake gambling information and tools.
The best operators, including BetVictor, provide a wide range of responsible gambling tools that allow players to set deposit limits, reduce bet sizes and cap their gambling time. The tools at Stake are much more limited.
Similarly to MyBookie, Stake is licensed and regulated by the Government of Curaçao. This is a legitimate regulatory body, but I always like to see an operator possessing multiple licenses, as it reinforces their security credentials.
I would also have liked to have seen more responsible gambling articles on the Stake site. It is another reason I’ve had to award a relatively low score in this category. I hope Stake improves its offering in this area before too long.
Customer support
Stake online sportsbook provides customer support through a Help Center, Live Chat and email. These customer service options can be directly accessed from the Stake home page.
The Help Center is located at the foot of the Stake website. It is a free text search box in which you can type your query. You will then see a range of articles written by the Stake Originals support team.
Live chat can be accessed via the headset icon on the bottom right corner of the site homepage. Initially, you will be asked to input your query and view relevant articles, but if you require further help, you will be connected to a support team member. You need to log in to use the live chat.
Support facts
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Customer support availability | 24/7 |
| Live chat | Yes |
| [email protected] | |
| Contact number | N/A |
| On-page support | Help section |
Email support at Stake is available by sending a message to the team at [email protected]. Your query should receive a reply within 24 hours. Currently, there is no telephone support provided at Stake sportsbook.
Support rating
- 24/7 customer services
- Live chat and email
- Help Center
- No telephone support
This is more like it. Stake has an excellent range of customer support tools, all of which are of a very high standard. Whatever your issue, Stake should be able to provide good help.
The reason for their rating to dip slightly below 90 is the lack of telephone support. Brands such as Ladbrokes, who offer a telephone support line, will always be rated highly.
On the flip side, Stake does offer 24/7 customer support. This is not always the case at sportsbooks in New Zealand. Sportsbet only offers its customer support 18 hours per day, severely impacting its score in this category.
The Stake support team operators are professional and efficient, plus the Help Center is full of useful articles and information. Overall, I am delighted that Stake sportsbook can resolve any issue you may encounter.
Platform
The Stake sportsbook website is laid out with the latest offers in a scrolling banner at the top of the screen, with the latest live betting and major pre-match in-play markets listed below.
On the left of the screen, you can see a list of the top sports and a full A-Z of the sports you can bet on. The supporting options (Help Center, Live Support etc.) are at the foot of the page.
At present, there is no Stake mobile betting app. However, players can still use Stake sportsbook via their mobile devices (tablets and mobile phones) as the operator has a fully mobile-optimized website.
Platform facts
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Mobile app | Yes |
| Ease of navigation | Easy |
| Filters | Yes |
| Search function | Yes |
| Loading speed | 0.8 sec |
| UI and UX rating | Excellent |
| Other products | Casino, poker, esports |
Another way to locate the sports and/or events you wish to bet on is by using Stake’s search box. Just type in the names of your preferred game, sports or event you are interested in and you will be provided with a list of upcoming fixtures.
Play on devices
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Android
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Linux
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iOS
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MacOS
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Windows
Platform rating
- Mobile optimised website
- Easy navigation
- Search filters
- No mobile app
If you love betting via a mobile app, you are going to be disappointed by the absence of a Stake mobile app. But honestly, try to overcome that disappointment because Stake sportsbook is still highly usable on mobile devices.
The mobile-optimized website is at a similar level to the one provided by Fansbet. It allows you to gain access to the same generous in-game features, gaming options, and Stake offers as the full desktop site.
Of course, I would have preferred to see a mobile app. Brands like 888Sports, which does offer a mobile betting app, will always get a higher score in this section, but Stake still provides a good range of services for mobile players.
The desktop Stake site is user-friendly, with simple navigation and rapid loading times. I could easily find my way around the site and never had to wait for markets to load.
FAQs
Is Stake sportsbook safe?
Yes. Stake sportsbook is owned by Medium Rare NV, a legitimate iGaming company licensed and regulated by the Government of Curaçao. Stake’s online safety credentials include advanced 256-bit SSL encryption and the ability to set self-exclusion periods. The site also provides a like to a responsible gambling service that can help you with any problem gambling issues players may have.
Can I use Bitcoin at Stake.com sportsbook?
Yes. Stake is part of the crypto gambling industry. As such, players can fund their accounts using various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin and Tether. If you are using Bitcoin, the minimum you can deposit into your Stake account is 0.0002 BTC. If you want to withdraw winnings via Bitcoin, minimum payments are also 0.0002 BVTC, but you will also incur a small fee.
How long do withdrawals take at Stake sportsbook?
Stake website will aim to process your withdrawal requests instantly. But sometimes there might be delays if you make a substantial withdrawal, as these requests need to be double-checked by a Stake operator. You can also find that unconfirmed transactions can cause delays. While some crypto wallets (for example. Bitcoin) require just one confirmation, others require three or more confirmations.
What sports are available at Stake?
Stake offers betting markets for over 40 different sports. As you would expect, this includes all the most popular sports to bet on in New Zealand – rugby union, soccer, horse racing and cricket. You will also find an array of niche sports covered at Stake. So if you wish to bet on minor sports like American football, snooker or darts, Stake has your back.
Is there a Stake betting app?
No. While many other sportsbooks have introduced mobile betting apps, Stake is yet to introduce such a tool. Instead, they have a fully mobile-optimized website. This mobile site gives you the same generous in-game features, level-up bonuses, multi bets et al. as the full Stake desktop site. If a Stake mobile app is introduced in the future, we will update this guide with full information.
Operator comparison
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|---|---|---|---|
| Expert rating |
Expert rating
84
/100
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| Playscore |
Playscore
94
%
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%
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%
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| Bonus |
Bonus
200% up to NZ$500
|
|
|
| Minimum deposit |
Minimum deposit
$1
|
|
|
| Minimum withdrawal |
Minimum withdrawal
$1
|
|
|
| Deposit methods |
Deposit methods
6
|
|
|
| Sports |
Sports
15
|
|
|
| Cashout |
Cashout
yes
|
|
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| Visit site | Visit site | Visit site |
Stake sportsbook review
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