Sitting on the couch watching the first Tri-Nations test match in the early hours of Sunday, you may have wished you had a few dollars on the boys in black.
If you had an e-betting account set up with the TAB, you could have done so from the comfort ofyour own home.
The TAB went online in 1996 and this side of its business has grown steadily, with its turnover last year reaching $30 million. That's still just a small proportion of the money that goes through the TAB's books, with its racing turnover alone topping $1 billion last year.
All the betting options available in the bricks and mortar world are available online.
For the Tri-Nations game, for example, available bets included the final score, the winning team and the half- and full-time margins.
There are even early bets on who will win the 2002 Superbowl, America's sporting highlight. Will it be the Denver Broncos at $13 or the Cleveland Browns at $250?
Those using the site have to sign up at the TAB's website, a painless process that takes about five minutes.
Topping up a TAB account online can be done by credit card or through New Zealand Post's eBill payment portal. The credit card option gives instant access but eBill takes a few days to set up.
Once an eBill account is established it can be used to top up the TAB account in amounts starting from $50, with a 3 per cent transaction fee added.
A nice feature of the TAB site is multi-betting. This allows the creation of a batch file of up to 99 bets, which are processed as one transaction. That means no more queues at the local TAB as each way bets are placed on every race meeting in the country.
The site is user-friendly and account holders who are Vodafone customers, can also get free text messages on sports and racing news.
The site will also explain the basics of sports and racing betting.
