Sports doping is not a criminal offence in New Zealand, although certain actions in relation to controlled or illegal drugs, which may be used in sport, can be a criminal offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

The Sports Anti-Doping Act 2006 gives effect to the World Anti-Doping Code in New Zealand. Under this Act, Drug Free Sport NZ, which is an independent Crown entity, is responsible for implementation of the WADA Code. Drug Free Sport has promulgated the Sports Anti-Doping Rules, which mirror the WADA Code. Most national sporting organisations have adopted the Sports Anti-Doping Rules as their anti-doping policy.

Drug Free Sport NZ undertakes testing and investigations, with any anti-doping cases being referred to the Sports Tribunal of NZ or, in the case of rugby union, to the New Zealand Rugby Judicial Committee. In this respect, Drug Free Sport NZ is essentially the prosecutor.

Match-fixing in sport is recognised as a form of deception, under Section 240A of the Crimes Act 1961. If found guilty, a person is liable to imprisonment for up to three years. Deception in this context includes any act to influence the betting outcome of a sporting event.

Sport NZ has established a New Zealand Policy on Sports Match-Fixing and Related Corruption to highlight the issue and provide guidelines.

Betting, or gambling, is illegal in New Zealand unless it is authorised by or under the Gambling Act 2003.

TAB New Zealand was established under the Racing Industry Act 2020. Under this Act, the TAB is authorised to conduct sports betting and may only conduct sports betting on a sporting event if they have entered into a written agreement with the appropriate New Zealand national sporting organisation. These agreements include payments to the sporting organisation of a share of revenue derived from sports betting. If there is no national sporting organisation that administers a sport, then the TAB must enter into an agreement with Sport NZ.

Under the Racing Industry Act, there is also a framework under which offshore betting operators must pay charges in respect of their betting operations involving New Zealand. Under this framework, offshore betting operators require permission from the relevant New Zealand national sporting organisation, or Sport NZ, before they use sporting information for taking bets on sporting events taking place in New Zealand. The offshore betting operator must enter into an agreement with the relevant organisation, which includes the payment of these betting information use charges.

These charges are to recognise the financial returns that offshore betting operators enjoy from bets that they take on sporting events held in New Zealand and from bets that they take from New Zealand residents.

The Sports Tribunal of NZ hears disciplinary proceedings concerning athletes. This includes in relation to anti-doping violations, but also appeals against decisions of national sporting organisations or the NZ Olympic Committee, where the rules of those organisations specifically allow for such an appeal. Examples are appeals against disciplinary decisions and appeals by an athlete against not being selected for a New Zealand team or squad, in each case where the rules of the national sporting organisation allow for this right of appeal. The Sports Tribunal may also hear other sports-related disputes referred by agreement of all the parties.

The Major Events Management Act 2007 protects the rights of event organisers and sponsors, including sporting events, primarily by preventing businesses that are not sponsors from claiming an association with the event concerned (so-called “ambush marketing”). Sporting events that have been subject to this Act include the Rugby World Cup 2011, the Cricket World Cup 2015 and the Lions Tour 2017.

This Act includes provision for “clean zones” around major event venues, where only authorised marketing activities can take place, and protection of words and emblems that could denote a connection with a major event, whether or not they are eligible for trade mark registration in New Zealand or are actually registered.

In terms of secondary or illegal ticket sales, there is no law that prevents event tickets being resold for a higher price than the original sale price of the ticket. The exception is where the event is covered by the Major Events Management Act. Tickets for an event covered by this Act cannot be sold for more than the original sale price (including charges such as booking fee and delivery fee).

Rugby union has attracted the most substantial sponsorship arrangements among New Zealand’s major sporting codes, with Adidas and American International Group (AIG) having entered into multi-year arrangements over the years, reportedly for a value of USD10 million-plus per annum. NZ Rugby bundles sponsorship with multiple New Zealand national rugby union teams (the All Blacks, the Black Ferns, the Māori All Blacks, men's and women's Sevens teams and the Under-20 men's team). Recently, the arrangements with AIG came to an end, with French company Altrad becoming a “front of jersey” sponsor to the All Blacks and Black Ferns and Ineos becoming the “performance partner”. Prior to this announcement, NZ Rugby had reportedly been in negotiations with Amazon to replace AIG as main sponsor.

Most major international and domestic sports of interest in New Zealand are shown live on subscription services through either Sky Sports (via satellite or online) or Spark Sports (online). These often include advertising. Sky TV is a listed pay TV broadcaster and Spark is a listed telecommunications operator. Radio broadcasting of major sporting events is also available on Sports Entertainment Network NZ.

Sports broadcasting rights are generally sold on an exclusive basis under long-term commercial arrangements. For example, Sky Sports recently won the sales process for the English Premier League broadcasting rights for six years starting with the new 2022–23 season. These rights had previously been held by Spark Sports.

In 2019, Sky Sports acquired a five-year broadcasting rights deal from NZ Rugby, which included New Zealand’s international rugby union test matches, tours of visiting Northern Hemisphere teams and Super Rugby. The exclusive rights include satellite, online and free-to-air. An interesting aspect of this deal is that NZ Rugby was issued a 5% shareholding interest in Sky.

Sky has also been active in the rugby union space globally, acquiring international rugby union streaming business RugbyPass.

New Zealand Rugby League announced in 2021 that it had entered into an arrangement with Sky Sports to broadcast New Zealand Warriors matches in the NRL, as well as all other NRL matches, the Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns, State of Origin, the NSW and QLD Cups and the National Premiership men’s and women’s, until the end of 2027.

There are no proprietary rights in a sporting event, but there are proprietary rights in the broadcasts of those events. This means that sports event organisers protect the value of their broadcast rights through exclusive arrangements with venue owners. This includes the exclusive right to film and record the event at that venue; the broadcaster may also control the advertising and branding used at the venue.

Sports event organisers owe a duty of care to persons involved in sporting events, under the common law. This includes taking reasonable steps to avoid injury or danger to participants, officials and spectators.

However, there is a no-fault accident compensation scheme in New Zealand under the Accident Compensation Act 2001, which prevents persons from suing for personal injury caused by accident and prohibits recovery of compensatory damages for personal injury.

Where an athlete is employed (as an employee or contractor or even a volunteer) by a sporting organisation, then the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 will apply to their workplace, and the sporting organisation is required under that Act to take all practical steps to ensure worker safety.

Sports organisations in New Zealand are generally formed as either an incorporated society under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 or as a charitable trust under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957. Whether an organisation is an incorporated society or a charitable trust, it can also apply to be registered as a charity if it has charitable purposes as defined under the Charities Act 2005. The Charities Act recognises that the promotion of amateur sport may be a charitable purpose if it meets one of the tests of charitable purpose under the Act. However, high performance or elite sport is not regarded as "charitable".

National sporting organisations are often structured as a federation of regional or code-based organisations. Those national sporting organisations, such as New Zealand Rugby and New Zealand Cricket, are themselves often formed as incorporated societies.

In rugby union, NZ Rugby has ownership of New Zealand Super Rugby teams, but issues licences to separate entities to operate each club. For example, in respect of the Hurricanes Super Rugby team, an entity which is a joint venture between the provincial rugby union and private investors has the operating licence to run the rugby club. Other operating licensees have different combinations of ownership structures, including provincial unions, NZ Rugby and private investors. Recently, NZ Rugby has introduced “permanent” franchise licences.

A national sporting organisation will have rules, usually a constitution, which deals with governance matters relating to the sporting code. Non-compliance can result in penalties and sanctions under these rules. Directors (board members) owe duties in accordance with the rules of the organisation and also under general rules dealing with the particular legal structure they adopt (such as incorporated societies).

Sport NZ has produced a detailed governance guide for sporting organisations in New Zealand.

Most of the government funding for sporting organisations and athletes comes from Sport NZ (for grassroots sport and sporting participation generally) and High Performance Sport NZ (for elite athletes). Both of these organisations are Crown agencies.

Professional team sports receive broadcasting, sponsorship, merchandising and membership revenue.

The most noteworthy recent deal (February 2022) involves the US private equity firm, Silver Lake, acquiring an interest in a new commercial entity to be established by NZ Rugby which will include all the revenue-generating assets of NZ Rugby. The investment by Silver Lake will be for NZD200 million, with a value of NZD3.5 billion for the commercial entity. Other local institutional investors will have an opportunity to invest in this entity in due course. The overall deal includes the establishment of “global rugby opportunities”, which will enable Silver Lake, NZ Rugby and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association to invest in rugby union-related businesses outside of New Zealand.

Trade marks can be registered under the Trade Marks Act 2002. Trade mark registration provides the exclusive right to use the trade mark throughout New Zealand to promote the goods or services that it covers and legal protection to deter others from trying to imitate the protected brand.

To be registrable, a trade mark must be distinctive. This means that a mark that says, for example, “football match” would not be distinctive as it simply describes the goods or services that are being offered and does not distinguish one sporting event from another. Commonly used phrases may not be distinctive.

Copyright is covered by the Copyright Act 1994. Copyright comes into effect automatically when an original work of a specific type is created, published or performed. In New Zealand, there is no copyright register or application process to be granted protection.

Examples of defences include incidental copying and fair dealing for the purposes of criticism, news reporting, etc.

In New Zealand, there is no sui generis database right, as there is in the European Union. However, certain databases and datasets can, in principle, qualify as literary works which are protected under the Copyright Act.

There is no specific legal protection for personal images under New Zealand law. There is protection against misleading conduct in trade under the Fair Trading Act 1986. The common law tort of passing off may also apply in relation to athlete image rights, where the athlete has goodwill and reputation in relation to their image (particularly where it has been commercialised), although this has not yet been established in cases. It is generally more difficult to establish a claim of passing off, as compared to misleading conduct in trade under the Fair Trading Act.

Copyright can subsist in photographs, films and broadcasts; a sporting body or athlete, if they create these works, will have copyright in them. This is likely to be the main form of protected intellectual property for sporting bodies or athletes which may be licensed to third parties. There are no restrictions on assigning IP rights to third parties.

Most significant national sporting organisations collect sports data for improving the performance of their sport and maximising its commercial potential. Where sports data is to be used for sports betting by TAB New Zealand (the only authorised agency for these purposes), it is normally subject to an agreement between the organisation and TAB.

Broader commercialisation of sports data is not common in New Zealand.

The Privacy Act 2020 provides the rules in New Zealand for protecting personal information. Personal information is “information about an identifiable individual”. Therefore, information about an athlete may be personal information, but team results may not be (unless they reveal individual team members). Practically, that means that if an organisation (such as a national sporting organisation, a tournament/event or a broadcaster) collects and uses personal information about an athlete, the athlete needs to be informed and the organisation must properly manage the data and any disclosures.

While New Zealand's privacy law is similar to the EU's GDPR, it is different in a number of material respects. The GDPR does not apply inside New Zealand.

In practice, the national courts have very little role in dealing with sports disputes. National sporting organisations may have their own tribunals for dealing with disputes within the code, with the Sports Tribunal of NZ being established as the appellate decision-making tribunal dealing with most sports disputes. As mentioned above, the Sports Tribunal also has a role in anti-doping proceedings.

If the Sports Tribunal does not have jurisdiction for a particular dispute, an athlete may seek to bring proceedings through the national courts, although that is rare.

The Sports Tribunal will hear appeals from athletes against decisions of national sporting organisations, where the rules of the organisation provide for it. This includes appeals against decisions not nominating or selecting athletes for a New Zealand team or squad, as well as appeals against disciplinary decisions.

Most national sporting organisations provide in their rules for this right of appeal. All internal appeal rights and procedures within the national sporting organisation must have been completed first, before referring the dispute to the Sports Tribunal.

The Sports Tribunal can also hear other “sports-related” disputes, but only with the agreement of the parties.

The Sports Anti-Doping Act 2006 sets out the sorts of disputes the Sports Tribunal can hear.

National sporting organisation rules will usually include penalties, including fines (which may be fairly nominal), banning and suspensions, removing competition points and reprimands. The organisation may have their own tribunal to impose such penalties. Where athletes are employed by national sporting organisations, enforcement matters are likely to be subject to their individual employment contracts.

As previously noted, the Sports Tribunal can hear and decide appeals against decisions made by a national sporting organisation or the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC), if the rules of the organisation or NZOC allow for an appeal to the Tribunal. Most appeals to the Sports Tribunal are either resolved or withdrawn prior to hearing.

High-level athletes may be employees or contractors of sports organisations. An athlete may be regarded as an employee under New Zealand law, even if they are described as a contractor. The Employment Relations Act 2000 applies to employees, including employees of sporting organisations. It provides procedures for dealing with employment relationship issues and also promotes collective bargaining.

Collective bargaining is used for professional athletes in New Zealand in certain sports, including rugby union, cricket and netball. These arrangements are normally renegotiated periodically and include athlete payments and other benefits.

Salary caps do apply – for example, for NZ franchise clubs participating in Super Rugby, where players are employed by NZ Rugby. Third-party funding may be available for franchise clubs, for signing marquee players, which must be disclosed to NZ Rugby. 

At the same time as the Silver Lake deal was announced (see above), NZ Rugby and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association agreed a new collective agreement, which includes revenue sharing with the players and also includes the relationship with the new commercial entity that will be established as part of the Silver Lake deal.

Where an athlete (or a match official) is employed by a national sporting organisation (such as with rugby union), employment rights are dealt with in accordance with the employment contract and general employment law in New Zealand.

Overseas athletes that wish to participate in a specific sporting event in New Zealand would normally apply for a Specific Purpose Work Visa from Immigration New Zealand.

Esports have grown rapidly in New Zealand, as in most other countries. The NZ Esports Federation has been established as a national sporting organisation for esports in 2020.

Women’s sport at the elite level is continuing to develop in New Zealand. Across a range of individual sports, there are a significant number of elite women athletes at world-class level. In team sports, there are now professional and semi-professional teams in several major sports, including rugby union, football (soccer), rugby league, cricket and netball.

For example, in 2022, New Zealand Rugby launched Super Rugby Aupiki, which is a semi-professional league comprising four New Zealand teams playing over a four-week programme. Teams will have 28 contracted players. The national women’s teams are the Black Ferns and Black Ferns Sevens.

In other sporting codes, the Wellington Phoenix women’s professional football (soccer) team was established and has joined the W-League for the 2021–22 season. The W-League is run by the Australian Professional Leagues. The Warriors women’s rugby league team is part of the women's NRL competition run out of Australia, although they did not participate in the last season due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Over the next few years, there are several major international women’s sporting tournaments hosted or co-hosted in New Zealand. The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup is taking place in 2022 and the FIFA Women’s World Cup (co-hosted with Australia) in 2023.

The profile of women’s sports is improving. Sport New Zealand has reported that women’s sport (individual and team) accounts for 15% of media coverage in New Zealand, from around 10% several years ago.

In terms of broadcast rights and sponsorships, national sporting organisations will often include women’s and men’s teams and games as part of a single rights and sponsorship package.

NFTs are at an early stage in New Zealand, and have not been used extensively in the sports domain. Generally, NFTs or crypto assets are not directly regulated in New Zealand.

Not applicable in this jurisdiction.