Entain Tests the Water With New Brand BlackRush in New Zealand
Entain has quietly switched on a brand-new casino site, and while you won’t find it on your UK app store, it’s worth a look for anyone who follows how the group behind Ladbrokes and Coral builds its portfolio. The site is called BlackRush, it’s built specifically for New Zealand, and its arrival tells you a fair bit about how operators scale a brand before a market has even fully opened.
What’s been released
Entain has soft launched BlackRush Casino, an entirely new brand for New Zealand’s upcoming regulated iGaming market.
The site appeared shortly after New Zealand opened the auction for 15 planned online casino approvals on September 29, 2026.
Successful bidders will earn the right to submit formal licence applications before the regulated market launches.
Each licence will have an initial three-year term with possibility for a five-year renewal, and each licence will only cover one brand, with an operator limited to a maximum of three total licences.
That’s presumably why BlackRush isn’t travelling alone:
the site shares its platform with another New Zealand-facing Entain site in FoxySpins, which draws on the company’s existing FoxyBingo identity.
What’s changed
The site, which appeared to go live ahead of the country’s new online casino law, is regulated through Entain’s ElectraWorks Gibraltar licence and requires a New Zealand VPN to access.
It uses what appears to be a separate platform from the global Entain set-up, shared with FoxySpins.
That’s a notably different build to the infrastructure UK players know from Ladbrokes or Coral, suggesting Entain is treating New Zealand as its own technical environment rather than bolting a new skin onto an existing system.
On the regulatory side, the detail that will interest anyone who follows how UK-tested content travels is this:
technology standards were set out clearly, with games and random number generators already tested in the UK or Ontario accepted without further checks for launch day.
In other words, slots and RNGs that have already been through UKGC-standard testing get a fast pass into New Zealand’s new framework, which is a neat illustration of how far UK compliance standards now reach.
BlackRush and FoxySpins will join Entain’s existing local sports betting operations, including betcha and TAB, where the company already holds a strong position through its 25-year strategic partnership with TAB NZ.
At present, Entain is the only permitted operator in the New Zealand sports betting market through that arrangement.
Where it fits
For UK players, this isn’t a brand you’ll be signing up to any time soon, but it’s a useful window into how Entain operates once it smells opportunity in a freshly regulating market.
Entain CEO Stella David believes New Zealand’s newly regulated online gambling market could be worth up to £600m annually.
With one operator allowed no more than three licences, Entain positioning two brands, BlackRush and FoxySpins, before the formal application window even opens looks like a deliberate hedge to secure as much of that new market as it can.
It’s a pattern UK followers of the group will recognise. Entain has built its reputation on running region-specific brands rather than exporting a single global label, and BlackRush slots neatly alongside that approach. The detail about UK-tested RNGs clearing New Zealand’s bar without extra checks also hints at something UK players can feel reassured about closer to home: the testing regime behind the slots and live tables on their own apps is increasingly treated as a reference standard by regulators setting up fresh markets elsewhere.
