Our Team — KiwiStake - new-online-casinos.co.nz

01

The Lead

Our editor-in-chief

Every casino review on KiwiStake is signed off by Matiu before it goes live. He's the final reviewer for licensing claims, bonus math, and payout testing.

Editor-in-Chief · Founder

Matiu Henare

Wellington · Te Whanganui-a-Tara

Matiu founded KiwiStake in 2017 after five years as a regulatory analyst at an Auckland-based gaming consultancy, where he audited operator compliance against Malta Gaming Authority and UK Gambling Commission standards. Before that, he held a Postgraduate Diploma in Economics from Victoria University of Wellington and spent two years at the Department of Internal Affairs in their gambling regulation unit.

He signs off on every casino review, audits every licence claim, and personally handles the support-probe testing phase across our entire shortlist. Matiu has reviewed over 400 online casinos with deposits totalling more than NZ$80,000 across verification testing.

If I wouldn't let my mum deposit her pension at a casino we're recommending, it doesn't go on the list. That's the rule. It's served us well for nine years.

400+Casinos Reviewed

NZ$80kTesting Deposits

9 yrsAt KiwiStake

IMGLMember Since 2019

GPWAVerified Reviewer

02

The Reviewers

Meet the core team

Eight specialists across reviewing, compliance, data, and payments. Each one is a named expert on at least one casino vertical — pokies, live dealer, crypto, or banking.

Senior Casino Reviewer

Aroha Mitchell

Auckland · Tāmaki Makaurau

Aroha owns the new-casino pipeline — every launch between October and April crosses her desk first. Former Pragmatic Play product tester (2019–2022) with deep knowledge of pokies mechanics, RTP verification, and studio partnerships.

180+Pokies Tested 6 yrsIndustry

Compliance & Licensing

James Tauroa

Hamilton · Kirikiriroa

James verifies every licence claim on the site directly with the issuing regulator — MGA, UKGC, Kahnawake, Curaçao. LLB from Otago, three years at the NZ Law Society before pivoting to gambling regulation research. If a licence number is wrong, James catches it.

LLBOtago 4 yrsAt KiwiStake

SL

Payments Specialist

Siobhan Laing

Christchurch · Ōtautahi

Siobhan runs end-to-end NZD payment testing for every casino — deposit timing, withdrawal speed, and fee checking across POLi, Visa, Skrill, Neteller, and crypto rails. Former Finance Analyst at Westpac NZ specialising in FX and retail payments.

7Methods Tested 1,400+Transactions

03

The Principles

Four values we don't compromise on

These are the commitments we've kept since 2017 — through three platform redesigns, two sets of legislative changes, and one global pandemic. If we ever drop one, the site is no longer worth trusting.

I.

Rankings Aren't For Sale

No casino has ever paid for a higher position. Our top 10 is ordered by the scoring model, full stop. If a brand offered us six figures tomorrow to move up, the answer is still no.

II.

We Deposit Real Money

Every casino we review has been tested with a real NZD deposit from one of our reviewers. No desk research, no marketing-deck rewrites, no AI-generated placeholder reviews.

III.

Disclose Every Dollar

Every page includes affiliate disclosure. Where we earn commission, we say so. Where we don't, we also say so. You should always know the financial relationship behind any review.

IV.

Players Before Clicks

Responsible gambling disclaimers, 18+ warnings, and harm-minimisation resources appear on every page. Not as legal cover — as genuine care for the community we serve.

Section 04 · The Story

A nine-year history, by the year

2017

KiwiStake launches

Matiu Henare registers kiwistake.nz and publishes the first review — a deep-dive on Spin Casino's NZD banking. The site operates as a one-person outfit for its first eleven months.

2018

First hire & methodology lock-in

Siobhan Laing joins to lead payment testing. The four-stage review gauntlet (sign-up → deposit → support → withdrawal) is formalised and becomes the site's permanent backbone.

2019

IMGL membership

KiwiStake becomes the second NZ-based affiliate site accepted into the International Masters of Gaming Law network. Matiu attends the IMGL Autumn Conference in Munich.

2020

Pandemic pivot to mobile-first

Mobile casino traffic surges 210%. Mere O'Connell joins as dedicated mobile/UX tester. The site redesigns with a mobile-first layout — three years before most competitors do the same.

2021

Crypto casinos coverage expands

Ruben Cassidy joins to lead crypto and blockchain coverage. The site publishes the first independent review of provably-fair implementations aimed specifically at Kiwi players.

2022

Responsible gambling first

Tania Williams joins from the Problem Gambling Foundation. Every review is retrofitted with explicit RG tool audits. The site becomes the first NZ-focused affiliate to implement mandatory harm-minimisation checks.

2023

Scoring model formalised

Oliver Singh joins and rebuilds the scoring model into its current 42-criterion form. Every ranking change since is fully auditable and traceable to specific data points.

2024

GPWA verified status

KiwiStake is independently audited by the Gambling Portal Webmasters Association and awarded Verified Reviewer status — one of only six NZ-targeting affiliate sites to hold it.

2025

Team reaches nine

With Hana Paratene, Davit Karapetyan, and James Tauroa joining, the core editorial team reaches nine specialists. 1,000th casino review published in November.

2026

Where we are now

KiwiStake serves roughly 180,000 monthly readers across NZ and Australia, tests 4–5 new casinos every week, and has paid out more than NZ$12,000 in annual giveaways back to readers through our newsletter competitions.

05

How We Operate

The business model, explained plainly

We believe you deserve to know exactly how we make money, who pays us, and what that means for our reviews. Here's the honest answer.

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How we earn

KiwiStake earns affiliate commission when a reader clicks through to a partner casino and deposits. This is disclosed on every page. We do not earn a higher commission for higher-ranked casinos — the rate is identical across all partners.

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What we don't do

We don't accept paid placement in rankings. We don't publish sponsored reviews without disclosure. We don't white-label our content to other sites. We don't use AI to generate reviews — every word on this site is written by a named human.

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Conflicts we manage

When a casino we review is owned by a company we also partner with elsewhere, we disclose it inline. When a reviewer has previously worked at a casino operator, they're recused from reviewing that operator. These events are logged publicly in our editorial register.

Our job is to save readers from casinos that treat them badly. Affiliate commission is how we fund that job — but it's not the reason we do it. The day the two are confused, the site is worth nothing. — Editorial Charter, Preamble

Who owns KiwiStake

KiwiStake.nz is owned and operated by KiwiStake Media Ltd, a New Zealand registered company (NZBN 9429048721634), headquartered in Wellington. Matiu Henare is the sole director and majority shareholder. The site has no external investors, no parent company, and no financial ties to casino operators beyond standard affiliate contracts.

Our editorial register

We publicly log every declared conflict of interest, every complaint we receive, and every correction we make. The register is updated monthly and available to any reader or regulator on request. This is the single clearest signal we can give that our editorial process takes itself seriously.

We're Hiring · 2026

Want to join the team?

We're always interested in experienced iGaming reviewers, compliance specialists, and responsible-gambling advocates based in New Zealand or Australia. If you've worked in the industry and care about player protection as much as about reviewing, get in touch.

[email protected]

Remote-friendly · NZ / AU based preferred