Our Writers:
Bren Gray

Meet Bren Gray

Bren vividly remembers the moment he fell in love with sport. Sitting on his dad’s knee, aged five, watching the All Blacks perform their haka ahead of taking on the Springboks.

While rugby was his first love – as with many Kiwi kids – since then he’s also developed a fondness for tennis, cricket, combat sports, football, and basically anything that involves a ball, or competing.

It just made sense that Bren would get into sports writing, given he’s always been decent at stringing a sentence together. Creating sharp, genuine content that sports fans love to read is what gets Bren up in the morning, and we’re lucky enough to have him doing that for us here at BettingTop10 New Zealand.

Bren’s Professional Experience:

Education

Bachelor of Management Studies (Hons), double majoring in Strategic Management and Psychology (2013)
Post Graduate Diploma in International Development (2020)

Writing experience

Specialist iGaming writer (2021 onwards). Focusing on tennis, rugby, cricket, football and combat sports.
In-house writer for Intelligent Ink (2018-2021). Managing, writing and editing content for top business leaders across New Zealand.
Content writer for Sportal (2014-2018). Providing both in-depth sports journalism and real-time score updates across a range of sports.
Freelance writer (2010-2013). Creating articles, blogposts and newspaper columns, across dozens of different industries.

Bren’s Writing Philosophy

Writers have always shaped the narrative of society, and now more so than ever. With so much “AI slop” out there, Bren is passionate about creating content that’s not just filler fluff, but genuinely useful. Why? Because he’s spent the last 20 years or so reading sports news first-thing in the morning and knows that it makes a difference in people’s lives. Sports writers have the power to bring meaning to what happened on the pitch, field or court. That’s not a responsibility that Bren takes lightly.

Bren’s Areas of Expertise:

Full Sportsbooks Reviews - Bren loves to dive deep into the service that an operator offers, testing out their betting markets and casino products before giving an honest review for fellow punters.

Sports Betting Industry News - Tennis, rugby, cricket, football, combat – Bren lives and breathes these sports, so there’s little that gets past him on the news front.

Tips & Strategies - Having watched tens of thousands of matches over the years, Bren has a knack for predicting when a team is going to pull off an upset, or see their form run out.

Regulation & Legal - When it comes to the iGaming landscape in New Zealand, Bren has his finger on the pulse.]

What’s your favourite sport to play?

Squash. I’ve just taken it up in the last few years, but I’m obsessed. I live just around the corner from my local club, and you’ll see me down there most days at the moment.

If you could have dinner with three sports stars, who would they be and why?

Novak Djokovic, Brendon McCullum and Ma’a Nonu. These are my three favourite players from my three favourite sports: tennis, cricket and rugby. Novak is an elite individual athlete while Brendon is one of the best leaders I’ve seen – would love to hear them talk, while me and Ma’a have a feed.

What’s a fun fact people might not know about you?

I’m an award-winning florist.

What’s the most memorable sports match you’ve attended?

When I was 19 years old, I attended an IPL match in Chennai, India, where CSK scored 45 runs off the final two overs with MS Dhoni at the helm. A cricketing rollercoaster in the home of cricket.