Our Authors & Reviewers
Celestial Essentials is written and maintained by a small team with hands-on experience across online casinos, crypto gambling and sports betting. Every review carries a byline, a "last updated" date, and accountability to the standards on our methodology page.
Finn Thompson — Lead Casino Reviewer
Casinos, pokies & payments · Auckland
Finn leads our casino and pokies coverage. With years spent testing offshore casinos for New Zealand players, he focuses on the things that actually matter to Kiwis: real NZD payout times, honest bonus value, and payment methods that work in 2026 (no POLi myths). Finn runs every casino through our full deposit-play-withdraw test before it earns a rating.
Expertise: casino T&Cs, wagering maths, payout testing, NZ payment rails · Reviews: online casinos, pokies, bonuses, live casino.
Mia Caldwell — Crypto & Payments Editor
Crypto casinos, blockchain & provably fair · Wellington
Mia covers our crypto vertical, from Bitcoin and Ethereum casinos to no-KYC sites and stablecoin play. She explains the technical side plainly — provably fair verification, ERC-20 vs TRC-20 networks, Lightning withdrawals, and the NZD-to-crypto on-ramps Kiwis actually use. Mia is also our stickler for responsible-gambling framing on higher-risk pages.
Expertise: blockchain payments, provably fair systems, AML/KYC, crypto tax basics · Reviews: crypto, bitcoin, no-KYC, altcoin casinos.
Hemi Walker — Sports Betting Analyst
Bookmakers, odds & betting strategy · Christchurch
Hemi heads our sports coverage — rugby, league, cricket, racing and netball. A data-led bettor, he compares offshore bookmakers against the TAB on odds, market depth and in-play, and writes our strategy content on value betting, bankroll management and xG-based models. He's blunt about which books still take Kiwi customers and which don't.
Expertise: odds & implied probability, value/arb betting, NZ sports markets, bookmaker testing · Reviews: sports betting sites, markets, live betting, strategy.
Want to reach the team? Contact us.