In 2008, when the National Bank Cup league was replaced by the ANZ Championship, Magic and Flames became founders of the new league. Flames were rebranded as Canterbury Tactix.[2][7] The remaining six National Bank Cup teams were merged into three new teams. Southern Sting and Otago Rebels joined forces to become Southern Steel, Capital Shakers and Western Flyers merged as Central Pulse, while Auckland Diamonds and Northern Force became Northern Mystics.[8][9][10][11] Magic are the only team from the Coca-Cola Cup/National Bank Cup era to have retained their original name.[2]
Teams played a single round of matches, playing every other team once. The top four teams then qualified for the semi-finals.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]
Southern Sting were subsequently the league's most successful team. Between 1998 and 2007, Sting played in all ten grand finals and won seven of the ten titles played for. Between 1999 and 2004, Sting won six successive titles. The team was coached by Robyn Broughton and featured, among others, Donna Loffhagen, Bernice Mene, Belinda Colling, Tania Dalton, Lesley Nicol and Adine Harper. One reason behind Sting's success was that they were pioneers in women's professional sports. Bernice Mene was one of the first professional netball players in New Zealand. With Sting paying their players, they successfully recruited the best players from throughout New Zealand.[2][43][44][45][46]