How to Bet on Cricket in India
Online betting is perhaps one of the best ways to kill free time these days. You not only enjoy the nail-biting thrill but also make some money on the side. In India, it doesn’t get any bigger than cricket online betting. You take one look at the craze people have regarding this sport and everything becomes clear.
If you’re new to the world of betting and not sure how to bet on cricket, you’re right where you should be. We’re going to cover the basics of betting rules in cricket as well as the things you should be careful about. Consider this your how to bet in cricket 101 guide.
What is Sports Betting and How Does it Work in India?
Sports betting as a whole refers to the act of wagering real money on sports outcomes. This has been a long-standing practice in India. However, on a very private level. It’s simply because gambling is illegal in India. Only Sikkim, Daman, and Goa have land-based gambling approved.
For the rest of the country, the laws still follow the 1867 Public Gambling Act that the British passed. For unknown reasons, the government is reluctant to modernize the laws for the modern context.
For online gambling, however, there is no regulation. The 1867 Public Gambling Act, obviously, doesn’t include online gambling. As a result, there’s no way the government can prosecute people who participate in real money wagering at offshore betting sites.
And that’s how cricket betting online became popular in the last decade. As time goes by, more and more reputed offshore betting sites are accepting punters from India. As they know the craze for cricket in the country, they offer all major tournaments.
When we say “sports betting”, it doesn’t mean we’re betting on a sport directly. What does even cricket online betting mean? The actual activity is choosing what outcome you think is the most likely and placing money for that according to the odds.
This “outcome” you’re choosing is known as a “market”. So, the odds for online betting are offered on the markets. We’re also going to go over some common markets cricket punters use all the time in this post.
How to Bet on Cricket: The Prerequisites
Now that you know what sports betting is and it’s safe to bet online in India, let’s move deeper into the cricket betting paradigm. Before you can start real money betting, you need to ensure a few things.
Your Age
India may not have any regulations for online gambling but the sites that accept players from the country do. The international standard for the minimum age of gambling is 18. The same applies to Indians as well. Keep in mind that changing the date of birth in the registration form won’t work. You’ll actually need to submit a copy of your ID during the verification process.
You’re a Valid Resident of India
The next requirement from online gambling sites is your residency in India. You can’t be in a different country, say Bangladesh or Pakistan, and use a VPN to make your location look like India. You’ll need to submit a copy of your utility bill to prove your residency.
A Payment Method in Your Name
The last thing you need is an online payment method. It only makes sense because you’ll need a way to deposit money in your account as well as withdraw from it. Most Indian betting sites offer a wide range of local and international methods for this. The catch, however, is that the payment method must be registered in your name.
What does it mean? Well, it means you can’t use your father’s credit card or your friend’s Paytm account for gambling.
Signing Up for the Right Cricket Betting Sites
We’ve already covered the critical requirements for participating in real money gambling in India. If you check all of them off the list, you’re ready to move to the next step. In the case of learning how to bet in cricket, it’s opening an account.
But before that, you’ll need to choose what betting site you want to go for. We have a list of the best cricket online betting sites on this very page. All you have to do is pick one that you see fit. All of them are licensed by reputed authorities and are tested for safety by our experts.
Follow the steps below for signing up before practicing how to bet on cricket.
- Locate the “Sign Up” or “Registration” button on the homepage. In general, it’s located at either end of the top section. Clicking or tapping the button triggers the registration form.
- Enter your name, address, and other details according to the ID you plan to submit. Most betting sites accept Aadhar cards, driver’s licenses, and even passports.
- If the cricket betting site offers a welcome bonus, you may need to claim it during the registration process. Read the terms of the bonus before you initiate the registration.
- If everything checks out, your account should be ready to use.
- Deposit money using one of the offered payment methods. If you’ve claimed the welcome bonus, make sure to deposit equal to or more than the minimum deposit requirement.
Choosing What Event to Bet On
Once your account is funded, it’s now fully functional for you to understand how cricket betting works. Usually, the sports library is located on the left-hand side of the screen. It’s labelled as the “A-Z” sports library or “All Sports”. From that list, choose “Cricket”.
Based on what betting site you choose, you may either get additional options to choose from or directly land on the how to play cricket betting page. If you get more options, they’re usually names of countries where cricket tournaments are happening or the name of the tournaments themselves.
For starters, if you’re planning to bet on IPL, you have to choose India from a country list. And if you see IPL listed directly on the sub-menu, click on it. As the sorting process varies quite dramatically from betting site to betting site, it’s hard to instruct exactly how to get to the cricket page. But you get the idea, right?
What Markets Should You Choose to Learn How to Bet on Cricket?
After you land the appropriate tournament for cricket betting, it’s time to select a market or markets for your bet slip. But how do you do it if you don’t know what each market means? Well, that’s where we come in, again. We’re going to break down the most common ones you can find in India.
Match Winner
Obviously enough, this is the most used market across the world for cricket betting, or otherwise. This is the market where you predict which team will win the match. It’s very straightforward, making it the perfect first bet for any newcomer.
The match winner may also be labelled as outright or money lines. No need to get confused as they all refer to the same thing. This market also tends to have the longest odds.
Toss Winner
It’s another very simple market that you can try for the first few of your bets. The toss plays a very important role in cricket online betting. Sometimes, players lose the zest to play hard just because of the toss result. That’s why you see some very competitive odds for toss winners. Similar to the match winner market, you get separate odds for both outcomes of the toss.
Over-Under/Total
Another market that comes into play quite often when you learn how to bet on cricket. Sometimes known as over/under and sometimes total, this market refers to the prediction of whether the final score of the match will go “over” or remain “under” the bookmaker’s prediction.
This market can target individual innings as well as the total runs of the match. It varies from bookmaker to bookmaker. You can even expect a range of scores in different increments.
Top Bowler
Going even deeper into a match’s potential outcomes, you can bet on who will be the top bowler. The parameters can include the number of wickets, economy, as well as assists for other bowlers. For the most part, you’ll get odds for multiple bowlers from both teams. You can even distinguish between the favourites and underdogs by simply looking at the odds!
Top Batter
Just like the top bowler market, you can expect to get a top batter market. This simply depends on how much an individual batter scores in his innings. Just like the bowlers, you should get odds for multiple batters, from both teams to choose from.
Series Winner
Most international cricket matches are played in series. It means 3 to 5 matches and the team to win the majority wins. If that’s the case for the event you’re going for, you should get the market to bet on the series winner.
These are known as “outrights” as you’re claiming the outcome of a tournament even before all the variables are in place. The odds are also longer for outrights which means you can win more for the same amount of bet.
Method of Dismissal
The opening order of a batting lineup rarely lasts on the field till the end. So, for the first few batters, many betting sites offer a method of dismissal for them. You may choose from bowled, run out, caught behind the wicket, stamping, and other common methods.
Bankroll Management for Cricket Betting
One of the most common mistakes rookie punters make is they blow all of their money on a single bet. While it can work in theory if you do impeccable research and are pretty much certain that the bet will pay back, it’s not the ideal way to approach it.
Rather, you should break your bankroll down into units. For example, if you have a ₹5,000 budget, make ₹500 your betting unit. It means you won’t spend more than ₹500 for a single bet in any of the markets.
It not only allows you to retain your money better but also lets you diversify your bet slip across multiple markets. The benefit is that even if you lose on a couple of fronts, you have other bets to recover for that.
For example, instead of putting a big bet on the match winner, break it down and place money on the toss winner, top bowler, and over/under. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll lose on all fronts given that you understand how a cricket match works. Also, reading previous statistics for the teams helps tremendously.
Collecting the Winnings
You might be wondering how to bet on cricket and how to collect the winnings from that bet. The good thing is that all bets settle automatically so you don’t have to do anything. All you have to do is wait for up to 72 hours for the betting site to complete the process.
Cricket Live Betting
Once you get some experience under your belt with fixed-odds bets, you may want to explore live betting. The betting rules in cricket allow for a lot of live markets which also means you can make a lot of bets within the same match. And they settle pretty much instantly!
Understanding cricket betting is one of the core parts of understanding how cricket betting works. The odds change rapidly during a match so you need to monitor them closely if you want to make a profit.
