How to Bet On Cricket – The Ultimate Guide for Beginners
Cricket is the king of sports in India, so it should come as no surprise to learn that there are more cricket fans in India than in any other country. If you are a cricket fan but have never wagered on the sport, you may be wondering how to bet on cricket.
In this extensive guide, we cover everything you need to know, including what cricket betting is, how to place your first bet, how to read odds, different cricket formats, famous tournaments, cricket betting tips, and more.
What Exactly is Cricket Betting?
Cricket betting online is simply wagering money on the outcome of a cricket match or tournament or whether a specific event will happen within a cricket match.
One of the most popular bets is cricket match betting, a bet on who will win a match. This bet is just one of many options available. You can bet on the number of sixes hit in a game, the winner of the ICC World Cup, how many wickets a bowler will get, and many more.
How to Bet on Cricket in India
Placing a cricket bet online is convenient, quick, and straightforward. The whole process takes just a few minutes, and once the account is set up, you can access it from any computer or mobile device. Next, let’s take a look at how to get started.
- Step 1: Pick a top cricket betting site in India
- Step 2: Create an account with the betting site
- Step 3: Make a deposit and claim your welcome bonus
- Step 4: Browse the cricket betting markets and place a bet
Types of Cricket Bets and How They Work
Learning the different types of bets is essential when you learn how to bet on cricket. There’s a diverse range of cricket bets available, and we run through some of the most commonly found bets below.
Match Bet
Cricket match betting is the most straightforward way to bet on the sport. It simply means predicting the winner of a match. You can also bet whether the game will be a tie or a draw, depending on what kind of format the game is.
Outright Winner
An outright winner bet is a type of futures bet. You are placing a wager on a team to win a tournament or league, for example, the ICC World Cup or the IPL. These bets can be placed months or even years before the tournament starts. You are still able to place them while the tournament is taking place, but the odds can change drastically depending on the results.
Series Winner
A series winner bet is very similar to an outright winner bet. Instead of betting on a tournament winner, you are betting on which team will win a series like the Ashes or the Border–Gavaskar Trophy.
Proposition Bets
Proposition or prop bets are any type of bet where the outcome of the match or tournament plays no role in the bet. Rather than betting on the result, you are betting on events within the game. There are two main types of prop bets. These are team and player props.
Popular cricket team prop bets include wagers such as which team will win the coin toss, which team has the most sixes or the most runouts, and what a team’s first-inning score will be.
Popular player proposition bets are which bowler will take the most wickets or even how many wickets a specific bowler will take. Betting on the top batsman of a match or tournament and wagering if a player will hit a century are just a few of the options you get with player prop bets.
Over/Under
Over/Under or totals are technically a type of proposition bet, as the outcome result doesn’t matter. For totals, the sportsbook sets the number of runs for a team. If you think the team will score less than this number, you bet on the under. If you think they will score more, you bet on the over.
Totals bets are also available for the combined runs of both teams. Additionally, these bets can be on specific players or a combination of players, as shown in the picture below. You can also find totals for individual overs.
What You Need to Know About Reading Cricket Match Odds
One of the most important things to know when learning how to bet on cricket is being able to read the odds. This is because odds convey the probability of an event happening according to bookmakers and allow you to find good value bets and maximise your chances of winning.
Odds come in different formats, the three most common being decimal, fractional, and American. Decimal odds are what most people are familiar with in India. And although most sites allow you to change the odds format, decimal odds are almost always the default setting.
Decimal odds, also known as European odds, are denoted by a decimal number (typically to two decimal points). The number represents the amount you will win from a bet of 1 unit. This number also includes your stake. To work out the winnings, you just multiply your stake by the decimal number.
In our example above, Sri Lanka is the favourite and has odds of 1.57 to win the match. Afghanistan is the underdog and has 2.40. A winning ₹100 bet on Sri Lanka would net you winnings of ₹157 (100 x 1.57), which is your ₹100 stake and ₹57 profit.
A ₹100 winning wager on Afghanistan would see you win ₹240 (100 x 2.40), which is your ₹100 stake plus ₹140 profit.
American odds are denoted with either a (+) or (-) symbol. A (+) symbol shows you the amount you win if you bet $100, and a (-) shows you how much you need to bet to win $100. Fractional odds represent a ratio of the money you will win, so odds of 3/1 means you win three for every unit you bet.
Understanding the Different Cricket Formats
In the current game, there are three main cricket formats. These are Test Match, T20, and One Day. Each format offers something unique, and the style of play can differ significantly. We take a look at the different formats below.
Test Match Cricket
Test matches are one of the oldest iterations of the game and have been played since 1877. A match consists of four innings, two for each team, and takes place over five days but can finish early if all four innings are completed. A minimum of ninety overs are scheduled to be played daily, but there may be fewer depending on circumstances such as bad weather halting play.
The winner is whichever team has the most runs after both teams have completed two innings each. If the four innings have not been completed in the five days, the match is declared a draw. It is important to note that in test match cricket, a tie and a draw are not the same. A tie is when both teams have the same score, but a draw is if the full four innings have not been completed.
T20 Cricket
Twenty20 (T20) cricket is the newest of the three big formats. The concept was thought up by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. It was their answer to the sport’s dwindling popularity and viewership in the country. This new format proved to be a hit domestically, and in 2005, the first T20 international match was played between New Zealand and Australia.
In a T20 match, each team has a single innings and faces a maximum of twenty overs. The team with the highest number of runs after each team has completed its innings or faced twenty overs is the winner.
If a game is tied, typically, a Super Over is played to determine the winner. In a super over, both teams select three batsmen and one bowler. Each batting team will face one over, and whoever scores the most runs wins. If the super over is a tie, the result is determined in various ways depending on what tournament or league the game is being played in.
One Day Cricket
The first ever One Day International cricket match took place in Melbourne in 1971. It involved England vs Australia and was a last-minute replacement for an Ashes match, which was washed out.
In the past, there was no fixed number of overs for an ODI, and games were played with maximum overs set anywhere between 40 and 60, depending on what country the games were played in. However, the accepted global format is now a maximum of 50 six-ball overs.
Like in T20, if the game ends in a tie, a Super Over is played. The rules on if an ODI game is halted before both teams cant complete their innings get a bit more complicated. As long as the second team has completed a certain number of innings, then a mathematical formula called the Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method is implemented to determine the winner.
The Most Popular Cricket Tournaments to Bet On
One of the best things about cricket as both a sport to watch and bet on is that top-tier games are being played year-round. Whether it’s domestic leagues or international games, there’s always some action happening. We run through a few of the most popular cricket tournaments in India below.
ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup
As there are no draws in the Cricket World Cup, match betting is slightly easier. Also betting on the tournament winner, golden bat, and golden ball winners are popular with cricket bettors.
T20 World Cup
Outright bets on the eventual winner of the tournament are very popular. Also, betting on whether teams will make it out of their group is another common wager. Because games come thick and fast in the group stage, there’s a lot of opportunity for match betting, and people like to combine various match bets into accumulators.
The Indian Premier League
There are tons of IPL betting sites in India, and some of the most popular markets featured are overall tournament winners and what players will win the Orange cap, Purple cap, and the MVP.
Ranji Trophy
Betting on the outright winner before the tournament is a big fan favourite and offers up some great odds if you go for one of the lesser favoured teams.
Asia Cup
5 Expert Tips & Strategies for Betting on Cricket
Now that you know what cricket betting is and how to bet on cricket, the next step, and probably the most important, is learning how to win in cricket betting by learning tips. To help you out with this, we have revealed our top five cricket betting tips and tricks below.
Tip #1: Manage Your Bankroll
One major mistake new bettors make is betting all their bankroll in one or two bets. There are different ways to manage your bankroll, but when first starting, it’s a good idea to place between 1%-3% of your total bankroll on any single bet. This decreases your risk, increases your chance of long-term profitability, and gives you betting longevity.
Tip #2: Do Your Research
Before betting on any sport, you should have a solid understanding of all the rules and be familiar with the players, coaches, teams, and tournaments. Learning a team/player’s style, strengths, and weaknesses is invaluable when it comes to making predictions.
In addition, like most sports, form can play a big factor in games. Teams can go on hot or cold streaks, so it’s important to study up on a team and individual players’ recent form. Also, stay updated with team news because if a team is missing one or more important players, this could affect their chances.
Tip #3: Check Pitch and Weather Conditions
Not all cricket pitches are the same, and the pitch conditions will suit certain players more. For example, a flat track pitch makes it harder for fast and spin bowlers.
Weather can also seriously impact a game. Firstly, if it rains, then this will change the pitch conditions, and wet ground is seen as much harder for batsmen. Secondly, weather can halt games, leading to no results or, in the case of India in the 2023 Asian games, winning a gold medal because they were the higher-ranked team, and the game could not be completed due to rain.
Tip #4: Make Use of Expert Tips
A quick search of the internet for tips for cricket betting will bring up a whole host of free resources. These can be extremely helpful in forming your cricket betting strategy, as many of these tipsters have years of experience and do a lot of research. You can either follow their advice or use their research when forming your predictions to save time.
Tip #5: Broaden Your Bets
When first starting, the best cricket betting strategy is to keep it simple, betting on things like match winners and over/unders. However, once you’ve built up your knowledge and experience, you should try to diversify your bets with various props, futures bets, and live betting in cricket matches. Broadening your betting portfolio will help you find more good value bets.
How to Bet on Live Cricket
Live betting on cricket matches is one of the most exciting ways to bet on the game. Traditional betting was mostly pre-game, meaning you placed a wager before a match had begun. With live betting at online sportsbooks, you can place a bet on the game after it’s started right up until it’s done.
The answer to how to bet in cricket live is essentially the same as just how to bet on cricket. The only difference is that at most sports betting sites, rather than clicking on the cricket section, you need to click on “live betting” and find the live cricket match there. It’s important to remember that with live bets, odds on bets are changing constantly, so if you see a bet with odds you like, be sure to bet quickly.
Conclusion
After reading this guide, you should fully understand how to bet on cricket in India. As you would have seen, the sport provides a wealth of betting opportunities year-round, which makes it one of the best sports to wager on.
It’s also a great choice because getting started is simple, yet there are so many different types of bets that, as your experience grows, you can branch out into more complex strategies. Just make sure to gamble responsibly, take it slow at first, follow our tips for cricket betting, do your research, and you’re sure to be an expert at how to win in cricket betting in no time.
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