How to Bet on Cricket Online from India
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world [1], and the sport is one that has seen massive growth within the betting industry over the last decade or so.
The exposure that cricket now receives from many television outlets is likely one of the main reasons as to why the sport has seen this growth.
Within the boundaries of India it goes without saying that cricket is a sport that is huge. The country goes mad for cricket and many play the game every week.
It’s likely that cricket betting won’t become as popular as football betting worldwide, but it makes up a massive betting market in its own right, especially with Indian Premier League.
We have compiled a collection of information for those looking to up their skills at online cricket betting, including strategy, tips, and equally important, a list of the most trusted cricket betting sites for India.
Betway is the preferred sportsbook to bet on cricket and world sports. This is one of the few sportsbooks that accept accounts in rupees directly, deposits and withdrawals can be made using Neteller, Skrill and credit cards.
Betfair is one of the top 3 Bet Exchanges in the world, a practice similar to the stock exchange only that with sport bets instead of odds. Trade cricket odds several times during a match or place common bets. Deposits can be made using Neteller, Skrill and credit cards directly from India.
Choosing a Bookmaker for Cricket Betting Online
With this guide we will show you explain what you need to know to bet on cricket from India. The first section will look at picking a bookmaker. It won’t take long to realise that there are dozens of bookmakers out there all looking to get you through their doors. While the choice may be overwhelming for some, it actually puts you, the punter, in a very strong position when picking your bookmaker.
Not only can you target a bookmaker that will best meet your needs, but you will also have the competition fighting hard to get you to sign up, often throwing a number of freebies in your direction. That being said, it’s important not to get your head turned too much by it all and concentrate on making decisions that will aid you further down the line.
Our top recommended bookmaker for cricket is Betway. They offer the most betting options for international and domestic tournaments, including IPL. In addition, they accept INR for deposit. They even allow you to view bets in INR which is helpful.
1. Reputation and Trust
Before considering anything else with regard to online betting sites, we recommend looking at the reputation of a given site.
If it has a weak reputation, we do not recommend using them. Even if they have offer huge bonuses, great betting markets, etc. None of it matters if you risk not being paid when you win.
The best way to be safe is to only deal with sites that have a long standing history. This is one of the reasons Betway is at the top of our list as well. They began their online presence in 2000, but their company history dates back to 1974. They are one of the most respected bookmakers in the industry.
2. Odds and Pricing
Once you’ve managed to find a suitable bonus deal that you think will work best for you, the next factor that you need to do is look at the pricing that is available for the cricket markets that you want to bet on. Unfortunately, one of the downsides with online cricket betting as opposed to something like football betting, is that the competitive pricing of odds just isn’t there. The margins that you can find with football betting are much larger than that of cricket.
That kind of works in two ways though, as whichever bookmaker you pick you will likely be getting somewhere near industry best priced. Having said that, it’s not the case on all markets to pick from. Competitions such as the IPL and International Test series are going to be much more competitive from a betting odds perspective.
We always highly recommend that as an informed bettor, you should be comparing each bookmaker to see which markets are best priced. There aren’t really any programs that you can use to make this task any easier than simply going through and manually checking. While it may seem like a tedious process, a little time spent before deciding on your bookmaker should reap the rewards later down the line. You can view our cricket odds feed to make this task a bit easier.
3. Markets and Betting Options
Next up you need to make sure the bookmaker entertains a wide range of markets to bet on. While pretty much every bookmaker will supply some markets for cricket betting, the range in which they are covered can vary quite drastically. Again, unlike a sport such as football, the coverage can be very hit or miss. Games generally aren’t covered in all that great a detail, but the majority of larger bookmakers will have a wide selection to choose from.
IPL cricket betting will pull in a much larger range of markets than say the lower state leagues throughout India. But there are bookmakers that will cover even these lower leagues to a reasonable standard at least. It’s important to determine which markets you want to bet on and then go and see which bookmakers cover them in the greatest detail. We mentioned earlier about picking bookmakers that have the best odds around, but if they don’t cover the markets you are looking to bet on, then there’s very little point in actually signing up.
In addition, some bookmakers will only offer win, lose, or draw, options for certain matches, while other sites will offer a larger variety of betting options for a particular match including prob bets, and live betting options.
If you are interested in betting on more than just the outcome of the match, be sure to see if the sites offer a wide range of betting options for the markets you are most interested in.
4. Bonuses and Promotions
The easiest way in which bookmakers will look to entice you in is by offering a cricket welcome bonuses.
These bonuses may not be directly linked to betting on cricket at all, but they will likely include the sport as an option to bet on to release any promotions they are offering.
Bonus offers usually range from sports betting, casino chance games and skill games like poker.
They will also range, pretty drastically in what they will offer you, with free bets, cash back and enhanced odds being favorites.
You may wonder why we have this listed last as it is often the first thing considered by many bettors. The reason is simple, we would rather have a trusted site and diverse betting options than a big betting bonus.
Not to say that bonuses aren’t important, but many shady or otherwise low quality betting sites will offer huge bonuses to lure in new players. Typically, the better sites don’t have to do this because players come to them because of the quality they provide.
It’s important to know what kind of bettor you are or are likely to be before signing up to a bookmaker to insure that you get the maximum return from your registration.
Low Volume. For those of you who are looking to get in quick, earn some free cash and probably look to use the bookmaker sparingly, then you need to be looking at free bets with low deposit options. These likely come with the easiest of clearing processes so it means that it will take you a minimum number of bets to claim any free money.
High Volume. For those of you who are looking at spending a fair amount of time at a bookmaker and are looking to make a considerable number of bets over the coming weeks then you should be looking at the upper scale of the deposit bonuses. Often these types of promotions will take longer to clear, but they will offer you a lot more money than a one of free bet.
If you are planning on hanging around anyway, then the added length in time it takes to receive your bonus will mean that you make much more money as a result.
As a final note when it comes to looking to get your open account promotions, we would highly recommend that you look at the bookmaker’s terms and conditions before doing so. This will include information about exactly how much you can make, how long a timescale you have to make this money and any clearing requirements that are needed to make your free money. Sometimes a betting promotion will seem enticing, but the requirements to receive full benefit can be unrealistic. This goes back to the saying that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. You will find that the more reputable sites offer smaller bonuses or promotions but with better terms and conditions.
It’s also going to be worth to see where cricket betting comes into these free bets. It’s going to be highly likely that the majority of online cricket betting markets will all count towards your promotion, but sometimes they are targeted towards the bigger sports such as football and horse racing, so make sure you check!
Making your Selections
After you have put in the effort to make sure you have selected a bookmaker that is going to give a good range of markets to bet on, competitive pricing and a decent sign up promotion, it’s now time to start placing your bets and essentially make some money.
Professional bettors will spend the majority of their day researching possible bets that they think will yield them a decent return. Research should make up the majority of your betting time and even if you aren’t a professional bettor and have a regular 9-5 job, then you need to make sure that however much time you can afford to invest into betting, should be done researching picks for value bets.
Cricket is a sport that has more variables than most. Everything from team selection, pitch condition, form, head to heads and even the weather can have a huge effect on the betting markets. In fact, it’s argued that cricket is a sport where a lot of bettors actually get lost and over think their bets.
You can ever be over prepared, but there does have to be some cut off as to how much time you invest into your picks.
First thing you need to really understand is the format of the game you want to bet on. So this might T20, ODI or Test match cricket. While one team might excel at a certain format of the game, they may be completely rubbish at another. Make sure you invest your time researching picks for a specific format of the game and whilst we wouldn’t say dismiss their form in other formats altogether, don’t get too hung up if they are struggling in one.
What’s easy to do is to see what other tipsters have selected for their bets. This is a great way to research your bets if you have very limited time available to do it yourself. It works especially well if you can find some reputable tipsters or even better, ex/current professionals who have made a selection, with others in the game agreeing with them. These guys will generally know what they are on about and at least you have some sort of backbone to your picks, rather than just betting for the sake of doing so.
Things to Consider
- The first is likely the golden rule of sports betting and that is to bet ONLY what you can afford to lose.
You should never be betting with money that is important to you or money that you need to live off. Unless you are a pro bettor, betting should be seen as a hobby or pastime, but one you can actually profit off. Betting out of your means will lead to a slippery slope and you will likely start betting without a clear mind that most often leads to even bigger losses. Set a limit and stick to it.
- To start off, we highly recommend sticking with the betting markets that you are familiar with.
This may be a certain league, team or format of the game, but just until you familiarize with the ins and outs of your bookmaker, stick with what you know! As you begin to become more profitable with these types of bets then you can start to expand into other aspects of betting markets and even sports, if you wish.
References:
[1] economist.com, Ranking Sports Popularity, And the Silver Goes To, 2011
