The sport brought by the British in the early 1700s proved to be a perfect fit for the Indian athletes and spectators alike. Cricket enjoyed massive popularity ever since its early days in the country. However, the sport became a global success after the Board of Control for Cricket in India established the Indian Premier League as the main domestic competition. By 2014, the IPL was ranked sixth when talking about average attendance among all sports leagues in the world.
Naturally, such a popular sport attracted the bookmaker’s attention from an early stage. Actually, one can argue that online betting sites also played a role in accelerating cricket’s expansion globally. No matter if that’s true or not, one thing is certain - there are millions of punters betting on cricket, especially the IPL. If you’re a huge cricket fan but never experienced online betting, we’re covering all the essential info in this article. From how online betting works, to the most lucrative betting markets, everything is thoroughly analyzed.
Most Popular Cricket Betting Markets
Cricket offers fans numerous ways to bet on matches and support their favorite team. Most online bookmakers out there come with diverse betting markets so enthusiasts can make predictions on all sorts of events during a game, or the entire league. No matter if we’re talking about betting on the T20 games, one-day internationals, or test cricket, these betting markets will help you maximize your chances for profit.
- Match Outcome - most people that bet on cricket stick to predicting the winner in a given clash. Called “Match Outcome”, this wager can have two possible outcomes in overs matches - either of the teams to win. However, in Test matches, there’s also the possibility for a draw.
- Series Winner - cricket competitions that require a series of matches between two teams to establish the winner also comes with the possibility to place a Series Winner bet. You basically predict the winning team after all the matches in the series are played.
- Outright Winner - similar to the Series Winner bet, the Outright Winner wager allows punters to place an early bet on the winner of a competition such as the IPL, or the ICC World Cup for example.
- Top Batsman - if betting on the winner of a match or tournament seems like too general for you, there’s plenty of options to go deeper. And betting on the Top Batsman is a great opportunity for that. You’ll place your money on which player will score the most runs in a game interval, or a tournament. Top Batsman wagers can be placed on an innings, a single match, or a series. Since this bet is more complicated to predict, the odds are usually much higher compared to the previously-mentioned wagers.
- Man of the Match - often confused with the “Top Batsman” wager, this one has a bit more complexity in it. Establishing the Man of the Match is more than just scoring runs. A bowler delivering a spell that takes multiple wickets is a good example of a player that can get the man of the match award. It’s usually a bet preferred by punters that choose live betting as they can evaluate the players as the game unfolds.
- Number of Boundaries - another popular bet among cricket fans is the one on the total number of boundaries. It applies the fours and sixes alike and it can refer to an entire match, the number of boundaries for one of the team, or even specific players.
