Cricket is one of the oldest games and also one of the most popular sports in the world now. So naturally betting on cricket is widespread, although illegal in some countries like India. Cricket betting is completely legal in countries like South Africa, and so it is the biggest market for placing cricket bets in the world.

For those who are experienced in betting in other sports, cricket is a much more complicated game than other games, say football or hockey and hence the betting fields are also complicated. It may make take some time for a newbie to learn about how betting odds work in cricket.

This is compounded by the fact that cricket if played in three formats:

• Test Cricket: played over 5 days

• 50-over cricket: lasts for about 8 hours

• 20-over Cricket: lasts for about 3 ½ hours

Types of Bets

In cricket bettor use both ways of betting: odds betting and spread betting, the former being much simpler than the latter. Those who are new to cricket naturally tend to use odd betting, which involves simply determining the winner and loser in each match.

Although easier, the money involved in odds betting is usually big.

Those who know the game inside out use spread betting, in which the predict many fields such as the team score, individual score, individual

bowling performance, player of the match and so on. Spread betting generally earns more money than odds betting in cricket.

Parameters influencing betting odds

Cricket betting odds are influenced by more parameters than other ball games owing to its complexity. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Run Rate: This is the rate at which the batting team scores its runs. The run rate is more unpredictable in the shorter versions of the game, than the longer versions.

Fielding Capability: this is the ability of the fielding team to minimize the number of runs that they concede. This can affect the run rate

considerably.

Weather: weather also plays a very important in the results and hence the odds of the match. It plays a more important role in limited overs

cricket since results are declared under most circumstances and drawn matches are very rare.

Thorough Research

Cricket betting requires a more deep research about the players and teams involved. Unlike other sports, in cricket, even if a batsman in injured,

he can play very well and influence the results of the match single handedly. So it becomes even more difficult to predict the odds especially in

spread betting.

At this point, the 50-over format of the cricket is the biggest market for bets, and is slowly being overtaken by the 20-over format, since it is

popular in more countries than the longer versions.

As the 20 over version becomes more and more popular cricket betting is going to grow into a huge market just like soccer or the NBA. Those

who are interested in the market but are new to cricket might want to start getting to know more about the workings of the game of cricket.