Cricket is the most popular sport in India and therefore immensely popular amongst Indian punters to bet on. Whilst authorities have been cracking down on illegal gambling in various Indian states, betting on cricket online is not illegal. But since it is not well-regulated by the Indian government, we have put together a few tips on how to stay safe when betting on cricket online.
Find the best cricket betting sites
When you decide that you want to bet on cricket online, you will likely begin to research which cricket betting sites are available to punters from India. And you will find that there is a surprising number of betting sites that cater to Indian customers.
But are all these betting sites good or safe for you to use? Some of these sites are very well known and offer a professional appearance. That still doesn’t mean that they are your best choice.
Some important things for you to learn about the operators are:
- Licensing and regulation – where are the betting sites licensed? You will find that many of them are licensed in Curacao, but that’s not the safest option as the Curacao government doesn’t offer the most stringent regulations. Look instead for betting sites that hold additional licenses in Europe (such as Malta, Gibraltar or the UK).
- Payout policies – how quickly will you receive your wins? A safe and professional betting site will check and approve your withdrawal request within 24 hours. Depending on your withdrawal method, it should then take no more than 5 days for your winnings to arrive in your own bank account.
- Payment methods – are convenient payment options available? Betting sites that truly welcome Indian players will enable Netbanking, UPI payments, accept PayTM and PhonePe and allow you to deposit, wager and withdraw in INR.
- Bonus conditions – are the bonus terms and conditions fair and transparent? You are likely going to receive a bonus offer when signing up as well as regular ongoing promotions. Make sure to thoroughly check the terms and conditions for their fairness. Sometimes wagering requirements can be prohibitively restrictive, making them a pain rather than a gain.
- Easy-to-use website and mobile apps – This speaks for itself. A betting site should be well-organised, attractive to look at, modern, quick to load, easy to navigate and intuitive to use. If it is cluttered or important information is hidden behind six links, you won’t find betting here enjoyable. The same is true for the mobile app that many betting sites offer.
There is a lot of information to process when looking for the best betting sites, but being thorough here will definitely keep you safe.
Compare the odds
Once you have narrowed down your choices for best betting sites (you will probably be down to two or three sites by now), be sure to compare the cricket odds that the operators offer. They are not likely to differ by much, but the margin that is applied by an operator is the profit they make on each and every bet.
Often, bigger betting sites are able to afford smaller margins because of the sheer number of bets placed there. The margins that they apply do depend on the sport as well. You will find more favourable margins (and therefore better odds) for football than for cricket. But since football is arguably the most played sport in the world, this can hardly be surprising.
Comparing odds is useful when you want to get the best price for your bet. You can safe some money here, which keeps your bankroll safe. And if you find that a bookmaker offers far worse odds than the competition, you can consider this a red flag that tells you to stay away from this one.
Don’t bet with your gut feeling
When betting on cricket online, it’s not just important to find a safe bookmaker to use. Your own betting behaviour is also important. Checking your betting is another way to stay safe online, which includes betting smart.
You can only really bet smart when you let your head decide and not your gut feeling.
It is entirely understandable that you may want to bet on your favourite team or the batsman you have admired for years now. But is your team in top form? Have they won their recent test matches? Is your batsman recovering from an injury? Does your team play on home turf or away? What is the weather forecast like?
There are many questions to consider before placing a bet. Your gut will want to support your team with a bet. But your team doesn’t benefit one way or another from your bet. Only the bookmakers benefit from the bets you place, no matter whether it wins or loses. And if you place a bet that is sure to lose, you will certainly not benefit either.
Betting smartly means that you do your research before placing a bet and put your money on the team/player that is most likely to win after everything has been taken into consideration. You may still lose because chance does play a role. But at least you’ve prepared as well as you could and didn’t just follow a ‘feeling’.
How to safeguard your money when betting online
When we talk about betting safely online, we also have to talk about your money. It is a truth universally acknowledged that the house always wins. The margin a bookmaker takes on every bet is their profit. If you lose your bet, they make even more profit. If you win your bet, the bookmaker is still not the loser as they will still make profit from all the bets placed and lost.
To remain safe when betting online or offline, you need to watch your bankroll. Betting on cricket should be fun and enhance the experience of watching a test match. It shouldn’t just be about the money you can win, but a challenge for your skills of prediction based on the knowledge of the game and teams that are playing.
Winning a bet is exhilarating, of course, but if you only bet with an expectation to win a lot of money and spend excessively, you are not betting safely.
As such, keeping your money safe is a primary concern when betting on cricket online.
This also includes the banking methods that are available at a betting site to make deposits and withdrawals. These should be well-known, convenient and properly secured. Only use a bookmaker that offers a deposit and withdrawal method you prefer and that doesn’t require you to open a new account or sign up for a service you previously did not use.
All transactions should be end-to-end encrypted, and deposits should be immediately available. Withdrawals always take longer, as discussed above, but there should be no inherent problems here either.
Finally, set limits! Set deposit limits to ensure you never have any more money available than you are comfortable to lose.
Set bet limits to ensure you don’t go overboard dreaming of a massive win. Again, if you are not able to afford the loss of the amount you bet, you have taken too much of a risk.
It’s even smart to set win limits. Not because you want to limit how much you win, but to have a limit at which you are happy to stop betting and walk away to enjoy your winnings and return another day.
Setting a bankroll will ensure that you place bets with a specified amount of money, which also allows you to stop once the bankroll is depleted and, ideally, enjoy any winnings that you have made. This requires you to set aside all wins and not use them to bet more.
If you stick to everything outlined in this article, you are definitely going to be safe when betting online. It doesn’t guarantee that you will always win, but the thrill is in never knowing for sure anyway. So, good luck!
