How does Cricket Betting work?

This guide will help punters gain a bigger, better understanding of cricket betting. The sport is played across different formats and high-profile competitions such as the Cricket World Cup, the Big Bash, the IPL and the Ashes.

How does cricket betting work?

Because there are so many online cricket betting opportunities across the various tournaments and matches played throughout the year, there is a lot to take in.

So, if you are looking for a better understanding of how cricket betting works, then look no further. In our guide to cricket betting, we break down the main areas and explore the different types of bets that can be commonly found and how they relate to the format of cricket being played.

What can you bet on cricket?

Most punters will go straight to the main market of picking a match winner for cricket betting. It’s still the most favourable approach because it’s simple, accessible, and can easily be backed up by some basic research into stats.

Taking that a step further, in a similar vein, other popular outright cricket betting markets are often used. Picking the winner of a tournament such as the Cricket World Cup or the IPL before a competition has started is hugely popular.

This is where longer prices can be found in online cricket betting, due to the unpredictability of a long-drawn-out tournament. The fun of a long-term cricket bet like this, however, is that you can track it for an entire season. 

Many options for cricket betting

However, there are various other options that you can bet on in cricket. For individual matches, there are popular markets based on the score and the performances of individual players, for example.

It could be selecting the top batsman or bowler in a fixture, an over/under selection on the total runs scored in the match, or even who is going to be the nominated man of the match. 

For a Test series, you can find correct score options for the result of the series, or even score handicaps. Cricket betting options such as To Reach Semi-Finals, or Stage Of Elimination can be found for tournaments and leagues.

Single bets on outcomes are hugely popular, and they make for a tremendous entry point into how to bet on cricket. As the knowledge of cricket betting grows, however, further markets can be explored to try to unlock value picks from other sources.

Cricket formats

Part of what makes cricket betting so exciting and engaging is the different formats that the sport is played across. Because of the different styles of play, from the long wars of attrition in a five-day Test match to the rapid-scoring power hitting in a T20 match, each format is very nuanced.

This is an important thing to remember for cricket betting. You are going to be looking at different types of bets depending on the kind of format that is being played. It’s a good idea as a beginner to stick with the betting options on your favourite format first.

You can then incorporate betting from other forms of cricket as you go along. There is no rush in cricket betting. The more time that you can put into fully understanding cricket betting odds, how to read statistics, and more, the better off you will be.

Here is a look at the different cricket formats.

Test cricket

Arguably, the pinnacle of the sport is Test cricket. This is the traditional format of the game, where matches are played (most commonly) over five days. Matches can finish earlier than the designated five days, depending on how things go. 

The run rate in a Test match is a lot slower than an ODI match, for example. Preservation of wickets, as teams try to bed in at the crease for as long as possible is the key to successful Test cricket. Test series are usually played over the best of three or best of five matches.

First-class cricket

First-class cricket can be found in domestic cricket around the world. It’s a shorter format than Test matches, usually played across three or four days. As in Test match cricket, each team gets two innings each.

The term ‘first-class cricket’ can be applied to Tests and Twenty20 depending on the level of competition. As the name suggests, it is deemed to be the highest class of cricket played, regardless of the format. 

However, you’ll most commonly see the term ‘first-class cricket’ referring to domestic competitions as opposed to international fixtures.

One Day Cricket

One Day Cricket is played both at the domestic and international levels. The latter is called One Day Internationals, and it is the format of the Cricket World Cup. Each team competing in a match has an innings of 50 Overs (maximum) to bat through. 

The team that amasses the most runs on the day is declared the winner. It’s the original short format of cricket and one that sticks around today. However, with the rise of other shorter formats, it has become a little less popular.

Twenty20

When Twenty20 came along, it revolutionised the sport. The hard-hitting format of the game was designed to attract new fans to the sport and it has accomplished that. The IPL, Big Bash, T20 Blast, the T20 World Cup, and newer competitions such as SA20 and the Pakistan Super League are a testament to that.

Twenty20 cricket has led to big franchises and player auctions because of the huge money that has been put into the game.

Because the style of play in Twenty20 cricket is the polar opposite of Test matches – trying to score as quickly and as heavily as possible in just 20 overs – it is a dynamic, thrilling, and far more accessible form of cricket.

It’s great for TV broadcasts and fans travelling to matches after work to watch an evening match, as T20 matches last only around three hours in total. 

The Hundred

The introduction of The Hundred in England brought the newest format of cricket into the spotlight. An innings in The Hundred is 100 balls. The Hundred sees each of the participating teams have both a men’s and a women’s squad. 

The alternative format introduced new rules to the game, really breaking away from more traditional formats. The premise, which has city-based teams, hasn’t grown beyond England yet, however.

League Betting Terms

League and competition betting do have a lot of very interesting options. A lot of variety for cricket betting can be pulled from it, and here are some of the popular areas.

Outright Winner

Regardless of the tournament, be it the Cricket World Cup or the IPL, punters can simply select which team they think are going to win a competition or league outright. It’s common to study the draw and relative form of the teams involved ahead of the start of a competition to make informed choices. The further out that you make a long-term selection in cricket betting, the better the odds are likely to be.

Player Of The Tournament

A popular pre-tournament pick in leagues and competitions across all formats of cricket is selecting the Player of the Tournament. Depending on the competition, this could be called different things, such as in the IPL, where the award is called the Most Valuable Player. A selection can be a batsman, bowler, or even in extremely rare circumstances a wicketkeeper. It’s just the top performer overall.

Top Batsman or Top Bowler 

Another popular way of betting on cricket is to select the Top Batsman or Top Bowler in a league season or a tournament. These are straightforward proposition wagers where punters will look for players who are in form ahead of the competition. 

Which batsman out of all the players is going to amass the most amount of runs in the Twenty20 World Cup? Which bowler is going to claim the highest tally of wickets in a Big Bash season? 

Tournament And League Finishes

Another excellent angle for tournament and league betting in cricket is the finishing positions of teams. Breaking a competition down into smaller chunks is often a very accessible and odds-friendly way of approaching cricket betting.

Instead of just picking one team out of the IPL to win outright, you can look for alternative positional finishes – for example, the Mumbai Indians Top Three Finish or England To Reach Semi-Finals in the Cricket World Cup.

Match Betting Terms

The format of the match being played will determine the type of bets you see. Here are some of the most popular match bets in cricket.

As discussed already, this is one of the most popular approaches to cricket betting. You simply pick which team will win the match. The Draw option on the three-way market is there, but it only features strongly in Test Matches and First Class cricket.

An alternative to cricket betting on the match outright is the Draw No Bet option. If you back an India Draw No Bet, you’ll earn winnings if they are victorious, but if the match ends in a draw, a return of stake will happen. It’s good for occasions where you fancy an underdog bet.

Another way to bet on the outcome of a match is with the Double Chance. That is where two of the three-way options (home win, draw or away win) are selected in one bet, just in case you want to cover a couple of options. However, it will be at drastically shorter odds than just a single pick.

A simple match proposition bet is selecting the team that you think will win the toss ahead of a match.

Player Bets

Player bets are a popular approach to online cricket betting. By looking at statistics ahead of a game, you may be able to spot a player who is likely going to perform well in a current fixture. Here are some top betting markets in this area.

Select which of the key batsmen is going to top score in the entire match. The top-order batsmen in a match head up the market in this one. It’s possible to narrow this down to just the top batsman for a specific team. So, it could be just the Top Scorer for the Kolkata Knight Riders in a match, for example. 

Selecting which front-line bowler is going to sweep up the most wickets in a match is another option. Will it be a hard day’s graft on a flat pitch for pace bowlers, but where the spinners could flourish later in the game? Selections for the top bowlers from the individual teams can also be made. 

A simple proposition cricket bet where you select the player who you think is going to be the top performer of the entire match. 

Team Bets

Along with match bets and player bets, cricket punters can also explore options for team bets. This is where they focus on the performance aspects of the collective. 

Highest Opening Partnership

A two-way cricket betting market, this is where the team that will produce the highest opening partnership in a fixture is selected. This can be found in all formats of cricket.

An alternative to selecting an individual player to top score in a match or for their team is to select which of the two teams that the Top Batsman or Top Bowler in the match will come from.

This short-term bet is based solely on the score. It’s an over/under market based on how many runs you think will happen in the first over of a match.

For first-class cricket and Test match cricket, it is possible to select which of the teams will be in the ascendancy on the scoreboard after they have each completed their first innings.

This is another score-based online cricket betting market. Will any player rack up a half-century in the first innings of a match? It’s a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ prop bet.

Similar to the above, you can push for the longer target of a century-maker happening in the first innings of a match. Again, it’s not who will score one, just if one will be produced by any player.

How to bet on cricket online?

As can be seen in this in-depth guide to cricket betting, there are a tremendous amount of options to explore. It’s an exciting world and you want to set yourself up with the best chances of success right across the board. 

• Find yourself a good online betting platform. This is important so that you can get match coverage, good odds, promotional bonuses, and other features such as streams.

• Download a betting app – To make it easier to track cricket betting markets, download a mobile betting app to your device. They are secure, reliable and operate very quickly on devices. Having an app just makes cricket betting accessible from wherever you are.

• Live cricket betting – Take some time to learn and explore the live in-play cricket betting opportunities that will present themselves. It is great for formulating strategy, and potentially hedging pre-match bets as the odds fluctuate.

• Features – There are features at online betting sites that can also enhance your experience. Look for features such as Bet Builders where you can create same-game multi-bets and cash-out. The cash-out feature allows you to settle a bet early if it’s going right, or to pull one out early if it’s going wrong to mitigate a full loss.