While it hasn’t taken hold in the U.S., cricket is one of the oldest and most popular sports in the world. Invented as a bat-and-ball game in the 16th century in England, it’s now played worldwide and is especially popular in the U.K., India and Australia.
With cricket’s global popularity, many U.S. sportsbooks offer it as a betting market. People in legal sports betting states can wager and win real money betting on cricket.
Interested in betting on cricket but not sure how? Fortunately, we’ve put together a guide that covers the basics of betting on cricket to help you get started.
Cricket Bet Types
You can bet on cricket in a few different ways, which we’ll dive into below.
Moneyline
The moneyline is the most straightforward bet. It’s a simple wager on which team will win the match. The favorite will have minus odds (e.g., -140), while the underdog will have plus odds (e.g., +140).
You don’t have to worry about the margin of victory with the moneyline. It doesn’t matter if a team wins by one run or 100 – you’re simply picking which side will come out on top.
That makes the moneyline a good starting point for newer bettors. The moneyline is also the most widely available bet type for cricket, as some books don’t offer any markets beyond that.
Spread
Spread betting is different in cricket compared to other sports like football or basketball, where you’re simply wagering on whether a team will win or lose by a certain number of points. If you bet on a team to cover a 10-point spread, your payout is the same if the team wins by 12 points or 20. If your bet loses, you only lose your initial stake.
However, that’s not the case in cricket. The spread is a range of how many runs a team will score, and your payout or loss depends on how much the team goes Over or Under that number.
For example, a sportsbook could set the spread between 290 (sell price) and 300 (buy price) runs for New Zealand.
Say you think New Zealand will score more than 300 runs and put $10 on the buy price. If your bet is correct, you’ll earn $10 for each run that New Zealand goes over 300. So, if New Zealand scores 304 runs, you’d profit $40 ($10 x 4).
Conversely, if your bet loses, you’ll lose $10 for each run below the total. So, if New Zealand only scores 290 runs, you’ll lose $100 ($10 x 10).
Accordingly, these bets are high-risk but high-reward, as you stand to win or lose much more than your initial stake. Spread bets are more complicated and riskier than moneyline wagers, so make sure you understand how they work and do your research before betting on them.
If you’re looking to bet on the margin of victory in cricket, that’s called a supremacy spread. Similarly, you will win or lose more money than you put down depending on the margin of victory.
Over/Under
The Over/Under, also known as the total, refers to the total number of runs scored in a match by both teams combined. Unlike spread betting in cricket, it doesn’t matter by how many runs the Over or Under hits.
Similarly, it’s also possible to bet on the Over/Under for the number of runs scored by one team in the match.
Over/Unders are relatively easy to understand. If you think the match will have a high score, take the Over. If you’re expecting a lower-scoring game, take the Under.
Prop Bets
If you’re looking to dive deeper, cricket also has plenty of prop bets to wager on. These bets concern specific outcomes for a game, team or player.
Game props include markets like the Over/Under for total match fours and total match sixes.
Team props are team-specific props, like how many total runs a team will score or how many total fours it will have.
Player props are wagers on individual players, such as how many total runs a player will score.
Prop bets are more complex and require more research than the traditional markets listed above, making them better options for serious bettors and cricket fans.
Parlays
Parlays involve combining multiple bets into a single bet. Every component of the bet, called a leg, must come true for the bet to win. These bets are riskier than straight bets like moneylines and Over/Unders, but they come with increased odds and higher potential payouts if they win.
Cricket bettors can easily build parlays using the markets above, like picking three different teams you think will win and rolling them into one bet.
They can also assemble same-game parlays using multiple markets and prop bets within a specific matchup.
Since parlays are all-or-nothing bets, they’re harder to hit consistently than straight wagers and are difficult to profit from. Accordingly, bettors should mainly focus on standard markets, which are more likely to win.
Live Betting on Cricket
While the betting examples outlined above were pre-game wagers, it’s also possible to place most of those bet types once a match has started.
Betting on a match already in progress is called live betting, and it’s become increasingly popular thanks to online betting. Now that bettors can wager on the go via mobile apps, it’s easier than ever to bet after a match has started.
Live betting is especially popular in cricket thanks to its languid pace. Matches are long and typically take three or four hours to complete, giving bettors plenty of time to wager on a match in progress.
Odds fluctuate constantly throughout a match depending on the flow, giving bettors potentially profitable odds if they strike at the right time. For example, a pre-match moneyline favorite might have plus odds during a match if they fall behind early.
Live betting also allows bettors to see how a match unfolds before placing a wager, which can be helpful if they don’t have a strong lean going into a match. If one team jumps out to an early lead, you can bet on them to keep it up and win the match.
Bettors can also use live betting to hedge a pre-game bet that isn’t going well. If you bet on a team that immediately gets off to a poor start, you can pivot and bet on the opponent to try to offset your losses.
Anything can happen in a match, so live bets can still backfire. It’s also possible that the odds won’t be as favorable during a match if one team grabs a big lead.
That said, live betting can be a valuable and potentially profitable strategy for cricket bettors if they time their bets well and strike before the odds shift.
Photo by Pankaj Nangia-ICC/ICC via Getty Images
