To bet on cricket you will need to know some basic information about the types of bets that are made in cricket matches. Essentially, cricket matches allow for two similar yet distinct styles of betting. In basically all sports, bookmakers divide the two participating teams into an underdog and a favourite. The underdog is the team or player that bookmakers expect to lose a given match, while the favourite is the team or player they expect to win. The odds posted by bookmakers reflect these choices. In cricket, the two main styles of betting differ primarily in how they offer odds for the underdog and the favourite.
Money line bets are a type of betting in which odds are created for the underdog and the favourite that reflect their respective likelihoods of winning a match. There are different ways of posting these odds, but a common method is by using positive and negative values. A negative value reflects the favourite’s odds of winning, and directly relates to the payout of a bet, while a positive value reflects an underdog’s odds of winning. For example, a money line bet on cricket might look something like this:
Team A: -200
Team B: 250
In this example, Team A is the favourite, and a two hundred dollar bet placed on them would pay out one hundred dollars. These odds could also be listed as 1:2, meaning for every two dollars you put in you would win one. Obviously, your winnings also include your original bet, so you do not lose money on a bet with a negative ratio. Team B, in this example, is the underdog, and a bet of one hundred dollars placed on them would pay out two hundred and fifty. This could also be represented as 5:2, meaning for every two dollars you wager, you would be paid five (plus your original bet).
As you can see when you bet on cricket using a money line style, bets on the underdog have a much higher payout, but also carry more risk. It is not uncommon to see odds posted that have 5:1 or even higher payouts for underdog victories. In spread betting, on the other hand, bookmakers attempt to make the odds of a bet placed on either the favourite or the underdog roughly equal. This is done by giving a point handicap to the underdog. If a bet is placed on the underdog and they lose the game, as long as it is by a number of points less than the handicap set, a bet placed on the underdog will still pay out.
