Cricket Betting

Cricket betting means staking on the result of a match, a series or a player’s performance, and the right market depends heavily on the format: Test, One Day International (ODI) or Twenty20 (T20). This guide covers the tournaments bettors follow, how each market settles, worked odds examples, and the rain and tie rules that catch people out.

Cricket betting: the main tournaments

Cricket betting is busiest around six events: the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, The Ashes, the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Big Bash League (BBL) and The Hundred. Each has its own format, calendar and favourite markets.

ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup

The men’s Cricket World Cup began in 1975 and has produced six different winners in 13 editions: West Indies (1975, 1979), India (1983, 2011), Australia (1987, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2015, 2023), Pakistan (1992), Sri Lanka (1996) and England (2019). Australia’s six titles explain why they are rarely long odds in outright markets.

The 2027 edition is hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, with 14 teams playing 57 matches. The ICC’s schedule release has India v Australia in Cape Town on 7 October, India v Pakistan in Johannesburg on 10 October and the final in Johannesburg on 21 November.

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

India won the 2026 T20 World Cup by beating New Zealand by 96 runs in the final in Ahmedabad on 8 March 2026, making them the first team to defend the title and the first to win it three times, as the ICC’s records round-up shows. The next edition is due in 2028 in Australia and New Zealand, according to Sky Sports.

The Ashes

The Ashes is a Test series between England and Australia dating back to 1882, usually five Tests over about six weeks. That gives bettors several layers to price: series winner, series score, each Test (with the draw as a third result), top run-scorer and top wicket-taker. The next series in England is due in 2027.

Indian Premier League

The IPL launched in 2008 and is the most heavily bet-on T20 league. In 2026 Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Gujarat Titans by five wickets in Ahmedabad, with Virat Kohli unbeaten on 75 off 42 balls, and became only the third franchise to win back-to-back titles, according to Yahoo Sports’ awards report.

The same report shows how the season-long markets paid out: Rajasthan Royals’ 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi won the Orange Cap with 776 runs, and Gujarat Titans’ Kagiso Rabada took the Purple Cap with 29 wickets. A teenager topping the run charts is the kind of result that long-shot Orange Cap prices exist for, though you should not build a plan around it.

Big Bash League

The Big Bash League is Australia’s eight-team T20 competition, played over the Australian summer. Fixtures, results and the current schedule are on the official Big Bash League site.

The Hundred

The Hundred is the 100-ball competition the ECB launched in 2021, with eight city-based teams and men’s and women’s matches on the same day. In 2026 Manchester Super Giants won the men’s title, ESPNcricinfo’s final report says, beating Trent Rockets by five wickets at Lord’s with Tim Seifert making 72 off 38 balls. Oval Invincibles had won the previous three men’s titles, so the 2026 result shows how open a 100-ball competition can be.

Other tournaments with regular betting markets include the Caribbean Premier League, the Pakistan Super League, SA20, England’s T20 Blast and county cricket, plus bilateral Test, ODI and T20 series between national sides.

How to choose a cricket betting site

The best cricket betting site offers fair prices, deep in-play markets, easy payments and clear rules for rain and abandoned matches. Welcome offers matter less than these four things, because you will use the site long after the offer is gone. Our best sports betting sites and best UKGC betting sites pages compare operators side by side.

Bonuses and promotions

Offers differ a lot, so read the terms before you opt in. You may get a free bet for registering, a match bonus on a first deposit, or both, and loyalty and reload offers can follow.

Check the minimum odds, any wagering requirement, how long the offer lasts, and whether the free bet stake is returned with winnings (it usually is not). Our best betting bonuses page shows live offers for your country.

Live betting

A good in-play section lets you bet while the match is on, which suits a sport where one over can change the game. Look for markets beyond match winner: runs in the next over, powerplay wickets (the powerplay is the first six overs of a T20 innings), next wicket method, session runs in Tests and the innings total line.

A live stream on the same site is a real advantage. Broadcast delays can mean you are betting on stale information, and bookmakers suspend markets quickly after a wicket.

Odds and margins

Compare prices before you bet, because the same team can be priced differently across bookmakers. At decimal odds of 1.35, a £10 stake returns £13.50 (£3.50 profit); at 1.55 it returns £15.50 (£5.50 profit), and the implied chance falls from about 74% to about 65%.

Every price also carries the bookmaker’s margin, the built-in edge. In a two-way match winner market, odds of 1.91 on both teams imply 52.4% each, a total of 104.7%, so the margin is about 4.7%. At 1.95 on both sides the total is 102.6%, and a £100 winning stake returns £195 instead of £191.

Deposits and withdrawals

Look for options beyond debit cards, such as e-wallets like PayPal, Neteller and Skrill, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay on mobile. Some e-wallet deposits are excluded from welcome offers, so check first. Our best betting apps page covers operators that work well on a phone.

Verify your account early, because identity checks can delay a first withdrawal. Online betting is legal in some countries and restricted in others, sometimes region by region, so use only operators licensed to accept customers where you live. Readers in specific markets can start with our UK betting sites, Canada betting sites and Nigeria betting sites pages.

How is cricket betting different in Test, ODI and T20 matches?

The format changes the market structure, the main price drivers and what rain does to your bet. Test matches have three results because they can end in a draw, while ODI and T20 matches are normally two-way.

Form in one format is a weak guide to another: a side that dominates Tests can be ordinary in T20, and the reverse.

Cricket betting markets explained

Almost everything a bookmaker lists falls into four groups: match, player, series and novelty markets. Names vary between sites, and many still use “batsman” where the sport now says “batter”.

Match markets

Player markets

Series and tournament markets

Toss and novelty markets

Win toss is a near 50-50 call on which side wins the coin toss, so prices are short on both sides. Toss combination adds a second leg: you pick the toss winner and whether they bat or bowl first, and both parts must be right. The decision to bat or bowl often depends on conditions and dew, which makes it slightly more informed than a plain coin flip.

Cricket betting strategy: five habits and the mistakes to avoid

A sound cricket betting strategy is mostly discipline: know the format, read the conditions, check team news, compare prices and stake a small fixed share of your bankroll. Our betting guides cover the wider basics.

1. Know the format. Test, ODI and T20 reward different skills, as the comparison above shows.
2. Read the conditions. Pitch, weather, boundary size and dew (evening moisture that makes the ball harder to grip and chasing easier) all move the likely score and the value of winning the toss.
3. Check team news. Late changes to the XI, injuries and rested bowlers can change a price within minutes of the toss.
4. Use real statistics. Venue records, head-to-head and recent form are easy to look up on ESPNcricinfo’s Statsguru, and a ground’s average first-innings score is more useful than a team’s reputation.
5. Stake a fixed small percentage. A common rule is 1% to 2% of your betting bankroll per bet, so on a £500 bankroll that is £5 to £10.

Worked example: the margin in a Test match market

Suppose a bookmaker prices a Test at 2.00 home, 3.20 draw and 3.75 away. Those imply 50.0%, 31.3% and 26.7%, a total of 107.9%, so the margin is about 7.9%.

That is far higher than the 4.7% in the two-way example earlier. Three-way markets and markets with many runners generally cost more, which is another reason to shop around.

Worked example: the dead-heat rule

You back a bowler to take the most wickets in a series with £10 at 5.00 (4/1). If two bowlers finish level on wickets, dead-heat rules split your stake in half: £5 wins at 5.00 and returns £25, and the other £5 loses. Your profit is £15 instead of the £40 you expected.

Common mistakes

• Building long accumulators. Four selections at 1.91 each pay about £133 from a £10 stake, but if each side really has a 52.4% chance, all four win only about 7.5% of the time, and the margin compounds on every leg. Our betting tools include an accumulator calculator.
• Treating odd/even and toss bets as strategy. They are close to coin flips with a margin on top.
• Not reading settlement rules. Most disputes come from ties, rain and void rules, not from the result itself.
• Chasing losses in play. Fast ball-by-ball markets make it easy to stake more than planned.

What happens to cricket bets in rain, ties and abandoned matches?

It depends on the format and market, so read the bookmaker’s rules before staking. As a general guide, a match winner bet on an abandoned match with no result is usually void, while a bet on a rain-shortened match usually stands on the official result.

In limited-overs cricket, a reduced game is often decided using the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method, which sets a revised target for the side batting second. A tie and a draw are different results: a tie means both sides finished level, while a draw means time ran out in a Test with the scores not level. Tied match prices are long because ties are rare, and bookmakers differ on whether a Super Over counts.

Cricket betting: what to remember before you bet

Pick a format you follow, learn how a market settles before you stake on it, and compare prices across at least two sites. If you are new, start with match winner and use the betting tools to check the margin before you move to player markets.