Skip to main content

the IPL approaches

The mad crash and bash of the Indian Premier League cricket starts on Saturday with two matches. Last year it was new and innovative. This year it's a second series, played outside of India because of security issues and it's just before the Ashes. Just how big will it be? At least this time, there should be decent lighting and far less smog to deal with which makes watching cricket under lights in India very hard to watch.

Catch the action on Setanta Sports in the UK or via live streaming on the IPL website.

For betting on these games, you need at least three different options:

Betfair - that's a no-brainer.

SportingIndex - plenty of additional options with spread betting.

Cricketbetlive - specialist cricket bookie licensed in Australia and the UK, offering a lot of variety in markets (moving run lines etc), tight margins (the only bookies anywhere to show the market %!) and they cater for pros. You won't get any of the "you can have a maximum of five pounds on that sir" service from them - pity they don't do more sports in that regard! They might be new in the UK, but have been operating in Australia for a decade.

Also, a key point to remember: make sure you are familiar with the rules of every firm you bet with. Betfair will void all bets on ties. Cricketbetlive will bet to the rules of the Indian bookie. Spread firms have different markets, different rules. Other bookies will vary on different markets... and that applies to just about every sport.

Comments

  1. Nice. I wasn't familiar with CBL. It looks to offer a good fixed odds alternative to some of the spread markets. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments, but if you're a spammer, you've just wasted your time - it won't get posted.

Popular posts from this blog

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also, ...

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur...