Cricket

As perhaps the most quintessentially English of all of the sports, cricket still holds a place in the heart of British people, as well as fans from all over the world.

Cricket betting naturally goes hand-in-hand with the enjoyment of the great game, with betting sites offering a vast array of different markets that allow you to be while watching the sport.

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The nature of cricket makes it arguably the most suitable to betting in-play, with Test cricket’s slow rhythms and long periods of play where the game is shifting slightly opening up angles for cricket bets too.

At the totally opposite end of the scale is T20 cricket, a relatively new invention that has captured the imagination of the planet, bringing the sport to a whole new audience and bringing young people from the UK and everywhere else into the game.

Here at Betting Top 10, we love all kinds of cricket and in a bid to help you to beat the bookies when gambling on the sport, we have put together this handy guide. Best of luck!

Cricket odds work in essentially the same way as in any other major sports, with punters getting the opportunity to have the odds displayed in either fraction or decimal form.

While the default option is usually fractions and this is how a lot of people will be used to seeing odds, the decimal format can be very useful for those who are totally new to gambling.

Decimal odds are easier to understand on the face of it as they state plainly how much a gambler would receive in return for a £1 stake on a bet – so for example a decimal price of 1.5 means that the total returns would be £1.50, including the initial stake.

Fraction odds are straightforward in their own way too, as the number on the right represents the stake and the number on the left is for the amount the bet would return in profit if it was to win.

So in cricket odds, a fraction bet of 2/1 means £2 profit for every £1 staked and this would be reflected in decimal odds as 3.0 as a result.

Decimal odds are typically used on exchange betting sites such as Betfair, but most traditional bookies will also enable you to switch from fraction to decimal in the settings of your account.

One of the best things about online cricket betting is that due to the global nature of the sport there is always likely to be a match being played somewhere in the UK or abroad, so gamblers will always find something to bet on if they are in the mood for a flutter.

The vast number of types of cricket gambling options can be daunting at first, but the array of markets – which this BettingTop10 guide will come to next – provides different opportunities.

Home advantage counts for more in cricket than a lot of other sports and even a very good international team can struggle when they have to play in unfamiliar conditions, perhaps using a ball they are unused to, in an atmosphere that is unsettling compared to crowds at home.

By the same token, an international player who is featuring for their country on their home ground may be more likely to excel, in which case it could be worth backing them to make a 50 or a 100.

Knowing about pitch conditions and their impact on a game can also help you to be profitable in your betting site accounts when gambling on cricket, as this makes a huge difference to a match.

Generally speaking, a pitch that is flat and dry will tend to suit the batting team and will see top scores posted compared to a damp wicket that is cracking up, offering help to the bowlers. A different ball is also used for matches in the UK compared to Australia, for example, as well.

Certain players and teams tend to perform better in different weather conditions and on different pitches, however, so taking the time to research is always key before placing a bet on this sport.

With three types of cricket – Test, one-dayers and T20 – there is a huge range of options for cricket, while most betting sites will now enable you to bet not just on international matches.

The match odds market is the most basic type of cricket online bet, which is simply picking out which team is going to win the match, just as you would in football or in other team sports.

Among the many other types of cricket betting on offer from UK bookies are markets on the total number of runs to be scored in either a match or a session, the top team batsman or even which side wins the toss at the start of the game.

It is also possible to place outright bets on the winner of a tournament such as the World Cup or the County Championship, or even the top run scorer or wicket taker, in what is known as an ante-post market. In addition, you can also bet on which team is going to win the series.

This means that the bet is placed in advance of the start of the event, which can result in bigger odds than waiting until it is under way.

However, it is always risky to place bets far in advance and you will have to wait until the conclusion to find out whether or not your bet is a winner, so there are pros and cons to ante-post cricket betting, just as there are with all other sports. On the flip side, you can bet on cricket live once a match has started too.

Here at Betting Top 10 we are happy to follow any cricket scores and there is almost always at least one game being played at international level, no matter the time of the year.

As cricket is a summer sport that is played all over the world, from the West Indies to India, the UK and Australia, it means international teams will typically play series at home during their own summer, than travel abroad to face off against other sides during their winter.

The top international sides play each other on a semi-regular basis, with the Ashes inarguably the most famous of these clashes, taking place once every two years between England and Australia.

There is a lively county scene that runs through the UK summer, with matches being played between April and September, and most bookies will offer odds on these cricket in England games too.

Of the major international tournaments, the ICC World Cup is the biggest one, played in a 50-over format every four years and often held by one of the game’s traditional powers – such as India, England or Australia – to guarantee big crowds of supporters and lots of local interest. Cricket World Cup betting is highly popular and can be very lucrative as well.

In addition, there is also the ICC Champions Trophy, another 50-over event that takes place on the year following on from when the World Cup is held. The last of the big three international tournaments is arguably now the most popular worldwide, with the ICC World Twenty20 held every two years.

Furthermore, there are lots of cricket betting opportunities with bookmakers in the numerous global T20 competitions that are held around the world, such as the Indian Premier League, the Big Bash in Australia, South Africa’s Ram Slam and the Caribbean Premier League. The latest cricket scores can be found online and through apps easily enough, so you can stay on track.

With so many different cricket matches today taking place in the UK around the world, it can be hard to know where to start with a cricket betting strategy.

It is best to try to specialise on one particular area, for instance T20 matches or even the burgeoning women’s game, as researching all of the different types of the game is likely to take too long for your bets to have a good chance of winning.

The golden rule of gambling on sports with betting sites is to always think about value, so if a price looks too big then it is usually worth thinking about having a bet on it.

By contrast, if you pick out a bet you like but can only find very short prices from bookies it might be poor value and best avoided. Reading up on cricket betting tips can help you to decide.

In long formats of the game such as Tests, waiting to see how a match is panning out can often be fruitful due to how quickly things can change.

It is often said that to get a real picture of a team’s progress you should add two wickets to their current score and this can be a good rule to go by when picking out a cricket bet.

Researching how teams and players perform on a certain ground is always likely to yield better results than going in totally blind, while weather conditions are always going to be a factor too, so look at them when assessing cricket World Cup odds.

Damp and cloudy conditions in the UK will typically favour a bowler who swings the ball for example, while a hard and dry pitch in Australia may instead be better for bowlers who rely on pure pace to take wickets.

For one-day games like T20 matches, it is easy to find out what would be an average score and this can also inform your betting selections for that game, especially if you wait until the match is live and then bet in-play. Follow cricket scores live today to keep up with all the action.

Finally, as with all gambling it is always possible to end up on a losing streak with cricket betting.

If this happens to you, take the time to look at your accounts on betting sites and see which bets have been winners and which have been losers, as this can help you to get back on track.