Cricket betting in Australia 2024

Cricket betting is perfectly legal in Australia and it is an exceptionally popular summer sport. The most popular cricket games to bet on, include International fixtures and domestic competitions such as the T20 Big Bash League. Cricket betting online makes it possible to bet on pretty much any fixture around the globe, with punters’ reach never being greater. The Australian Gambling List’s guide to cricket betting includes free tips, latest cricket wagering news, bet types, top cricket movies and much more.

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On this page

• How to bet
• Cricket betting
• Upcoming Fixtures
• History
• Formats
• Women’s cricket
• Bet types
• Cricket movies
• Cricket news

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How to bet on cricket online

Cricket betting can be done via several different means, including at retail betting shops, however this section will guide you through how to wager online from Australia. As long as you are 18+ it’s perfectly legal to sign up and bet with cricket bookmakers in Australia.

The first stage of finding an online bookmaker to bet on cricket, is to find the website you want to sign up at, which from Australia means you pick a site with a licence. For instance, Sportsbet has got a NT Racing Commission licence, which means they can operate all over Australia, while overseas brands like betway or William Hill are not allowed to operate in Australia.

Signing up at bookmakers can take a few minutes, with it usually a matter of accurately filling in a form, noting that you will have to prove your identity at some point. This means you can’t afford to hand over the wrong details, because it might void your account and you could lose your winnings.

You will now be able to place bets on cricket after you have funded your account, which can be done via many different methods in AU betting sites. These payment types include things like debit and credit cards and web wallets (Paypal betting sites etc).

Australian cricket betting sites generally allow you to wager on cricket via several different means. These include via betting apps, which can be downloaded either from their website or via the Google Play or Apple App Stores and via their websites. Some of the bigger cricket betting companies will also have phone betting available in Australia, which is the only way you can bet live on cricket games that are underway.

Cricket bookmaker reviews

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Cricket betting – Australia’s summer sport

Cricket betting is done right around the world, with it popular in all 10 Test playing nations, while it is also booming in many other countries courtesy of the massive interest in T20.

This shortest form of cricket is an ideal medium for betting, with games only lasting just under three hours and only 40 overs.

Live betting, head to head betting and top player betting are just some of the cricket betting options that are popular at modern Australian betting sites. Read on to find out more about cricket betting and how to bet online.

Cricket takes its place among the giants of world sports thanks largely to its popularity in the subcontinent, where it is an obsession as well as a medium for gambling.

The game has exalted status in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and, increasingly, Bangladesh, with these countries boasting a combined population of more than 1.6 billion.

Cricket also is embedded in the cultures of England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and the West Indies. It has gained a foothold in the likes of Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands and Kenya.

There are an estimated 120 million players worldwide, making it one of the heavy hitters among sports, second only to football (soccer) for participation numbers.

Essentially it’s a bat v ball game with 11 players per side in organised games, and is played on a large field with a 22-yard long pitch at its centre. Though thousands of scratch matches played across cricket-mad countries pit a couple of batsmen against the rest, with one person bowling and the rest scattered as fielders.

Long summer days of childhood in cricketing countries are spent dreaming of one day striding out into the centre at Lord’s, the MCG, Wanderers and Eden Gardens.

Where baseball has staked an overwhelming claim as the summer sport of choice of countries such as the US and Canada, cricket rules in many parts of the world.

It can be seen as a somewhat anachronistic game by sports fans bemused that any contest can last five days. But the game has undergone radical change in recent decades, with Twenty20 cricket rapidly gaining favour.

T20 is far removed from the unhurried demands of Test cricket, though purists see the shortest form of the game as eroding players’ techniques and discipline. Still, the numbers don’t lie, and the shortest form of the game is attracting enormous crowd and viewing figures and is popular with bettors.

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Major cricket events in 2021

The Ashes: The Ashes, played between England and Australia, is due to be played in Australia in the 2021-22 summer season, although there is some doubt because of the covid pandemic. Australia most recently retained the Ashes in England, despite a 2-2 series result, and this five Test series promises to be a modern day classic. The first Ashes Test is due to start on December 8, 2021 at the Gabba.

ICC T20 World Cup: Originally set to be played in Australia in October and November 2020, the World T20 pits the best international T20 teams against each other. At the time of writing, Australia is third favourite at $6.50 to win the tournament, with India and England ahead of them in the betting. The 2020 tournament was delayed, but is now scheduled to begin in October, 2021, in the United Arab Emirates.

Indian Premier League: The richest T20 cricket event in world cricket, the IPL features the best short form players playing for various franchises throughout India. The only thing that dwarfs the viewership of the IPL, is the astronomical amount of money that is wagered on it. The 2022 IPL is due to start on March 27, with the final to be played roughly six weeks later.

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Brief history of cricket betting

The game originated in England around the 1500s and went along for the ride as the British Empire expanded. In the early days it was reportedly played with a lump of sheep’s wool for a ball, which would be handy these days if you were facing Dale Steyn, and the ball was delivered underarm.

The game thrived and by the 1600s it had become a well-organised and popular sport on which to bet.
In the 18th century it was the national sport of England; the Marylebone Cricket Club, still prominent today, was formed in 1787, with its home at Lord’s at St John’s Wood in London.

Over-arm bowling came into vogue in the 1800s as the game became ever more organised with the formation of the English County Championship and the rise in popularity of the game elsewhere in the empire.
In 1876-77 the first Test match was played between Australia and England at the MCG. This was the start of the game’s most enduring rivalry, later known as the battle for the Ashes.

The game continued to grow and evolve in the 20th century, with limited-over contests becoming a regular fixture from the 1960s onward.

In the 21st century the game continues to thrive. With the rise and rise of Twenty20 added to the existing schedule of Test matches and one-day internationals, barely a day goes by without an international contest of some sort. And nearly all matches between the top nations are televised.

Cricket betting has been a constant even in the early days of the game, with it not uncommon for the players themselves to make bets. However the professionalism of the modern game, means we have seen several massive match-fixing scandals and subsequent action by authorities to stamp out nefarious actions.

This means cricket betting in Australia is now heavily regulated and online bookmakers must be licensed to accept your bets. This does not stop many offshore betting sites from targeting Australian customers, but for your own safety, you are better off wagering with a legal bookie.

From the early days of cricket betting history, when you could almost only bet on the match outcome, the genre has expanded rapidly. These days cricket betting includes hundreds of different bet types across everything from T20 to Tests and often, drive by the weight of money from the sub-continent, millions can be wagered on a single contest.

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Different formats of cricket

International cricket matches range in length from Twenty20 (20 six-ball overs per side) to five-day Test matches, during which a standard day’s play is 90 overs. There are also one-day matches (50 overs per side).

Here is a brief rundown of the different formats of cricket:

Test cricket

These five-day contests are played only at international level. Test cricket is considered the ultimate for players, though these days the enormous money on offer in the shorter forms of the game has turned the heads of more than a few stars. There are 10 Test-playing nations. Matches are scheduled by the International Cricket Council and consist of two innings per team. There are three possible outcomes for completed matches: home win, away win and draw. Arguably the greatest rivalry in the sport is the contest for the Ashes between England and Australia, though India-Pakistan contests hold great animosity.

One-day international cricket

The shorter format is believed to have been introduced in India in the 1950s, before being adopted in County cricket in the 1960s. At an international level it arrived in the 1970s, with the first Cricket World Cup in 1975. The players don’t wear the traditional whites of Test matches, instead wearing varying designs incorporating national colours. In ODIs each side has a maximum of 50 overs to bat, with bowlers permitted a maximum of 10 overs. These are often day-night contests with the team batting second doing so under lights. Twenty20 has stolen a lot of thunder from this format, though it is still considered a more searching all-round test of a team’s ability.

Twenty20 cricket

This is an all-action format and has captured the imagination of the younger generation of fans. It is played at international level and there has also been huge support for other competitions such as the Indian Premier League, Australia’s Big Bash League and England’s T20 Blast. Each team has a maximum of 20 overs to bat, meaning the batters are on the attack from the first ball. The format has taken earnings for players to a new level and is also credited with extending the careers of some players in the veteran category. The format was first used in English domestic cricket in 2003, with the first men’s international played in 2005 between New Zealand and Australia in Auckland. The format has not looked back.

The first ICC World T20 was played in 2007 and has been played regularly years since.

Domestic cricket

All the ICC full member nations have strong domestic competitions that often include long-form, one-day and T20 formats. County cricket in England for example, has four-day matches, one-day matches with 40 overs per side plus a T20 competition. In Australia, the state-based Sheffield Shield also has four-day matches, plus a one-day series and the Big Bash League, which is played over about six weeks each December-January.

The Indian Premier League is on each April-June though, given the number of imported players, can scarcely be considered a domestic league. India also has a full-fledged first-class cricket competition, which also includes 50 over fixtures. It is much the same in neighbouring sub-continent game countries where cricket is popular, with T20 the most popular format for sports bettors.

Domestic cricket is growing in countries like Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while Afghanistan and Bangladesh are the most recent teams to be given Test status, which ist he crowning achievement for a cricket playing nation.

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Women’s cricket betting in Australia

Cricket is also played by females with this being one of the biggest growth areas in the sport in modern times. Most Test playing cricket nations will have female teams that play regularly. The Australia women’s team, known as the Southern Stars, are the best in the world, going by current rankings and have several players, such as Elyse Perry and Meg Lanning, that are regarded as the best in the business.

Betting on women’s cricket is straight-forward, although as you would expect with a sport just starting out, there are not as many odds and markets available on each game. For instance, at the time of wring our cricket betting online guide, there was upwards of 150 different markets available on a men’s cricket game, while the female equivalent only had 10 markets. This is just a sign of the betting interest and if cricket continues to grow among women, we fully expect cricket betting sites to put more attention into providing more markets.

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Types of betting on cricket

Cricket bet types are extensive at Australian online bookmakers, with some of the most popular betting sites having upwards of a thousand different markets on some matches. The most common cricket bet types at Australian betting sites include:

• Match result: The most straightforward bet for cricket games. You can wager on either of the teams winning or the draw. There is also the tie, which is far more likely in a limited-over match than in a Test match. In Test history, there have been only two ties in the 2000-odd matches since 1877.
• High bat: Pick the highest-scoring batsman in a particular innings or match. Be aware that there may be separate markets for first and second innings in a Test or first-class match. You can also bet on the top-scoring batsman in a series or in a tournament.
• Most wickets: Bet on which bowler will take the highest number of wickets in an innings, match or series. Or to be the leading wicket-taker for their team or outright in a series or even a round-robin competition such as the preliminary rounds of the World Cup.
• Series/tournament result: Bet on which team will win a head-to-head series or tournament well in advance of the event. Or bet on the exact series result; for example, in a five-Test Ashes series, you may fancy a 3-1 result to the home team. The odds can be lucrative.
• Coin toss: Yes, seriously. You can bet on which captain will win the toss before the start of play. You must also take into account the toss can be crucial in deciding the outcome of any match, given the changing conditions.
• Highest opening partnership: Which openers will get their team off to the best start, numerically at least?
• Method of first dismissal: Will the first wicket fall caught, bowled, caught behind, leg before wicket, run out, stumped or in some other way?
• Live betting on cricket: In-the-run betting is enormously popular on cricket, with all sorts or permutations available. In certain jurisdictions you can bet ball by ball, predicting if the next ball will bring a wicket, boundary or even a wide. You can gamble on who will be the next man out, whether a player will reach a milestone or fall short. As mentioned earlier, the options are endless.

We have covered the main options for those wishing to bet on cricket, though we will go into greater depth elsewhere.

The amount of money wagered each year on cricket is staggering, and also difficult to calculate given much of the betting in countries such as India is not recorded through official channels.

Indian punters wager billions each year, largely through unregulated, illegal bookies.

Betting from India on sports is a grey area though some of our recommended bookmakers do permit Indian residents to join, including Bet365.com.

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Top 10 movies featuring cricket

Lagaan – Once Upon a Time in India (2001): Starring Aamir Khan, this thing runs longer than a T20 match but is a Bollywood masterpiece. Peasants in an Indian village challenge the status quo and play their British masters in a match to rid them of their land tax (lagaan) for three years.

Patiala House (2011): An Indian sports drama starring Akshay Kumar as a fast bowler. Said to be loosely based on the story of Monty Panesar, the England Test spinner. And Monty’s always entertaining.

Save Your Legs (2012): Starring Stephen Curry, Brendan Cowell, Damon Gameau. An Australian film in which a knockabout team of suburban cricketers from Melbourne heads off for a three-match tour to India, with the dream of meeting Sachin Tendulkar. Hilarity ensues.

Badger’s Green (1934, 1949): We have gone old school here. These are based on a 1930 play in which a village’s survival depends on the outcome of a cricket match. The 1934 version is missing from Britain’s film archives.

Slumdog Millionaire (2009): OK, so once again the team at WGL has strayed from the path. This is not really about cricket but it does play a part and the film is an absolute belter.

Hansie (2008): South African film detailing the fall from grace of the charismatic former captain Hansie Cronje, who was embroiled in a match-fixing scandal.

Fire In Babylon (2010): A British documentary about the mighty West Indies teams of the 70s and 80s, which featured the most feared pace-bowling battery in the game’s history: Marshall, Holding, Garner, Croft and more. Plus a collection of gun batsmen led by the Master Blaster, Viv Richards.

Chennai 600028 (2007): One of the first independent Tamil movies and a surprise hit. Set around street cricket in India, it was also later remade in Sri Lanka as Super Six.

Hit For Six (2007): A Barbadian film which features plenty of West Indies cricket identities. A cricketer tries to redeem himself and make it back to international cricket.

Playing Away (1987): A few good laughs as a village cricket team invites a team of West Indians from South London for a charity match.