What’s a big bet to you? £1,000 (€1,200 / $1,350 / AED5,000 at time of writing)? £20,000? £500,000? Depending on the markets you want to bet, India today offers some of the largest individual bet sizes in the world. So here’s what’s possible in India.
Getting a £1,000,000 down on a match bet for a major Test, is relatively straightforward. Depending on your credit worthiness to the bookie, if you’re able to get even halfway up the pyramid in a major State, you’d be getting bang on or just off the Betfair screen price. But that’s for cricket. There are only a few syndicates in the world who can beat the Betfair cricket prices long term and they’re currently making bank. Many have previously relied on the “gearing” available in the Indian market, to artificially inflate or deflate the Betfair screen price, then press their edge at the attractive price they want with 20x, 50x or more, into India. That is still possible in some instances, but it’s hard to get away with over the long term.
Football is the second largest betting market offered in India. Again, Betfair is their guide and getting screen price is standard. Whether you are betting on a Skin account or using a phone brokerage, you’ll be executing at or around the Betfair price. Betting pre-match football is possible for good volumes, beginning around 60 minutes before kick-off. A few years ago, some bookies were laying very early market action, up to a few days before. However, they soon lost enough money to convince them it’s not a good idea. The only people who have such an edge in the pre-market are sharp gamblers who have good info and models. This doesn’t get laid any more for any meaningful sums, but if you were using half a dozen Skin accounts, you could maybe get 5 Lakhs (£4.9K / €5.8K / $6.6K / AED24.5K) down a day or two before kick-off. But again, if you crush the bookies, they won’t last long.
So the best availability for large football bets is in the hour before kick-off. Cricket88 can broker bets of up to 100 Lakhs using our chat service, without issue. This is executed at the Betfair price without the 2% fee. For Skin exchanges, the screen will simply give you the Betfair price and a volume. Depending on your account, bets up to 5 or 10 Lakhs are possible, but even on a high limit Skin of say 80 Lakhs, you may not have sufficient balance to make enough big trades on a busy Saturday.
For in-running football bets into India Cricket88 can execute individual bets of up to 35 Lakhs. Due to a 10-15 second delay in bet request > broker request > bookie confirmation > broker confirmation, prices can be lost before execution. But over time, latency can be reduced and orders filled more often. An average of 35L per bet is a good yardstick, but once an order is filled, the same bet can be requested if the Betfair price is still available. For exchange Skin accounts, depending on the credit limit and gearing (multiple of the Betfair liquidity) of your account, bets of up to 10 Lakhs are possible in-running on football.
India does not offer quarter lines for football bets. The main markets reflect those with the largest liquidity on Betfair. The most popular are 1×2 and o/u goals, but only up to a maximum of 6.5 in any game. There are no half time bets, player markets, corners or specials markets. Some Skin exchanges will allow all these markets if they’re on Betfair, but if you’re consistently winning on them, the account will be closed or restricted at some point.
Over time, it is easy for syndicates or individual traders to see how much liquidity is taken off the Betfair screen for each of their matched bets. It is therefore good to understand how the brokerage and telephone bookmaker are behaving and ensuring they are not front-running your bets or clipping your prices.
For tennis bets, it is only possible to consider reasonable telephone brokerage bet sizes on the major tournaments and Opens. Tennis is a popular sport across India but finding anyone who wants to bet 200 Lakhs on a tennis match is rare (although of course it does exist). Given the fact that most syndicates will want to bet often, not just once, getting regular 100L bets away simply isn’t possible. However 50L for outright market and match winners, with bets up to 10L for in-play sets bets can be executed regularly at the Betfair screen price. Using geared exchange accounts, whatever gearing the account has (10x, 20x etc.) will be multiplied by the volume shown on the main screen. With these Skins, most markets are available to bet. But crushing set-by-set markets over the long term will again result in your account being settled and closed, and future relationships met with suspicion.
International horse racing is popular in India, especially UK, Hong Kong, South Africa and France. Dog racing is also followed, but the liquidity in these international markets is the smallest of all four main sports offered by Cricket88. There is no possibility to get large bets down via the phone brokerage service and acquiring Skin accounts that can be used for horse racing is very challenging. Getting ‘small’ bets of 1Lakh is still possible, but accounts may get shut down from large wins. Manipulating the Betfair price and lumping on the other side in India makes big money, but doesn’t last long.
Cricket88 offers consultancy, advice and introductions to bookmakers in India. We work hard to ensure both sides understand the other, and the relationship runs smoothly over the long term. For any information or questions around how big you can press your strategy into India, get in touch with us, we’ll be happy to help.
