India’s betting market involves the movements of large stacks of physical cash, alongside eye-watering sums of credit, between bookies and punters. There is only ever one currency of those trasnactions; Indian Rupees (INR / ₹ / Rps).
At the time of writing (10th March 2022), 100 Indian Rupees has the following exchange rate:
£1.00 €1.19
$1.31
4.81 AED
Individual, street-level bets across India can start from as little as 10Rps. But for Cricket88’s client’s bets are placed in “Lakhs”. A Lakh is 100,000Rps but India writes it like this: 1,00,000.
Today a Lakh is worth:
£1,000.00
€1,190.00
$1.310.00
481,000 AED
So all bets our clients make are in multiples of Lakhs. If your trading is large enough, weekly accounting and settlement may be made in multiples of Crore which is equivalent to 100 Lakhs and written as 1,00,00,000Rps. Note the positioning of commas. All Indian accounting is based on this format of Lakhs and Crore.
The largest bank note in circulation in India is ₹2,000 (£20.02 / €23.84 / $26.20 / 96.22 AED). This means movement of physical cash is cumbersome, but it is the only means of deposits and withdrawals between the bookmaker and his agent / sub-agent and client. Every week when bookmakers settle their books, the largest operators may be handling hundreds of Crore in total, meaning potentially tens of Crore in cash. Not an easy feat! So you can imagine that organising such a large quantity of high-value transactions through the system is a job in itself. As with any cash organisation like this, there will always be some small losses, but the system in India has evolved over generations to make it very easy to transact. That is of course if you know who to trust.
The whole market runs on trust and behind that, a lot of credit. There is an established network of bookie owned, bank-like accounts available to transact credit. These facilitate transactions between bookies (and also some premium clients) so not all transactions are made by physical cash changing hands.
All betting operators were hurt when on 8th November 2016, the Indian Government immediately and without warning ‘demonetized’ all ₹500 and ₹1,000 bank notes. However, such action is unlikely to be repeated as it was met with severe economic consequences and widespread disapproval across the country.
Although all bets through Cricket88’s consultancy will be made in INR, deposits and withdrawals into and out of the market can be in an any of the following currencies:
GBP EUR USD AED BTC & Stable Coins
In some cases, we can accept physical cash, but due to the sums involved, crypto is preferred. To ensure there is no currency risk, deposits and withdrawals are made at spot prices. There is usually no commission to pay on deposits. Withdrawals can attract up to 7% fees but are usually around 5%. This will depend on the market movements in India, outside of Cricket88’s control. We do not charge margin on transfers.
Cricket88 can offer hedging services to licensed operators through our licensed partners in various jurisdictions. Please contact us to find out more.
