Cricket Betting | Spotting Value | A Guide to Cricket Betting

The gentleman’s sport of cricket may not have as many thrills and spills as other major pursuits, but it’s still one of the most watched games in the world. Regularly attracting more viewers than events that are given a lot more hype, such as the Super Bowl, cricket is not only a great sport for fans but indeed all sports bettors.

Despite the game’s status on a global level, online bookmakers aren’t as proficient at setting odds for matches as they are with established sports such as football. Of course, for high profile internationals featuring the likes of England and Australia, the betting lines will be about as accurate as they can be. However, for lower profile games there is a lot of scope for finding odds that aren’t quite right.

Do Your Homework

What this means is that the bookmakers may lack certain information which has caused them to wrongly price a wager. For example, let’s assume England are poised to play Australia in the Ashes and various online sportsbooks have tipped the latter’s batters to do well against the relatively inexperienced James Anderson.

Believing that Anderson would struggle to bowl out more than five batters during the series, the bookies priced him at 5:1 for 6+ dismissals. However, just a few days before the series two important things happen. Firstly, the Aussies lose their top batsman and, secondly, the pitch turns in Anderson’s favour. Although Anderson is one of the team’s slower pace bowlers, he is able to generate a lot of bounce on his bowls, which means a dry pitch is particularly suited to his style of play.
Seek and Destroy

If you’re able to ascertain this information, process it and act on it quickly enough, then taking odds of 5:1 on 6+ dismals would be great value. Naturally, many of the major bookmakers will adapt to the changing conditions relatively quickly. However, not all of them will do it instantly and some won’t do it at all.

Because of this, you should make it your job to know all the intricate details of the top cricket teams. Once you can combine this cricketing knowledge with an understanding of current events you’ll find that spotting value becomes a lot easier and when this becomes the case you’ll make a lot more money.

Cricket betting may not seem like an obvious choice for a keen sports bettor, but the relative popularity of the game (in the eyes of online bookmakers) means it can offer some exceptional value. By combining an understanding of the sport with some pinpoint timing, you should be able to generate a healthy side income from cricket when you’re not speculating on some of the industry’s more established markets.