Hyderabad: Cricket betting is on in full swing in Hyderabad and its outskirts with hundreds of organisers and punters busy betting both online and offline. For direct (offline) betting, organisers are shifting their dens to farmhouses. Organisers are attracting punters using Whatsapp and phone calls. For online betting, specialised organisers use international betting websites like betfair.com and play on behalf of punters for commission. In the ongoing T20 World Cup, India-Pak matches attract more money and punters in the city.
According to an organiser from Secunderabad, students, traders, businessmen, even white collar employees are involved in betting. “There are organisers, who create Whatsapp groups for each match. They add interested people in the group after taking money from them. Since all punters sitting at a place would attract the police, they disperse and go to their own places before the match begins. The organiser would place bets as per their requests in group chat and control the betting,” said a punter from Musheerabad, who is also a BTech final year student.
“The organiser usually earn between 5 and 10 per cent of the total bet as commission. But there are also organisers who claim up to 15 per cent as commission,” he added. Organisers, who keep contact with punters record their conversation using a smartphone app in order to avoid any dispute as the game progresses. Mainly there are two kinds of punters in the city. The first put their money on the end result of the match. The other one puts money on the outcome of a single over, six or 10 overs. "There is also a third type of punters who bet on each ball predicting whether it would be a sixer or four or out," said inspector B. Prakash who is investigating a recent case of cricket betting.
Most the bookies in Hyderabad don't accept a bet less than Rs 1,000. However, some organisers, who mainly target students, accept Rs 500 bets also. The bets on the outcome of the match start from Rs 5,000 and can run into several thousands. In the India vs Pakistan match the odds were stacked against most punters in Hyderabad. However, there were also a large number punters favouring Pakistan since Eden Gardens had favoured Pakistan earlier.
