Betting on cricket is available with bookmakers and spread betting companies and once upon a time it was included on pools coupons in the summer months. The spread betting aspect is dealt with in the spread betting section.
The types of bets available on cricket in betting offices cover betting on the outcome of a match, top scorer in the first innings of a match, to league and tournament betting.
Odds are offered on each team to win a cricket match and a price is offered for the draw.
In international and cup matches, you can do singles, doubles, trebles, accumulators and most other multiple bets.
Also, in these matches, bookmakers offer prices on which player will be the highest scorer in the 1st innings for his team. You can also do singles and upwards on these, as long as the players you choose are not in the same team. You can mix them up with other events as long as your bookmaker doesn't have a specific rule about this. Check in the advertisements in the betting office or newspaper for statements like ---- singles only.
In tournaments, such as the World Championship (One day internationals), where there is a mini-league format to start with, you can bet on the winners of the leagues, in some cases the forecasts(1-2) in the leagues, and you can also bet on the eventual outcome of the competition. The latter, you can bet -- win or each way early in the competition, and -- win only towards the end of the competition.
Tournaments like the Natwest Trophy are played on a knockout basis and betting is available ante-post on the outcome of this, again win or each way until the later stages. Singles and upwards are also allowed on this type of competition.
Ante-post bets are also allowed on the PPP County Championship and the Norwich Union NCL (Sunday league) --- to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd in each of the leagues. Singles, doubles, etc.,win, or each way.
Betting on matches in these leagues is available when advertised, but usually minimum bet is a treble. Again, check with your bookmaker, as some might offer a single or double bet, especially on local matches in these leagues -- or maybe a small independent bookmaker might accomodate you.
Top of Page Golf tournaments offer a wide range of bets. Bookmakers compile odds on the outcome of events based on the consistency of form on the players taking part. Sports papers give plenty of information on the competitors, including their positions in recent tournaments. You can even get to know, sometimes, whether a golfer has changed his or her caddy, or putter, or driver etc. It might seem unimportant, but to the golfer, or the punter wanting a decent bet, it can be very important information. Golf is an individual sport, even when playing as part of a team (eg. Ryder Cup), so the golfer always has to try his or her best to play a round of golf in the lowest possible score.
Golf is also played on different types of courses and in many changing weather conditions and some players are better on some courses than others. In major tournaments, there can be well in excess of a hundred players -- sometimes, as in Opens, amateurs playing alongside professionals. In the bigger competitions, such as the US and British Opens, players usually start their matches on the first two days in groups of 3, and if they don't miss the cut, then on the last two days they will go out in pairs.
Consequently, bookmakers can offer, not only -- Tournament betting, but also Match betting throughout a competition on a day to day basis. They can also offer odds on the nationality of the winner, top player from a particular area in the World and Team betting in cup competitions.
TOURNAMENT BETTING
Major tournaments are spread over four days. Players play 18 holes each day and the competitions are won by the lowest score over the 72 holes. Sometimes a competition might be shortened due to adverse weather, so the winning player might be the one with the lowest score after three days. In the event of a tie in golf, play will usually be extended another few holes, or each extra hole, or a full days round, until there is a winner, but the rules they use for which method they use is determined by the organisers of that competition beforehand.
You can bet on a player or players in a competition to win outright, or back them each way to finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, usually at 1/4 odds a place. Some bookmakers even let you back each way up to 6 places, so check the adverts, even the text on television.
MATCH BETTING
Odds are quoted on each player in a pair, or group of 3. One group will tee off at the same time, the next group about 12 minutes later, and so on. Bookmakers offer odds on the three individual players in a group and the player in that group with the lowest score of the three is deemed to have won that group. The bookmakers do this for each group of three on the first two days in the major competitions, and then for the pairs on the last two days.
This is just an attractive way to make a bet on the outcome of a mini one day 3 player league, if you like, but it has no bearing on the outcome of the actual tournament.
Eg. -- day one over 18 holes.
group 1 -- T.Woods -- 1/2, C. Montgomerie -- 2/1, G. Player -- 5/1
group 2 -- D. Duval -- 5/4, E. Els -- 7/4, N. Price -- 5/2
group 3 -- 3 players, group 4 -- 3 players, etc.
You will be allowed to bet in singles, doubles, trebles, accumulators and other multiple win bets on the outcome of these groups. It is a very interesting way to bet on an event especially if you are watching it on television.
There is also match betting offered sometimes between players, over the whole 72 holes in the tournament -- the player with the lowest score in the hypothetical match being the winner of that match, although he or she might not actually win the tournament. Again it is a match for betting purposes only.
NATIONALITY OF WINNER
Betting is sometimes offered on the nationality of the winner as players from all over the World enter the major tournaments. Once, it was quite common to see an American winner of each of the big competitions, year in year out, but nowadays it is getting harder to predict where the winner will come from.
Win only singles are allowed in this type of bet.
AREA OF WORLD BETTING
Another bet offered by the bookmakers is to select the player from a particular area (eg. Europe), to finish with the lowest score in a tournament. He or she does not have to win the tournament, but must be in the best finishing position in that tournament, than anyone else from his/her area.
Players from Europe might include -- Parnevik, Montgomerie, Garcia, Olazabal, Westwood, Langer, D.Clarke, Sjoland, Ballesteros,Fryatt,etc.
Players from the USA might include -- Woods, Duval, Calcavecchia, Begay, Furyk, Nicklaus, Watson, Love, etc.
Players from Australasia might include -- Norman, Parry, Nobilo, Elkington, Allenby, Campbell, Chalmers, etc.
Then of course there are players like Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Gary Player, Nick Price and so many more from other countries that fall under the banner -- Rest Of The World.
Bookmakers offer odds for each player to win each area seperately, as if they are their own little tournaments. You can bet on players to win their area or bet on them each way -- to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd intheir area. You can do singles, or if you want you could do a multiple bet on perhaps a player from each area, in a yankee or each way yankee.
TEAM BETTING
In matches like the Ryder Cup, teams play against each other. In this case the teams are the USA and Europe. The format of the competition is that players play against the other side in singles matches and doubles matches over a few days. The rules for winning a match are different from the usual tournament rules of getting the lowest score. In this competition, the players have to win each hole -- so a match between two players can be won - 1 pt, tied - 1/2 pt, or lost - 0 pts. They incorporate different types of doubles games over the first two days and then play all the singles matches on the third day.
So bookmakers offer betting on the outright match between the two sides. They offer prices for each team and a price for the draw as it can be tied.
They also offer match betting on the individual games each day. These can be backed in singles, doubles and other multiple win bets.
There is also a lot of bets offered by the spread betting companies on golf tournaments.
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