India could turn into one of the most attractive betting markets in the world; if the BJP led government decides to lift the ban on sports betting. While sports betting is technically banned in India, offshore operators continue to offer betting services and are getting quite a response.
Online betting activity in India is expected to flourish in the next two months as the Indian Premier League (IPL) is expected to run from April 9 to May 30 with the opening game between Mumbai Indians vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The IPL is the richest T20 domestic league in world cricket and brings together an impressive list of the top international players and the best Indian cricketers for this six week action packed tournament.
Cricket is the biggest sport in India and betting sites are expecting a flurry of betting action during the 2021 IPL. The IPL will see T20 games take place just about every single day for six weeks and IPL betting action will continue to grow at the tournament progresses.
Shabir Hussein Shekhadam Khandwawala, who is the new Anti-Corruption Unit chief for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has called on the government to stick with their current policies that ban sports betting. Khandwawala has warned the BJP led government that if sports betting were to be legalized in India, it would open a can of worms.
Khandwawala is an ex-police officer feels that sports betting will open the gates to match fixing. The IPL has already been married with match fixing in the past that resulted in two IPL franchises being suspended for two years.
The BCCI ACU are aware that sports betting sites will be taking in a lot of IPL betting action during the next two months and will be keeping a close watch on all popular sports betting sites for unusual activity which would suggest match fixing or spot fixing.
It is interesting to see that former BCCI President Anurag Thakur had a completely different view on the matter. He wanted the government to legalize sports betting as he felt that it would be the best way to stomp out corruption and put an end to match fixing.
Indian authorities are aware that offshore betting sites are taking huge betting revenues from IPL bets and they are losing out on millions. Will the government continue to lose out on these revenues or will they finally make a decision to legalize sports betting?
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