Cricket betting volumes spike during IPL
The Indian Premier League (IPL) has emerged as the undisputed king of cricket betting, with volumes swelling to a staggering scale each year as millions tune in to wager…
This is the desk file: short pieces on the paperwork behind betting in India — what the law now says, what a market label actually settles on, and the arithmetic behind the numbers an operator puts on the screen. Nothing here is a tip or a prediction, and nothing here is an invitation to open an account.
Mumbai Indians Rest Firmly at the Top: Pacing for IPL 2026 Success
Mumbai Indians enter the 2026 IPL season as clear favourites in both betting and prediction markets, with several reports pegging them as short-priced contenders to…
Mobile Meteor: How Smartphones Are Supercharging Betting on the IPL
Betting on the Indian Premier League skyrocketed last year, with platforms seeing a 38% jump in volume and 27% more new registrations. The surge in wagering coincides…
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025: Impact on Betting Timelines and Cricket Payouts
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, passed by India's Parliament and receiving presidential assent on 22 August 2025, introduced sweeping reforms…
Indian Online Gaming: Revised Cash-Out and Free-Bet Rules in the Wake of Regulatory Changes
The India's Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2024 took effect on 1 May 2024, forcing all major bookmakers and gaming platforms to revise their cash-out…
The desk file
Sources named in the text Sixteen pieces, newest of the run first in each family.
- Law
How India's 2025 Gaming Act Uses Three Definitions to Ban One Category and Protect Two Others
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 does its heavy lifting in a single clause: the definitions section.
- Rules
The 2026 Rules Create a Registration Regime—But They Do Not Legalise Online Betting
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026 came into force on 1 May 2026, establishing the Online Gaming Authority of India and a system of digital certificates.
- Tax
How Net Winnings Are Actually Calculated Under India's Online Gaming Tax Rules
Section 194BA of the Income-tax Act does not tax each winning bet as it lands. It taxes the net winnings in a user account, computed across the full financial year, with withholding…
- Law
State Gambling Laws in India vs Central Act: Why Your State Licence No Longer Covers Online Betting
Entry 34 of the Seventh Schedule, List II, reads "Betting and gambling." For decades, that constitutional placement meant India's states wrote their own rules on dice, cards, racecourse…
- Law
The Skill Defense Is Dead: Why Paid Fantasy Cricket Platforms Dropped Their Contests Overnight
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 did something India's courts never managed to do in two decades of litigation.
- Advertising
What Vanished From Indian Screens After the Online Gaming Advertising Ban—and Who Can Be Prosecuted For What Remains
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 prohibits advertising online money games as a separate offence from offering them, and it reaches anyone who makes, causes, ai…
- Payments
Your UPI Deposit Was Blocked: Where the Money Goes and How It Comes Back
When a gambling deposit fails in India, the screen rarely tells you what just happened to your money.
- Terminology
Cricket's Same Bet, Four Names: Why Your Wager Settles Differently Across Books
A cricket bettor comparing two sportsbooks cannot tell whether "Match Odds" and "Winner (2-way)" describe the same wager.
- Settlement
Rain-Shortened Cricket Matches: Why Your Bet May Stand, Void, or Shift to a Revised Target
When rain interrupts a limited-overs cricket match, the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method steps in to produce an official result.
- Settlement
When a Cricket Tie Pays and When the Super Over Decides Your Bet
A tied T20 or ODI match that goes to a super over can settle a match-winner bet three different ways, depending on a single clause buried in the house rules.
- Settlement
Dead Heats, Did-Not-Bats and the Rulebook Reality of Top-Batsman Settlements
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 prohibits online money gaming across India, covering games of chance, games of skill, and mixed-format games alike.
- Odds
How to Convert Cricket Betting Odds Between Decimal, Fractional and Bhav Without a Calculator
Cricket betting prices circulate in three different skins, and the first thing a reader must grasp is whether the number in front of them represents total return or profit alone.
- Arithmetic
Betting Exchange Commission on Net Winnings: Why 2.00 Is Not Even Money
Betfair deducts commission only from a market's net winnings, never from losing bets, and that single rule scrambles the arithmetic traders carry in their heads.
- Arithmetic
Stake Not Returned: The Math That Turns a Free Bet Token Into Real Value
A ₹1,000 free bet is not ₹1,000. The stake disappears on a win, so the token's cash value depends entirely on the price you bet it at.
- Arithmetic
The Cash-Out Number: How It Is Built and What It Quietly Charges
Cash-out is a live repricing of an open position, not a courtesy. The number on the button is the operator's offer to close your bet early, and you can check whether it is fair by…
- Help
Blocking Yourself in India: The Three Layers That Actually Hold and the Gaps You Must Bridge
India does not appear to have a central self-exclusion register for gambling. If you are trying to stop yourself or a family member from depositing into online betting apps, you cannot rely…
Every review we have published
How this section is written
A piece gets written when a document changes or when a term turns out to cost readers money: a definition in a statute, a clause in a settlement rule, a formula the interface applies without showing it. The figures, dates and section numbers in these pages come from the published document they describe, and where a document could not be found, the rule is described in words instead of being given a number.
Online money games — betting, casino and paid fantasy — are banned nationwide in India under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025. These pages describe how the rules and the products are written; they are not legal advice, and they do not say that any of it is permitted. If betting has stopped being a game, the helplines and blocking tools are listed on one page.