The global sports betting market is suspected to be worth over $1 trillion including the underground market. Today, there are multiple countries where it is getting more attention and it is expected that the industry will continue to grow further. India is a country that loves both sports and gambling, and it's no surprise that these two combined are a thriving and popular local industry.
In India, the local betting market was estimated to have been worth over 90 billion rupees or over $1.2 billion. With the current trend, experts project that the value of the cricket betting Industry in India could go as high as 143 billion rupees or almost $2 billion by the end of next year.
With these numbers, India makes a good place for a betting market with a good future. This is why many gambling companies are starting to penetrate the Indian betting scene. Other factors are affecting the growth of this industry in the country and we'll get right to that.
India's Potential to Have the Biggest Betting Market
India is a populated country with almost 1.4 billion people and half of the population is online. It is estimated that over 749 million people are on the internet in the country and most of them (744 million people) are using their mobile devices to go online.
Aside from the big number that gambling companies can reach if they give their services to India, people are also starting to do more things with their mobile devices. Smartphones these days are becoming cheaper yet powerful and this is why more people are getting their own devices. Because of this, the number of mobile punters is also expected to go up.
With more people going online with their smartphones, mobile internet is also improving the country. Back then, mobile data here can be expensive but today, it's also becoming more affordable. The 5G connection is also expected to be rolled out by next year which would make people have the ability to do more stuff with their mobile devices.
Sports Betting Numbers in India
My Betting released a report in October 2021 that the number of people who would bet online in the country during major events is at 370 million and 140 million of them would place bets regularly. 88.4 per cent of online bettors in India are men and only 11.6 per cent are women.
Their research also found that the younger generation is the ones who are placing their bets online. Based on the same report, they found that 44.6 per cent of online bettors in the country are aged 18 to 24 years old. 32.5 per cent of online bettors are 25 to 34 years old.
When it comes to location, it is most popular in the states of Telangana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. 18.7 per cent of India's online betting market is in Telangana. 13.2 per cent is in Karnataka and 9.6 per cent is in Maharashtra.
Over 30 online betting companies are operating in the state and as expected the majority of sports bets place here are for cricket. Bets tend to increase whenever a major cricket event is on like the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the ICC Men's World Cup which is ongoing.
Online betting is just really more popular in urban areas like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore. Less online betting activities are observed in the northern and eastern states where people are on the conservative side.
Some of the most popular betting sites in the country are 10CRIC, Bet365, Betway, and 1xBet. Many of these sites target Indian players and it's obvious since they would make transactions convenient for them. Most of these sites allow transactions in Indian Rupees and the most convenient Indian payment solutions like UPI, PhonePe, and NetBanking.
Future of Sports Betting in India
With the rise of this activity, it's just a matter of time before the Indian government would look into regulating the industry. Today, online betting is still in the grey area in the country. Only a few states have made it clear that online gambling activities are banned within their territories like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Karnataka has also announced that they will be banning such activities too but the numbers are saying that a ban implementation is not stopping the locals from betting. After all, both Telangana and Karnataka have a big online betting market. This only means that many are still wagering illegally and this carries big risks. With this, we can only hope that the national government will have something in place to be sure that Indian punters will be protected.
