Cricket Betting USA

Legal cricket betting in the USA is available in more than 30 states via licensed and regulated retail sportsbooks and online sports betting apps. Most states with legal sportsbooks also have licensed cricket betting sites that offer real-money wagering on matches big and small worldwide.

Cricket is one of the most widely viewed sports in the world, with more fans than any other sport besides soccer. It hasn’t exactly caught fire in the United States, but interest is steadily growing. Faster matches, new partnerships, and the widespread availability of cricket betting at US sportsbooks have facilitated that growth.

On this page, BettingUSA explains where online cricket betting is legal, the types of cricket bets available, and the best times of the year to place cricket wagers. Also provided is a complete ranking of the best legal cricket betting apps in the USA, and a brief discussion of cricket rules.

Legal Cricket Betting Sites

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States With Legal Cricket Betting

Since the Supreme Court struck down PASPA in 2018, nearly three dozen states have legalized retail sportsbooks and online sports betting.

Readers can reference the following map for an overview of where sports betting is currently legal, whether mobile betting is permitted, and which states are on tap to implement sports betting.

Hover or tap on any state for more information.

Map Key

• Blue: Online/mobile betting is legal
• Green: Land-based sportsbooks only (no online betting)
• Red: Cricket betting coming soon; legislation fully passed but waiting for implementation

Unfortunately, in states where sports betting is not legal, there isn’t a great alternative option. Daily fantasy sports sites have yet to fully embrace cricket, and BettingUSA strongly advises readers not to use illegal offshore sportsbooks to place cricket wagers.

Best Cricket Betting Apps

The legal US sports betting industry is highly regulated at the state level. The exact regulations vary from state to state, but at a bare minimum, local laws aim to:

• Ensure the integrity of sports
• Safeguard consumers’ private information
• Protect customers’ funds
• Promote responsible gambling
• Provide mechanisms to resolve disputes between customers and licensed sports betting sites

Offshore betting sites do not provide the same protections, and although they may possess a flimsy license from a lax jurisdiction, they are still operating outside the confines of existing US federal laws. That means bettors have no recourse if they are cheated, treated poorly, or are unable to resolve a dispute.

Therefore, bettors who place cricket wagers on legal sports betting apps are already at an advantage compared to those who use offshore accounts. However, not all legal sportsbooks are created equal, with some offering better cricket odds and more wagering formats than others.

Here’s a look at some of the best online cricket betting apps:

FanDuel Cricket Betting

FanDuel Sportsbook is owned by Flutter Entertainment, a global sports betting brand with a powerful presence in European betting markets.

Other Flutter-owned brands like Betfair have offered cricket betting for decades, and this experience has passed through to FanDuel, which takes bets on a vast array of cricket matches.

Coverage includes high-profile international events like The Ashes, the ICC World Twenty20, and the ICC World Cup, as well as everyday Test Matches. Moneylines, 3-way moneylines, and futures are the main bet types supported.

If there’s one weakness, it’s props. Not only does FanDuel Sportsbook offer fewer props than some other books, but its prop pricing is often poor. However, this weakness is offset by its industry-best moneyline odds, with an average house edge of just 4.5%.

BetRivers Cricket Betting

BetRivers Sportsbook arguably offers the industry’s most extensive cricket betting menu, with individual matches or series often featuring dozens of bets. Bet types range from standard moneylines to exotics like Player of the Match, Top Wicket Taker, and Team to Lead after an inning.

BetRivers’ prop pricing isn’t great, but it’s at least reasonable, with most over/under props priced at around -115/-115. Moneyline vigorish hovers right around 5.5%, which is decent relative to the market.

It would be nice if BetRivers were more consistent, as some major cricket events feature upwards of 75 bet types, while others support just a few. Beyond that minor complaint, BetRivers is a very solid choice for cricket bettors.

DraftKings Cricket Betting

DraftKings Sportsbook covers most major cricket events and isn’t afraid to take action on props.

As an example, for the most recent Ashes series between England and Australia, DraftKings took bets on several dozen match and player props and offered multiple futures.

DraftKings loses points when it comes to pricing. The vigorish on basic moneyline wagers usually exceeds 6%, and prop bettors are charged even higher margins.

However, some of the house’s edge can be offset by DraftKings’ new player bonus. DraftKings is one of the only sportsbooks that doesn’t require bettors to lose their first eligible wager to receive a bonus. Instead, bettors receive a 20% match up to $1,000 on their first deposit.

The wagering requirement is 25x, released incrementally. This corresponds to a 4% cashback rate, which is enough to give cricket bettors a fighting chance at coming out ahead.

BetMGM Cricket Betting

BetMGM Sportsbook offers a limited number of cricket bets. Minor events typically receive minimal coverage or none at all, while major series may feature about a dozen props.

There are two reasons why BetMGM makes the list. The first is that it sometimes takes unique positions, meaning that its cricket pricing tends to deviate from industry norms. For example, if most sites are offering a -625/+400 spread, BetMGM might offer -500/+333, providing enormous value to bettors who like the favorite.

BetMGM is also one of the few sportsbooks that provide odds boosts on cricket bets. These special promotional wagers offer inflated odds. Now, just because a bet is “boosted” doesn’t mean it’s a good bet, but it at least has the potential to be one.

Cricket Betting Bonuses

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All prominent online cricket betting sites offer welcome bonuses to new customers who sign up for accounts and place their first wagers.

Cricket betting bonuses can take many forms, but common themes include:

• Cricket deposit bonuses: New users receive site credit or bonus bets based on the size of their first deposit
• First bet refunds: Also known as second chance bets, these promos refund customers who place first bets that lose
• Bet-and-get offers: The details vary, but these offers propose something along the lines of “bet $5+ on any sport to get $150 in bonus bets”
• No-deposit cricket bonuses: Occasionally, US cricket betting sites issue real-money bonuses to customers who sign up for accounts, with no deposit necessary

Cricket betting bonuses offered by licensed online sportsbooks are invariably legit due to local consumer protection regulations, but it is critical that fans read the terms and conditions of every offer before they claim it.

Even at the best cricket betting sites, welcome bonuses have terms and conditions that can significantly alter the equation for fans choosing between two or more online sportsbooks.

For example, two equally reputable cricket betting apps can offer welcome bonuses with vastly different wagering requirements. Similarly, fans who aren’t in the habit of reading the terms and conditions may be surprised to learn most so-called “no-deposit bonuses” actually require at least one real-money deposit before they can cash out any winnings they earn with their bonus funds.

Short-Term Cricket Betting Promotions for Existing Customers

Other types of cricket betting promotions, such as odds boosts and reload bonuses, are exceedingly rare due to cricket’s relatively low profile in the USA. Online sportsbooks focus the majority of their efforts on the major pro and college sports in the US, leaving little promotional reserves for cricket bettors.

However, the lack of cricket betting promotions doesn’t mean fans are entirely out of luck.

Online sportsbooks often launch all-sport promotions that benefit customers no matter which sports they follow. For example, online sportsbooks occasionally host promotions that awards odds boost tokens that customers can apply to any wager on any sport, including cricket.

Fans who bet on cricket often can also earn site credit bonuses and other perks through sports betting loyalty programs. For example, DraftKings Dynasty Rewards members earn Crowns for every dollar they bet on cricket online and can exchange Crowns for site credit bonuses.

How Does Cricket Betting Work?

For those unfamiliar with cricket, the rules can be confusing. However, the basics are really no more confounding than those of a similar sport, baseball.

Therefore it’s probably best to discuss the fundamentals of cricket in relation to the Great American Pastime:

• Games are played in a “pitch”, which is a grass field that typically has about a 200-meter circumstance. Although just like baseball stadiums, sizes vary.
• Cricket games may consist of one or two innings. Like in baseball, an inning is complete when both teams have had their turns to bat.
• Each team consists of 11 players and each player can assume one or more roles: batsmen, bowlers, fielders, and wicketkeepers.
• At the center of the pitch is a long rectangular space called the wicket. On each side of the wicket, a set of three stumps is placed. The set of stumps must be 22 yards apart and are manned by the wicketkeeper. Think of the wicketkeeper as a catcher in baseball.
• The bowler, which is equivalent to a pitcher in baseball, will bowl the cricket ball to a batsman, who will try and hit it. This dynamic should sound very familiar to baseball fans, except in cricket there are two batsmen on the field at once, one on each side of the wicket.

Scoring Runs in Cricket

• If the batsman puts the cricket ball in play, the two batsmen can run to the other side of the wicket. If they swap sides once, it’s called a “single” and results in a run. They can keep running, and every successful swap results in another run. “Twos” and “Threes” are common, “Fours” less so. “Fives” are rare.
• If the cricket ball is hit to a boundary on the bounce, the batsmen don’t need to run, and four runs are automatically scored. The closest baseball equivalent is a ground-rule double.
• Should the cricket ball reach the boundary on the fly, then the team is awarded six runs. An obvious comparison is a home run.
• There are other ways to score runs, with most of them focused on the bowler or fielders losing control of the ball, similar to how runs might score in baseball when the pitcher throws wild, or a fielder makes an error. Penalties cost the offending team, by awarding runs to their opponent.

Getting Outs in Cricket

If there are runs, then there must be outs, right? Yes! Here’s how outs (or dismissals) work:

• If the bowler delivers a legitimate pitch that hits the wicket and “puts it down,” that counts as a dismissal This game mechanic is not too different than a strikeout in baseball.
• Also like baseball, if a cricket ball is caught on the fly, the batsman is out. This is the most common way to record outs in cricket.
• A “leg before wicket” occurs when the batsman gets hit with a ball that would have otherwise hit the wicket. The same fundamental rule applies to baseball, where a hit-by-pitch is reversed if the umpire believes the ball would have been a strike.
• Run outs happen when a wicket is put down before a runner crosses a nearby line, called the popping crease. The closest comparison to baseball is when a runner gets thrown out at home.

In traditional cricket games, an inning ends when there are no longer two available batsmen. This occurs after 10 outs, as cricket teams consist of 11 members.

Winning Cricket Games

The game is simply decided by who scores the most runs in the allotted innings. However, there are two ways to read the final score:

• If the team that bats first scores more runs than the opposition, then the final score is read “Team 1 won by X runs”.
• If the team that bats second outruns the competition, then the final score is read “Team 2 won by X wickets (Y balls left)”.

Just like in baseball, if the team batting in the “bottom” of the final inning takes the lead, the game ends immediately.

Overs in Cricket

There is one more critical concept that hasn’t been discussed, and that’s “overs”. In cricket, once a bowler throws six legitimate deliveries it constitutes an over. After the over is complete, the fielders switch ends and a new bowler is chosen by the team captain. In theory, any fielder can become a bowler.

Overs are important for several reasons. One, they dictate team strategy. They also determine the length of the game.

To clarify, in order to evolve cricket into a more fan-friendly sport, several new formats have emerged. There are now three primary cricket formats, each one defined by the maximum number of overs :

• Test Matches: These battles of endurance are scheduled to last five days, and consist of two innings and unlimited overs. Innings can only end when 10 batsmen have been dismissed. Typically, 90 overs are allotted per day, but that number can inch higher if playing conditions permit. Test Matches are thought to be the purest form of cricket.
• One Day Internationals: ODIs are much shorter games, with winners determined in a single day. There is only one inning, and each half-inning consists of a maximum of 50 overs. This format became popular in the 1980s and is partially responsible for why cricket is thriving today.
• Twenty20 Internationals: An even further abridged version of cricket, Twenty20s are capped at 20 overs (120 balls). Games are usually over in about three hours, similar in length to the average baseball game. If One Day Internationals made cricket accessible to the masses, then Twenty20s made it a spectator sport.

Worth noting is that Test Matches can end in a draw. Interestingly, draws do not occur when the two teams end with the same score. That’s called a tie, and they’re really rare.

Instead, a draw is called when the allotted time runs out, which happens more than one might think. One common occurrence is when the team batting last is hopelessly behind, but strategically drags out the final inning until the umpires call the game.

Note: Cricket is a much higher-scoring game than baseball. Much of that has to do with how runs are calculated, as the cricket equivalent of a base hit results in a run. Other factors include bigger bats, quick outfields, and easier-to-hit pitches.

Similar to baseball, cricket betting has a ton of other nuances, and not all of them are discussed above. Bettors who want to take a deeper dive are encouraged to watch this full episode of Netflix: Explained or to check out Jomboy Media’s awesome layman explanation.

Types of Cricket Bets

How Cricket Moneylines Work

The main format for online cricket betting is the moneyline. In cricket and other team sports, this is simply a wager on who will win the game.

Moneylines are presented in American odds, with the favorite usually denoted by a negative three-digit number, and the underdog by a positive three-digit number. An example would look like this:

• England: -200
• Australia: +160

Negative odds show bettors how much they’d have to wager to win $100. In this scenario, a bettor who wagers $200 on England would win $100, for a total payout of $300. The win amount is less than the stake because the team has greater than 50% implied odds to win.

For positive odds, the number shows how much the bettor would win if they wagered $100. Since positive odds have implied odds less than 50%, the winnings are always more than the stake. A $100 bet on Australia would win $160, and return $260 (stake + winnings).

In limited over cricket games, there is a definite winner and a loser. However, in Test Matches there can be draws. For these matches, sportsbooks use what’s called 3-way moneylines, which take the prospect of a draw into account:

For example:

• England: +160
• Australia: +120
• Draw: +320

The reason both England and Australia are listed at positive odds (underdogs), is because the draw is likely enough to occur that neither team has implied odds greater than 50%. Here, Australia is the favorite because its positive odds are lower than England’s.

Remember that draws work differently in cricket than in other sports. They occur primarily when a match cannot reasonably be finished in the allotted time.

Draw No Bet

A Draw No Bet is an alternative moneyline wager that eliminates the draw option. Bettors can only wager on Team A or Team B, and if the game ends in a draw, all bets are refunded.

Betting on cricket Test Matches can be especially frustrating because a draw can be called even when a bettor’s team is way ahead. A Draw No Bet wager alleviates some of the pain.

The downside is that winning wagers pay out less. How much less is determined by the likelihood of a draw. If a draw is very likely, then the odds will shift drastically. If the Draw odds are +5000, the Draw No Bet odds on Team A/B will barely move at all.

Cricket Futures

As cricket has increased in popularity, so has the number of high-profile tournaments. This opens the door for sportsbooks to offer futures wagers on who is going to win these events.

As the name implies, a futures wager is a bet on a distant outcome. Cricket betting futures vary from straight bets in that they are not wagers on single matches, and do not resolve in a day. Sometimes they don’t resolve for months.

A common futures bet in cricket is selecting the winning of the ICC World Cup, which like the World Cup in soccer, occurs every four years and pits the very best teams against one another.

Cricket Prop Bets

High-scoring team sports like cricket are tailor-made for props. Typically, sportsbooks offer three two of props, one focused on individual accolades, and others on match events.

PCricket player prop bets include:

• To score a century: Odds of a single batsman scoring 100 or more runs in an inning or match. Yes, it does happen!
• Total runs: Bet on whether a certain player will score X number of runs
• Players of the Match: Bet on the game’s MVP

Cricket match props might include:

• The fall of the 1st wicket
• Total runs in an inning
• Highest opening partnership

Many Cricket prop bets are Yes/No over/under bets, and bettors may notice that the vigorish on these wagers is high. Be wary of betting Yes/No props where the odds are shorter than -115 on each side.

Cricket Parlay Bets

As is the case with most sports, cricket bets can be parlayed together to form bigger bets.

These larger multi-leg wagers will pay out more than their individual components, but the odds can be substantially longer. This is because parlays only cash if bettors get each leg correct.

Note: Same game parlays on cricket are generally not permitted by US sportsbooks, at least not yet.

So bettors looking to parlay cricket games will have to select no more than one bet per game. This is probably for the best, as the vigorish on regular parlays is already high enough. On SGPs, the juice can be astronomical.

In-Play Cricket Betting Apps

Every major US sportsbook permits in-play wagering. In-play wagering is turned on as soon as a cricket match begins and typically lasts until the game nears its conclusion.

Live cricket betting is exciting but can also be stressful for new bettors, because the score, and subsequently the odds, are changing constantly. However, due to this extreme pacing, there are often opportunities to snipe stale or overly aggressive cricket lines.

Generally speaking, US sportsbooks don’t offer a whole lot of in-play cricket wagers. The most common one is on the moneyline. Beyond that, books may offer a few in-play prop bets.

It’s also worth noting that live cricket betting is available for a much longer span than most other sports because some games aren’t decided for a full day, or even multiple days.

Major Cricket Betting Events

Cricket supports a number of prestigious tournaments and events throughout the year. When these events occur, expect to see far more cricket bets and promotions than usual:

• ICC Cricket World Cup: The most prestigious cricket event only takes place every four years, with the next tournament slated for November 2023. 10 teams will compete, although this number will be raised to 14 in 2027.
• ICC Champions Trophy: Also held once every four years, the ICC Champions Tournament is one of the biggest One-Day Internationals in cricket. The next event will be held in 2025.
• ICC World Twenty20: This event follows the popular 20 overs format, and is typically held once a year, with men and women alternating.
• The Ashes: A semi-regular mega-series between old-time rivals England and Australia that dates back to 1883, The Ashes consists of a whopping five test matches spread out over a month or more.
• Indian Premier League: This is a men’s Twenty20 league (20 overs) that runs from March to May annually.
• England – Vitality T20 Blast: The T20 Blast is another limited overs league (20 overs) that consists of 18 teams. Group games run from late May to early July, and Finals Day is typically around mid-July.
• The Hundred: This event showcases cricket at its fastest. Eight men’s and women’s teams from England and Wales compete in a 100-ball cricket tourney.

Cricket Betting Tips

Despite its nuanced set of rules, cricket is a relatively easy sport to bet on. On the other hand, becoming a winning cricket bettor takes a lot more legwork.

Here are a few basic cricket betting strategies to get you started:

• Understand the rules: Bettors that eventually hope to beat cricket through modeling will first need to thoroughly understand how cricket works. This point should be obvious but is often painfully overlooked. Watch games, take notes, read the official laws, and know the idiosyncrasies of each format.
• Realize that cricket is a major market: To Americans, cricket may seem like a small one-off market, but it’s one of the world’s most heavily consumed (and bet) sports. That means that cricket lines on sportsbooks in Europe and other nations are sharp. Since US sportsbooks mostly just copy lines from market makers across the ocean, their lines will be fairly sharp too.
• Line shop, always: A bettor with just one betting app is a losing bettor, guaranteed. Download at least three or four apps, and always compare the betting lines between them. Just because most US sportsbooks copy lines, doesn’t mean the lines are exactly the same from book to book.
• Follow useful cricket media: There is plenty of cricket media to consume, but the most useful to bettors focuses on injury reports and game conditions. Avoid the noise like “expert picks”.
• Take advantage of promotions: US sportsbooks don’t offer a ton of cricket-focused promotions, but a few do. For instance, BetMGM often offers odds boosts on select props. Cricket promos are going to be more prevalent when a major event is going on, such as the ICC World Cup. Bettors can also take advantage of non-sport-specific promos, like sportsbook welcome bonuses that refund a bettor’s first wager if it loses.

Cricket Betting FAQ