I’m Raj Patel the founder of SportsBetting.net.in. On this website you’ll find everything you want to know and more about sports betting in India, including Gambling Laws, which bookmakers accept rupees, how to deposit and withdrawal, and more. The majority of our content was written by my friend Jay who is a professional punter with vast knowledge of cricket, football, tennis and Formula 1. For that reason, you’ll also find some advanced betting tips and true informational gems about how to beat betting lines. Although our website navigation is fairly easy to follow, I’ll use this home page to highlight some of the important sections of our official betting guide for Indians. Be sure to see our list of online betting information on the left hand menu.
Best Sports Betting Sites for Indian Punters
Rupee Online Bookmakers
The only online betting site that allow for Rupee deposits directly are www.bet365.com. This site offers us the ability to register with our home address, and then deposit, wager and withdrawal in Indian Rupee INR. Bet365 has been licensed in the UK since 1974 and is owned by the Coates family who also owns the EPL football club Stoke City. Their online website is available in 17 languages and 29 currencies, and with over 5 million customers and 1500 employees they are the UK’s 7th largest private company.
If you’re going to choose only one bookmaker Bet365 might be the best choice. As you can learn about in our Bet365 review, they are one the few Indian friendly betting sites that offer sports betting bonuses. If you really want the best odds however, then using both williamhill.com and Bet365 makes sense. The more betting sites you – use the better odds you’ll get. And, all these sites mentioned offer IPL and T20 cricket betting.
While Bet365 and M88 are the only sites to accept rupees, there are others that also accept Indian players but it’s very difficult to deposit/withdraw at.
How Can Indians Deposit and Withdrawal
I’ve written detailed articles about gambling deposits from India and gambling cash outs from India, which are very helpful to understanding how Indians can bet sports online. However, here is a quick recap of the three most popular methods.
- Skrill (Moneybookers): This is an e-wallet which can be set up in rupees. You can link your home bank account as well as your credit card and debit card to it. This is the cheapest way to deposit and withdrawal money from online bookmakers.
- Neteller :This is another e-wallet similar to Moneybookers that can also be set up in rupee currency. The same as Moneybookers, they are highly reputable and regulated by the UK’s Financial Service Authority (FSA).
- EntroPay – This functions similar to an e-wallet but is unique in that the funds loaded to your account are also associated with a virtual debit card number. This makes it possible to shop online anywhere Visa is accepted , something not easy to do under new RBI policies. You can of course also use EntroPay to deposit and withdrawal at online sportsbooks.
The benefit to using the methods I just mentioned is you’re able to deposit and withdrawal anonymously. Moneybookers for example is famous in India and used by many website programmers, consultants, and freelance writers to take payment from their clients. Indian banks deal with them regularly for transactions that have nothing to do with gambling. While your bank might ask you for a purpose code when doing large deposits or withdrawals, ultimately there isn’t too much concern they will have an issue with these transactions. This is because the name of the gambling site never appears; all your bank account deposits and withdrawals will read Moneybookers, Neteller or Entropay, making these transactions anonymous and private.
Is Sport Betting Legal?
Betting on sports is generally presumed a grey area, and many bookies have been arrested in India but not bettors. Interesting enough however, to the best of our knowledge there aren’t any actual laws on the books that prohibit sportsbetting. According to gaming statistics, 40% of the India population that have a computer and internet visit online betting websites.
The Public Gambling Act which makes casino gambling illegal, specifically states it does not apply to skill wagering. Considering the Supreme Court has ruled horse race betting a skill and sports betting uses similar skills, this leaves sports wagering a gray area. Ultimately, even if sports betting was illegal under Central government regulations, the Constitution of India gives states the right to create their own laws and policies regarding gambling. One state (Sikkim) has already legalized certain sports to bet and is now issuing gambling licenses. For details, see our page on Sikkim Gambling Licenses or for the broader picture refer to our page on India Gambling Laws.
While you should always check with your own attorney and do research yourself, to the best of our knowledge no one has ever been arrested or fined, for wagering from the privacy of their own home using an internet connection. The gambling sites friendliest to Indians are licensed in the UK or Gibraltar, and fully legal under European and International law. It is highly unlikely if you use these sites and a private internet connection that you’ll run into any troubles with the law.
Other Betting Content
As I mentioned in the introduction our website is filled with advanced strategy content and true informational gems specifically for India that is unique to only this site. For an example see our in-depth pages on football betting odds, formula handicapping, rugby betting, golf punting, badminton betting or the high number of pages we have on cricket betting. This is only a small example of the content you’ll find here at Sports Betting. I encourage you to spend some time navigating our website and I wish you the best of luck when wagering sports online.
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Future Translations: Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri,
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