India should win the 2011 World Cup, assert Mumbai bookies. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team is going at Rs.3.10 ahead of another co-host Sri Lanka (Rs.4.70) that is also tipped to perform well. For the uninitiated, betting on a team that has the highest chances of winning would mean getting lower returns. For instance, one would get Rs.3.10 on every rupee if India wins the World Cup.
Betting on the West Indies would get you Rs.22.50 per rupee. New Zealand is also quoted at the same figure. Bangladesh is priced at Rs.50. The third strongest contenders are South Africa and four-time champions Australia, both placed at Rs.5.25. Pakistan’s unpredictability and the fact that the tournament is in the sub-continent has made them the dark horse, with bookies quoting Rs.9 for the team. England is quoted at Rs.9.75.
However, the rates can change with the performances of the teams as the World Cup goes along.
Many of the bookies contacted said that the money being wagered on the current World Cup is too huge to give a figure. “It will easily break all the previous records. This time there are a number of good teams. Even before the tournament has begun, bookies in Mumbai have taken bets of Rs.7,000 crore. Surat, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Bangalore all total up to Rs.50,000 crore.
Bettings is done not just on the results but also on specific events in a match. The most money being bet is on Pakistan, because of their unpredictable nature.
“A lot of money is bet each time Pakistan plays — on how many runs a bowler would give in the first over or how many would a particular Pakistani opener make,” said one of the bookies.
Betting is illegal in India, so you have to be a regular before your bet is accepted by a bookie as they fear that a new customer could actually be an informer or a cop who could be planning a raid. So if you are a new customer, you would have to bring a reference of a bookie or one of the regular betters.
Once you have bet on a team you are given a small paper chit, which would have a code written on it which would make sense only to a bookie. Once you win, you are supposed to take the chit to a particular location. Here you won’t get your money, but will be directed to another location where you would be handed over the money.
Bookies say that they have to take these precautions because those who lose heavily try to tip off the cops about betting syndicates, hoping that the arrest of the bookies would ensure that they don’t lose the money.
Bookies have warmed up to the game, many of them having adopted extremely sophisticated measures to ward off cops, who are hot on their trail. For instance, a high profile bookie would have more than 20 to 25 people working for him who would have multiple cell phones and thrice as many SIM cards to avoid cops tracking them.
Many of the bookies either are holed up in safe houses in Gujarat. The hawala trail is used by the betting syndicates. Underworld figures like Dawood Ibrahim not just control the business but also bet large amounts on the game.
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