Most forms of gambling are legal under many jurisdictions, however, it is still illegal in many countries, for instance the sub-continent.
Gambling in sport, particularly in cricket, has been existing for some time. The sports-betting market started to grow in the 1980s and can be attributed to extensive television coverage, the advent of remote bookmaking, both online and mobile, and the development of news betting products like ‘spread’ betting, ‘in-play’ betting, ‘spot’ betting and betting exchanges.
The legal betting market for all sports is estimated to be around $150-200bn a year globally.
In cricket, the nuances and huge interest in sport are factors that encourage betting. The estimates relating to legal betting in cricket are about $30-50bn per year globally. Estimates of the illegal betting market in the Indian Premier League matches average around $100-120m for each match with a total related turnover in the region of $11bn for each edition.
With all this money directed towards gambling and betting, it is of no surprise that people resort to corruption to better their chances of success in the bets placed by them. Betting syndicates come into existence and elaborate networks are formed to cheat the sporting public and bookmakers by abusing sporting activities.