In first IPL post demonetisation, bookies have gone ‘digital’ in their transactions

When the government announced demonetisation in the country, banning currency notes and pushing for digital payments, nobody could have thought that illegal businesses like betting on cricket matches would also go digital.

However, bookies of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches have taken their business online, dealing with digital payments just like market trades.

With the rise of IPL came a generation of younger bookies and bettors, who started to place bets on these teams and earn money, going up in lakhs. While earlier these transactions happened in hard cash, now the busyness has gone digital and payments are done online.

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Not only payments, the transactions and process of booking have also been upgraded to Telegram, WhatsApp, and Facebook groups. The payments are sent to digital wallets of their Paytm and FreeCharge accounts, while funds are transferred via international merchants like Neteller and Skrill.

Not only this, sports betters also use websites like Bet365, Betway, LadBrokes, William Hill and Skybet for online betting.

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Even the police department knows about these transactions, accepting that online transactions have grown but are yet to become mainstream.

"20% of betting might happen digitally, rest everything still happens in cash and over the phone," S Ravi, additional CP-crime, Bengaluru City Police, told ET.

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As per a 2012 report by KPMG, the betting market in India was worth Rs 300,000 crore, and time and again, there have been requests from betters to legalise sports betting, saying that doing so would make government revenues rise.

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(Image source NewsWorldIndia)