Rs 4,000 crores used on betting during World T20 final

Seekuge Prasanna of Sri Lanka celebrates winning the ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014 Final between India and Sri Lanka at Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium.

Betting, a dark part of the sport, has grown immensely these years, and according to reports from DNA India, almost around Rs4,000 crore was laid as bets for the final World T20 match between India and Sri Lanka on Sunday which took place at Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The odds, however, favoured Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team with odds for India placed at 80 paise, which translates to a profit of Rs. 1.80 on every rupee betted on India. Sri Lanka weren’t very far behind with odds placed at 85 paise in their favour, a profit of Rs. 1. 85 on every rupee for people betting on a Sri Lankan victory.

“We are keeping a close watch. We will act if we receive specific information about betting,” Sadanand Date, JCP of Crime Branch told DNA on Saturday.

A convict held up in Ulhasnagar, Anil Jaisinghania, is apparently the brains behind this multi-crore operation, and has sub-bookies operating under him in the Thane district. According to police, the bookies have been using Android-based application, voice messages sent over the internet in code language so as to shadow all of these operations from the eyes of the law.

“I have laid a bet of Rs 25,000 on India winning the toss and Rs 2 lakh on India winning the match,” said a bettie from Ghatkopar, who will probably be mourning now since India lost both of them.

Investigators are now looking for Sunil Abhichandani, point man for D-company leader Dawood Ibrahim who has gone underground now. “Unless we lay our hands on Sunil, it will not be possible to completely unearth the betting racket,” a crime branch officer revealed.

Online betting sites such as bet365.com, betonline, betfair, totesport and many such have been accepting bets from India during the whole tournament, and business has bloomed for these websites since betting online isn’t recognized to be legal in India.