The ICC Cricket World Cup takes place once in every four years and is one of the most popular sporting events in the world.
The 2019 ICC World Cup will take place in England from 30 May to 14 July and will see a total of 10 teams battling it out.
The teams will be divided into groups and will first go through a round-robin stage before heading into a knock-out stage which is broken down into quarter-finals, semi-finals and the grand finale.
While the ICC World Cup isn’t as popular as the FIFA World Cup, it will still command a large viewing audience around the world as some of the top countries in the world will participate.
England, Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will take part.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) as well as the English Cricket Board (ECB) realizes that there will be a surge in underground betting as the world cup approaches and as the tournament unfolds. The authorities will be on high alert when it comes to monitoring and cleaning up unauthorized betting operations. However, it is going to be a difficult task for the given the scope of the global cricket betting market.
The UK has a legalized sports betting market and punters are free to place their bets at the many land based and online betting shops in the UK. However, this same freedom of a legalized sports betting market is missing in most Asian countries where cricket is not just a game but a religion.
Take India for instance, cricket is the biggest sport in the land of 1.3 billion people and there are millions of cricket lovers who are very keen on betting. However, it is illegal in India and a punishable offense. Due to this cricket bettors are forced to turn to underground betting networks which are aplenty throughout the Asian continent.
While the ICC and ECB will be concerned about underground betting networks, they will also be extremely vigilant to ensure that the World Cup does not become a target of match fixing and spot fixing.
Asian bookies are known for approaching players and paying them huge sums of money to get them to be involved in spot fixing or match fixing. Cricket does not need any more controversy in this area and it will be good for the game if the 2019 ICC World Cup does not carry with it a ‘betting’ scandal!
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