Local bookies across the country bet in India's favour all the day on Wednesday but after the fall of two quick Indian wickets some fluctuation in rates was evident. At the start of the match bookies were favouring India with 1:2 ratio, but in the second half of the match it dropped to 1:1.5.
Information collected by Business Recorder through multiple sources including bookies and police revealed that most of the bookies favoured India against Pakistan. A police official from Lahore told Business Recorder "Stakes are unusually high during our matches with India. The bookies have calculated rates using popular international betting sites and software".
At the start of Pakistan-India match some bookies were favouring India at 500:550, said Kamran. Explaining the rates he said that if someone is betting on India he will get Rs 500 against Rs 1000 if India wins. Bookies were favouring India as India's batting power is considered superior to Pakistan's, but when Pakistani bowlers restricted them the rate came down, Kamran maintained.
Zaheer Ahmed, a Punjab Police official, said that local bookies were clearly favouring India as favourites. "We had sent a decoy customer to know the going market rate. We found out that the odds were placed at Rs 160-175 for every Rs 100 bet placed on India. At smaller levels, the odds are Rs 1.56 to Rs 1.75 for an Indian win," he added.
A bookie Kamran Awan said that when it comes to Pakistan, the odds are Rs 3 for Re 1 placed for their win or Rs 360-375. He said that it was the average rate we got after talking to around 10 bookies. The police said that the decoy customers, sent to many suspected bookies, were given a variety of options to play their bets on. He said that the bets were also placed on the performance of key Indian and Pakistani players especially on Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Afridi and Umar Gul and the number of runs as well as wickets that would be scored in the first 15 overs.