Online Betting India: Which Sports Actually Get the Most Interest

Ask anyone which sport dominates online betting India. Cricket. Obvious before the question's even finished. What's less obvious is how lopsided that dominance actually is, and how the rest of the field stacks up against each other.

Quick Points

Betting interest by sport in online betting India, based on current market data:

• Cricket accounts for more than 80% of total sports betting revenue in India

• Football sits a distant second, led by EPL, La Liga, and Champions League interest

• Tennis sees interest concentrated around the four Grand Slam events

• Basketball and table tennis draw smaller but real, steadily growing interest

• Sports like ice hockey, handball, volleyball, baseball, badminton, and rugby remain genuinely niche categories in India

Cricket Isn't Just Popular, It's Structurally Dominant

More than 80 percent of all sports betting revenue in India traces back to cricket. Not a narrow lead. Closer to a near-monopoly on attention. The IPL alone reportedly generates betting volume exceeding the entire sports betting market of many individual countries, and international matches involving Team India pull in similarly outsized numbers. Grand View Research estimated India's online gambling market revenue at $2.14 billion in 2025, with sports betting serving as the largest revenue-generating segment. Cricket sits at the center of nearly all of that.

This level of dominance is unusual by global standards. The United States splits betting activity across football, basketball, baseball. Europe leans soccer but shares real space with tennis and other sports. Online betting India doesn't work that way, and understanding online betting India means starting from that one fact. Cricket isn't the biggest category here. It's close to being the only one that matters at scale.

Football Comes in a Distant Second

Football sits clearly behind cricket, but it's a real second place, not an afterthought, within online betting India. The English Premier League has built a genuine following, particularly strong in states like Kerala, Goa, West Bengal and parts of the Northeast, regions with a longer history tied to football as a spectator sport. La Liga and the UEFA Champions League pull solid numbers too, driven largely by European club fandom rather than domestic football specifically. The Indian Super League, despite genuine effort, hasn't come close to IPL-level betting interest domestically.

Tennis Interest Concentrates Around Four Weeks a Year

Tennis betting in India doesn't build steadily. It clusters almost entirely around the four Grand Slam tournaments. Outside the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open, volume drops off considerably. Fundamentally different category from cricket or football. Less sustained weekly interest, more intense, short bursts tied to specific global events.

Basketball and Table Tennis Sit in a Genuine Middle Tier

Basketball draws steady, modest betting interest, helped by growing NBA viewership and a small but expanding domestic following. Table tennis occupies similar ground, enough of a competitive and recreational base in India to generate real, consistent activity, without coming anywhere close to cricket or football's numbers. Neither dominates a season the way tennis clusters around Grand Slams. Just a smaller, steadier stream of interest year-round.

The Rest of the Field Remains Genuinely Niche

Ice hockey, handball, volleyball, baseball, badminton, rugby. All legitimate betting categories in India. None have built anything close to a mainstream following domestically. Badminton benefits occasionally from Indian success on the international stage, short-lived spikes tied to a major tournament. Others stay followed by smaller, dedicated audiences rather than the broad public cricket and football command. None of it currently challenges the established hierarchy in any meaningful way, and there's little reason to expect that changing quickly given how much smaller each of these audiences is compared to cricket's reach nationally.

Why Cricket's Dominance Isn't Likely to Shift Soon

None of the categories above come close to threatening cricket's position at the center of online betting India, and that's unlikely to change soon. Cricket carries a combination few other sports can match domestically. Near-universal cultural relevance. A packed year-round calendar between IPL and international fixtures. Decades of accumulated fan loyalty that football, tennis, and everything else on this list are still building from a much smaller starting point.

A Few Things People Get Wrong

• Myth: football and cricket draw roughly comparable betting interest in India.
  Reality: cricket accounts for more than 80 percent of total betting revenue, football a distant second by a wide margin.

• Myth: tennis betting builds steadily across the year the way cricket does.
  Reality: tennis interest concentrates heavily around the four Grand Slam tournaments specifically.

• Myth: niche sports like badminton or table tennis are close to breaking into the mainstream betting conversation in India.
  Reality: they remain genuinely smaller categories, even with occasional spikes tied to specific tournaments or Indian successes.

Following Cricket, Football, and Tennis on Arena365

Betting markets for sports on Arena365 cover several options to pick from, with some of the not-so-popular sports having some genuinely interesting and simple markets to begin with. Cricket, football, and tennis, the three categories central to this piece, alongside basketball, table tennis, ice hockey, handball, volleyball, baseball, badminton, and rugby. Cricket coverage stays active year-round given the sport's packed domestic and international schedule. Football markets pick up around major European league fixtures like the EPL, La Liga, and the Champions League. Tennis markets come alive specifically around the four Grand Slams, matching the seasonal pattern covered above. Having all sports in one account on Arena365 means the shift from cricket's constant presence to tennis's short, intense Grand Slam windows doesn't require switching platforms depending on the season.

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