A Beginner’s Guide to Kabaddi Betting

Kabaddi Basics

Kabaddi is a contact sport played between two teams with seven players each. The game consists of two 20-minute halves with a 5 minute break in between. The aim of the game is for players to enter the opposite side of the court and ‘tag’ their players while shouting “Kabaddi! Kabaddi!” This is called a raid and the raider has to try to tag one of the opposition players by touching them while the other players try to catch him.

The attacking team players are known as Raiders while the defenders are Antis. When a raider touches an opponent, that player is out until his team ‘scores’ during their raid. The Antis is able to catch the raider while he attempts to score.

There are two forms of kabaddi, but the professional games are played on a rectangular field. The other form is played on a circular court, but it is mainly found in street games. The players occupy opposite halves of the rectangular field and each team has five substitutions on the bench. For a raid to be considered successful, a player needs to cross the line into the oppositions halve, tag at least one player, and return to his or her own half without being touched. The attack must take place within 30-seconds.

The raider’s team is awarded one point for each opposing player that is tagged. If the raider manages to go beyond the bonus line then an extra point is awarded. If the player is stopped then the opposition wins a point.

Some competitions introduce additional rules that are designed to make the game more excited. In the popular Pro Kabaddi League there is a “do or die raid” rule, which eliminates a team from the game if they have three unsuccessful raids in a row. There is also a “super tackle”, which increases the worth of tackles to two points if the raiding team has only four players on the field.

As kabaddi has grown in popularity, there has been a big increase in the number of professional competitions. The International Kabaddi Federation organises the World Cup, the Kabaddi Asia Cup and the Kabaddi Masters. There are also many leagues, such as India’s Pro Kabaddi League, Pakistan’s Super Kabaddi League, and the World Kabaddi League, which includes teams from India, Pakistan, Great Britain, Canada and the USA. There is also the England Kabaddi Federation UK.

Betting on Kabaddi

Kabaddi is a fast-paced sport that is full of action. Thanks to this, there are many betting markets available for each game, league and tournament. The markets are very easy to understand and they give you a huge range of betting possibilities. Here we will explain the most popular ones to help you get started betting.

Match Betting

This is the most basic type of bet. You are simply betting on which team will be the winner at the end of the scheduled 40 minutes, or if it will be a draw. It is important to note that this market does not include any extra time.

To Win in Extra Time/Golden Raid

This is a bet on a team to win in extra time or through a golden raid. It is a very simple market, but it is hard to predict in advance, so it will often have very generous odds.

Handicap Betting

Very often in a kabaddi game, one of the teams will be favourite to win. In order to make the betting markets more interesting, a handicap may be introduced in the form of points. You may see something like Team A -3 points, Team B +3 points. In this instance, if you were to bet on Team A to win, then you would win the bet if they were still the winner once 3 points have been subtracted from their score. If you were to bet on Team B, then you would win the bet if they were the winner after 3 points were added to their score.

Total Points Over/Under

Over/Under bets are very simple to understand. You are simply betting on whether the result will be higher or lower than the given value. In the case of the Total Points market, you are betting on the total number of points scored by both teams. For example, the market may be Over/Under 80.5 points. If you think that the total number of points scored between both teams will be 80 or less then you bet Under, if you think it will be 81 or more, then you bet Over.

You may find many more Over/Under betting markets. For instance, you may be able to bet on the individual teams’ points, you could bet on the number of raids, the number of fouls, and so on. The bets will always be easy to understand and often present some excellent opportunities.  

Half Betting

Half betting allows you to use the betting markets described above but they will apply to individual halves of the match. For instance, you could bet on which team will win the first half or which will win the second. This can be very useful. For instance, if you think a team starts well but gets tired quickly then you may bet on them to win the first half but then lose the game overall.

Outright Bets

These types of bets apply to the league or tournament as a whole. The most basic is a bet on which team will be the winner. However, you may find many more markets, such as on which teams will finish in the top three positions. In general, the earlier on in a season or tournament you place these bets the more generous the odds will be. You can never be sure what markets you might find, so it is always worth having a close look at them. 

Prop Bets

Proposition bets are often a fun way to get involved with the action. They come in many different forms. For instance, you may be able to bet on a specific player to score, on which team will be the first to score, the last team to score, and so on. 

Live Betting

Live betting, also known as in-play betting, is a fantastic way to make watching kabaddi even more exciting. It allows you to bet on the games as they are taking place. You will find many of the same markets explained above, but the odds are updated in real time to reflect the action on the pitch. Furthermore, there is a special category of bets known as ‘Next To’ bets. These are bets on the next thing to happen, such as the next team to score. This means that if you follow the action and the odds carefully and you react quickly, you may spot some fantastic betting opportunities.

What to Consider When Betting on Kabaddi

If you want to give yourself the best chance of placing winning kabaddi bets, then you need to make sure that you are following the sport and doing as much research as possible. If you watch the games regularly, then you will quickly become familiar with the teams and the players, and this will give you a great foundation.

When you are researching your actual bets, there are various things you should consider. The first thing is to check for team news. You need to know if any players are absent due to injury or illness, as this can have a huge effect on the team as a whole, especially if a star player is missing.

You will also want to look at the teams’ recent forms and you can look at historical meetings between them to see how the games have ended. However, try not to rely on this too much as surprises happen all the time in sports.

Another factor to consider is the teams’ schedules and travel. If one team has been playing many games and travelling a lot, then there is a chance that they will be tired and this could affect how they play. Conversely, if a team has had a relatively easy week and is playing at home, then this can give them a real boost.

In short, you need to gather as much information as you can about the teams, the individual players and their styles. The more that you are able to consider, the better informed your bets will be and the better your chances of winning. Hopefully, this will soon lead to you placing numerous winning bets.