We all hate rain in cricket, but when it comes to betting on the Completed Match market, rain has cricket betting punters rubbing their hands with glee.
Cricket Betting Tips
What is the Completed Match betting market?
It is a market that is only applicable to limited overs matches (50 Over matches or T20s).
The Completed Match market is a bet on whether or not there will be an official result.
ie, a win for Team A or Team B is a completed match. While if the match is abandoned as No Result, it is not a completed match, click to visit the best betting sites.
An official result is Australia beat England by 5 runs. Or England beat Australia by 2 wickets, etc.
A No Result is when enough overs don’t get bowled to constitute a match.
note, don’t confuse a draw with two teams scoring the same amount of runs. Two teams both scoring 250 runs each would be a tie. And bookies apply their own rules in this instance. ie, dead heat, or void bet, etc.
If a 50 Over match is affected by rain, both sides have to bat for a minimum of 20 Overs each to constitute a match and have an official result.
This is the ruling that applies at the ICC Cricket World Cup (50 Over competition).
When a T20 match is affected by rain, both sides have to bat for a minimum of 5 Overs each to constitute a match. This way the match will have an official result.
This rule applies at the ICC World T20.
A match can only be classed as completed, if it has come to a natural conclusion.
Or if both teams have batted the minimum number of Overs (listed above). At this point a result will be declared under the Duckworth/Lewis method.
Completed Match Market Betting Examples
The Completed Match Betting market is on the Betfair Exchange. Here are some examples of how the market can come into play.
#1 Example
- England are playing Australia in a 50 Over match. England bat first and are 150/2 after 22 Overs. It then starts to rain, and this rain lasts for a few hours.
- England’s innings is ruled to be completed, and Australia are set a target of 151 to get in 22 Overs. If Australia get the runs inside 22 overs they win the match, and the match has an official result.
- Even if Australia get the runs inside 18 Overs the match will have an official result. Even though Australia didn’t bat for 20 Overs. If the match comes to a natural conclusion (ie, one side wins) inside the 20 Overs, it becomes an official result.
#2 Example
- England are playing Australia in a 50 Over match. England bat first and are 150/2 after 22 Overs. It then starts to rain, and this rain lasts for a few hours.
- England’s innings is called complete, and Australia are set a target of 151 to get in 22 Overs. Australia are batting, and after 10 Overs they are 125/0 and are cruising to victory. It then starts raining again and the players go off.
- The rain doesn’t stop and the players can’t get out to complete the match. Even though Australia are clearly going to win and are well ahead of Duckworth/Lewis rate, the match is still a draw as Australia didn’t bat their 20 Overs OR get the 151 runs.
3# Example
- Australia are playing West Indies in a T20 and are 60/0 after 6 overs, when it starts to rain. After the rain delay, the Umpires call Australia’s innings complete, and set West Indies 61 to win off 6 overs.
- West Indies are 60/0 at the end of the 4th over and clearly going to win. It starts hammering it down the rain and the players have to go off.
- The pitch gets flooded and there is absolutely no chance of play resuming before the cut off time.
- The match isn’t complete (West Indies didn’t get the required runs or bat 5 Overs), and is a No Result.
In the Completed Match market, you bet on ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ with Betfair.
Just to be clear, that means ‘Yes’ the match will have an official result.
Or ‘No’ the match won’t have an official result and will be declared a ‘No Result’ or a draw.
Trading the Completed Match Market On Betfair
When there is a bit of rain in the air, or other unpleasant conditions come into play, this market just catches fire.
This is even more so the case in important matches, such as big live TV matches, or at the cricket world cup, etc.
This can lead to a situation where the match would usually be abandoned.
But if it’s a big match (like a world cup semi-final), a major effort will be made to get the game completed in some form.
All this can all combine to be a recipe for a very volatile market.
In which case, there will be some very big winners, and some very large losers. So be aware.
When betting on this market, take into consideration the event and the keenness of the organisers to get an official result.
