India: police in Agra shut illegal cricket betting sites and apps

Authorities discovered that websites and apps were stealing data from broadcasting platforms.

India.- Police in Agra say they have shut 27 websites and nine mobile applications that were taking cricket bets. An operation was carried out around two weeks ago in response to a complaint about the theft of data from broadcasting platforms. 

According to India Today, the illicit use of data enabled live streaming of cricket matches and facilitated betting on a ball-by-ball and over-by-over basis. Bookies operating on these betting platforms used foreign websites to place bets on cricket matches. According to Police, most of the websites and apps have origins in Dubai or China, making it difficult to catch those responsible.

This week, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said it had blocked 22 unauthorised betting applications and websites, including the Mahadev Book betting app. The move came after a money laundering probe conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Cricket, a hugely popular sport in India, accounts for 80 to 90 per cent of the total sports betting revenue, drawing over 140 million participants. A report by the Think Change Forum (TCF) suggests that during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season, this number rose to around 370 million.