I have been tracking live markets for several years now. Whenever someone new asks me about Cricbet99, their first question is never "which team will win". It is always this: what is that pink box? And then: what does 48 50 mean on a session?
So let us settle both questions for good. Once these ideas sit properly in your head, you will read an exchange screen the way you read a scoreboard. If you do not have an ID yet, the Cricbet99 ID page walks through the process, and if you are completely new, read the beginner guide to placing a bet first — the basics are covered there.
Back Betting: The Straightforward One
A back is easy to grasp because it is what every bookmaker has always offered. You are saying this outcome WILL happen. India will win, so you back India. Kohli will make a fifty, so you back yes. Click the blue box, enter a stake, done.
The maths is simple too. Return equals stake times odds. Say India is at 1.80 and you back with ₹500. India wins and 900 comes back, so 400 in profit. India loses and the 500 is gone. Your maximum loss is always your stake and never more. That is the great virtue of a back — the risk is fixed before you start.
One more thing. On an exchange you can ask for the odds you want. The rate is 1.80 but you want 1.90? Put your bet in at 1.90. If another punter matches it at that rate, the bet is on; if not, it sits unmatched. A bookmaker simply cannot offer this.
Lay Betting: Your Chance to Be the Bookmaker
Now the idea that makes an exchange an exchange. A lay means you are saying this outcome will NOT happen. In effect you become the bookmaker, accepting another punter's back. Click the pink box and you are standing against that outcome.
Take an example. RCB is at 3.0 and you are fairly sure they are not winning tonight. You lay RCB for 100 points. Two things can now happen:
- RCB loses, or the match goes another way: you collect the other side's stake, so 100 points in profit.
- RCB wins: you pay the liability. The formula is stake times odds minus one. Here that is 100 × 2.0, so a 200 point loss.
That liability is the most important and the most dangerous part of laying. Laying at short odds is relatively safe because the liability stays small — lay at 1.50 and a 100 stake carries only 50 of liability. But laying at 8.0 or 10.0 means taking a large risk for a small profit. I always tell newcomers the same thing: stay away from high-odds lays until the game is fully clear to you.
When is a lay useful? When you have a strong feeling about a team LOSING rather than winning. That situation comes up constantly in cricket. A three team tournament, you have no idea who wins, but you are entirely confident team X will not. A bookmaker had no use for that confidence. An exchange does.
Back and Lay Together: Trading, in Its Simplest Form
Now for the interesting part. Because you can take both sides on an exchange, you can also make money from the movement in odds, much like buying and selling on the share market. People call this greening, or trading out. A warning first though: it looks far easier than it actually is.
Picture the scenario. Before the match you backed India at 2.10 with 1000. Play starts, India make 60 in the powerplay without losing a wicket, and their rate drops to 1.60. If you now lay India at 1.60 for the right amount, you lock in a profit on both outcomes. India win or lose, something green comes back. The gap between the two rates is your profit.
And an honest word. Not every trade goes green. Sometimes you enter the wrong side first and then have to lock a loss across both outcomes to stop it growing. That is called redding out. Professionals do it regularly. A small confirmed loss always beats a large uncertain one. Write that line down somewhere.
Session Betting: India's Favourite Format
Now the part half of you came here for. Session betting, also called fancy, is the most popular exchange format in India. The idea is simple: a market is built on small slices of the match. For instance:
- How many runs in six overs? Line: 48
- How many runs in ten overs? Line: 82
- At what score does the first wicket fall? Line: 34
- How many runs will Kohli make? Line: 30.5
Each line carries two rates, a no and a yes. Say the six over session is running at 47/49. That means no sits at 47 and yes at 49. If you think the runs will come in ABOVE 49, you take yes. If you think they finish BELOW 47, you take no. Whatever the actual runs turn out to be, the market settles on that. Fifty two runs in six overs and yes wins; forty five and no wins.
What makes a session distinctive is its speed. The line moves after every ball. A dot pushes it down, a four pushes it up, and within a single over it can jump five or six points. That is why session players have to watch ball by ball. Even a thirty second delay on a television feed can cost you, which is why serious session players always use the fastest score source they can find.
Where the Value Sits in a Session
From what I have seen, value in a session comes from three places. First, reading the pitch. If you can see it slowing down while the market still prices a high-scoring line, the value sits on the no side. Second, player knowledge. Some batsmen start slowly through the powerplay and others swing from the first ball. The market prices an average, so knowing a specific player gives you an edge. Third, overreaction. One six and the market sometimes lifts the line too far, and that is where a patient player finds an entry.
But remember, the people making the market are experts too. There is no free money lying around. You only have an edge in a session when your reading is genuinely better than the market's, and eight times out of ten it is not. So keep the stakes small and keep a record. Two weeks of records will tell you whether you actually have an edge or have simply been running lucky.
Bankroll Rules: Boring, and Essential
Do not skip this section. Learn back, lay and session but skip bankroll management, and you end up like a car with no brakes. My simple rules:
- Keep the betting bankroll separate. Household money and playing money never sit in the same place.
- Never more than 2 to 5 per cent of the bankroll on one bet. A bankroll of 10,000 means a maximum of 500 per bet, and less than that on a session.
- Set a daily stop loss. Once 10 to 15 per cent of the bankroll is gone, the day is over. Close the app. This one rule has saved me more money than any strategy.
- Take winnings out. After a good week, withdraw some points to your bank. The number in a wallet is just a number; the number in a bank is real.
And a word on the psychology. A losing streak arrives faster in session betting than in backing, simply because you place far more bets. Dropping five or six in one bad session is normal. That is exactly when your head says double the next one and win it back. Do not. Money played in recovery mode leads to a deeper loss nine times out of ten. No feeling is stronger than the statistics, and it is the feelings that empty accounts, not the statistics.
The Right Way to Practise
Reading these ideas is one thing; playing is another. Here is the path I suggest. Take a demo ID first and simply WATCH the market across four or five matches. Place nothing at all — just observe how the rates react when a wicket falls and how a session line crawls. Then place small bets on the demo: a back, a lay, a session. Once your decisions on the demo are consistently sensible, register a real ID and start at minimum stakes. If you play on a phone, the app runs more smoothly and responds faster than a browser.
Honestly, the craft of session betting takes months to learn, and most of that time you will be learning through your own mistakes. So keep the cost of learning low. Small stakes, long practice. That formula is slow but it works, and the opposite one is fast but empties the account.
On Being 18+ and Playing Responsibly
Session betting is addictive, and I will admit that myself. Action on every ball, a result every over. Which is exactly why control matters most here. Only play if you are 18 or over, only with spare money, and keep a time limit as well. Playing sessions until two in the morning is not a lifestyle, it is a warning sign. If you see those signs in yourself or in a friend, use the resources on our responsible gaming page. Let the game stay a game.