Alas we are yet to integrate cricket into betscorum and so all the tips on here which I myself have had small wagers on are being placed with other bookies. Apparently, an audience of a billion people isn't what we're looking for in a sport, I mean the dev team don't even see fit to add cricket to the banner of the main page despite it being behind only football(soccer) and basketball in terms of global viewing figures.

Anyway, short rant over these are my picks on a variety of tournament odds and special lines for the IPL. I have had a decent amount of success with my betting on cricket of late as detailed in a couple of my blogs so I'll get my excuses in early - I'm better at picking long odds in Test cricket than in the T20 format. Oh and don't bet what you can't afford to lose. There you go, I've covered my liability on the issue!

Overall winner - I'm going to go with KKR @7.0 to win the tournament outright. Yes, they have a smaller squad so I'm banking on them not picking up too many injuries but their first 11 is a good as anyone's and that price is far more attractive than SRH, MI and CSK who are all at shorter odds.

Top 4 - I'm going to be boring on this one and follow the bookies by backing the 4 favourites to make it into the knockout stage SRH @1.67, CSK @1.8, MI @1.83 and KKR @1.83.

Wooden Spoon - Having finished last season so poorly and then having brought in so many new players I'm backing Kings XI @4.0 to finish bottom.

CSK Top Players - following his great season last time around that saw him recalled to the India squad, I am backing Ambit Rayudu @5.5 to be CSKs leading run scorer this year. Shardul Thakur has been picking up plenty of wickets for his native Mumbai prior to the tournament beginning and has flitted in and out of international set-up over the last year. I'm backing Shardul Thakur @6.5 to take the most wickets for CSK this year.


SRH Top Players - As per my bold predictions, I'm going to go with David Warner @3.25 to be SRH's top run-getter. He is slightly disadvantaged by not being available for the first couple of games but I reckon he can make it up from there. Bowling wise it's difficult not to select Rashid Khan @2.35 given how effective he has been in T20 cricket all over the world in the last couple of years.


Kings XI Top Players - KL Rahul is made for this form of cricket and will still be harbouring ambitions of making it into India's World Cup squad, therefore I'm backing him @2.8 to be the top aggregate scorer for KXI. In bowling terms, I'm going to go for a dark horse and a player who I'll be blogging about in more detail soon Varun Chakravarthy @11.0 to be KXI's leading wicket-taker.


KKR Top Players - One of the bizarre things about the odds on these lines is the variety in prices you can find. You can back my pick Shubman Gill @9.0 or you take him for as low as 5.0 - I went for the former. Again you'll see a follow-up blog about this kid and why he's so special. As for leading wicket-taker, I'll go for another young Indian talent in Kuldeep Yadav @3.25. Left-arm chinaman bowlers are a rare bread and this guy is likely to continue to bamboozle batsmen from across the world.


Mumbai Indians Top Players - With the "Hit Man" moving back to open the batting, I think backing Rohit Sharma @3.5 looks a sensible bet to me. In bowling terms, young Markande showed glimpses of his promise last season and with few other wrist-spin options the onus will be on him once more to claim wickets through the middle overs. You can back Markande @6.5 to be their leading wicket-taker.


Rajasthan Royals Top Players - This is a difficult one to pick because of the availability of some of their star names. I'm going to go with Jos Buttler @7.0 based on his current form the fact that he'll probably open the batting again even though he will not be available in the later stages. Bowling wise I'm going for the left-armer Unadkat @4.0 to have a better season than he did last year.


RCBTop Players - Once again, I guess I better stick to my bold predictions and not go with Kohli who has the shortest odds of any batsman to top score with their respective franchise and instead back AB de Villiers @3.25. Picking wrist-spinners as your top bowlers in T20 is a bit of a no brainer so I'm going with bookies favourite Chahal @3.3 to take the most wickets this season for RCB


Dehli Captials Top Players - Shreyas Iyer @5.0 looks a decent bet given he has been in brilliant form in the domestic T20 league for Mumbai this year and as captain he is pretty much guaranteed a game. As for a leading wicket-taker, I've decided to take a risk on Amit Mishra @8.0 getting game time ahead of Sandeep Lamichhane mainly on the basis of Dehli having a lot of foreign based players to try and fit into their 11.


Orange Cap Winner - You can get each way odds on these (paying top 4 places)

Virat Kohil @10.0

Rohit Sharma @15.0

KL Rahul @17.0


Purple Cap Winner - Again each way bets (paying top 4 places)

Rashid Khan @9.0

Kuldeep Yadav @19.0

Sunil Narine @26.0


Most Tournament 6s - Each-way (top 4 places)

AB de Villiers @9.0

Andre Russell @15.0

KL Rahul @17.0


Are there any bets that you are going to make on the IPL this season?