Cricket bookies are scrambling for cover from the doube whammy of multiple agencies like Police, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) monitoring their bets on IPL 2023 matches and the drastic fall in advertisement breaks of 40% drop for TV and 70% drop for Digital spelling doom on their Rs 10,000 crore betting business on the inaugural match between Gujarat Titan and Chennai Super Kings.
The strict vigil had led most bookies going underground and changing base to smaller centres to take advantage and cash in on the delay during over breaks to place the rates of bets while in the stadium watching love matches. “Bookies keep themselves online constantly and keep revising rates on the IDs being used by them. On the basis of these rates, betters from all over the world play their betting game with the bookie having an unfair advantage of the game in progress while TV the live match has ad breaks, “ explained a senior crime branch officials.
Sharp drop in Ads during opening match
According to data from Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the opening match of the Indian Premier League 2023 saw a 40 per cent fall in the number of advertisers on TV compared with last season.
The inaugural match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings had 31 advertisers while the opening match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders last year had 52 advertisers on TV.
How bookies exploit lag in telecast to place bets
The lesser advertisement meant fewer and shorter adbreaks for the bookies to exploit. “The live telecast of IPL matches takes at least eight to ten seconds to hit television screens. What viewers see is a telecast with an 8-10 second lag. Such a delay is exploited by bookies to place bets before the action reaches TV viewers,” added the crime branch officer.
70% drop in digital ads
Digital advertising fared worse, with a 70% drop in advertisers with just 50 ads on the opening day compared to 160 ads last year when Disney+ Hotstar held the rights.
IPL 2023 had notable absence of some big spenders on TV as compared to last year including Byju's, Cred, Muthoot, Netmeds, Swiggy, Flipkart, PhonePe, Meesho, Samsung, OnePlus, Vedantu, Spotify and Havells.
TV viewership steadily dropping since 2021
The TV viewership of IPL has been on a decline from 269 million in 2021 to 229 million in 2022 IPL TV viewers. TV ad rates have seen a decrease this year, and the number of TV sponsors has decreased from 16 to 12 since last year's IPL. Disney Star holds the TV broadcasting rights for IPL, having spent $3 billion for the period from 2023-2027. Last year's IPL had around 100 TV advertisers and 200 advertisers on Digital in total.
TV and digital advertisers often have different budget profiles, with larger advertisers typically choosing TV and smaller advertisers opting for digital.
Ad revenue down to ₹1,400 crore from ₹2,200 cr
Star Sports saw a 29% increase in TV ratings, with viewership reaching 140 million on the opening day. Jio Cinema reported a peak concurrency of 1.6 crore whereas Star Sports recorded 5.6 crores. While Star Sports clocked Rs. 2,200 crore in ad revenues just ahead of the start of IPL 2023, Jio achieved Rs. 1,400 crore revenues.
Last week Delhi Police special cell busted cricket bookies ring involved in IPL betting during Delhi Capital and Gujarat Titans league match at Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi.
The policemen disguised as spectators deployed in the crowd found that multiple betting sites provided IDs online to bookies being operated from overseas. “Several bookies were identified who had been using their IDs worth crores to manage these betting players and their agents,” confirmed Delhi Police DCP (Central) Sanjay Sain.
