🇮🇳India
Esports betting
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20Bet is a solid mid-range sportsbook and casino offering a broad selection of sports, esports and casino games. It holds a Curaçao licence (8048/JAZ), an offshore-tier licence with less oversight than UKGC or MGA, and its operating history is shorter than more established competitors, so check local availability before signing up.
GranaWin is a modern casino and sportsbook launched in 2024, offering a large game library, extensive payment options and strong mobile support, but its offshore licensing, withdrawal limits and mixed player feedback warrant some caution.
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Confirmed live esports coverage across 10 titles with real match counts — 71 CS2 events, 29 League of Legends, 28 Rainbow Six — plus mobile esports titles.
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Bizzo Casino is an established online casino launched in 2021, offering a large game selection, multiple payment options and mobile support, but its Curaçao licensing and mixed withdrawal feedback are worth considering.
DragonSlots is a relatively new Curaçao-licensed casino with a large game selection, multiple payment options and mobile support, but its short history and inconsistent public information about ownership and licensing call for some caution.
National Casino is an established online casino with a large multi-provider game library, mobile support and a wide range of payment options, but its offshore licensing and mixed withdrawal and verification feedback mean players should proceed with some caution.
SlotRave is a new 2026 casino with a large game selection, strong mobile focus and a modern interface, but its young operating history and conflicting public information about its corporate/licensing structure warrant caution.
Last verified: 16 October 2026. This page is information about esports in India and about the law that applies to online betting on it. It is not legal advice and it is not a recommendation to use any betting service. Laws and court cases on this subject are changing, so read the "Sources" list at the bottom and check the current position yourself.
Esports is the one corner of Indian gaming that the new law explicitly protects and promotes, and it is also one of the fastest-growing audiences in the country. Mobile-first players, college tournaments and huge streaming audiences have turned titles such as BGMI into a mainstream spectator sport. This page explains the Indian esports landscape, how esports betting markets are built, and the important difference between esports as a sport, which the law now recognises, and betting on esports, which sits under the rules on online money games.
India's esports scene is mobile-led. BGMI, the Indian version of the battle-royale game PUBG Mobile, was blocked in India in 2022 and returned in 2023, and it has become the centre of the country's organised competition, with publisher Krafton running an annual circuit of qualifiers, a pro series and an international cup. Free Fire, Valorant, Counter-Strike and a range of mobile and PC titles also have competitive scenes, and the sport's audience skews young and online.
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 gives esports a formal status. According to PRS Legislative Research, the Act defines an e-sport as a multiplayer game played as part of multi-sports events, recognised under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025, and decided by skill, which may involve registration fees and prize money but must not involve bets or other stakes. Reporting by The Bridge says esports was recognised under the National Sports Governance Act and falls under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and MediaNama reports that under the Rules that came into force on 1 May 2026, registration remains mandatory for games offered as e-sports. Esports debuted as a medal event at the Asian Games held in Hangzhou, and a BGMI event was featured as a demonstration at the 2025 Khelo India Youth Games according to Sigma. Specific recognition details and federation status change quickly, so check the Ministry and the Online Gaming Authority for the current picture.
This distinction is the most important thing to understand about esports and the law in India. The Act promotes e-sports as a competitive activity; it does not promote wagering on them. PRS notes that an e-sport must not involve the placing of bets or other stakes, and the broad definition of an online money game, in which a user pays money or other stakes in the expectation of money or other gain, applies whatever the underlying game is. In plain terms: watching and playing esports is recognised and encouraged, while placing money on the outcome of an esports match is a different matter that the law treats as a money game.
This section describes how markets work in general, as background for understanding the sport and the risks. It is not an invitation to bet.
Every price includes the bookmaker's margin. Converting the prices of both teams into implied probabilities gives a total above 100 percent; the excess is the margin. Because esports has frequent roster changes, patches that alter the balance of the game and large differences between regions, prices can be poorly calibrated, which tempts people into thinking they have an edge they do not have.
Esports has had match-fixing scandals across several games, and the risk is highest in low-level online tournaments where players earn little and oversight is thin. The same warning applies as in every sport: "fixed match" tips are scams, and unusual price moves on obscure matches are more likely to be a trap than an opportunity. A second risk is that esports audiences skew young, which is a particular concern for betting; anyone under the legal age must not take part in any form of betting, and parents should be aware of in-game purchase and loot-box systems that behave like gambling even where they are not betting.
The legal position changed fundamentally in 2025 and 2026. The key points, as reported by the sources listed below, are these.
Two further points matter. First, e-sports and "social" games with no stakes are treated differently from money games under the Act, so the law does not prohibit watching or following esports online. Second, the Act is about online services. Betting that is offline falls under state laws, which differ.
Under India's constitution, betting and gambling are a state subject, so the rules differ by state. The Public Gambling Act, 1867 is an old central law that most states adopted or replaced with their own. Commentary from iPleaders and others describes the general picture: most states prohibit gambling, with limited exceptions such as lotteries and betting on horse racing, and a few places (Goa, Sikkim and Daman) license casinos under their own laws. Sikkim has also been described as having permitted licensed online sports betting within the state under older rules. Whether that survives the national Act is exactly the kind of question the court cases and the Authority will answer, so do not assume an older state permission still protects an online service today.
The practical point for an esports fan: a state licence for a casino or a racing track does not make an online wager on an esports match lawful, and an operator holding a licence from another country does not change Indian law for a user in India.
Because advertising of online money games is itself an offence under the Act, you should expect fewer open promotions around esports, and you should be sceptical of any that remain. Banks and payment providers are also barred from facilitating transactions for such services. In practice this means deposits to betting sites may fail, and the sites that still take deposits through informal channels, personal UPI handles or crypto exchanges are the ones most likely to be fraudulent or to disappear with your balance.
If betting is causing you stress, debt or problems at home, talk to someone. In India, Tele-MANAS (14416) is the government's free mental-health helpline. Setting a time and money limit before you watch a match, and treating any money you have already spent as gone, are simple ways to stay in control. If you are under the age of majority you must not take part in any form of betting.
Everything enjoyable about esports is available without a wager: free streams of the leagues and tournaments on the publishers' own channels, clip highlights, analyst desks and the community around teams. If you enjoy the competitive side, you can play in college or community tournaments, or make predictions with friends for no money.
Esports results swing on small things: one round, one fight, a map pick or a patch. A team that has won several series can lose to an underdog, and a single player's form can change quickly. There are no sure things in esports.
We last checked these on 16 October 2026. Several are commentary rather than the gazette text of the law, and the legal position may have changed since.
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Every betting site on this page carries an AskBigBonus Trust Index score — the same framework we use across every operator we cover, not a separate scoring system for sportsbooks specifically. You'll see each score on the operator's card and in the comparison table.
Each betting site is evaluated across seven areas: licensing and regulatory standing, account and payment security, how clearly the operator discloses its terms, the strength of its responsible-gambling tools, how reliable its payment methods and withdrawal times actually are, whether its bonus terms are fair and clearly stated, and the overall quality of its website and mobile experience.
The order of this list is an editorial decision, not a straight sort of those scores. Our editors decide which sportsbooks to shortlist and in what order, using the Trust Index as the main input alongside judgment about who we'd actually recommend first — which is why a betting site with a slightly lower score can sit above a higher-scoring one. Per-country and per-category pages work differently: those are sorted directly, either by our editors' rating for that specific category and market, or by the specific measured figure the page is about, such as withdrawal speed.
What never moves an operator up a list is money. Operators here may have a commercial relationship with AskBigBonus — an affiliate partnership, an exclusive bonus code, or both — and that relationship is disclosed, but it doesn't buy position. See our full methodology for the complete scoring breakdown.
Cricket dominates Indian sports betting to a degree matched by few other sport-market pairings anywhere on this page — the IPL specifically generates enormous betting volume, alongside international cricket and, increasingly, kabaddi and football (particularly the Indian Super League and major European leagues) as secondary interests.
UPI is, as with casino play, the single most important payment fact in Indian sports betting — an operator supporting UPI directly, or through Google Pay and PhonePe, is instantly accessible to the overwhelming majority of digitally active Indian bettors in a way one relying on international cards alone simply isn't. Paytm, NetBanking, NEFT, and IMPS round out a genuinely deep realistic payment menu.
Live, ball-by-ball cricket betting is a defining feature of how Indian bettors actually engage — in-play markets during an IPL match see dramatically higher volume than pre-match markets for the same fixture, making an operator's live-betting speed and market depth during play more consequential to the real Indian bettor experience than its pre-match odds alone.
Bonus offers reaching Indian bettors lean heavily on IPL-season promotions specifically, reflecting how central that single tournament is to the entire market's betting calendar — an operator's IPL-specific offers are often a better signal of real investment in the Indian market than its generic year-round welcome bonus.
As on the casino side, TDS under Sections 194B/194BA applies to betting winnings regardless of the paying operator's licensing status, meaning the amount that actually reaches an Indian bettor via UPI or bank transfer is already net of tax withheld — worth factoring into how a headline win amount translates to what's actually received.
Fantasy sports platforms and traditional sportsbook betting occupy adjacent but legally distinct spaces in India worth understanding separately — some Indian states have taken different positions on fantasy-sports-style real-money games than on traditional fixed-odds sports betting specifically, which is the category this page covers, so a state's stance on one doesn't necessarily indicate its stance on the other.
IPL-specific betting tools (ball-by-ball predictors, ball-by-ball cash-out) have become genuinely sophisticated at operators seriously investing in the Indian market, reflecting how much betting activity concentrates into that single roughly two-month tournament window each year relative to the rest of the cricket calendar combined.
Customer support in Hindi and other major regional languages, not just English, is a real signal of genuine investment in the Indian market specifically, given how linguistically diverse India's bettor base actually is relative to a single national language assumption.
Cash-out during live IPL matches is a heavily used feature among Indian bettors specifically, letting a bettor lock in a gain or cut a loss mid-match rather than waiting for a fixed result — worth checking availability on cricket markets specifically, since that's where the overwhelming majority of Indian betting activity concentrates.
One more practical note for Indian bettors: keeping a personal record of deposits, bets, and payouts is worth doing given the TDS deduction applied to winnings — having clear records makes it easier to reconcile what was actually won against what was received after tax withholding, which is useful information to have on hand regardless of whether a bettor consults a tax professional about it.
Beyond cricket, kabaddi has grown into a genuine secondary betting interest in India specifically through the Pro Kabaddi League's rising popularity, and football (the Indian Super League plus major European leagues) continues building a real following, especially among younger urban Indian bettors. Cricket, however, remains so dominant that even operators with otherwise broad sport coverage concentrate the overwhelming share of their India-specific marketing and promotional effort around the cricket calendar specifically.
India's sports betting law rests on the same colonial-era framework as its casino law — principally the Public Gambling Act of 1867 — with gambling regulation delegated primarily to individual states rather than the center, and no state currently licensing the kind of international sportsbook most Indian bettors actually use.
This leaves online sports betting in the same unregulated national position as online casino: not affirmatively legal, not comprehensively banned in most states specifically for this activity, and served in practice by offshore-licensed operators (commonly Curaçao) rather than any India-licensed brand. A small number of states have taken explicit positions on online real-money gaming that can bear on betting specifically; most, including several of India's most populous, haven't addressed it directly.
Tax treatment is the genuinely distinct feature of India's position: Sections 194B and 194BA of the Income Tax Act apply tax deducted at source to betting and gambling winnings regardless of the operator's own licensing status, meaning the tax question and the licensing question are legally separate in India in a way they aren't in most jurisdictions.
No domestic regulator oversees offshore sportsbooks serving Indian bettors, so whatever consumer protection exists comes entirely from the operator's own foreign license — worth verifying directly, and worth noting that cricket's live, ball-by-ball betting culture here can encourage rapid in-the-moment decisions in a way that makes real deposit and loss limits genuinely useful, even though nothing in Indian law currently requires an operator to offer them.
Before an operator appears on this page for India, our editors confirm genuine acceptance of Indian bettors, verify UPI (directly or via Google Pay/PhonePe) actually processes deposits and withdrawals, and check the operator's foreign license against that issuer's own public register — we do not offer tax guidance on individual TDS situations, which a qualified tax professional should address.
Fantasy sports platforms operating in India have, in some cases, obtained clearer state-level positioning than traditional fixed-odds sportsbooks have — a genuinely important distinction, since this page covers the latter, which remains in the same unaddressed national position regardless of how any individual state has treated fantasy sports specifically.
No responsible-gambling standard is mandated for offshore sportsbooks serving Indian bettors, which matters given how much of India's betting activity concentrates into short, high-intensity windows (an IPL match, a World Cup knockout game) that can encourage rapid, less-considered betting decisions — worth looking for an operator offering real deposit and loss limits voluntarily, since Indian law doesn't currently require one to.
For a first-time Indian bettor, the practical checklist includes confirming UPI (directly or via Google Pay/PhonePe) actually works for deposits and withdrawals, verifying the operator's foreign license against that issuer's own public register, and understanding that TDS will already be deducted from any payout before it reaches a bettor via UPI or bank transfer — a qualified tax professional, not this page, is the right resource for individual tax questions.
India's regulatory picture on sports betting shows no strong signal of near-term national resolution, given how firmly gambling regulation sits with individual states constitutionally — any shift toward a licensed framework would most plausibly happen state-by-state rather than through a single national law, mirroring how a handful of states have already taken independent positions on adjacent real-money gaming categories. For now, the practical reality for the large majority of Indian bettors remains what's described above: an unregulated national market served by offshore operators, with TDS the one area where Indian law does apply regardless of that unregulated status.
A practical closing note for Indian bettors: since gambling regulation in India varies genuinely by state, a bettor's own specific state matters more here than almost anywhere else this page covers — checking whether one's own state has taken any explicit position on real-money betting or gaming specifically, beyond the general national picture described above, is worth doing directly rather than assuming the national-level unregulated status applies uniformly everywhere.
There's no single "best" betting site — the right one depends on where you live, which sports and markets you actually bet on, and how you plan to deposit and withdraw. A few things worth checking before you sign up:
Licensing. Confirm the sportsbook holds a real gambling license for the market you're in, not just a generic offshore license that may not actually authorize service to your country. Our country pages list which licenses are recognized where you live.
Market and sport coverage. A sportsbook can look strong overall and still have thin coverage of the specific league or sport you follow. Check the actual markets, not just the homepage.
Payment methods. Look for deposit and withdrawal methods you'd actually use, and check whether the operator publishes real withdrawal times rather than a vague "1–3 business days" promise. See our payment methods hub for what each sportsbook supports.
Bonus terms. A large headline bonus number means little if the wagering requirement is unreasonable or key markets don't count toward it. Read the bonus terms, not just the percentage, before you claim anything — our wagering requirements guide explains how to do that math.
Responsible gambling tools. Deposit limits, self-exclusion, and reality checks should be easy to find and easy to use, not buried in a settings menu.
A licensed, well-run sportsbook is generally safe to use, but "betting site" covers an extremely wide range of operators — from established, regulated brands to sites with no real oversight at all. Licensing is the starting point: a sportsbook regulated by an authority that actually enforces its rules has real consequences if it treats players unfairly, unlike one that exists mainly to issue licenses cheaply.
Beyond licensing, the signals we weigh in our own Trust Index are the same ones worth checking yourself: how the sportsbook handles player funds, whether it publishes clear terms rather than vague ones, its actual track record on withdrawals, and whether it offers meaningful responsible-gambling controls. No scoring system — ours included — can guarantee an individual outcome with any operator. If something goes wrong, we review reported issues at no additional cost; see how to report a problem.
The ranking above lists the betting sites we've confirmed are genuinely available to India-based players, ordered by AskBigBonus Trust Index score. Availability, licensing, and payment support can all differ from what a global "best of" list shows — this page only includes operators we've specifically verified for India.
Based on our current research, online sports betting in India is unregulated. This is general information, not legal advice — confirm the current rules for your specific situation before playing.
This varies by operator — some support local currency directly, others convert everything to USD or EUR. Check the specific operator's cashier page before depositing.
Several operators in our India ranking support cryptocurrency deposits — check the payment methods shown on each operator's card above, or see our payment methods hub for the full breakdown by coin.
This varies by operator — see the "Payment Methods" section on this page for what's actually common among the operators available in India, and the Key Data on each operator's card for its specific supported methods.