Sports betting and real-money gaming covers two businesses. The first is betting on the results of sports matches, which is legal in many countries abroad. The second is games played online for money, which grew large in India and were banned by law in 2025.
Sports betting is legal and regulated in Britain, much of the rest of Europe and many American states. A betting company is called a bookmaker, or a sportsbook. It sets the odds on each result, takes bets and pays the winners. It earns because its odds are set so that, across all bets, it pays out a little less than it takes in. Every bookmaker runs on sportsbook software. Its pricing part keeps changing the odds during a match, down to the next ball or the next goal, using live sports data; this is described in in-play odds. Its risk management part limits how much the bookmaker could lose on any one result. Much of this software is built in Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru, for bookmakers in Britain and Europe.
In India, the law long treated games of skill differently from gambling, which depends mainly on chance. On that basis, real-money gaming apps for fantasy cricket, rummy and poker grew into one of India's largest consumer internet industries. In a typical contest, players paid an entry fee. The platform kept a share as its fee, and the rest was paid out as prizes. A cash tournament platform ran paid contests of the same kind inside other studios' mobile games.
Then the Online Gaming Act 2025 banned online games played for money across India, whether they depend on skill or on chance. It bans their advertising, and it bars banks and payment companies from processing payments for them. The same Act supports esports, which are organised competitions in video games, and social games played without money. So Indian platforms have moved to free games and esports. Cash tournament platforms now serve players abroad, mainly in America.
Both businesses have the same basic duties. They must confirm the age and identity of every player. They must also follow the rules of responsible gambling, which require them to watch for players who are losing control.