You can bet for or against, say, whether India will win a match. Each bet — for or against — has a price, which fluctuates in real-time as people buy and sell their bets. When the result is finally known, winners get $1 per bet, while others lose their money. It is somewhat like Options trading. This is the first IPL (Indian Premier League) season since India banned real-money gaming (RMG), which was a key revenue driver for domestic firms like Dream11 and Games24/7.
Founded in 2020, Polymarket is valued at $9 billion after raising funds from investors like General Catalyst, 1789 Capital, and Polychain Capital. The platform typically lets users bet on real-world events, including politics, economics, and sports.
Even as the shift opens a significant entry point for these global prediction market startups to tap Indian users, industry executives caution that questions around legality exist and adoption remains limited to a niche set of urban, crypto-savvy users.
Offshore RMG players like Parimatch, 1XBet, and Stake also target Indian users during IPL season with betting games on the platform available in multiple Indian languages. ET reported on March 6 that these entities have shown little sign of slowing down even after the RMG ban last October, and are aggressively tapping digital ads and micro-influencers for marketing and promotions.
In one of the IPL-related markets on Polymarket which has seen trading volumes of over $250,000 so far, users are pegging Mumbai Indians as the frontrunner for the 2026 title with a 26% implied probability, followed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru at 19%, and Punjab Kings at 17%.
However, accessing or trading on these platforms from India remains a legal grey area since they operate offshore and transactions are conducted in cryptocurrencies, say experts.
Payments twilight zone
Unlike offshore RMG sites like Parimatch, Stake, and 1XBet, Polymarket and Kalshi use cryptocurrencies for trading.
“Depositing funds is a huge headache,” one user said. Others said they rely on informal peer-to-peer routes, transferring funds through friends and settling via UPI to get around restrictions on direct payments. ET hasn’t been able to verify the claims independently. “90% of the crypto in India is traded through peer-to-peer networks,” said one user.
A Mumbai-based lawyer said betting or gambling in an offshore market is prohibited under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).
“Indians who buy USDT or other cryptocurrencies in India and move the digital coins to the custodial wallet of Polymarket are undertaking a capital account transaction,” he explained, adding that such activity can be tracked by the I-T department, or RBI (Reserve Bank of India), or even the Enforcement Directorate.
Ajay Rotti, founder of Taxcompaas, a Bengaluru-based tax consulting firm, said, “India does not permit free capital account convertibility, i.e,, foreign exchange is not freely transferable. Indian residents can only conduct foreign exchange transactions as permitted by the RBI.”
Users acknowledged this, noting that using crypto does not make it legal and flagged risks such as frozen accounts and other challenges in recovering funds.
Law enforcement
As part of the ban on RMG, the central government launched the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA) for regulating online betting and gaming in the country. However, offshore platforms which don’t have a base in India do not fall under the jurisdiction of Indian laws, experts said.
“The activities offered by such platforms would be illegal if they were operating in India. But Polymarket is an offshore entity; it doesn’t have an office or a physical presence in India. However, if the government wants, it can shut down access to such platforms here,” said Abhishek Malhotra, a senior advocate based in Delhi.