Esports

Video games have been a staple in pop culture for decades, and as people have gotten better at them, the opportunities that brings have multiplied. Participating in eSports can now result in scholarships to college, so with the growth of eSports reaching all time highs, it is only right that people can bet on eSports contests like they would bet on a football Sunday.

Comparing online sportsbooks and their eSports betting markets

The first step in betting on eSports is finding out whether or not it is legal in the bettors' state of residence. If that state does allow eSports betting, then bettors can start creating multiple betting accounts so that they can price shop the top eSports betting markets to ensure the best price on each wager.

For bettors who are just getting into eSports betting and want to know where to start, we would recommend a few shops. To begin with, Bet365 takes eSports betting very seriously and, over time, has added a ton of tournaments and markets for all the top games in the eSports world. It also helps Bet365 has a simple layout that makes navigating the eSports section and live betting on different events a piece of cake.

Finding a lot of leagues and tournaments for games like League of Legends or Valorant is also possible on BetRivers Sportsbook. Whether a tournament for a brand name game is being held in the U.S. or internationally, there is a good chance that BetRivers will provide odds for the event, along with an excellent range of betting markets like player or team props specific to the game in question.

eSports and Daily Fantasy Sports

Fantasy sports used to revolve around drafting a football team for an entire season and communicating about that league primarily through emails. Now, with Daily Fantasy Sports, customers can enter DFS contests for eSports leagues and competitions. Luckily for DFS users, while the times have changed, the simplicity around entering contests remains the same.

Some of the biggest fantasy sports operators in the US, like Underdog and Prize Picks, offer a wide range of eSports contests to enter. These contests can be played for a variety of different games, including CS2, Valorant, LoL, Dota, CoD, Halo, and more. The two biggest DFS contests are Pick ’em and Rivals.

For pick’ems, customers will select the over/under on a certain player's stats for a given game or map in the tournament. For example, depending on the game, they could choose the over/under on kills, fantasy points, headshots, or other stats. Each selection goes into an entry, and the more selections made for an entry will increase the possible playout for a player. In rivals contests, the premise remains the same when it comes to making picks for an entry, but those picks revolve around a customer picking which player out of two players will have more of a given stat.

What kind of eSports bets can you place?

Much like pro sports, the number and variety of betting market changes by the game in eSports. While there are some universal markets, there are also markets that sportsbooks will release just for a specific eSports game, which can be based on their gameplay or the style in which the tournaments are played for the game.

The market that typically sees the most handle regardless of the game is the outright winner market. Essentially, this is the eSports version of the moneyline. Bettors can wager on the winner of an entire match or bet on the outright winner of a particular map or round, depending on the game.

Two other markets similar to those a bettor would find when betting on a different sport are total and handicap betting. For totals, the exact market may change by the game, but in general, bettors may be wagering on the over/under for the number of rounds in a match or a team's total score for a match or round.

One of the last bet types that can typically be found across all games, whether sports games or first-person shooter games, is futures. These futures bets allow bettors to wager on the winning team of a certain tournament, league, or challenge.

Many eSports games happen to be first-person shooter games, so within those games, it is common to find betting markets like which team will record the first kill, or the over/under on the amount of kills a team will have on a certain map.

In-play eSports betting

Just as a bettor would be able to for football or basketball, eSports bettors can place live wagers during a match, which could help them make either more profit or hedge some bets made before a match. The betting markets available for live betting are typically a mix of markets available before the match and new markets specific to live betting.

The most common example of a live wager that is also found prematch is the outright winner. The nice part about live betting is that a customer has the advantage of watching closely what is going on in the match. So, if one player or team looks to be struggling on a given day, then a bettor can place a wager on the other team or player to be the outright winner.

While that may sound simple, there are a few things to remember while live betting. First off is speed, as live lines are constantly updating and changing, so by the time a bettor pulls the trigger on a bet, it could lose all of its value. The other thing to remember is for a bettor to stay within their means. When live betting, it can be very easy to get carried away and fire off a bunch of bets, especially in eSports, where there are a lot of markets. Getting carried away on live betting can quickly burn a bettor's bankroll and lead to unwise wagers since they must act quickly.

Counter-Strike 2

One of the bigger games played at eSports events is Counter-Strike 2, a tactical first-person shooting game released in 2023. The Counter-Strike franchise has played a significant role in eSports for quite some time, as this iteration is the fifth one of the series. This game is available for Windows and Linux. It follows a simple layout that involves two teams, the Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, battling against each other in various game modes across different maps.

Betting on eSports competitions for Counter-Strike 2 can be as simple or in-depth as a bettor wants. Of course, bettors can always wager on the winning team for the entire match, but they can also bet on the winning team for each individual map they play on during the competition.

Getting into the other markets, bettors can also bet on the number of rounds played for the match or on each map, along with the spread for each game and each round as well. As far as the more specific bets go, eSports fans can wager on whether or not there will be overtime on either map played. Additionally, bettors can bet the over/under for rounds on each map for the two teams playing in the match.

League of Legends (LoL)

Since its release in 2009, League of Legends has received countless awards, including three Best eSports Game awards from 2019 to 2021. The idea for this game stemmed from Defense of the Ancients, which is a custom map for Warcraft III. With that inspiration, Riot Games released this game on Microsoft Windows and macOS.

Regarding gameplay, players are placed into two teams of five and participate in combat against each other as they look to defend their part of the map while occupying their opponent's part of the map. In the primary game mode on LoL, a team officially wins when they get through their enemy’s base and destroy the "Nexus."

When betting on League of Legends, there are a few markets that bettors can participate in. While bettors can place their wagers on who they think will win the entire match or just a particular map, they can also delve into more specific aspects of the game. For example, bettors can find markets like the team to score the most kills on a certain map, the first team to score ten kills on a certain map, total kill spreads, total kills odd/even, and more.

DOTA2

Many games in the eSports community have stemmed from a previous game, and Dota2 is a prime example of that. This online battle arena game, launched in 2013, is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients, a mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. The premise of this game is similar to other popular eSports games, as it involves two teams of five trying to protect their base and destroy their opponent's base.

Each player is a character—or, in this case, a “hero.” Each character has abilities that could help them in different aspects of the game. Ultimately, the objective of the game is to infiltrate the opposing team's base and destroy their “Ancient,” which is a structure located on their base.

Since Dota2 follows a similar gameplay structure to other eSports games, most generic markets like outright winner and handicap betting remain the same. Markets specific to Dota2 typically come in the form of “first” markets, for example, the first team to kill a Roshan, the first team to destroy Barracks, or simply the first team to register the first kill. Another marker specific to Dota2 comes in futures form, as some sportsbooks may allow bettors to place a future before a tournament on which player will lead the event in a specific statistic.

Starcraft 2

The sequel to a game released in 1998, StarCraft II, is a science fiction game that depicts a battle for dominance amongst the fictional races of StarCraft. This Blizzard Entertainment game was released in 2010 and is available on Microsoft Windows and macOS.

Betting on StarCraft II is a lot different than other eSports games, as the gameplay does not follow the typical first-person shooter game that features a lot of objectives or the need to kill other opponents. Due to this fact, the sheer number of betting markets for the game is far less than what a bettor would see for LoL or Overwatch.

The most common betting market for StarCraft II is the outright winner for either the entire game or just specific maps. Aside from that, handicap betting remains one of the biggest markets for the game since tournaments typically have a best-of-three or best-of-five series that players compete in. Outside of futures bets that can be placed for the winning team of a major tournament, the last notable market for this game is totals, which offers bettors the chance to bet the over/under on the total amount of maps played in a match.

Overwatch

Released in 2016 on Xbox One, PS4, and Windows, Overwatch quickly became popular among eSports competitions. The developer and publisher of the game, Blizzard Entertainment, also released the game in 2019 on Nintendo Switch, which brought a bigger audience to this multiplayer first-person shooter game based around two teams of six that look to complete map-specific objectives before the round ends.

Each player assigned to a team must then select their character, or as the game calls them, “heroes,” each of which has different abilities. In the eSports world, Overwatch has some of the biggest and most consistent leagues, including the Overwatch League and Overwatch Contenders.

Of course, when betting on the aforementioned leagues, markets like outright winner or handicap betting are available. However, other markets like futures are available, as bettors can place futures bets on which team will win a given tournament. Additionally, specific prop bets like “First Team to Score First Blood,” are also available depending on the sportsbook a customer is using.

Other popular eSports betting markets

The options for betting markets are not limited to the games we have already discussed. In fact, plenty more games have a wide variety of eSports leagues and tournaments. While we have mostly discussed first-person shooter games, sports video games like Madden, NBA 2K, FIFA, and Rocket League also play a big role in the eSports world.

Of course, plenty more first-person shooter games have a big audience in the eSports community, including Call of Duty, Halo, Rainbow 6, Free Fire, and Valorant. With all of this said it should be pretty clear that bettors will never be bored or feel like they don’t have enough options when looking to wager on eSports events.