Esports Betting: Basic Concepts and Strategies

William Davis Published 02/01/2024

Betting on eSports appeared with domestic bookmakers not so long ago but has already gained some popularity. The target audience is young people under the age of 30 who have been interested in computer games since childhood. Older bettors are less interested in this, but there are also plenty of Dota 2 or FIFA fans among them. More about it on this site https://22bet.ng/

Types of bets

To make predictions on esports, you need to have a good understanding of specific games. There are dozens of disciplines, each of which holds tournaments. Among the most popular:

Dota 2
Counter-Strike 2
League of Legends
StarCraft 2
FIFA

Sports simulators are attractive because you don’t need to delve into the specifics of the computer game. The types of eSports bets for virtual football and basketball matches are the same as for real competitions. You can try to guess the main outcome, the exact score, the result with a total or a handicap, the authors of the goals scored, etc. In other live esports games, general sports knowledge will not be enough.

Dota 2

For many who like to make predictions, eSports is associated exclusively with this team game. It accounts for up to half of the bets accepted by online bookmakers. In addition to standard bets on the outcome, total, and handicap, there are many original slots, such as the first kill, the destruction of a tower, or the extraction of an artifact. In some situations, a bettor has to rely only on intuition, but many things can be predicted with the help of competent analysis.

CS2

Counter-Strike is approaching Dota 2 in popularity. The prize fund of major league tournaments amounts to millions of dollars. Betters who constantly bet on eSports appreciate CS2 because the game lends itself well to analysis. There are relatively stable team compositions here, so thorough work with statistics can bring good dividends.

It is better to bet on League of Legends live; here, the player has many more options. Among the original forecasts is the determination of the MVP of a match or tournament. In StarCraft 2, rivals destroy each other’s bases and armies while simultaneously building their own infrastructure. Unlike previous disciplines, not teams compete here, but individual participants. The types of eSports bets available largely depend on whether the game is multiplayer or single-player.

Analysis

Betting on sports without knowing the rules and basic tournament layouts is similar to playing roulette. Of course, luck can smile, but this rarely happens. Esport is no different from its older “colleague.” If you don’t understand what’s happening on the screen and have no idea about the participants, you can only count on luck.

Before making eSports predictions, you need to carefully study the opponents. Team compositions often change, and the departure of one player can radically change the overall picture. In addition to the qualifications of gamers, teamwork and the current form of the team are of great importance.

Other points:

You shouldn’t rely too much on the odds rating, as it is based on the latest results of the team/gamer, and the situation in virtual sports is changing quickly;
the results of personal confrontations are important, because many elite players have inconvenient opponents who are significantly inferior to them in class;
lack of motivation on the part of the favorite often leads to a relaxed attitude;
eSports players who perform well in online tournaments often cannot withstand the attention of a live audience and play much worse in front of them;

In a competition between equal opponents, location and characters are of great importance.

Advantages and disadvantages of esports betting

Let’s start with the disadvantages for players. The margins that bookmakers set for eSports are often too high. If for football or tennis it averages 5–7%, then here it reaches 10–14%. Betting limits can also be restrictive, especially since there are a large number of fixed matches in this segment.

The advantages include the availability of statistics and broadcasts. Information about changes in the composition is usually known immediately after the fact. Competitions in different disciplines are held frequently. Bookmaker clubs provide detailed information for all major tournaments.

Many eSports betting sites do not have sufficiently qualified analysts in this area. Odds are often inflated, which dramatically increases the number of potential forks and middles. Legal bookmakers are actively fighting against fans of arbitrage situations, refusing to accept bets and even closing accounts, but this stops few people.