The method of betting on e-sports (also known as e-sports, esports or eSports) is similar to that of a traditional sport.
And, as in sports so well known to the general public, there are individual and team disciplines and different markets to leave your bets on e-sports.
It is important to note that e-sports are part of what we know as virtual sports, but they have their own identity and characteristics.
To be successful in e-sports betting, knowledge of the sport is vital, just like in sports in real life.
Knowing which are the best teams and players, keeping an eye on the phase crossed by the athletes and their teams, the levels of the tournament and, of course, the modality in dispute.
The three biggest e-sports of today are LoL, CS:GO and Dota 2, but Overwatch, Rainbow Six, Fifa and even Angry Birds have open markets in bookmakers with e-sports.
Let’s take as an example the dispute between Reapers and Keyd, valid for the ESEA Open Season 31. There are 14 open CS:GO betting markets for the event and 1xBet believes that it will be an even match.
For example, if you believe that the Reapers will win the match, the bookmaker will pay out 1.97 for every dollar bet. That means you can almost double your investment. The slightly favoured Keyd pay 1.775 per real invested.
An indispensable tool for live bettors is the cashout
It allows the bettor to close his bet before the end of the event, and serves both to guarantee profits (smaller than the total, but in many opportunities it is the best thing to do) or reduce losses.
Not all platforms offer cashout for e-sports, so it is good to observe if there is this functionality in the e-sports betting site you have chosen to invest.
On others, the function exists, but it is given another name. For example, on 1xBit it is called “selling the bet”.
Available bets and markets
The markets that e-sports betting sites offer most often are:
- Match winner,
- Map winner,
- Round winner,
- Handicap,
- Correct score,
- Total rounds or maps,
- First kill.
And there are still other markets specific to the sports in dispute.
Here, it is worth a very similar advice to that of traditional sports (incidentally, the similarities between sports and e-sports in betting are many, which only reaffirms the sporting nature of electronic games):
Look for the main leagues of the main games, with the most well-known athletes.
In this universe, the chance of problems (such as event cancellation, or delays) is minimal, and the extensive press coverage and live broadcasts of the matches makes everything even better. One site with streaming via Twitch is LV BET, which has many markets.
But if you know of any minor leagues that have open markets, and trust the fairness of the organisation, that’s where some of the best opportunities are.
This depends on the profile of the bettor, it can be more daring or conservative.
