Esports Betting Guide: How to Bet on Competitive Gaming
Esports betting presents you with an exciting opportunity to cash in on your knowledge of CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends and other games.
This esports betting guide highlights the most popular titles, from first-person shooters to multiplayer online battle arena games. You will learn more about the key esports betting options at your disposal and discover how to place wagers on your favourite games.
The Most Popular Esports for Punters
Three titles currently dominate the esports betting scene:
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | A first-person shooter game produced by Valve Entertainment, which pits two teams of five against one another. One team controls the terrorists and the other controls the anti-terrorists. The idea is to wipe out the opposition, while completing a secondary mission, such as saving hostages or planting a bomb.
- League of Legends | A multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title from Riot Games. Two teams of five battle in player versus player combat on a series of maps, ultimately aiming to destroy the opposing team’s base, known as its nexus.
- Dota 2 | Defence of the Ancients 2 is another MOBA game that follows a similar structure to League of Legends.
League of Legends (LoL) is widely regarded as the most popular esports title, with the largest worldwide scene. However, Dota 2 is the most lucrative, thanks to the enormous annual prize pools at its flagship tournament – The International. CS:GO tends to be the most prolific in terms of the sheer number of games taking place, regularly presenting punters with more betting options than rival esports.
Additional esports that are popular among punters include Overwatch, Valorant, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six: Siege, StarCraft II and Rocket League. Sports-based games are also popular, especially FIFA and NBA 2K.
How to Bet on Esports
It is easy to enjoy esports betting at TopSport Just visit the homepage and navigate to the “Sports” section. You will see a long list of the sports we cover running down the left of the page. Click on the “Esports” option, and it will present you with a list of games and tournaments that you can bet on.
Choose a tournament and click on it to see a list of matches in the middle of the screen. Find a match you are interested in, browse your betting options and click on one that looks appealing. It will be added to your betslip, which will appear at the right of the screen.
The price will be displayed, and you can type the amount you would like to be in the “Stake” box. The betslip will tell you the potential return you stand to receive if the bet wins. That includes your profit and the return of your stake.
If you are happy with the potential return, click to confirm the bet. The stake will be taken from your account balance. If you win, the return will be added to your balance after the match has taken place.
Esports Bet Types
Esports Win Bet
This is a simple bet on which team will win a match. Our oddsmakers assess the strengths and weaknesses of both teams before the match. We will then release odds on either team winning.
The odds tell you the profit you will earn by betting on a team, along with the implied probability of that team winning. For example, you might find odds of 1.74 on Nouns beating Wildcard Gaming in a Dota 2 match, and 2.10 on Wildcard Gaming winning the match.
That tells you to expect a return of $17.40 if you bet $10 on Nouns, and $21 if you bet $10 on Wildcard Gaming. As such, Nouns are the favourites and Wildcard are the underdogs. Nouns have an implied 57.1% probability of winning, while Wildcard have an implied 47.6% chance of success.
Esports Line Bet
This esports betting option gives a handicap to the team we deem to be strongest. For example, let’s say Infamous are priced at 1.35 to beat Dogchamp in a Dota 2 match. Dogchamp are priced at 3.20 to win the match.
If that is the case, you might expect to find odds of 2.04 on Infamous -1.5, and odds of 1.77 on Dogchamp +1.5.
If you were to bet on Infamous, they would need to win by a margin of at least 2 maps. If they only won by a single map, the bet would lose. However, you would receive a much larger payout. If you bet on Dogchamp +1.5, they could win the match or lose by a single map for the bet to succeed.
Over/Under Esports Bet
This is one of the most popular esports betting options. It does not require you to predict the winner of a match. You simply need to decide if it will be over quickly or if it will require a lot of maps.
For example, we might set the total maps line at 2.5 for a best-of-three match, with odds of 1.95 on over 2.5 and 1.85 on under 2.5. If either team wins 2-0, bets on under 2.5 maps will pay out. If either team wins 2-1, bets on over 2.5 maps will pay out.
The total maps line will vary according to the total number of maps in the matchup and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two teams. In certain circumstances, you may be able to combine an over/under bet with a win bet as part of a multi within the same match.
Map Winner
You may be able to bet on the winner of individual maps within certain esports matches. That can be an interesting esports betting option, as some teams perform especially well on particular maps. You can study each team’s records on individual maps to guide your esports betting decisions.
Another option would be correct score betting. You could bet on a team to win 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2 in a best-of-five match, for example. There may also be betting options on individual players, such as total frags and MVP betting
.
Tournament Winner
This is a long-term bet on which team will win a big esports tournament. Odds are released at the start of the tournament, based on the relative strengths of each team. As always, there will be a favourite or joint favourites, and the odds then grow progressively longer on each team as you go down the list, eventually reaching the rank outsider – the equivalent of a roughie in a horse race.
The odds on this market will change over the course of the event. When teams are eliminated, the odds on the remaining teams normally drop, as their chances of success increase as they progress through the tournament.
Multis
A multi bet, also known as a parlay, allows you to combine multiple esports selections into a single wager. For example, you may want to bet on:
- ENCE to beat MUSE at 2.00
- Vitality to beat Astralis at 1.62
- Imperial to beat FURIA at 2.25
If you have $30 and divide it up by betting $10 on each team, you would earn a profit of $28.70 if all three teams go on to win. However, if you were to group them together for a $30 multi, you would earn a profit of $188.70 if they all won.
The profit from each successful prediction within a multi rolls onto the next leg. That results in the profit compounding within the bet, leading to large payouts. However, if one leg loses, the bet fails, so it is a riskier option than betting on each team individually.
Esports Betting FAQs
Can you bet on esports?
You can bet on a variety of esports by visiting TopSport. You will find a wide array of betting options on popular games such as CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends. That helps you ramp up the excitement of watching your favourite esports tournaments, and gives you a chance to profit from your expert knowledge of a particular game.
Which esports can you bet on?
Leading online betting sites allow you to bet on a long list of esports, but the most popular games among punters are Dota 2, CS:GO and League of Legends. You can bet on tournament winners and individual matchups, and consider live betting too. Additional esports to bet on may include Valorant, Arena of Valor, Overwatch, Rocket League, FIFA, NBA 2K, Call of Duty, Fortnite and StarCraft II.
Where can I place a bet on esports?
Visit TopSport.com.au to bet on your favourite esports events today. We cover the biggest tournaments, with competitive odds and a selection of betting options. Our in-depth esports betting guide breaks down your options and explains how to enjoy esports betting today.
What types of esports bets are available?
The most common esports betting markets are the win, the handicap line and total maps (over / under) betting. You may sometimes find additional markets, such as correct scores and special wagers. Some punters also like to combine esports selections together to form multi bets.
