SO, you want to take your first steps into the white-knuckle world of epsorts. To know your Wall Bangs from your Tanks and your Cooldowns from your Rotations?
Well, you’ve come to the right place. What follows is a short, sharp, whistle-stop guide to one of the fastest growing, most exhilarating, popular and engaging sports around. Welcome to our esports Betting Guide. Pull up a chair and hold on tight.
What is esports?
Gaming has come a long way since Atari’s Pong first appeared back in 1972. The industry is now worth an estimated $100 billion annually and, thanks to channels like YouTube and Twitch, is followed avidly by millions of players around the world.
All the games covered here are known as Player vs Player (PvP). This means two teams compete against each another in a race to kill all the opposition players, to complete a specific goal or to destroy their opponent’s base. It’s this competitive element, together with fans’ passion for the games, that makes esports so popular.
The Games
You can get a bet in on many games, but we’ll focus on three of the most popular: Counter Strike:Global Offensive (CS:GO), Defence of the Ancients 2 (DOTA2), and League of Legends (LoL).
Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
People love CS:GO because of its fast-paced action, tense fire fights and chess-like tactical preparation. It’s a ‘first-person shooter’ (FPS), which means you view the action through the eyes of the characters in the game, a perspective commonly used in games focused on gun combat due to the added immersion and increased accuracy provided.
Each match takes place on one of seven maps, between two teams of five – the Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists. In the most popular competitive version of the game, the Counter-Terrorists have to prevent the Terrorists from detonating bombs at certain locations. If they are unable to do this, or are all killed, the Terrorists win. This is known as ‘a round’.
A standard game consists of two halves of 15 rounds, with each lasting one minute and 55 seconds. After 15 rounds, the two teams switch sides for the second half, with the first team to reach 16 wins declared the winner. Matches can be one-offs, or a Best of (BO) three, or five, format with each taking place on a different map.
Teams earn in-game dollars for winning rounds or killing opposition players. This currency can be used in between rounds to buy more powerful weapons and body armour, providing players with an advantage in the next. The game’s major tournaments include ESL One, Dreamhack and Starladder.
Popular CS:GO betting markets
You’ll find many of the markets available on traditional sports are also common in esports, especially with CS:GO. Here are a few of the most popular.
Map Handicap Betting:
If you think a team has an advantage on a certain map, you can back them to win by a minimum number of rounds. For example, Astralis to win by – 1.5, would mean they’d have to win the match by at least two clear rounds for your bet to be successful.
Over or Under Betting:
If you think both teams will take rounds off each other, you can bet on the total number that will be played before a winner is decided. For example, if you bet on a total of more than 26.5 rounds being played, you’d need the final total number to be at least 27 in order to win your bet. A final score line of 16 – 11 would be a winning bet in the above scenario.
Over or Under Maps:
Here you can bet on how many different maps will feature during the match. It’s important to know if it’s a BO3 or BO5 with this bet, and to understand how evenly matched (or not!) the teams are.
League of Legends (LoL)
LoL is also competitive and team-based, but it’s an isometric strategy game where the main goal is to destroy your opponent’s base, or 'Nexus'. It belongs to a genre of games known as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games, or MOBA. It’s an easy to pick up, hard to master game that has a huge amount of depth and nuance.
Each team consists of five powerful Champions with different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. These characters gain experience and gold as they win battles, unlocking new abilities and items that can swing the tide of battle. If a Champion is defeated, it will eventually respawn, but the downtime provides a huge tactical opportunity for the opposition. Players also have minions at their command. These are disposable drones, sent into battle to distract enemies from attacking a Champion, freeing them up to cause havoc.
Copyright/Creator: Patrick Krippner
The ultimate goal, the opposition’s Nexus, can be reached by three lanes: the Top, Middle (Mid) and Bottom (Bot). Each is protected by defensive Towers and Inhibitors that must be destroyed before progress can be made by minions or Champions. Destroying these can be a huge strategic advantage. The Nexus itself is also protected by Towers, with the team that wrecks the opposition’s base first, winning the game.
LoL’s most prestigious tournament is The League of Legends World Championship.
Popular LoL betting markets
Many of the markets available on CS:GO, including the number of maps played, are also available with LoL. But there are markets which are specific to this incredible strategic game. Some of these are:
Objective Betting:
Have you identified a team that likes to gain a tactical advantage by taking out defences early? Betting on which team will destroy a Turret first could have value then.
Most Champion Kills:
Does a team prefer to target opposition Champions, helping to clear the battlefield? In that case, you can bet on which side will record the most Champion kills in the match.
Defence of the Ancients (DOTA2)
DOTA 2 is another MOBA that pits the Radiant Team against the Dire Team, in a battle to destroy each other’s Ancient, a structure found in their base. This is reached via three paths, called the Top, Middle and Bottom, which are protected by automated defences. Players love the depth of tactics and customisation options the game offers.
The key to DOTA are its Heroes. Each one has a different playstyle and set of abilities, with players selecting ones that complement their teammates, or counter the abilities of the opposition heroes. Players improve their Heroes by killing opposition team members, gaining experience and gold. This currency is used to improve heroes, or to buy items that enhance their performance.
Teams also have Creeps, automated troops that are created every 30 seconds in barracks located at bases. These move towards the enemy Ancient, engaging defence towers, as well as opposition Heroes and Creeps, as they encounter them.
Managing the location and performance of Heroes and Creeps, ensuring they level up faster than the opposition, is crucial to success and requires immense skill. DOTA2 has many tournaments, but one of the most prestigious is The International.
Popular DOTA 2 bets
Total Minutes:
This bet involves predicting the length of time a match lasts for. An aggressive team that wins, or loses, quickly for example could generally have shorter games.
First Blood:
Successfully predict the team that will make the first Hero kill to win this bet. Some teams will prioritise enemy Heroes as part of their strategy to help them gain an advantage in the match.
The stats you need to make smart bets
Understanding what you can bet on means nothing if you’re not able to make good decisions about why you should place a bet. As players ourselves, we understand how important information is. Which is why we make sure you’ve got access to the stats needed to help get the most from online esports betting.
On each event’s page you can access an impressive amount of data.
– Take a look at a team's form over the last three months
– Identify maps they’ve performed well on and the ones they’ve struggled with recently.
– Does the team you like regularly beat their next opponents, or are they facing a bogey team?
All this is at your fingertips before you make any bets.
What next?
This is just the tip of the esports iceberg. Why not head over to one of the live streams to develop your knowledge even more, or review the stats to start familiarising yourself with the data?
Either way, get ready for edge of your seat action from all over the world with some of the most passionate fans imaginable. Welcome to the world of esports.
