Best eSports Betting Strategies Explained

If you want to bet on eSports markets, but you’re not sure where to start then this is the guide for you. With eSports insights, betting strategies to help you make the most of your bankroll and dota 2, LOL and CS:GO betting tips we’re lifting the lid on the eSports industry with some top advice to get you started.

Is eSports Betting Legal?

eSports betting has been a bone of contention in parliaments across the globe for a few years now, with US laws and some countries in Europe outlawing betting on the market. The issue surrounding eSports betting is the use of the word ‘sports’ in its title. Many argue that eSports is not a sport and is a game instead and should fall under gaming gambling laws rather than sports gambling laws. For the purposes of the UK and European countries such as Sweden, Italy and Germany, betting on eSports markets is perfectly legal.



How bookmaker odds work – eSports insights

Bookmakers work out the probability of events occurring and offer odds on them, so in the eSports world that could equate to team A beating Team B and vice-versa. They then invite punters to place eSports bets on these odds in a wager. Importantly though, each bookmaker allows themselves a margin, offering slightly poorer odds than the true probability of an event occurring. For example:

Let’s suggest that Team A has a 30% chance of winning, Team B has a 70% chance of winning, however, the odds offered on both of those teams may be 32% and 72% respectively, exaggerating both team’s chances of success. And in the short term, this 2% (or whatever edge the bookmakers choose to use) that is added to the more successful team will benefit you if you win. However, over the long-term, this edge will eventually mean you lose.

As an example, two playing cards are placed in a bag and shuffled. One is a red ace, the other a black. There is a slight advantage given towards the red card. You delve your hand into the bag and low and behold, out comes the red ace! Over the course of time, both cards will come up but the red card will show up slightly more than chance allows. If you keep picking the cards you will eventually come unstuck due to the bias.

Take advantage of odds comparison tables

As with any bet, you want to make sure that you get the best odds, so check out online odds comparison tables to see which bookmakers offer the highest payout. You’d be surprised how much the odds on esports markets vary from bookmaker to bookmaker. It goes without saying that you should aim for the highest odds available as even a slight uptick will give you a better return in the long run.

Use cash out

An increasingly common eSports betting strategy — and also a popular strategy for regular sports betting — is to use cash out. The option is a fairly recent addition, but is available on many sportsbooks including eSports games. Cash out allows you to collect your bet early before the market has been finalised. It works like this:

Say you put a tenner on Team A to beat Team B at odds of 5.00, and Team A take an early lead, which will raise their current in play odds. You then have the option to cash out early. This will often result in a profit on the tenner you wagered, and depending on the size of the profit can make cashing in a tempting prospect. The bigger the lead and later into play it is, the bigger the potential profit that can be gleaned from cashing out.

Some cash out betting strategies focus on betting on both teams. If you’re winning a bet, but think that odds may turn against you then you can cash out for a profit and put your odds on the other team who will have bigger odds at that time. This can improve your chances of winning big money from a match bet. This, combined with an accumulator bet on the last leg (say 4 out of your 5 have won and you’re on the fifth game) can mean you are set to receive a huge profit. If a significant offer is on the table or you won’t lose too much of the winning amount if you cash out early – do it and run!

Bet on totals

Betting on totals is an interesting esports betting strategy that involves working with the strengths of the eSports market. Bets on totals could include ‘total game time’ ‘total kills’ ‘total eliminations’, etc. and will always offer decent odds of around 1.83 for an over and under, making them a good choice for a reasonable return. Choose the market that you think is most suited to your preferred team (you’ll know this if you did your research) and sit back and wait for the results to come in.

Try smaller contests

One of our favourite eSports betting tips is to place a bet on a smaller contest instead of the big-name tournaments. As long as you’ve done your research on the market and the tournament, you could do much worse than to bet on the smaller contests. During big events such as the Dota 2 International or the LOL Worlds, eSports bookmakers will find knowledgeable people to advise them and set the odds on the large events so the odds are ever in their favour (thanks Hunger Games).

Picking the smaller tournaments gives you more chance of eliminating the house advantage as the bookies will be less inclined to scout out the odds to such a degree as they would on the larger tournaments. Better odds on a lower risk market? A great eSports betting strategy if we ever saw one.

Smaller bets, larger odds

Limit your losses and increase your winnings by placing smaller sums of cash on big accumulator bets, but only do this once you’ve got an established bankroll as accumulator odds are very large and could eat into your budget. Accumulator wins are the holy grail for punters, but you don’t have to win every leg of the bet to cash out.

Remember that you can also combine them with the cash out option we mentioned earlier to get a return on your money. The more legs in your accumulator bet the bigger the odds. But also, crucially, the bigger the return so choose your options carefully.

eSports Betting Tips – Analysis and Insights

You’re hoping to improve your bankroll right, so here goes. Here are our top eSports betting tips and snippets of knowledge to help you squeeze a profit. Lots more eSports insights, betting strategies and advice on some of the more popular games. Are we good to you, or what?

Research everything

And we mean everything! Research players, research teams, game results, game plays even the history of the tournaments. The more knowledge you have behind your bet, the more chance you have of making an informed decision when it comes to placing your wager. And that can make all the difference between having a nest egg or an empty nest.

Scour the internet, watching as many tournament games as you can on YouTube and Twitch, and pour over websites that give you game results and detailed information on in game tactics. All of this valuable information should be filed away in your brain ready for your next bet to ensure that you have the best chance of success.

As mentioned earlier, it’s not a great idea to bet on games that you have little experience of, but it is also worth noting that each individual eSports game is likely to respond to a different eSports betting strategy. This means that you’re going to have to tailor any advice you find online for your own favourite game to achieve the best results.

So whether you’re looking for eSports betting tips on Dota 2, you’re interested in placing a few wagers on the LCS Spring Playoffs or you’re hoping to grab hold of some csgo betting tips it is essential that you put the research in and see how you can best apply it to your own needs to make a success of your betting career.

Go for the cool guys, right? Wrong!

Also, it goes without saying that you should never centre your eSports betting strategy on whichever team is cool right now. Bets based on personality alone are likely to end up costing you money and is definitely not the soundest of betting strategies in eSports.

Remember that bookmaker’s odds are shorter on those teams that are popular with eSports bettors, so this should ring alarm bells immediately before you place a bet. if the odds are short on a team make sure that it is because they are exceptional and not because they are the eSports equivalent of the cool kid at school that everyone wishes they were.

And don’t forget gameplay strategies in eSports

This is of such importance that we thought it needed to be in a category of its own. The gameplay strategies in eSports change so quickly and it’s important to keep abreast of the latest developments. Teams will create their own signature attacks and defences depending on who they are playing and their own gaming experience and skills.

Often these barrage of fakes, utility and counter-utility plays and walls of smoke are the defining moments between losing and winning a match (and you losing and winning your stake) so make sure that you research gameplay strategies in eSports that are unique to your team of choice to ensure that you’ve got the best chance of success.

Only bet when it is worth it

Betting odds are calculated on what is known as ‘implied probability’ which means that the odds reflect the chances of a team winning or losing based on their previous performance. So how do we know if the odds that we are betting on reflect good value? Well, it’s actually pretty simple.

A bet that represents good value is one where we predict that the chances of an outcome occurring are higher than the odds given to it. For example, if a team is given odds of 1.60, that represents a 62.5% chance that the team will win their game. But after your own research and analysis, you may conclude that the odds of the team winning are actually greater at 72%, That would represent a value bet. If however, the analysis hinted on the odds being lower than 62.5% that would represent a poor value bet and it would be a good idea to avoid it. Working out which odds represent good deals and which are not so great all comes down to – you guessed it – research (and a little bit of trial and error too).

As you become more experienced in placing bets and collecting results you will get a feel for which teams are currently at the pinnacle of their gaming careers and which teams are likely to flounder, making the odds provided easier to decipher.

To sum it up:

Wow, we don’t know about you, but all this eSports talk has made us a little trigger happy. Hopefully you’ve learned a little more about the eSports markets and how best to bet on them. You’ve also probably heard us nag enough about the importance of research, but believe us when we say that all the top teams do it (and you wanna be cool like them, right?) We’re off to organise an office CSGO tournament where the loser buys the beers. Although, actually, Mark from accounts still owes us from last time… Remember to check out the most popular LOL, DOTA 2 and CSGO Betting Sites for the latest tournament information and check out the bonus offers provided to maximise your budget. Until next time.

Check out the top ranking EU regulated eSports Betting websites with our reviews:

BEST ESPORTS BETTING SITES 1 96 / 100 Esportsbetting Review GO TO ESPORTSBETTING 2 95 / 100 Betway Review GO TO BETWAY 3 94 / 100 Arcanebet Review GO TO ARCANEBET 4 93 / 100 Pinnacle Review GO TO PINNACLE 5 92 / 100 10Bet Review GO TO 10BET

We always recommend our readers to choose eSports Betting Operators which are either overseen by the UK Gambling Commission or, alternatively, fall under European Legislative bodies, thus ensuring security and transparency when betting on eSports.