Understanding Odds and Markets to Bet on eSports

In 2023, betting on eSports is easy since all of the best betting sites provide markets for competitive video games. We frequently get asked how to wager on eSports, and this post will walk you through the main elements of online betting. Information on eSports games, eSports bookmakers, eSports sportsbooks, understanding odds, and payment and banking data are all included.

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Aimed at those who are new to online betting, our newbie guide to eSports betting will provide clear, easy-to-follow instructions on how to bet.

Esports Betting for Beginners

The staff at Universe News Network has noticed a critical paucity of online eSports manuals that fully address the fundamentals of eSports betting. If you’re completely new to online eSports betting as well as betting in a broad sense, check out our article: How and where to wager on eSports in order to gain a greater comprehension of eSports lines and odds prior to placing bets on your favorite eSports games and teams.

We’d like to have aficionados of eSports be capable of wagering real money on their favorite teams and players properly and safely.

How to Make eSports Bets

Actually, betting on eSports is identical to betting on conventional sporting events. Match winner or match win is the most fundamental type of wager in eSports. It’s also known as either a moneyline bet, a head-to-head bet, a straight bet, and many other synonyms depending on your favorite social group or online bookmaker. The idea behind it is fairly straightforward: after determining the odds that offer the most value for your hard-earned money, you put a wager on the team you believe will win the game.

Here, the possibility of our favorite eSports team winning is represented by betting odds. Dependent on the region of the world you place your wager, odds may be displayed in a different way. Due to the fact that eSports are performed in front of an international audience, betting platforms use the decimals, American, and fractional odds formats to represent betting odds. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with their operations prior to start betting based on which part of the world you are located in and which platform you join up with. Decimal odds are the most widely used format by internet gambling sites due to their simplicity; we’ll use this format in our illustrations throughout this piece.

Basics of eSports Match Win Betting

Alright, therefore for our simple game-winner betting demonstration for newcomers, we’d choose to wager on Natus Vincere to defeat FaZe Clan in the CS: GO clash.  The three fundamental elements that each bettor must take into account before placing a wager must be broken down.

• The odds format used by the online bookmaker or sportsbook you have selected, such as decimal, fractional, or American odds.
• Odds: The total amount that the sportsbook is going to shell out on a wager that wins, plus the amount that must be bet.
• The amount of actual money you intend to bet: your bankroll.

It would go as follows in our example:

• The fictitious bookmaker we’ve selected from those among the best Trustly bookmakers in 2023 at this site utilizes decimal odds.
• FaZe Clan have hypothetical odds of 1.50 to win compared to Natus Vincere’s 2.60.
• We want to stake $100 (at maximum) of actual money on this wager (always set yourself a limit).
• We decide to stake $100 on Natus Vincere to triumph.

In order to calculate our potential return on our wager on our betting ticket, the gambling site multiplies our $100 lay by the odds it is prepared to provide. You may calculate it for yourself using the formula Stake x Odds = Estimated Return. In this case, 100 multiplied by 2.60 equals 260. Team Immunity will get $260 if we win. This covers both our $100 initial stake as well as your whole profit of $160.

Simply deduct one from the specified chances to determine our possible profit overall. Stake x (odds – 1) = actual profit is the new formula. In this instance, 100 x (2.60 – 1) equals $160.

The odds that bookmakers are willing to provide bettors represent their implied likelihood that one team will defeat another in a game. According to the bookmaker or sports book, the team has a stronger chance of winning when the odds are lower. In the eyes of the bookmaker or sportsbook, a team has a reduced chance of winning when the chances are higher.

In this example, if we had wagered the same amount on Faze Clan at $1.50, we’d have won considerably less than if we had wagered the same amount on Natus Vincere at $2.60. If we had, the calculation would be as follows: 100 (stake) x 1.50 (odds) = 150. (expected return). If our bet succeeds, subtracting one from the odds and multiplying it by our stake would result in a real profit of $50.

Given that the sportsbook believes FaZe Clan have a 62.5% chance of winning the game, the stake on them may offer better value because there’s a higher likelihood that the outcome we are betting on will occur (match win). We receive smaller payouts, but the bookmaker accepting the wager views it as a better wager.

Similar to every other sport, competition, and novelty category that people place real money bets on, a number of variables, including your familiarity with the teams involved, their skill levels, peculiarities, individual strengths and weaknesses, and even favoritism, influence your choice of which outcome is the better bet. We emphasize the significance of making the effort to analyze the aforementioned elements before placing your bets, even though many other eSports tutorials and websites frequently suggest always just gambling on the value bet each time.

For instance, in the aforementioned case, we might have chosen to wager on Natus Vincere as a result of Faze Clan’s recent losing streak in matches leading to the competition that we are betting on. Or maybe as supporters, we’ve noticed that Faze Clan lost a crucial player to intra-team conflict and we’re speculating that a significant upset might happen in our favor.

We want to explain the different kinds of bets you will see offered at online sportsbooks for our favorite eSports titles before we delve into those elements in more depth.

Esports Betting Types

For many of our favorite eSports games, the basic, uncomplicated match-winner bet choice is the only one available for betting, but each game offers somewhat different special wagers that are specific to its gameplay. In League of Legends, gamers can wager on which team will kill the dragon miniboss or baron first, while CS: GO’s fast-paced and FPS action enables exciting bets on the team that wins the first Pistol Round of just about any particular match. These bets are based on different outcomes and don’t depend on whether the team you’re betting on wins the entire game or not.

When it involves offering more unusual and diverse gambling alternatives, many bookies are still lagging behind, but happily, there are a number of these additional wagers we may put on eSports, as mentioned below.

Essential eSports Bet Types

These are the primary betting options offered at online and mobile sportsbooks for the bulk of eSports video games.

• Outright Winner: You’re putting a futures wager on the team you believe will take the title of the competition as a whole.
• Winning Group: If teams are organized into groups for tournaments, you’re putting a wager on the winning group.
• Group of Winner: You’re putting a wager on the group that includes the overall tournament winner.
• Winner of the Region: If the competition divides the participants by region, your wager is on the particular region the victor is from.
• Draw: You’re betting on whether or not the result of the game is a draw.
• Handicap Bet: Whenever the bookmaker sets a predetermined margin (referred to as the line) that gives an unfavorable team a slight edge (often in the shape of rounds) and, in effect, evens the playing field. Only when there are just two potential possibilities is it available (two teams). Your wager is based on if the side with the better or worse handicap wins. You wager on Team A, who has a three-round edge against Team B. Even though Team A triumphs with an updated score of 11 – 10, the original score of 8 – 10 still stands. As a result, your bet is paid out.
• Total Rounds: You’re putting a wager on whether the total number of rounds in the match will be over or under a specific number.
• Over/Under: You wager on the number of sportsbook projects for a certain statistic in a game, which is often the sum of the scores of the two teams, but also things like total kills and first to market; whether the exact figure in the game is higher or lower than the odds provided by the bookmaker/sportsbook.

Unique Formats of eSports Bets

These more unusual betting options are accessible in a variety of eSports titles at mobile and online sportsbooks.

• Knife Round: You’re wagering on the squad that makes the first kill in the pistol round in the knife round (CS: GO).
• Knife Round/Pistol Round: You’re placing a wager on the team that, if the Knife Round is available, achieves the first kill (CS: GO).
• Map Winner: You’re placing a wager on the group that prevails on the chosen map (LoL, CS: GO, DOTA 2).
• Map 1 Overtime: You’re betting on whether Map 1 will end up in extra time (CS: GO).
• First Blood: You’re making a wager on the squad that registers the game’s first kill (LoL, CS: GO).
• First Baron or Dragon: You’re wagering on the group that eliminates the first Baron or Dragon (LoL).
• First Inhibitor/Tower: You’re betting on the team that takes out the first inhibitor or tower (LoL).

Esports Betting Account Funding Methods

All authorized and licensed eSports betting companies offer a selection of internationally reputable banking options for customers to deposit funds and withdraw wins securely.

Due to their high degree of established security, credit and debit cards issued by Visa, Maestro, and MasterCard are the most often used and suggested alternative. Other electronic payment options include Bitcoin, AstroPay, Bancaria, Boleta, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, POLi, and PaysafeCard.

Prior to Betting, Master Essential eSports Betting Strategies

Know the game: If you’re unfamiliar with the professional gameplay of top-tier eSports games like League of Legends, CS: GO, and StarCraft II, there’s no value in putting your money into a team or individual at bookies. Although it may seem silly, an increasing number of casual eSports viewers immediately place wagers without having enough insight into the game in question.

Avoid getting carried away with the anticipation or perceived ease of making a straight wager on the team with the highest popularity since you frequently walk away empty-handed and disappointed. It’s just a matter of common sense, and it applies to everyone who wagers real money on a live sporting event.