Esports
eSports is the video game world, to be frank. It has been around for a few decades now and has improved over time. There are various games and genres that can be played for eSports players as they are viewed as professional athletes attempting to perfect their craft. The betting aspect is very similar to anything else a person would bet on, as we discuss below.Â
eSports Betting Odds & Examples
Using The Point Spreads In CS:GO
Some esports games are played as best-of-one (Bo1), where the team that wins one map (winning 16 rounds) wins the game. However, most CS:GO games are played as best-of-three (Bo3), meaning a team needs to win two-of-three maps to be the winner.
Counter-Strike:
Global Offensive is one of the most popular esports titles in the world, among viewers and bettors alike. It’s a tactical first-person shooter, where the objective is to either kill all enemy players, or plant or defuse the bomb.
As such, point-spread betting on CS:GO is mainly focused around maps, allowing you to bet the favorites with a negative spread (-), or the underdogs with a positive spread (+). In Bo3 games, the spread is set at 1½ .
With the spread set 1½, you’re essentially predicting whether the favorite wins without losing a map (2-0), or whether the underdog wins at least one map.
Alternatively, you can also bet on the rounds. Each game is played as best-of-30 rounds, where the team winning 16 rounds wins the game.
Depending on the perceived strength of the teams, the round spread differs, from only a few rounds (+/- 2½ rounds) to double digits (+/- 10½ rounds).
Using The Point Spreads In League Of Legends
Although also an esports title, League of Legends (or LoL) is much different from CS:GO, as it falls into a different genre.Â
LoL:
Unlike CS:GO, LoL is a MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena) game, where the goal is not necessarily to score the most kills, but rather to destroy the enemy base.
While kills aren’t the most important element of a LoL game, bettors can still wager on the number of kills, as well as kill spreads. As with any other form of spread betting, bookies will offer a positive kill spread on the outsiders and a negative kill spread on the favorites.
Similarly to CS:GO, LoL also uses a best-of-three (Bo3) format, meaning you use the same approach with map betting (+/- 1½ maps) to predict whether the favorites win the series, 2-0, or whether the outsiders score at least once.
How to Bet on eSports​
Betting on eSports is exactly the same as you would bet on actual sports or anything else. The bookie will always make a spread to get wagers and make sure that the gap between the two sides is taken away to create a fair playing field.Â
The basics of betting on eSports and regular sports are one and the same, but little intricacies differentiate the two. Moneyline, totals, and spreads are all the same and makes it easier to understand.Â
Point-spread betting is one of the most popular forms of wagering on sports, and when it comes to esports, its status is no different.
Admittedly, the moneyline leads the way among types of bet. It doesn’t provide as much versatility as point-spread betting, which offers you an alternative wager on esports, and more ways to go in search of value.
This section will cover everything there is to know about point-spread betting on esports, how to use it and tips and tricks to use point spreads to profit while betting on competitive video games.
Tips, Tricks And Advice For Esports Betting
Before you start with esports betting, understand how the games are played. There are over a dozen different titles, so learning about esports might appear a daunting task. However, you don’t need to know every esports title, rather simply familiarize yourself with the one or two games on which you plan to wager.Â
The most significant difference between sports and esports is the unpredictability of the outcomes. Although most sports are fast-paced, none can compare to esports titles, namely League of Legends.
Play the games yourself
The most popular esports titles are very simple to understand. It doesn’t take long to learn how they work. The easiest and most efficient way is to play the games yourself, or you can pay attention to the professional games, which will also help you learn a thing or two about the players and the teams.
Game changes
In esports, the course of the game can change within seconds, a misplay leading to defeat. Admittedly, mistakes in soccer defense can lead to a goal that changes the outcome of a game. It won’t be as impactful as losing a Baron in LoL, however.
Situations like that often lead to unexpected results. It’s not uncommon to see an underdog win a match they shouldn’t have. That doesn’t mean you should always bet on outsiders, but know that these sorts of results in esports are not uncommon.
LoL
All esports titles have one thing in common, as the optimal strategy constantly changes. That is due to the new wrinkles and patches the game developers may introduce on a monthly, or even weekly, basis. Such a prime example is League of Legends.
League of Legends sees something different every month, changing how some champions or in-game items perform. That may have a severe impact on how a specific player or a team will perform.
Admittedly, the changes are not as drastic as they may sound, but even a simple change can sometimes affect the game meta, which in turn changes the optimal approach to the game.
Of late, game developers have decided to reduce the number of such changes over the season, keeping the competitive scene relatively stable. Regardless, you have to pay attention to understand what the next change will bring.
The best way to understand how these affect LoL (and other esports titles) is to imagine a heavier ball introduced to soccer, a smaller ball in the NBA or other drastic change.
ESPORTS HISTORY
The history of eSports is believed to begin in 1972 at Stanford University, where students would play arcade games and compete to get the better score. This obviously evolved over time with newer games and systems from arcade games to the world of video games.
When the boom of online video games came in the 1990s, large-scale tournaments began to associate for games and allowed players to compete for prizes. Since then, players can compete in tournaments at a centralized location or over the internet. There are thousands of game titles that can be in the eSports world, and now, with eSports teams being created and potentially becoming classified as a sport, the world continues to grow.Â
