Esports is short for “electronic sports,” referring to the vast professional and amateur competitive video gaming industry.

What characteristics define an online sports competition? A wide variety of video games, including first-person shooters, sports games, real-time strategy games, and card games, are included in the esports category. If a game allows for competitive play in which players may compete against one another, and if enough gamers are interested in playing that game, then that game will undoubtedly have a competitive scene.

In recent years, esports has seen explosive expansion, and this trend will not slow off soon. Esports competitions can attract tens of thousands of spectators to venues already at or near capacity because of the support they get from their legion of devoted followers, who number in the millions, as well as from advertisers and investors. Some competitions have already eclipsed the prize pools of most big sporting events and even the number of spectators tuned in to watch them.

The expansion of esports may be tracked via competitions, but what’s more significant is the development of an ecosystem conducive to professional gamers’ success. Most experienced players can now get a monthly living income from their companies and the sponsors they work with. Several professional teams have their team residences, travel to competitions with all costs covered, and have their athlete visa applications granted, among other perks. These aspects are taken for granted in traditional sports, but not so long ago, they were unheard of in esports. This proves that the esports sector is expanding exponentially and indicates plenty of possibilities for expansion since many locations still need to be investigated.

With millions of players that play and support their favorite games daily, the esports industry is where it is now. Currently, gamers from all over the world are closer than they have ever been, thanks to numerous platforms such as Twitch. Here, they may experience the thrill of watching professionals compete for huge rewards or follow an instructional broadcast to enhance their gaming.

Many are curious about the advantages of watching another person play a game rather than participating in it themselves. But the same can be said about almost every other sport. Every day, millions of gamers tune in to see their favorite game being played at its most competitive level. As watching football may be thrilling for a football fan, the experience of watching esports can also be exhilarating for esports fans.

Most Popular Esports

As was said earlier, the world of esports is filled with a dizzying array of competitions, each utterly unique compared to its contemporaries.

Indeed, many different esports is the same as one another since they all belong to the same genre, but this is only the case if we look at the surface level. Examples of multiplayer online battle arena games are Dota 2 and League of Legends (multiplayer online battle arenas). All these games are played from a top-down perspective; you take control of a single hero or champion, and your goals are to take down the other team’s towers and, ultimately, their base. However, once you delve deeper into the mechanics and intricacies of both games, you will find myriad significant differences that define each game and make it what it is, which is why they may attract different crowds of gamers and bettors. Both of these games are complex and involve a lot of moving parts.

The following is a rundown of the top five most popular esports in the business. Just clicking on the button will lead you to the appropriate game guide, where you will find information on the fundamental game mechanics and the esports community associated with the game.

Dota 2

Dota 2 has maintained its position as one of the most cutting-edge games in contemporary esports. Many people think that The International 2011, which was held for Dota 2, was the spark that started the snowball effect of the expansion of esports. It was the first event to provide prize money of more than one million dollars, and it was staged at a massive local area network location at Gamescom in Cologne.

Dota 2 is more popular than ever, and throughout the year, dozens of major competitions are conducted for players to compete in. The game is not only dominating the rankings in terms of tournament prize money but also seeing a meteoric rise in the number of people tuning in to watch it.

If you are betting on Dota 2, you will profit from a game with an esports environment that is robust and consistent. Since Dota 2 is such a popular game, online bookmakers make it a point to provide customers with a wide variety of betting choices throughout the events that include the game. Compared to most other electronic sports, Dota 2 features an exceptionally diverse range of betting markets. This provides you with a multitude of opportunities to capitalize on your in-game expertise and turn a profit.

In Dota 2, two teams of five players are pitted against one another in a war that requires tactical planning, technical prowess, and, most importantly, the ability to work together as a unit. The game may be picked up and played at no cost at any time, and all of the available heroes will be playable from the very beginning.

League of Legends (LOL)

The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game with the most players is currently League of Legends. Even if it may not come close to Dota 2 in tournament prize money, League of Legends claims a substantially greater player base and audience than its competitors.

The League of Legends World Championship is a year-long competition culminating in a local area network (LAN) final that moves worldwide to different cities each time. If you were a bettor in League of Legends, you would have access to a consistent flow of matches to wager on and the strongest sportsbook coverage of any esport.

League of Legends, like Dota 2, is a free online battle arena video game. Learning how to play the game itself is a good place to start if you want to improve at betting on League of Legends. You might also check out our guide to betting, which is another option.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Since the late 1990s, Counter-Strike has been a major force in the video game industry worldwide. This first-person shooter continues to be one of the most well-known, if not the most famous, games ever created. The most recent incarnation of the game, Global Offensive, has a thriving esports community and offers a diverse range of competitions throughout the year.

CS: GO is an extremely competitive game with an almost impossible skill ceiling. A fan of CS: GO could find that watching professional matches provides them with a lot of excitement and fun. Although the popularity of many games might fluctuate over time, Counter-Strike has managed to maintain its level of success for over twenty years. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) community is well-known for its committed and enthusiastic players; this is one of the reasons why it also has a large betting community and justifiably earns plenty of attention at the majority of legit sportsbooks.

StarCraft II

Since Brood War was first launched in 1988, StarCraft has remained at the forefront of the RTS (real-time strategy) genre since its introduction. The game was built upon the foundations of RTS games that had been created before, but it also introduced a great deal of innovation.

The incredible breadth and richness of StarCraft’s gameplay are largely responsible for the game’s enduring popularity. StarCraft also has a constantly evolving metagame, the rules of which are often determined not by the game’s creators but by the game’s professional players.

Bookmakers pay close attention to StarCraft II competitions anytime a significant event occurs since it is now one of the most popular electronic sports.

Overwatch

Blizzard Entertainment is responsible for developing the first-person shooter game Overwatch. Overwatch introduced a new facet to the first-person shooter (FPS) genre that we hadn’t seen before. The action in Overwatch is highly fast-paced, requiring players to think on their feet. This kind of gameplay is reminiscent of the iconic Quake.

Upon the game’s first release, there was an explosion of interest in it, ultimately leading to the development of a competitive scene with several high-stakes tournaments. This came as no surprise to anybody. You can find Overwatch covered at most sportsbooks, despite the fact that there are fewer betting markets available than for larger esports competitions. This is despite the fact that the game can still expand.

Why Do People Bet on Esports?

Video games are distinct, diversified, and enjoyable. This transfers quite well to the world of esports since each game provides a different set of betting chances. If you wager on Dota 2, you may bet on which team will kill the first Roshan. This is a common betting option. If you’re going to gamble on CS: GO, one of the more interesting things you can do is attempt to guess who will diffuse the initial bomb. Since there are so many different types of esports, there are many fascinating betting options. They make it possible for you to capitalize on your gaming expertise and convert it into money.

Constant updates are always disrupting the competitive scenarios in games, and the games have an excessive number of moving parts, making it impossible to forecast their outcomes accurately. People need to learn precisely how things stand when it comes to esports. This contrasts with other sports, such as football, where match odds are sometimes provided a full year in advance. Esports coverage at sportsbooks is improving daily, but it’s still in the infant stage, and bookmakers spend little on it. Esports coverage at sportsbooks is still in its infant stage.

This results in odds that are not accurate and do not necessarily represent the genuine strength of the teams or players that will be competing in any particular match. Because of this, you, the bettor, may maintain an advantage over other players by capitalizing on the fact that you have a deeper understanding of the game.

Several Ways to Gamble on Electronic Sports

Item/Skin Betting

A more laid-back approach to gambling is known as “skin betting.” The popularity of betting on items and skins is limited to a small subset of games since only those mechanics support this kind of wagering.

CS: GO is by far the most popular item betting game since the game is filled with a wide variety of skins for various weapons. These skins do not impact the gameplay and are used only for decorative purposes; nonetheless, because they can also be bought and sold on the Steam market, they are often utilized as a kind of money on various betting websites. Even though you can’t take the cash out of Steam and put it in your wallet, the virtual items known as skins still have value in the real world.

Gambling With Real Money

Real money betting is the form of wagering that will be the primary emphasis of this piece since it is the most straightforward to explain. Esports bets are becoming more common among traditional bookmakers as the industry grows. A few years ago, it was almost impossible to discover an esports match on which you could place a wager. These days, however, the media constantly covers tournaments of the most popular esports, and the vast majority of events provide more than a few betting markets from which to pick.

While esports have a long way to go before being compared favorably to conventional sports regarding betting opportunities, the industry is making strides in the right direction. As more time passes and the situation continues to develop and stabilize, bookies will be more motivated to broaden their esports competition coverage.

Tips for Betting on Esports

Get to Know the Games

Many different kinds of esports are available, and they are all different. This indicates that you will need to concentrate on one sport to optimize both your game expertise and, thus, your income. Taking on all of them at once would be an exceedingly difficult undertaking.

We recommend that you choose a game and become an expert in it but play a game you like. Do you like first-person shooters, competitive strategy games, or battle royales? Choose something you would play if you were the one performing it, even if you don’t do it. In such a case, your potential for amusement would be nearly nonexistent, and you must have fun when betting.

Take Attention to the Many Formats

Many esports matches, regardless of the game, are played in a format known as best of three (BO3) or best of five (BO5). “best of 1s” refers to unique items (BO1). The matches in the group stage of a significant tournament are often best-of-1 affairs. At the same time, those in the knockout rounds progress to best-of-3 experiences, and the championship match itself is frequently best-of-5 or even best-of-7 experiences. Most esports are too complicated for a single game to portray a team’s overall skill level accurately.

For example, Na’Vi, one of the finest and most successful teams in Dota 2, would often perform badly in group-stage matchups. Still, they would bounce back in the knockout stages and perform fantastic final performances. Bookmakers would offer them advantageous odds in each particular match since they are on the better side. Still, if you followed the team attentively, you would have a chance to stay ahead of the bookmakers and make a respectable profit for yourself.

Get familiar with the Competing Teams and Individuals

Understanding the teams and/or players of the electronic sport on which you place a wager is essential to any winning betting strategy. Unsurprisingly, you should keep this in mind whenever you bet on any sporting event, whether esports, football, or horse racing.

For instance, if you’re going to bet on League of Legends, it’s in your best interest to have a solid understanding of the team you will bet on. This will help you in a variety of different ways. One side is now experiencing a low run of form, or they are having trouble adjusting to a new patch that has introduced a number of changes to the game.

Team X’s top player was assigned a champion he doesn’t play very frequently and isn’t very comfortable with. Alternatively, Team X may be competing in a smaller tournament and have elected to utilize a stand-in player, which disrupts the natural flow of their team chemistry. These factors will only sometimes be represented in the match’s odds, so you’ll have many chances to make a move.

Keep an eye on your liquid assets

When betting, the most critical thing you can do is avoid betting with money, you cannot afford to lose. In most cases, this is a prescription for catastrophe. Instead, you should predetermine and adhere to a betting budget regardless of the game’s outcome.

You can also divide your bankroll into units and adhere to a strict betting strategy that does not allow you to wager more than a few units on each match. If this interests you, go ahead and give it a try. You are free to set the price of your item anywhere between $1 and $10, depending on how much cash you have available.

In the same way, you should never attempt to pursue losses. It is impossible to prevent losing money while betting. Therefore it is important to remember this if you’ve already had some bets against you. In the heat of the moment, acting on impulse and making bets that are not in your best interest will worsen your position, which once again emphasizes the need to bet with a budget that has already been determined.

Pace Yourself

Even if many esports contests are conducted daily, it does not imply that you should place bets on every single one. Everyone aims to increase their wealth rapidly, but the most important aspect of a successful betting strategy is timing, not the selection of the bets to place.

If you cannot locate a profitable wager for the day, it is in your best interest to refrain from betting until a suitable chance presents itself. It would be best to wait patiently for the perfect wager rather than take a higher risk on a match you have reservations about. This will give you the best chance of winning. If you gamble to achieve success over the long term, you will have a far better chance of doing so.

Bet at a Reliable Sportsbooks

It is impossible to place sufficient emphasis on this element of gambling. If you’re dealing with a dishonest bookmaker, you may toss away all your techniques and value bets since they won’t be honored. It is essential to choose a reliable sportsbook with a solid reputation and excellent customer service, solid tournament coverage, and a variety of speedy payment alternatives.

You will discover a list of reputable and trustworthy online betting sites that meet these requirements and provide a betting experience free from worry below. You may receive more information about each bookmaker, including what you can anticipate from them, by clicking on the bookmaker’s name and reading the entire review that appears when you do so.