Betting on Esports
Betting online on esports is a thing that started to develop only in the last several years, as the popularity of video games played competitively globally rose, with hundreds of events hosted annually that accrue more and more players and viewers.
Bookmakers picked up on such a rapid development and started to provide their own services for viewers, who can now not only watch a match of their favorite team, but also place a bet and make a profit out of it.
Deciding what game to bet on
To start betting, you should decide what game you should bet on and why. Think of what genre of games do you like, and probably even play or enjoy watching in your free time.
Currently, the most popular titles, that you can bet at every bookmaker are divided into these genres:
FPS, also known as First-Person Shooter, with the most popular esports titles being Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch.
MOBA, also known as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, represented by League of Legends, DOTA2 and King of Glory.
RTS, also known as Real-Time Strategy, while being one of the oldest esports genres on the market, and which had its ups and downs in popularity in the recent years, currently has its own niche in the betting scene, with such games as Warcraft III, StarCraft and StarCraft II.
Battle Royale, a genre that has gathered immense popularity in the past couple years, with such games as PUBG, Fortnite and a newcomer, Apex Legends.
Before you bet
After you've picked out which games you would like to bet on, you need to keep in mind that if you want to make a profit out of it, you need to learn the game and its professional scene, as it will take some time and patience to understand what do you need to look out for at the bookmakers websites and the markets they provide.
Types of markets Match Winner
Almost every esports game match that you can bet on, will have a match winner, which much like its traditional sports counterpart, is a market where you simply bet on the team that will win the match.
Being one of the oldest markets ever provided by bookmakers, this market was created to even out the ground between two teams, as not every match-up can be absolutely even, and a much lower ranked team can be matched up against a much higher ranked team, where the lower team's chances at winning the match are significantly lower.
The handicap is the bookmakers attempting to balancing out the odds of both teams, thus giving a weaker team an advantage (positive handicap), and a disadvantage (negative handicap) to the stronger team.
When placing a bet on this market, in order to win a positive handicap, the team must come out winning the match, or losing by less than the handicap's amount. In order to win a bet on a negative handicap, the team needs to win the match by more than the handicap's amount.
Totals (Over/Under)
Totals is a market where you place on a number of events that will happen during the game, over or under the amount set by the bookmaker. This market will vary from game to game, as CS:GO can feature a market with "Total rounds during map 1", MOBA games with "Total kills" and many more.
Betting on outrights, is similar to traditional sports betting, where you don't bet on a particular match, but on the outcome of the whole event. With an example of this, being a bet on who will win the World Championship in League of Legends.
This type of market is much more prone to team errors, as this market goes for a longer period of time, during which a team you've placed a bet on, could have a hiccup during a tournament but eventually come back and win the competition.
After you've settled on what games you want to follow and learn to bet on, think on what would be the appropriate amount of your disposable income to set aside for betting, and be patient, as you always need to be sure that you are placing a good bet that will come out as a profit.