Esports also known as electronic sports, allows online betting on professional video games and their wagering rules are similar to the traditional sporting markets. The internet has had a major impact on the gaming industry with majority of esports betting coming from online tournaments that allow real players to participate in and are generally events on social, challenges, real money and fantasy betting.
Over the years the esports industry has grown rapidly thanks to the lockdown measures and Covid-19 protocols requiring people to stay at home. Although many sports events were put on hold therefore limiting markets the introduction of more esports markets kept the online betting industry alive and also virtual bets.
Don’t confuse virtual bets with esports betting since their different in terms of starting time and ending period of an event, usually virtual are scheduled bets with limited time frames that are shorter than esports. The other difference is that some esports events are played by real professional online gamers unlike virtual that use random number generator.
Online streaming by gamers
Technology has allowed easy, fast and convenient communication between people. Nowadays gamers can play through gaming consoles and computers in real time, despite majority being grouped as casual gamers, bookies nowadays use specific categories to match the pros from the beginners and its safe to say your bets are not fixed. Since the professional gamers are playing to win cash prizes themselves and despite bookies ensuring reliability of gamers, it’s not always a walk in the park since other factors come into play.
The common factors affecting esports is technology itself, poor connection can distrust an online player and due to frustration the gamer ends up quitting or logging out and this renders the match void. Common markets to look for when betting on esports:
- Esports games
- Esports tournaments and leagues
- Esports teams and leagues
In esports betting, its always important to first understand how a market works before starting to bet being to quick with placing random bets can be a recipe to disaster unless you are lucky enough and instead of placing your money on luck first check out articles on esports.
Popular esports games
- Battlefield
- Call of duty
- Counter-strike global offensive
- Dota 2
- FIFA football
- League of legends
Other games include Halo, Hearthstone: heroes of Warcraft, heroes of storm, over watch, PUBG, rocket league, smite, starcraft II, street fighter, super smash Bros and World tanks.
Championship games in esports
This is the best market to place wagers on since all gamers are pros and are looking to win the championship tittle as individual or group.
- The international Dota 2 championship
- Call of duty championship
- Evolution championship series
- Major league gaming
- Halo world championship
- League of legends world championship
- World electronic sports games.
Esports betting for beginners
Real money betting
Similar to the traditional sports betting and we place real money on odds. Also markets offered are easy to relate too with options to choose individual winners or overall winners of the tournament.
Skin betting
Also popularly known as item betting, with different sites dedicated to trading of items and currencies between dedicated gamers. There is also the option of betting for items through auction and is mostly done by dedicated online gamers.
Social betting
The social betting is usually between real world who engage in betting through agreements on a specific outcome and is not recommended for beginners since friends tend to get into arguments against each other on the event they lose, they may refuse to own up to their promises.
Fantasy betting
This type of betting is different in that your not technically betting but your just imaging and is similar to the traditional sports betting.
Challenge betting
The challenge betting in simple terms is just the Head-to-head betting as players go against each other for real money, organising competition and at the end of the tournament the winners receive payments. Apart from players organizing such tournaments there are other organizations that offer challenges and cash prizes for the winners.
Betting tips and strategies
In short the is a fine line between knowing how to bet and knowing how to win. That’s why there is need to invest in strategies that actually work and in most cases a good strategy increase your chance of winning through esports. The following are some tips to follow:
- Understanding odds and calculating payouts.
An odd is value given to a possibility by a bookie and require you to pick the correct winning odd to receive a payout. Understanding how odds are developed based on data or markets will help you win. Also payouts are the difference between a steady income and bankroll loss.
- Amount to wager and bankroll management
For beginners the normal recommendations is to start small, you can’t start betting immediately and expect to win all the time. You need a planed betting amount per event or match.
- Find value in odds.
Odds matter since they bring out the difference between a win or loss, don’t settle for safer odds that are generally low in payouts and find value digging into unexploited markets.
- Keep records of previous results for later analysis.
Always keep detailed records showing how the wager was lost or won, this process helps you improve on decision making and the makes the process of future analysis quick.
- On the line comparison of odds and bet types
By expanding your knowledge on online esports betting markets you can find better odds on similar events offered by different bookies, compare odds and try to find value. Also it is recommended that you find different bet types and improve chances of winning.
Conclusion
Winning on esports is dependent on you as an individual, knowledge on betting, ability to control emotions and discipline. Apart from this you will need a good strategy for betting. All these factors are considered in betting and you may also require a little bit of luck on your side. Find esports markets that work for you and bet responsibly.
