The sports betting sector is booming and offers gamblers more and more new betting markets and betting options. A fairly new but already very popular betting niche is associated with values on e-sports disciplines. For example, you can see bets on e-sports disciplines such as Counter Strike and League of Legends alongside bets on common sports (football, basketball, ice hockey, volleyball, boxing, American football, etc.).
In 2018, the prize pool for the Dota 2 international tournament totaled $24.5 million. Even competitions in less popular video games achieve six-figure pools. Last but not least, the betting business also plays a role in the dynamic growth of e-sports. It is even expected that individual e-sports disciplines will be added to the Olympic Games schedule in the next 10 years. Cybersport is currently one of the ten most popular betting categories in the world. And it will not surprise anyone if in 5-7 years cyber sports will be second only to football in terms of betting volume.
The emergence of cybersport as a sporting neo-discipline goes hand in hand with the birth of the betting niche. The sports betting sector has recognized that the audience is more interested in this type of betting than a number of traditional sports. The generation that didn’t grow up playing video games not only wants to get in on the action themselves, but also want to watch the best in the industry and capitalize on their own passion. That’s why international and national associations are founded, tournaments are organized, competitions are held and reported on the Internet and even on television.
Overview of the e-sports disciplines you can bet on
Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends are e-sports disciplines with an audience of millions, so their popularity among bettors hardly surprises anyone. In Dota 2, international tournaments are the highlight, with bettors leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in skins. While in Europe the dominance of CS:GO and Dota 2 is obvious, in the USA and League of Legends is the most important e-sports discipline.
The LoL World Championship has been held regularly since 2011, and there are also regional leagues and championships in LOL. The disciplines listed above plus Starcraft II are generally considered the “big four” of cybersports. Overwatch, FIFA, Valorant, Call of Duty and Arena of Valor are also popular.
The main types of bets in cybersports
If you analyze eSports betting markets, you get the idea that many of them hardly differ from traditional betting markets. Basically, in eSports you often bet on the outcome of a game (win bet), or make over/under bets and special bets. The presence of additional betting markets depends on the specifics of a particular discipline.
Dota 2, for example, offers, among other things, bets on the exact score, the result of individual cards, bets on first blood, the race to the nth number of kills and the number of kills of individual team players. Bet on first blood is generally a typical special bet in the area of e-sports.
Future of e-sports betting
This part of the sports betting sector is currently experiencing an upswing. Narrowly specialized e-sports betting offices have also already emerged. The betting range offered by such bookmakers is usually more extensive than that of classic bookmakers. Sometimes even the maximum stakes are higher. And there are more and more new interesting betting options in this area, such as betting on simulations, which are a mix of cyber sports and virtual sports.