How to bet on eSports

With Twitch slowly replacing television, many people are just now realising how big the gaming industry is. In truth, video games have been a dominant pastime and hobby for two generations now, and finally, we are beginning to be able to bet on the games that we enjoy watching. However, finding the right eSports betting sites isn't always easy.

Do most sportsbooks accept eSports?

A few years ago, hardly any mainstream betting websites accepted bets on eSports. Whilst the likes of CS:GO tournaments have been happening for decades, in fairness, it was the Fortnite world cup just a few years ago that really put video game competitions into the mainstream.

Today, Betfair, Ladbrooks, Betfred, and many others do have categories for eSports. However, they're not all necessarily good at it...

But, before picking the exact bookmaker, let's figure out the basics of betting and gauge what you actually want from your bookmaker.

Understand the basics of betting

You likely already know what betting is all about if you're looking at how to get started: it's a way to put money on the line of a certain outcome happening. That event will have certain odds (the bookmaker's belief of likelihood of it happening) attached to the outcome. Your stake is multiplied by these odds to calculate your winnings; otherwise, you just lose your stake.

It's wise to become familiar with both fractional and decimal odds, because you will often come into contact with both. A bet that is evens means it is 1/1 for fractional, or 2.00 for decimal. This is the equivalent, and it means that when you place £10 down as a bet, you can win £10 (£20 returned to you because you get your stake back). So, it's double your money territory, and the implied probability of this event is 50%.

But when betting, you should look for value. It's important to find bets that have seemingly better odds than you believe they should. So, if you think a certain outcome has a 30% chance of happening but the bookmaker's odds reflect an implied 20% chance probability, this is good value.

Types of bets on eSports

The goal is to bet on the games that you know most about, because here you may already have an advantage. There are more things to bet on than just the winner of a single match, as you can bet on who will win the group, the outright tournament winner, a handicap bet, whether a match will go over or under a certain amount of rounds, and so on. So, you don't always need to know who will win, but what type of a game it will be.

Best betting sites for eSports

Generally, Betfair, Ladbrokes, NetBet, and Bwin are considered to be some of the best eSports betting companies, whilst BetVictor, Williamhill, and BoyleSports are some of the worst. By best, we mean who has the most bets, the most games/events, the best odds, and who generally takes eSports seriously. However, this is a quickly changing industry, so keep an eye out for changes in attitude from other big sites like Bet365.