How does it sound to earn some quick bucks while doing nothing; just sitting at home and making calculated predictions on your favorite games? Well, it does sound pretty amusing and it sure is. The good news is that this is no more a dream; it is a reality and you can start practicing it today and turn around your fortune overnight. Betting has been a very old practice and people have been seen betting on horse races, cricket matches, football matches, cockfights, and so on. However, the phenomenon of esports betting is a relatively new one. Although new, it has gained popularity really quickly and is being practiced all around the globe.
What is Esports betting?
Esports means electronic sports and it describes the wide branch of video gaming sports. Video gaming is not a new concept, and everyone has played video games to some extent in their lives. However, unlike everyone, there are a few people who play video games very passionately and base their lifestyle on it. Furthermore, it has also become a profession for several people these days and a large proportion of the world population earns their bread and butter via esports.
Although the esports is a long-existing industry, it has just recently caught the attention of gamblers. The capitalist world can make business in anything they desire, and their next target was betting in esports. Hence, betting has started and grown exponentially in esports.
Esports betting industry growth
The esports betting industry has hit $1.5 billion in 2020. The industry is growing faster than any other industry worldwide. In terms of virtual betting, there are hundreds of applications that can be downloaded on your phone and used for betting online. There are also websites that allow you to bet on esports online.
Adding to this, in terms of live audiences, esports has proven to attract huge live audiences in its events globally. In 2017, the finale of the 2017 World Championship (Intel Extreme Masters) was held in Katowice, Poland and it attracted more than 170,000 people in a live audience. The number is almost 100,000 more than 2018’s Superbowl live audience.
Millions of people watch esports tournaments while sitting at their homes using live streaming and perform betting too via online platforms. Some of the popular games that attract large numbers of audiences include CSGO, DOTA 2, league of the legends, dragons, and dungeons, and so on.
How does the esports gambling work?
The gambling procedure is not much different from how gamblers gamble on normal physical sports such as football. Although there are several options for betting the most common one is to bet on a team or an individual that you believe will win.
Types of esports betting
Match winner
This is the simplest form of a bet. In this, the bet is placed on a team or an individual player that you believe is going to win the match. The bet can be placed in advance a few days before the match or even during the match according to the odds that are being played.
Betting outrights
This is an extreme form of betting that has higher stakes and hence, higher returns too. In betting outrights, a bet is placed on a team or an individual before the start of the tournament. The bet can take several forms. Firstly, you can either bet in favor of a player that you believe will win the tournament; however, this is a very risky approach as you will be betting before the start of the tournament. Another form of betting is that a certain team or a player will be eliminated from the tournament as a particular stage. Another form can be where you bet that a team or an individual will advance to the next stage of the tournament.
Totals
Betting in totals has no relation to the result of a match or a tournament; it is more related to a particular stat of the game. Betting on totals can take several forms such as total kills, total goals, total maps played, and so on. This form of betting in much more predictable and has much lesser risk as compared to betting outrights.
Popular esports games
There is a wide range of games that come under the branch of esports and people perform betting on those games. However, there are a few games that are extremely popular and have several professional players around the globe. Hence, these are the games that are the most prominent ones amongst gamblers too. Following are a few of those games:
- Battlefield
- DOTA 2
- Counter strike global offensive (CSGO)
- Smite
- Overwatch
- PUBG
- Call of duty
- Streetfighter
- FIFA
- World of tanks
Major esports tournaments
With the commercialization of esports and since the gamblers have started seeing extensive earning opportunities in these games, there are a number of major tournaments and leagues being organized around the world for esports. Players from all over the world participate in these tournaments and then, gamblers gamble on their favorite players’ abilities. Some of the most popular esports tournaments are as follows:
- Call of Duty championship
- Major league gaming
- Halo world championships
- Eleague
- eGames
- Intel Extreme Masters
- Capcom Pro Tour
- World Electronic Sports Games
- League of Legends World Championships
Betting capacities
Usually, the betters need to have a good amount of knowledge to bet on these games, especially for the totals betting category. The reason being that totals betting has a great deal of game-specific knowledge requirements such as total kills in counter strike global offensive (CSGO).
However, if you do not know much about the games being played, but still want to make money, you can do it by very limited knowledge. You can indulge in match-winner betting after carefully reading about the players competing and their track records. The team or player that looks good on paper and record can be a good investment for your betting amount.
Once you have entered esports betting and you keep on betting for a long time, you will get to know much about the players competing and the games being played and this will help in more informed betting decisions and higher returns.
