Author:
Connor Coates
Last Updated on:
30/09/2024
League of Legends is one of the most popular games. It is played in all regions across the world and has been growing in popularity as of late. Due to this, there is now a greater demand for betting.
Nowadays you see many betting sites adding esports as a category or adding a larger variety of games to choose from. With this being relatively new territory for many online bookmakers they must get their odds right as well as offering good markets to the LoL community.
League of Legends is a 5v5 MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game. It was first released in 2009 and has only grown in popularity since. The game started with just 40 champions and now has 168 unique champions with the latest addition of Aurora. The game is constantly evolving and receiving updates which is why it has achieved the longevity it has whilst growing at the same time.
The size and scale that the game has grown to is phenomenal, especially looking at a region such as South Korea. In South Korea many of the top-level pros are considered celebrities, they get brand deals, billboards and are paid much more than most other regions such as Europe (EU) or North America (NA). One of the best examples of this would be the pro player Faker. He is the most decorated LoL player ever with four Worlds titles and he has been considered the best pro player for the best part of ten years now.
Currently the game currently has between 140-160 million active accounts and is one of the largest gaming communities out there, this means the demand for betting sites has only increased more and more. One of the most in-demand markets is for the World Championships (Worlds), this is because every region comes together in a tournament to decide who is the best team in the world. But before we dive into the markets of betting on League of Legends, let us get you some information about the game and the regions.
Before betting on League of Legends it is important to understand the game. The game itself sounds straightforward – destroy the other team’s base (fountain) whilst protecting your own. Watching guides on the game as well as watching the professional games is a great help. Seeing the standard of play and thought process used at the professional level gives you a much greater understanding of the objectives of the game.
The game consists of five players on each team all playing different champions to suit their roles, the game has five roles and three lanes. The lanes are Top-lane, Mid-lane, and Bot-lane; there is also a Jungle in between the lanes. The roles are as follows: Top-laner, Jungler, Mid-laner, AD Carry, and Support. The AD Carry and Support share the Bot-lane – helping each other in a 2v2 lane. The Jungler roams the map farming camps, taking objectives and helping the laners when they can. The Top-laner occupies Top-lane and Mid-laner occupies the Mid-lane. Each role has champions that are generally better suited to that specific role, so when it comes to each player picking their champions they will often try to counter the opposing team’s selection to ensure they win lane against their opponent. This is a big factor to consider when betting on League of Legends; ‘the draft’ is when each player picks their champions in turn and sometimes you can see which team has the better matchups before the game has even started; this is why game and champion knowledge is important.
To win you have to take the enemy team’s base and destroy their fountain. In your way there are towers to destroy – two in each lane. From there, your objective is to destroy the enemy inhibitor, which is protected by another tower and this then gets you into the base. Moving towards the enemy base, your final objective is to destroy the fountain – which is further protected by two more towers. Now, this does sound like a lot to do – but once your team gets stronger and you claim objectives (Drakes and Barons), it becomes much easier and the game can end quite quickly. Many betting sites will often offer odds with the time it takes for a game to end.
The first step to being able to bet on League of Legends is finding suitable betting sites, as not every bookmaker offers a League of Legends category. You will then have to create an account with that site and from there, deposit, to start your betting journey.
Step One: Create an account, this will involve going to the betting site and selecting an option similar to ‘Join now’.
Step Two: This will involve entering a few personal details to get your account made. This will include verifying your email and typically using a valid form of ID to confirm your identity.
Step Three: The final step will be deciding how much money you wish to deposit into your account, many sites do require a minimum deposit. That being said though, many sites also offer new customer rewards such as matching the first deposit with free bets. Once completing this final step you will be ready to start the esports betting League of Legends journey.
There are a variety of tournaments and leagues to bet on – with the most popular being the MSI or Worlds. Both of these events happen once a year – with the world’s best teams competing to qualify. Many esports betting sites offer a wide variety of bonuses during these tournaments – especially the Worlds. So if you’re looking to get started with esports betting we recommend getting started with these.
Alternatively, the wide range of leagues within League of Legends offer ample opportunities to bet. These include the LCK (Korean region), the LPL (Chinese region) and the LEC (the European league). These leagues often feature the cream of the crop when it comes to competing teams. The LCK and LPL are considered the two top level leagues in Asia — while the LEC is arguably the most popular league worldwide.
In terms of the recent history of Worlds, there have been 14 finals and 12 of those have been won by Korean and Chinese teams. The only exception is when Fnatic won the inaugural tournament — though, Asian teams at this point were not involved — and when Taipei Assassins in 2012. Furthermore, the MSI follows the same pattern as the Worlds, with nine of the ten tournaments being won by Korean and Chinese teams also — with G2 being the outlier here.
Hence, if you’re considering betting on League, our recommendation would be to look to Korea or China for your next winner.
Let’s use the LEC as our first example, now each region will have their best teams that are considered typical favourites to win each split. Out of the last nine splits and season finals, G2 esports have won seven of them. The LEC is made up of ten teams that all play against each other once during the preliminary stages to decide the league table standings. It then goes to a double elimination knockout stage until we get to the final two teams remaining.
Most recently three of the last four finals have been contested between G2 and Fnatic, these two are considered the largest and best teams that compete in the LEC, often always qualifying for international tournaments and historically being each others’ largest rivals. G2 are often considered the heavy favourites in the LEC with not many teams challenging them in recent years. In fact, since 2022 only two teams other than G2 have won a final in the LEC and that is Rogue and Mad Lions, neither of which are currently competing for top spots anymore.
As of late the top three LEC teams are considered to be G2, Fnatic and BDS, these three often do well during the split but it is G2 typically that eventually come out on top. Many betting sites will have the LEC available to bet on as it is only growing in popularity within Europe.
The LCK is home to Faker and T1, often referred to as the best player and team in the League of Legends world. This claim is backed by the fact Faker is the most decorated player in history and T1 are the best-performing team internationally with four Worlds titles – all of which included Faker. Due to this T1 is obviously always considered one of the favourites to win any split in the LCK, but they have failed to do so at the last four attempts. It has been Gen.G that have been dominating the LCK as well as winning the most recent MSI.
Going back to the latest Worlds though, it was T1 that was victorious despite their domestic drought they can still compete and win at an international level. The LCK is definitely harder to bet on despite it being mostly dominated by two teams, the quality of gameplay is at its highest in the LCK which means games are often much closer and decided by the smallest of margins.
The LPL (Chinese region) is probably just behind the LCK in terms of players and gameplay quality, it often competes with the LCK teams for top honours at international tournaments, MSI 2023, for example, was an all LPL final between JDG and BLG who beat T1 and Gen.G in the semi-finals. Recently the LPL has been dominated by JDG who have won three of the last four splits with BLG winning the other one. BLG are relatively new to being a top-seed team as their first top-three finish only came in 2023, so they are definitely ones on the rise and ones to watch.
There are a few things to look for when deciding which bookmaker is the best one for you. The extent of your game and team knowledge can massively enhance your experience and chances, it also opens new markets because you will have a good understanding of the game.
A good online bookmaker for esports betting League of Legends will have good odds, meaning that if your bet wins you win more money than you would on other sites. You want to find the bookmaker that gives you the best returns granted that you win. It may seem like a simple and obvious point, but the fact is some bookmakers offer better odds and you are best finding the sites that offer the best.
How easy is a site to use? Do you find it difficult to find your way around the site, does the mobile app often crash? These are things to consider when choosing a bookmaker to use, if a site is clear and well-designed then you should have no issues finding anything you want on there.
League of Legends betting is often about game knowledge, and having a good understanding of the game can open more markets to bet on. The most common bet would be to bet on the outright winner of each tournament or season split, but with further understanding, you can unlock more markets to try.
Many sites offer odds on smaller details such as first blood (the player who gets the first kill), or for a player to get a Pentakill (one player kills all 5 players of the other team). Now without proper knowledge of each team and the players in these teams, it would be incredibly hard to judge if someone is capable of a Pentakill or likely to get first blood. That is why it is a fantastic idea to watch and stay up to date with the professional teams. There are many more markets that can be offered such as:
That is why game and team knowledge opens up your ability to bet on so many more markets.
With all of the topics and points discussed above, here are some recommendations of great sites as of right now.
BC.Game is a great website for esports betting, it is incredibly easy to navigate the website. It also has a simple and straightforward customer service portal, often it can be unclear how to access customer support but BC.Game makes it clear.
This is another fantastic site to use, it offers markets in the lesser-known regions as well as the major ones. In terms of League of Legends options, it has plenty and you would not struggle to find a game to bet on.
Paddy Power is a great site for the variety it offers, it covers all major regions and even a few of the minor regions if you want to look into those as well. They provide regular offers with competitive odds and are very consumer friendly with an easy-to-use website and mobile app.
Is another one that offers a very easy-to-use website and mobile app, there is no difficulty navigating it for what you want to find. It also covers the major regions as well as a few of the lesser-known ones and the odds offered on even the lesser-known regions are good. So there is a good amount of markets to choose from regarding League of Legends.
In a rush? Check out the most important points surrounding eSports betting League of Legends in the q & a session below.