How to Read eSports Betting Odds

Gamers are sitting on winning lottery tickets. Every day hundreds of bookmakers offer eSports events for everyone to bet on, and yet most gamers, the very people capable of beating eSports bookies, aren’t even aware of the opportunities that await.

That being said, this article only has one purpose: to serve as a short intro guide to eSports betting. We’re going to assume that you have little to no experience betting on competitive video games since most eSports fans come from younger generations. We’re going to discuss basic strategies and answer questions like: “how to read eSports betting odds”.

Why Are Betting Strategies So Important?

The average eSports bettor gambles, the smart eSports bettor wins. Many people attracted by the incredible growth of the eSports betting niche first come into the scene without knowledge about betting strategies. Sure, they have a genuine understanding of how a certain video game is played out, but this understanding is often the very cause of their betting career’s downfall.

Because the truth is, knowing the ins and outs of your favorite game is only half of the story. All the rules you know whenever you have your gaming headset on and you’re spraying bullets, one-tapping heads, casting abilities, and throwing skillshots don’t necessarily apply to the different world of eSports betting.

On top of asking how to read eSports betting odds, you should also learn about betting strategies and let your gaming expertise bring the fun. Becoming aware of the tips and tricks you’re about to discover here won’t only help dramatically lower the risk that comes with being an amateur eSports bettor, but also increase the chance of making a good, steady profit.

Our whole point? Having one of your feet planted on the side of video gaming and the other on the front of online betting is the ultimate recipe for a profitable eSports betting career. This is why mastering betting strategies is important. This is why you’ll find the following sections more than worth your time.

Who Should Make Use of this Guide?

Who are we writing this guide for? For anyone who’s an amateur at eSports betting or anyone who’s never made a single eSports bet before. As we’ve said, we’re going to help newer audiences because most eSports bettors are coming and will come from newer generations.

But don’t get us wrong! We’re not saying these betting strategies are to be used by all young and aspiring eSports bettors out there. Please keep in mind that you’re not allowed to create any gambling account unless you’re of the legal age laid by your state, country, or jurisdiction.

Disclaimer out of the way, we want to be even more specific about who should make use of the betting guides we’ve included here. If you’ve been a gamer all your life and want to try out betting on your favorite eSports title, you’re definitely one of them. You already have the game mechanics crossed out, which means you only have to learn how those mechanics are turned into actual types of bets.

For people who don’t know how to read eSports betting odds, who haven’t played video games before, and who just want to make some money off of competitive eSports events, don’t worry. Literally mastering the game and simply understanding its basics are two different things.

Betting Guides and Strategies

Use the Concept of eSport Value Bets

We’re going to start with value betting, one of the most powerful concepts in eSports betting that separates the losers from the winners. It’s backed by a mathematical theory called “expected value,” which, in a nutshell, just tells you what outcomes to expect in the long run. If you’re starting to feel squeamish already, relax! We’ll only touch on the basics here.

Fact: all the odds are aligned with the actual probability of the market. But how do bookies make money? By slightly adjusting those odds to give them a small margin of profit. This margin may seem petty at first glance but is actually huge in the long run. That’s how sports betting platforms manage to stay in business and even expand throughout the years.

For gamers who know their video games by heart, understand that you’re betting against bookies who are run by people who aren’t prophets and oracles. They don’t know for sure how any match will play out because, as you can probably attest as a gamer, underdogs tend to rise to the top in the world of eSports.

We can then perfectly assume from this line of thought that to make money betting on eSports, you have to know what the real probability of an eSports event is and always bet with a bookie that gives you odds that beat probability. This is what eSports value bets are. For example, if you’re betting on a match where you think the market has a 50% chance of winning and the odds are 2.10, you’ve just found an eSports value bet.

Bet with Different eSports Betting Sites

While betting on eSports with a single bookie isn’t that bad, there are a few problems that come with it. First is the problem of having limited winning options. Notice that we use the words “winning options”. You can get a lot of odds in any bookie, but it doesn’t mean they’re in the favor of making you money.

Some eSports bookies for new players will give you good odds while other bookies will give you better odds. As a smart eSports bettor who’s always on the lookout for eSports value bets, it’s your job to get in business with the latter. Unfortunately, since value bets jump from one bookie to the next, sticking with a single eSports betting site often means you have to wait for the opportunity to come to you, not the other way around.

Now, eSports events (or at least the major ones) don’t happen every day, which means your options are already limited before you even have them in the first place. For bettors who only have one betting account, the chance of finding value bets, let alone making a profit off of them, gets even smaller.

Signing up with different bookies, you can get your hands on eSports value bets whenever and wherever they pop up. This works even better, especially if you’re a person who knows a lot of video games. Being familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of each team and finding ways to exploit bookies’ interpretation of data across multiple platforms is a proven way to succeed.

So, play at the best eSports betting sites, will you?

Study All the Types of eSports Bets

The types of bets you can place will vary depending on the eSports title you’re betting on and the bookie you’re betting with. If you’re a first-person shooter (FPS) bettor who loves following games like CS:GO and Valorant, then you’re going to be placing bets such as pistol round winner, first half winner, and second half winner, to name a few.

For multiplayer battle online arena (MOBA) bettors who are fans of eSports titles like League of Legends and Dota 2, the bets available to you will mostly involve first blood, total kills over/under, kills handicap, and towers handicap.

On top of these specific bets, you also have to know how to read eSports betting odds that come before them. Take some time to study a guide to multiple bets for eSports or read a blog about accumulator bets and parlays, which are bets that you can place on sports betting sites as well. Because you’re a new bettor, we recommend for now that you bet only on which team you think would win.

Increasing your awareness of each type of bet will also broaden your opportunities to earn profit. You’ll be able to see specific spots where you can make a big killing, all thanks to your expertise in the game and your ability to outsmart your bookie itself.

Master Your Betting Psychology

Did you know that you can read and follow all the rules about eSports betting without mistake and still lose your money? That’s right. You can be the smartest gambler in the world, but if you don’t know how to handle your emotions whenever you’re betting in front of your computer, you’re doomed to blow up your account sooner rather than later.

Betting psychology is another powerful concept in eSports betting because your actions aren’t only dictated by what you’re thinking but also by what you’re feeling. Just to make it clear to you how powerful this concept is, it also applies to investing and trading stocks and other securities, which is just another form of betting in our opinion.

Imagine that you lose money after a long process of comparing the odds of different bookies, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each team, and finally placing a value bet, what would be going on inside your head? You can be proud and say that you’d still trust your strategies next time even though history tells us you wouldn’t.

Being able to control your emotions and maintain logic and composure regardless of whether your team is winning or losing is at the heart of the whole topic of betting psychology. This is obviously an oversimplification and we suggest that you go through the basics of betting psychology before you even make your first bet.

Have a Betting System in Place

When all is said and done, the money in your betting account is still money you have to manage. The same way you wouldn’t want to go out right now to turn your bank upside down and start splurging without a second thought, you also wouldn’t want to start spending the funds inside your betting account in a single eSports event.

Making a betting system that fits you and your betting strategies could guarantee that you’ll make a profit in the long run. After all, just betting whatever amount of money you wish whenever you want isn’t that different from speculating, where you leave everything to destiny and pray your luck isn’t bad that day.

At the time of writing, we advise that you only risk 1 – 2% of your bankroll every day. This means that if you have $1,000 in your betting account, you should only risk losing $10 to $20 per day. A higher percentage than this will be devastating for you if you have a terrible week. You’re a beginner so we strongly suggest that you start small.

Conclusion

Betting on eSports can be pretty overwhelming at first, especially if you don’t know how to read eSports betting odds. Once you create a betting account, you’ll see numbers after numbers, odds after odds, and, the worst part is, you won’t know what all of them mean right away. That’s completely normal and we promise you that it only gets better from there.

How do we know? Because you already have the passion for eSports and video games, and all that’s left to do is to study the jargon and the tips and tricks of online eSports betting. So, follow the strategies we’ve included here, but don’t let them limit you. In fact, we encourage you to make your own set of strategies. Keep learning. You already have what it takes!

How to Read eSports Betting Odds FAQ