Can you bet on esports? A beginner’s guide

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If you live in the UK, you may have considered betting on sports. If you’re 18 or above and whether you love football, cricket or snooker, perhaps you’ve tried to bet on your favourite athlete or sports.

Despite that, betting on esports isn’t as straightforward as wagering on any other sport. First off, which bookmakers do you use? What statistics do you use to analyse matches? If you’ve been an esports fan for long, you probably have answers to these questions. But for people who’ve never wagered on an esports game, here’s how the process works.

Specialize in one or a few video games

While it began as a minor sporting-like activity, electronic sports now comprises of many video game competitions. From first-person shooters to MOBA and strategy games, many video games that can be played competitively are part of the esports industry.

But for betting purposes, you should choose games carefully. If you love Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, consider specialising in CS:GO tournaments. If you prefer to play League of Legends or Dota 2, commit to betting on these games.

All the games mentioned above have massive fanbases globally, and there are tournaments about each match every month. PUBG, Fortnite and field sports simulation games like FIFA and NBA 2K also attract reliable coverage by media channels and bookmakers.

Additionally, regarding specialisation, you might want to choose specific leagues and players to pay more attention when they have tournaments. Valve runs several CS:GO Leagues throughout North America. There are also leagues spread out across Europe and the UK.

Research many leagues and find teams and players with the right sets of skills required to win consistently. After that, keep tabs with these players and athletes, more so, their gaming data. You will need it to help you make betting decisions.

Pick several betting sites

If you plan to become a professional esports bettor, you will find it necessary to use multiple betting sites rather than one. For starters, it will become crucial to compare betting odds on different websites before you bet.

Of course, you can have one bookie for all your betting needs. But then again you’ll never know how much more money you could win by choosing odds from a different company. More importantly, you won’t have multiple platforms to find high-value odds.

Among professional bettors, value odds are like precious nuggets. They don’t come easily, but they help maximize your wins. As such, find a reliable UK online casino that provides not only slots and table games but also a sportsbook that feature esports betting. But don’t choose one casino alone. Join a few bookmakers and use them to help you high-value odds.

Decide what outcomes to bet on

If you seldom play video games, you’ll need to start playing or at least learn more about them. Find out which games you need to collect maps and which ones require you to accumulate points. That’s because these are the outcomes offered on betting websites.

Sure, you can always predict which player or team wins. But if you want to tap into all the ways you can wager and win esports games, you must understand the different outcomes of tournaments.

Typically, money line bets (game-winners) are the easiest to play. You only need to find gamers with high winning records and bet on them when they face upcoming players. Total bets, on the other hand, challenge you to estimate the number of kills, points or flags accrued per game.

Handicap betting asks for some experience because you predict by how points, kills or flags one team or player wins a game. If a bookmaker books Team Gamer Legion (German side) to beat the Astralis (Danish squad) with a handicap of +20 kills on CS:GO, the German group must win by over 20 kills. If they win by 19 points, you will still lose your bet.

Learn how to analyse bets

After you pick an excellent bookie and a league to bet on, learn how to predict games correctly. It won’t be easy, though. You must find relevant data about teams’ playing records. You then need to find out their playing styles and weaknesses.

Some players, for example, love to play defensively. That means in a game of FIFA 20, they may prefer to defend and counterattack when a clear chance occurs. By comparison, some CS:GO teams are pretty aggressive and thrive by attacking opponent bases relentlessly.

Information about where a tournament takes place and/or the pool to be won can also help you gauge how teams will approach the match. In a minor game, for instance, some Dota 2 teams field their rotational gamers. But at prominent competitions, they bring out their best players.

Become a disciplined bettor

In betting, losing is part of the game. However, you can minimize your losses by improving your betting skills and by being disciplined at it. More precisely, don’t chase losses. If you bet twice in a day, take a break as opposed to placing more bets hoping to recoup your earlier losses.

Another mistake you should avoid is to lose control over your stakes. It takes a lot of discipline to bet consistent amounts even among professionals. But once you lose that control, it is easy to drain your bankroll.

Another point on discipline is it’s crucial to have a betting strategy that helps you identify good tournaments or determine high-value odds. For instance, you could decide to bet on matches where you stand to double your stakes. If that strategy fails, then you can find another one.

To conclude

It is true you can bet on your favourite esports team with many UK-based bookmakers. There’s no guarantee you will win. But with a proper strategy and excellent betting skills, you can learn how to bet and win consistently. Follow the tips shared above to help you pick tournaments, games and useful betting websites.

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