The best esports betting sites let you back your favorite teams or players in the likes of CS:GO, League of Legends, and DOTA 2 tournaments and leagues. They also offer a wide range of markets and even have bonuses to get you started.
But with so many options to choose from, picking the right site can be confusing. This guide will tell you all you need to know about esports betting, along with a detailed look at some of our favorite sites.
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Check out the table below to see which of the best online sportsbooks have esports betting markets and how they stack up against each other.
| Esports Sportsbook | Games/Leagues Covered | Crypto Support | Live Esports Betting | Live Esports Streaming |
| BetOnline | 8 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Bovada | 6 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| BetWhale | 18 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| BetNow | 2 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Everygame | 3 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| MyBookie | 3 | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| CoinPoker | 3 | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| BetUS | 5 | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Sportsbetting.ag | 8 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Xbet | 2 | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
If you’re making esports bets for the first time, then you’ll want a few pointers on where to start. With this in mind, we’ve reviewed three of the best esports betting sites currently on the market.
Just remember that these are just a few of our favorites. All of the sites listed above are great options for betting on esports and that’s particularly true of new sportsbooks that pull out all the stops for esports. .
BetOnline, a site known for its sports markets, is now a leading esports gambling site. Betting markets are available for just eight titles including Counter-Strike and DOTA 2, plus there’s live betting and streaming for major events.
The esports betting section of the site is very basic in comparison to the regular sports area. This can make it challenging to find the specific event you want to bet on without a bit of digging.
But what BetOnline may lack in site design, it makes up for with excellent banking options and some of the best promos you’ll find anywhere online. And the odds are competitive and among the earliest released ahead of events.
Pros
Cons
Despite being a recent arrival on the market, BetWhale has quickly established itself as a leading esports betting site. With betting available on 16 esports leagues, including all major titles like CS:GO, League of legends, and Overwatch, BetWhale is a one-stop shop for all your esports gambling.
Odds are presented on a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to find esports leagues and events. And those odds are fair and competitive in comparison to the competition.
BetWhale has work to do to catch up with other esports betting sites when it comes to bonuses. But it does offer support for several cryptocurrencies as well as the option to make withdrawals directly to your credit card.
Pros
Cons
Like BetOnline, SportsBetting.ag is another site that has a solid reputation as one of the best offshore sportsbooks in the USA. It has been recently redesigned but the esports gambling area is still a little dated and narrowing down markets can be time consuming.
You’re limited to just eight games and leagues that are all one and the same as BetOnline. To be fair though, this is still a bit more than the industry average. Odds and the live betting options are comparable with other esports betting sites.
What we really like about this site is the live streaming option for major esports events. This complements the live betting service perfectly and is a real standout feature. Add to that the regular bonuses and fast payouts, and you have an esports betting site that comfortably beats most of the competition.
Pros
Cons
If you’re making bets on esports for the first time, it’s a little bit different to what you might be used to for traditional sports. Of course, video game betting uses many of the same types of betting options and terminology as sports betting. But you’ll also come across some unique terms and bet types.
Here’s a look at some of the most popular esports bet types at the top esports betting apps and sites.
The simplest and most common betting type offered by all esports betting apps and sites are outrights. These are bets that allow you to wager on an outright winner of a specific game or event.
If you’re coming from regular sports, then you may be more used to outright bets being called moneyline bets. Well, that’s because the most common moneyline bet is on the outright winner. In esports, the outright bet refers to the winner of the entire match-up, and not a single map or round.
Along with simply picking an outright winner, moneyline odds are also used to determine the size of potential payments on more complex bets, like props bets and parlays.
Whether you’re wagering on the latest LOL tournament or Counter-Strike event, you can bet on which players and teams will win a specific match.
Match winner odds are often published before the start of an event and are updated on the fly based on how people bet ahead of the match. The top esports betting sites also offer match winner odds in live esports betting markets.
Tournament winner odds work the same way as match winner odds. But instead of betting on which players or teams will win a specific match, you’re betting on the eventual winner of the entire tournament.
With some tournaments lasting days, you can expect tournament winner odds to change a lot as the action progresses. These are also known as future bets, or simply futures, since you are betting on an outcome that will require quite a few matches to reach its conclusion.
Over/Under betting in esports works very much like over/under or totals betting in traditional sports. You wager on whether a team will score over or under a specific score line.
Over/under bets will vary depending on the esports leagues covered. This is because scoring can be very different from one game to the next and the fact that there are so many ways to score points. You can check out over/under bets for the total number of kills, towers destroyed, turrets taken down, and even maps played. Matches played over multiple maps, like a best-of-three, can allow you to bet on how many maps will actually be required to determine the winner.
Esports prop bets are when you wager on the performance of specific teams or players over the course of a single event, tournament, or season.
You can wager on if a game will go to overtime, a team will reach a tournament final, what team takes down the first Roshan/Baron, or if a specific player will excel in a statistic. All of the top esports betting sites will have a few prop betting markets on major events. But you might not get the option to place these wagers in smaller league events.
A parlay bet is when you combine two or more bets into one big wager. The combined odds of all three wagers means there’s potential for massive profits.
But, here’s the thing – all of your bets must be winners for the parlay to pay out. Parlay esports bets can be a combination of any of the bets listed above.
The best esports sportsbooks regularly offer betting promos that give you an extra edge and boost your bankroll.
You won’t find quite as many bonus types for video game betting markets as other sports, but you’ll definitely find the three listed below.
Offered by all major esports betting sites, welcome bonuses reward you with bonus bets or credit that can be used on any esports betting market. These are typically deposit match offers up to a maximum amount.
An example would be a 100% deposit match up to $200. This means that any deposit up to a maximum of $200 would be matched dollar for dollar in site credit.
Odds boosts are an esports betting bonus that give you enhanced odds on selected events, usually the biggest esports tournaments of the season. Odds boosts are typically offered on outright and parlay wagers, but you might see them on other markets too.
For example, a typical odds boost would see the odds of Fnatic taking the crown at League of Legends World Championships boosted from +150 to +170. This means that if the team wins, a $100 bet would pay out $270 at boosted odds, instead of $250.
Need to top up the balance of your account at your favorite esports betting site? Well then you just might qualify for a reload bonus. This gives you more bonus credit in your account based on how much you deposit.
A reload bonus is the exact same type of offer as most deposit match welcome deals. The only difference is that they’re ongoing and are often lower in value as you can grab one anytime you need it. Reload bonuses are typically smaller than the esports welcome bonus you claimed when first joining the site. However, they are available more frequently and can usually be claimed once a week. Esports reload bonuses on the top sites are generally worth 50% of deposits.
It’s worth pointing out that if you’re into crypto esports betting, you can get bigger bonuses just for picking this method.
With odds available for 16 different esports titles, BetWhale is the clear choice for markets. This site only launched in 2023, but has already become an industry leader for its range of markets and excellent live betting options. All it needs now is live streaming and it would be the complete package.
One of the best live betting sites for traditional sports, BetOnline offers the same convenience and variety in its live esports betting area. This means dynamic odds that are updated regularly and a perfectly designed interface. BetOnline also offers high quality live streams of top esports events.
Bovada offers wagering on every major esports betting market, but saves its best odds for Counter-Strike 2. This includes a full slate of outrights, props, and live betting available on every major Counter-Strike event, all year long. And yes, that includes all those smaller events you may not find at other esports sportsbooks.
Esports betting sites are typically classified as being state-licensed or offshore. But what exactly does that mean?
State-licensed betting sites are those that operate in certain states in the USA, which have legalized sports betting and which have been licensed by the state’s online betting regulator.
Offshore esports betting sites are located outside the United States. While these sites are not subject to regulations of specific states, they are licensed by the gaming authority in the country in which they are based. And that means that they have strict rules and regulations to stick to if they want to keep their license.
The major difference between the two is that offshore esports sportsbooks tend to have more competitive odds and bigger bonuses than state-licensed sites. This is because they are not restricted by the state, nor do they have massive state taxes to pay.
Some offshore esports betting sites are also no verification sportsbooks meaning that they require no ID checks to sign up and place your first wagers.
Esports betting is booming and you’ll find that most sports wagering sites now offer odds on major events. But before you go ahead and sign up, remember that no two esports betting sites are quite the same.
Take BetOnline and BetWhale for example. While BetOnline is one of the standout esports betting sites for live betting, BetWhale blows it out of the water for league and tournament coverage. That means picking the one that’s best for you all boils down to what kind of esports bets you plan to make and which esports you want to bet on.
So take the time to have a look at all of the sites listed above and remember, it’s a great idea to open accounts at a few different sites. That way you can easily compare the esports odds to find the best potential return for your bets.
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