Where to bet on esports?

19.04.2021

Let's talk about choosing a bookmaker for eSports betting. In recent years, this direction has been actively developing and now all self-respecting offices have added an e-sports section to the line. Another thing is that it is far from always well developed.

What should be in an e-sports bookmaker?

First of all, you need a wide selection of eSports disciplines. Betting on the most popular games - CS: GO, Dota 2 and League of legends - can be found almost everywhere. But only a few bookmakers offer a wider line in which there are bets on less popular disciplines - Starcraft, Valorant, Rainbow 6, King of glory, Call of duty, Overwatch, Hearthstone, PUBG, Fortnite. Good e-sports offices offer at least 10 disciplines. 

The depth of events is equally important. Some bookmakers sin by adding a huge number of esports events to the line, but the list in most of them is limited to a dozen bet options. Or even completely only bare outcomes. Esports bookmakers compete with each other in the depth of the list and the exclusivity of the offers. The choice of bets on the events of major tournaments reaches 250-300 outcomes, where, in addition to standard outcomes, you can bet on:

  • Handicaps and totals by frags; 
  • Handicaps and totals by rounds; 
  • Winner of pistol rounds in CS GO; 
  • Exact scores by cards; 
  • Individual total; {{1 }} Roshan murders in Dota; 
  • Destruction of a tower or a barrack in Dota and LOL; 
  • Aces or killing with a knife in CS GO; 
  • Bet on a way to win; 
  • Separate list on each card.

The third most important point is the coefficients. ESports is still a smallmarket and there is a fairly high margin here. The average level of e-sports margin among Russian bookmakers is 7-8%, the best bookmakers offer a commission of 5-6% at leading competitions. But experienced players know that the difference between 5% and 7% is quite impressive at a distance. 

Of the other opportunities that the office can provide, one can single out the presence of good quality video streams for most skating rinks, the ability to bet on e-sports with things and skins from steam, the presence of a section of e-sports statistics, outrights - long-term bets on tournaments.

The best bookmakers for esports betting

There is only one e-sports bookmaker in the Russian legal segment, which is head and shoulders above all its competitors. This is the bookmaker GGBet.ru. They have the broadest range of disciplines, including exotics such as wagering on Smite, Halo and Battlegrounds. 

They also have the best betting options for big tournaments, with up to 300 selections per rink. Less popular disciplines and competitions are not so powerful, but they are. Also worth noting are sports cyber disciplines: FIFA, NHL, NBA2K matches and others. GGBet has the smallest margin in the industry - from 5% on the main line of TOP events. 

Also in GGBet there is an excellent statistics and results section, outright bets, great esports live. Almost all matches are accompanied by a twitch stream. The only thing they do not have from what we talked about is the ability to place bets with in-game items, but such bets are basically prohibited in Russia. 

In addition to GGBet, there are bookmakers in Russia with good esports sections , but they are all somewhat inferior to the industry leader.


  • Pin-Up/Betboom


These bookmakers are made on the same template, so they have the same line. And eSports is equally good at it. In terms of the choice of events and the list of top tournaments, they are practically not inferior to GGBet, but the margin here is decently higher: 8-9%.


  • 888.ru


The "eights" have a very decent selection of eSports disciplines and a very good list with exclusive betting options on Dota 2 and LOL tournaments. But the margin also starts from 7% at the largest tournaments, and in the additional list it can go up to 10%.


  • Baltbet


This office offers an excellent selection of bets with up to 200 outcomes per rink, but the selection of events is much poorer. 90% of events take place in three disciplines - CS: GO, Dota 2 and League of legends. The margin is fairly stable at around 7% across all markets. There is a convenient section for esports statistics. 

The esports sections "1X bet", "Winline", "Zenitbet", "Parimatch" are worth mentioning, but in general, they are weaker than the above. In the rest of the legal Russian offices, the bets on e-sports are rather sad.

And what about offshore?

Bet365 and Pinnacle have a good choice of e-sports from reliable international betting companies. The latter also have the lowest margins in the world of 2% and the highest and most stable limits. Not so long ago, the e-sports betting exchanges "BetsCSGO" and "BetsDota2" appeared, where you can bet against the same users using your own odds. 

Experienced gamers who have accumulated a lot of unnecessary gear on their account steam, may be of interest to bookmakers who accept betting on e-sports things. Among the large, proven projects are Lootbet, Betscsgo.cc, bets4.fun, bets4.pro and CSGOFast. They charge a decent commission for things, but if there are a lot of them, it can be profitable.