E-Sports Betting

You may have noticed that E-Sports betting is on the rise. More and more bookmakers are offering prices for online tournaments and the markets can even be used in matched betting. If you haven’t heard of it, you may be wondering what E-Sports is and how you can bet on it.

What Is E-Sports?

Online video games have been popular since the 1990’s. They allow players from multiple locations to compete against one another over the internet. It wasn’t long before this competitiveness became serious and after the millennium global tournaments began to sprout up, thus E-Sports was born.

During the 2010s, the sport saw a huge increase in popularity. So much so that a study from 2013 revealed that over 70 million worldwide watched E-Sports. By 2015 that figure had risen to over 200 million and the industry generated an estimated £250 million of revenue. There are now four major tournaments; Dota 2, H1Z1, CS:GO and League of Legends which attract spectators on a global scale.

Betting On E-Sports

As a natural progression, the rise in prominence of E-Sports was noticed by online bookmakers. The niche sport was added on some sportsbooks and nowadays markets are popping up on more and more betting sites, with the likes of Goatbet being dedicated to E-Sports betting. Even William Hill, one of the gambling industry’s household names has markets and here you can find odds for all major e-sports competitions.

For the most part, the markets are limited to Match Betting. Like tennis, this is a two-way market allowing you to back one of two selections to win. Betting exchanges are also beginning to cover E-Sports, meaning you can also lay a selection or bet that it won’t win.

This means that E-Sports betting is a viable option when matched betting, where there is enough liquidity available. E-Sports bookmaker prices and exchange prices tend to be more or less in line, presenting opportunities to place qualifying bets for a minimal cost. Similarly, when the terms of a bookmaker offer allow you to use a free bet on E-Sports, you can extract a profit easily enough.

You can learn more about matched betting by taking our ‘14-day trial for just £1. Scroll down to signup and see our current pricing plan for the premium package.