Let’s be clear: if you are interested in eSports, the following tips may not help you, as they seem to make sense.
Bankroll management in eSports betting
As we explain at length in our article on the top 10 ways to maximise your sports betting winnings, the foundation of any successful medium/long term sports bettor will always be strict management of their sports betting finances. You should never bet more than 4 or 5% of your gaming bankroll on eSports, and this figure should be even lower (2%) if you are a beginner bettor in eSports, which is the case for most players .
Let’s take a concrete example, the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, one of the biggest CS:GO tournaments held before the Covid-19 crisis. The eventual winners (Astralis, for $500,000 in prize money!) were rated at 4 to 1 before the tournament started, as the eventual winners of the competition. If, after analysis, you thought this bet had value, you could not bet more than $50 if you had $1,000 for your sports bets (5%). And even less (2%) if you are a beginner in eSports betting. If you win on a bet, never be disappointed that you didn’t bet more: be proud that you bet responsibly.
Only bet on video games that you know a little bit about personally
This may sound logical but… if you want to bet on eSports, it is important to treat each video game as a sport in its own right! You’ll agree with us: it’s hard to specialise in betting on football, basketball and tennis. The same goes for Counter-Strike Global Offensive, Dota 2 and League of Legends. In short, you should definitely:
Try to specialise in one or two eSports disciplines, at most.
Focus on video games that you are active in yourself, at an amateur level. It’s always more fun to bet on a sport / eSport that you personally enjoy
Find out more about eSport statistics sites before you bet
Especially via a site like Liquipedia, but also through the web pages of specific eSports tournaments, it is quite possible to find out the statistics, history and current forms of the different teams/players of the most popular and/or less recognized video games in eSports, like Brood War, Rainbow Six or Heroes. Don’t miss out!
Note that this advice is especially true at the individual level: with a career that often ends very young (at 27 / 28 years old, you are an “old man” in most eSport games…), with many roster changes and a psychological / stress side that is often difficult to manage, you should never bet without finding out about the individual forms of the players. This is all the more the case as unlike betting on American football (among other examples), the misfit of a single player can clearly destroy the chances of victory of one or the other Esport team.
