Sports betting, as you know, is widely popular, and people want to gamble on their favorite teams or go try to guess the final result and bet on it. It’s particularly gambling, but you don’t play the classic games like poker, slots, or blackjack. The bettors go to bookies and check on the daily quotes. According to their personal strategy, or beliefs, they choose a few games to put on a ticket, and after that, they only need to wait and see how things would go.
Even though it’s a simple way of “spending all your money”, some bettors can really win bigger prizes.
Esports is also becoming a huge part of the betting market, knowing that it’s also considered a regular sports activity, and there are huge tournaments and championships organized for gamers.
So, the gambling market inside and outside sports is much bigger than many realize.
The market can be segmented by product and then by currency. Let’s start by talking about the currencies that support sports betting.
Esports Betting: Popular Currency
For esports players, currency comes down to a choice between cash and skins (virtual video game items).
On the other hand, esports gamblers surely prefer to use cash for this purpose. The way they bet is the same as for every other sport. They choose their favorite team and follow their performance over time. When a championship happens, they need to follow what all the teams or individuals do, so they can decide on their bet.
Let’s see how these currencies work in both ways:
Daily Fantasy Esports
Cash needs little explanation. The sports cash gambling market works the same way as the cash market in traditional online betting, such as sports betting, and online casino games that can be found on stsbet.com
Skin Betting for eSports
The skin needs more explanation. Skins are virtual items that can be used in games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO). The term “skin” derives from the typical function of these virtual items: changing the appearance of a player’s avatar, weapon, or equipment in a game.
While many games use some kind of skinning system, CS: GO skins are the dominant currency in the skin betting market, accounting for over 80% of all betting activity.
Note that the skin does not enhance the function or strength of the knife. Skins only change the appearance of the blade. The skin plays a purely cosmetic role.
CS: GO skins can be easily transferred between players (not all games). This situation allows skins to act as quasi-currency – similar to casino chips. Given the ability to move skins between players, putting gambling sites on this feature was relatively easy.
Here’s how it works:
- Players “deposit” skins to skin betting sites by transferring them to skin betting sites (popular sites include sportsbooks, lotteries, roulette, and coin tosses).
- They play with their deposited skins (or some kind of internal currency that players receive in exchange for their skins).
- If they win, they will be paid for different skins, which they “pay” for by asking skin betting sites to transfer the skins back to the player.
Once a player has a skin on their Steam account, they can:
- Leave the skin in their inventory.
- Use skins to change the appearance of their weapons.
- Trade skins with other players.
- Sell skins on the Steam Marketplace to earn Steam Credits (not cash) that you can use to buy other skins and games through Steam.
- Exchange skins for cash on third-party sites other than Steam.
Skin gambling is currently more popular than cash gambling, but CS: GO publisher Valve’s crackdown on skin gambling activity could fundamentally destroy the viability of skin gambling sites.
Esports Betting: Top Games
In the gambling market, a few basic esports betting dominate.
Sports betting
Sports betting is the most popular product among esports enthusiasts. Esports betting is much the same as traditional sports betting, with the caveat that esports betting offerings are far less developed than traditional sports betting offerings.
When betting on eSports matches, players can choose between cash or skin sites.
When it comes to popular games, League of Legends leads the way for real money betting, but CS: GO betting is a close second.
Fantasy sports
Even though sports betting on esports competitions are significantly smaller than sports betting, there is still a need for fantasy esports.
Most sites serving this field offer cash betting. Big Gamers are what you’d expect considering everyday fantasy sports; look for fantasy esports at DraftKings.
The Basics of Daily Fantasy Esports
The Fantasy eSports website offers a variation of the “salary cap” model. Users select a list of players for their fantasy team under the salary cap restrictions set by the website. After choosing a team, e-sports players will earn fantasy points for users based on their performance in the game. The user who completes the race with the most fantasy points will be rewarded with cash.
The types of competitions offered by fantasy esports often mirror those of traditional fantasy sports:
- Guaranteed Contest (Best entry will receive a portion of the guaranteed prize pool)
- head to head match
- winner-takes-all game
- 50-50 games (half-time pay games)
- Double or triple play where players win 2x or 3x buy-in
- Other competition qualifications
- “League” (any game not guaranteed but not a two-player match)
Competitions for various popular competitive video games are offered on three websites:
- League of Legends
- Dota 2
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO)
- Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- Call of Duty
- Smite
Jackpot games
Jackpot games are lottery-style games where players take small risks on a big payday.
Currently, jackpot games are only available on skin betting sites. Still, it makes sense that cash betting sites would start offering equivalent products to lure skin players – especially if Valve’s actions succeed in hampering the skin betting market.
As you can see in the chart below, jackpot games are the second most prevalent skin betting event after sports betting (note that pre-strike estimates are from Valve).
Casino-style games
A handful of casino-style games, including roulette, blackjack, and sweepstakes, make up the bulk of esports fans’ remaining gambling interest.
Again, these games (at least in an esports-dominated framework) are only available on skin betting sites. The market for these (and all) skin betting products is changing in Valve’s decision to outlaw the event.
Esports betting tips and tricks
The things here are simple as for any other sport you may want to bet on.
You always need to start small at the beginning, so you can see how things would go after that.
We also recommend safe playing, even though it sounds really boring for experienced gamblers. But, esports is something new, and you can be sure the things aren’t really the same as for other sports, even though it seems quite similar. Check on the percentages, so you can estimate your chances, and determine alone how much money you will need to spend on this.
As for regular sports betting, we suggest you do your homework and research the team and game background, so you can easily come up with a proper strategy. Every game requires different skills and knowledge, and the bettors can go deeper into the problem by monitoring the gamers, and even watching some streams. That will help you get an important insight, that will help you learn how to bet on esports.
Managing your bankroll is also important, but we are sure you already know this one, especially if you are an experienced sports bettor. Having control of your expenses is probably more important than understanding the odds.
Surely, you don’t need to follow any pre-written strategy. It’s always a better idea to come up with something that works for you, and not for the others.
Conclusion
As you can see, things are really similar, but there are still some tricky moments you have to be aware of. We suggest you be focused on what you want to accomplish, and dedicate yourself to getting to know esports better. After that, things will much easier for you, and you can come up with a great strategy to win all the time.
