Is Esports actually a sport? We heard people ask this question many times. The answer is quite simple. Yes! More important, you can bet on them! Read more in our ultimate guide to esports betting below.
The dictionary defines sport as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess. However, Electronic sport is similar to racing. Both sports don’t require a lot of physical activity to practice the sport. Nonetheless, they still count as a sport due to skill. These sports require skills such as reflexes, focus. And not to forget the competitive element.
In the last couple of years, Esports has become insanely popular. Revenue and views have seen tremendous growth. Only the revenue already grew by 38.2% to 906 million dollars in 2019.
The gambling industry also noticed this growth. So bookmakers such as Betwin began offering esports betting. The same concept as sports betting the only difference is videogames. The matches are not between two soccer clubs but between two gaming teams.
Because of the popularity, we created an in-depth guide about Esports. In this definitive guide, we outline relevant topics about electronic sports.
Reading guidelines:
- How does Esports work?
- Best bookmakers for Esports betting
- What is the most popular Esport?
- How to become a pro gamer?
How Does Esports Work?
Like any other sport, Esports requires at least two players or teams who compete against each other. The matches are mostly part of a knockout tournament. Whether a player or team wins the match depends on the game.
Each game has an official set of rules and guidelines. That also means a referee or committee is directing every game. And players get penalized or disqualified once they don’t by these rules.
Esports Betting Tutorial
For people who have experience with sports betting, you can skip this part. Because Esports betting is similar to sports betting. However, there is a small catch. Esports betting is far more unpredictable than traditional sports betting. So, do your own research before betting!
The first step is understanding all the available options. Like sports betting, there are multiple options to increase your total odds.
- Moneylines: Moneyline is the most simple type of betting. Like any other sport, you only choose the team that wins the match regardless of the score or kills.
- Handicap lines: Handicap is a bit more advanced. For example, there is a heavy favourite in a match-up. The odds for that team are probably very low. In this case, you can choose a handicap bet. With the handicap, you predict the team needs to win with an overhead.
- Totals: There is also an option to bet on statistics of the match such as total kills, points or deaths.
- Proposition bets: The last option is proposition bets. These specials bets go about crazy parts of the game or match. For instance, how many kills a certain player gets? Or who gets the first blood?
Best Bookmakers On Esports Betting
By now, you probably noticed electronic sports are awesome. And you are interested in your favourite games. Lucky for you, our team provided a listing of the top 5 bookmakers on Esports betting. As well you can always find our current list of recommended sports books here: Canadian Online Sports Books
Bodog
Sports Interaction
Intertops
BetOnline
CloudBet
What Is The Most Popular Esport?
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The most popular Esport is Fortnite. Fortnite is a third-person shooter developed by Epic Games, a battle royale and has the highest counts of players online at the same time. An astonishing amount of 200 million.
The objective of the game? Players or teams need to defeat each other until they are the last men standing. It sounds pretty simple. However, the competition is killing. No wonder with Fornite providing one of the biggest prize pools in e-sport history. The prize pool consists of a total of $30 million. The solo champion alone takes $3 of this incredible prize pool.
Besides Fortnite, the esport industry organizes more game tournaments with big prize pools. For instance, League of Legends or Dota 2. Two entirely different games than Fortnite. These games are called MOBA’s which stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. On the contrary to Fortnite, players to need to destroy an end-objective to win the game.
How To Become a Pro Gamer?
As has been stated in the previous chapter, the prize pools for e-sport tournaments are pretty immense. Also, the industry experiences rapid growth in popularity and volume. As a result, these prize pools will only get bigger and bigger.
So who doesn’t want to make a living from playing videogames? And get a chunk of the prize pool. A dream that suddenly comes very close to reality. But what does it take to become a professional gamer?
Apart from a good set-up, first pick the desired game. After you choose a game, learn everything about the game by playing, observing, watching and reading. Also, join a community and get in touch with experienced or skilled players.
Besides the day to day practice and motivation, you need to step up your game at a certain moment. Depending on the game, join or assemble a team. And start competing in local tournaments. This way, you can match your skills with other teams or players.
In the end, whether you become a pro gamer or not depends on your skills, motivation and dedication. One thing is sure, don’t expect to become pro by just playing games.