If you have never heard the expression esports before then don’t worry – you are far from alone. ESports is still regarded as an up-and-coming sporting discipline in many parts of the world, and yet there are a handful of countries who have fully embraced the new mode too. What is ESports? In simple terms, the expression refers to the act of playing competitive video games. There are a plethora of popular ESports titles, with different countries often having wildly different preferences when it comes to their favorite games.
ESports Hotspots
Where is esports popular? It all depends on the metric used to calculate the popularity of the discipline in each country. Looking at the revenue generated by esports bets over the past three years is one such metric and it provides a fascinating insight into the worldwide popularity of this up-and-coming sporting juggernaut.
Leading the pack is South Korea, which is home to more professional esports teams than any other country…. By a wide margin, too. You may be surprised to learn that China takes the second-place spot, however, the CCP (Chinese Government) has recently implemented new legislation that will restrict their ESports teams from practicing to the extent necessary to become a world-class team. This is a tragedy for Chinese players, many of whom have chosen to leave the country rather than risk their status as top-tier E-Sports participants. Completing the top we have Denmark, the USA, Sweden, Germany, Finland, and Brazil.
What Kind of Bets Can You Place on ESports?
As with any other type of sport, e-sports has dozens of different bets available for those who enjoy taking a little punt whilst they watch their favorite team play.
Outright Bets
Any experienced bettor will be instantly familiar with the concept of an outright bet. You are simply choosing to place a bet on the overall outcome of a game, tournament, or other single easily defined condition. Many games are decided based on the results of several rounds, whilst tournaments can take as much as two weeks (maybe even more!) before the winner is determined. If you haven’t got the patience for that, don’t worry – you can always try one of these instead:
Tournament Winner
This is just a small variation on an outright bet, with the difference that you will likely have far more options when choosing the tournament winner betting type at your favorite online sportsbook. Furthermore, tournament winner bets are often made available weeks in advance of the tournament even starting. The odds offered by bookmakers at this stage will often be higher than those offered after the event has begun.
Match Winner
If you have been watching several teams participating in a tournament all day and notice that one team is doing particularly well, why not place a bet on the outcome of their next match? Of course, the better a team has been doing, and the longer you wait, the worse the price you are going to receive will be. In-play betting is usually available at most of the major bookmakers; however, we would recommend getting a match bet on prior to the game starting to ensure you get the best possible price.
Bracket Winner
If you think about a soccer tournament such as the world cup, the later stages of the tournament use brackets which see groups of four teams play each other twice to determine the winner of their bracket. This same principle is used in eSports too, you can opt to place a bet on who may be the winner of a specific bracket. The more teams there are in a bracket, the better price you are going to receive on your wager – be careful, however, as E-Sports can be much less predictable than real sports such as Soccer, American Football, or Basketball. Teams can and do make dramatic comebacks sometimes, so it is a good idea to watch the entire tournament from start to finish if you intend to make bracket bets later on – this will give you a leg up in terms of knowledge, as many other bettors will not bother to do this much research.
