Esports and gaming entertainment as a whole is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and with the legalisation of sports gambling in the United States, it’s only a matter of time before betting on the biggest esports tournaments around the world becomes fully regulated.
Daily Fantasy esports tournaments are already available to the public in the United States, and soon betting agencies will follow suit and begin to offer markets on esports such as Counter Strike, League of Legends and DOTA2.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be running you through some of the key esports in the gambling scene, how they work and how to bet on them, kicking off this week with arguably the most popular of them all… Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
Guide to Betting on Counter Strike: Global Offensive
More commonly known as CS:GO, Counter Strike: Global offensive is arguably the most popular esport in the world. Unlike some of the battle arena games like League of Legends and DOTA2, CS:GO is relatively easy to understand even for the newest of esports fans.
How CS:GO Works
CS:GO pits two teams of five players against one another in a game mode commonly known as ‘search and destroy’. The attacking team, known as the ‘terrorists’ attempt to win the round in one of two ways.
Plant and execute the bomb at one of two points on the map
Eliminate all enemy players (Counter Terrorists)
It is the job of the counter terrorists to stop the attacking team from achieving one of their two goals. They will usually protect the bomb sites in an attempt to eliminate the Terrorists or at the very least, stop them from planting the bomb within the time limit.
The counter terrorists can win the round in one of three ways.
Eliminate all enemy players
Defuse the planted bomb
Stop the enemy players from planting the bomb within the designated time frame
Each player will only receive one life per round, they will not respawn and cannot be revived by other players. When teams are successful, they will earn money which can be used to purchase better guns, equipment and armour in latter rounds.
The first team to win 16 rounds, wins the ‘map’. Some matches are made up of a single map, but most of the bigger and more important matches will be over a ‘best of 3’ map format.
Betting on CS:GO
Just like any sport, there are many types of different markets you can bet on in a single CS:GO match. If you’re just starting out, we recommend a simple match bet, which is a great way to support a team and get involved in the game. Some of the other types of CS:GO bets that will become available once betting on esports becomes regulated.
Match Bet (betting on the outright winner of the match, whether it be a best of one map or more)
Map Betting (in a best of three match, you can bet on the correct scoreline of the match eg. XXX to win 2-0)
Map Handicap (bet on a certain team to cover the map handicap, generally either -1.5 or +1.5)
Round Handcap (bet on a certain team to cover the round handicap in a specific map eg. a +3.5 round handicap bet means your team has to win at least 13 rounds)
There are many other types of betting in CS:GO, especially when you bring tournament futures into the equation. Betting on a team to win a tournament and supporting them throughout the event is one of the best ways to enjoy it.
There are CS:GO touarnaments every week but the biggest of them all come in the form of two ‘major’ tournaments every year, which have prize-pools over $1,000,000+! To get you excited for your foray into betting on CS:GO, take a look at the ELEAGUE Boston Major from 2018, where professional team Cloud9 became the first North American team in history to win a major in arguably the most exciting map in history.
