People have been betting on sports for a long time, illegal or not, betting in office pools and with friends who gathered around in living rooms to watch the sport. Gambling on sports was illegal until May 2018. Now, with the emergence of the internet, esports exploded in the world. What came next was normal to human behaviour. Large esports organizations began to partner with gambling organizations and wanted legalization globally.
Esports Organizations Partner with Gambling Organizations
Nevada started by legalizing esports gambling in June 2017 comparing esports to professional sports and dog racing. Nevada gambling became involved with the games. Soon New Jersey joined them for leadership and a leading role in the United State and even globally. With the internet that is possible as never before. ESL and Stackster partnered with Puntt.gg in New Jersey and the battle was on for legalization in the United States. It went to the Supreme Court and the decision brought gambling on sports full circle. Gambling is with us, has always been with us, and gambling on esports, a game where there are a personal goal and interest, was here to stay.
Beginning of Pro-Players
Korea was one nation that allowed the gaming world and sports entities to thrive, but the game did go global quickly. Players had become professional, backed by organizations. The Korean investigators went global to see what those players were making off the game and found the average pro-player with Starcraft Series made an average of $38,241. Ten players made more than $85,241 and one player made over $100,000 including bonuses. Those figures were expected to rise. The report considered 40 pro-players from Starcraft and League of Legends with the most money made by Starcraft players.
We now had old fashioned bookies banding into large organizations. Those organizations needed policing and rules to keep legal. New Jersey gave those out. New Jersey legalized the betting in time for The World Cup of 2018 which reached 400,000 internet viewers, the internet being the main venue, and for a time, the only deliverer of esports. Esports was considered non-competitive.
Rules of the Game
Now the New Jersey Department of Gaming handed operational rules to Puntt.gg outlawing betting on insider information, match-fixing and cheating. Every tournament must be registered and approved by the New Jersey Gaming Department beforehand.
Bets were placed on the outcomes of tournaments, the games milestones, odds and evens, the outcome of some experts, such as how many kills they had. Players can bet Dota2, a pool of betting system of fan against fan as in those friendship bets. Bets can be placed on any aspect of the games that the fans and players can think up.
Strategies and Gambling Statistics
The internet, being global, can keep track of games, featured players, bets and anything else important to esports. They can then calculate more clearly than ever, odds for each aspect each time making the bookmaking odds for winning well. Just like any gambling, betting with large organizations will not let anyone win too much too often.
The Internet and Television
At first, esport was just a game and was played at home. Becoming larger, tournaments and more popular esports began to be played on the internet. The word esports was entered in the dictionary. The capital S and E were dropped for small letters. The initial word was spelled E-Sports. The hyphen was dropped now that the word was so popular in the public.
At the same time, television began to be interested and telecasters began to see opportunities. Could they make a living at this esports thing? Disney became interested and bought into the field. One station was dedicated to televising tournaments. And, yes, telecasters began to find a place.
League of Legends reported that 22 million games are played daily. One event in 2014 streamed more than 160,000.
Top Games
• Counter-Strike
• Global Offensive
• Dota 2
• League of Legends
• Overwatch
• PUBG
Betting Odds
There are three types of betting systems, the decimal, the fractional and the American. The decimal is used on most American tournaments or the odds are shown as decimals only. There are many sites now that inform players and fans about the coming tournaments. Knowledge is still the best betting tool. That, and each player’s need to beat the organized betting systems that know the odds better than anyone. The information needed is out there, is available but takes more time and energy than most of us have.
The Decimal system states all betting odds in decimals such as 4.1. You multiply your bet times the decimal point. For example, you bet $10 and win. You would have 4.1 X $10=$41deduct from this your $10 bet and you have winnings of $31.
The fractional system states all betting odds infractions such as 4/1. You place a $10 bet. You will multiply $10 X 4 plus your bet of $10 and you have $50 and a profit of $40.
The American system is an unusual system that usually requires an explanation. A (-) sign before the favoured team followed by a number, is the amount to be bet to make a profit of $100.
A (+) sign before the underdog followed by a number is the amount you must bet to have a profit of $100.
If you bet on the favoured team it would look like this: (+)$770, you would bet $770 plus the $100. You would be paid the $870 for a $100 profit.
If you bet on the underdog, it would look like this: (-) $770, you would bet $100 and the odds were $770 you would win $770 plus your $100. Your payout would be $870 and your wining would be $770.
Moneyline is an esport jargon term for the favoured team for a tournament series listed with its odds. For instance the money line for Sportscraft (1.5) vs League of legends (.1). If you bet$10 on Sportscraft and they win and you will win $5.
Match over and under is more complicated yet, unless you love the betting. This allows the player to bet on multiple series. Each will have it’s odd that looks like this: -1.5, -2.5,+2.5,+1.5.
We would have Sportscraft ([email protected] odds) vs League of Legends best of 5 series. The series starts at -1.5 with League of Legends 0. In the end, Sportcraft wins 2 maps and League of Legends won 1 map. Sportscraft would win,5 and League of Legend would win 1. League of Legends would win overall because of the -1.5 beginning.
Individual maps bets are available on series. These are very difficult bets and easy on which to lose. If you have some knowledge about the player and have kept former plays and scores, you have a leg up and this betting with the rather favourable odds may be good for you.
Again, if you’ve kept records of past scores and players, map betting on series might be very profitable. Though, generally, these bets are more difficult to project.
Variety bets are bets for individual things, like ‘most kills’ or ‘most deaths.