League of Legends is the most popular esport in the world, which also means that it has one of the largest betting scenes. There’s a ton of bookmakers that offer deals for LoL games, but the sheer amount of competitive leagues, professional teams, and betting options can make gambling on League of Legends a bit daunting.
Don’t fret, though, because we’re here to break down the most common betting markets and explain how to make money on them.
Choosing Your Bookmaker
If you want to get into betting, you first have to pick the right bookmaker. There are countless platforms that offer League of Legends betting, so it might be tough to choose the best one straight away. In general, we’d advise you to look at the following things:
- If you’re going to be wagering your hard-earned money, you want to be sure that your bookmaker will pay up when push comes to shove.
- Getting the best odds is instrumental in kick-starting your gambling career. Even the smallest of margins can be the difference between making a profit and finding yourself in the red.
- Bookmakers often offer bonuses to new players, and you’d be wise to take advantage of these.
- Depositing and Withdrawal options. Due to country-specific gambling regulations, not every bookmaker will be available in your country or offer the withdrawal/depositing options that you need. Make sure you research that beforehand.
- Customer support. There’s nothing worse than losing money due to technical issues, so find a bookmaker that will be quick to resolve potential problems.
If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend you take a look at the following platforms: Arcanebet, Betway, EsportsBetting, bet-at-home. Each of these bookmakers has a longstanding successful history as well as unique offers for new users. Of course, we’re not telling you to stick with a single platform, and you should always check odds at different sites to make the most out of your money.
Making the Bet
Now that you’ve picked your bookmaker, let’s get the to the actual betting! There are dozens of betting options in every match of League of Legends, so we’re only going to be covering the most common ones.
League/Tournament Winner
For every major league or an international tournament, you can make a bet on who’s going to take the title. As a rule of thumb, the earlier you make the bet, the better odds you’ll see. Although it’ll be much more difficult to make an accurate prediction with no teams being eliminated yet.
Match Winner
Betting on a match winner is as straightforward as it could get. You look at the teams in any given match, you pick the lineup that you think will win, and if they make it, you get the cash. This is the bread and butter of League of Legends gamblers since every other option depends heavily on the series outcome.
Correct Score
This is a more complicated variant of the previous bet. Since most matches in LoL run in the Bo3 format (the first team to take 2 games wins), not only will you be predicting the series winner but also the exact score he’s going to win with. Naturally, the risk is higher here, so you’re going to see much more attractive odds.
Matchup Handicaps
Handicap betting is pretty much the same as betting on a match winner, except the team that you’re backing will either have a number of wins added to its end game score or subtracted from it.
For example, if you think that Team A has a chance to take down Team B in a Bo3 series but ultimately still is an underdog, you can make a +1.5 Handicap bet on it. This way, your bet will hold even if Team A gets a single game win to its name because the end score of Team A vs Team B will look like 1+1.5 (handicap):2.
In a similar fashion, you can make a -1.5 Handicap bet on Team B, which would mean that Team A can’t get a single win or you lose the bet. Basically, it’s the same as betting on Team B to 2-0 its opponent.
Maps Total Over/Under
Sometimes it might be hard to predict a winner between two evenly matched teams, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make money off that matchup! The maps total over/under bet means that you’re banking on the match lasting a certain amount of games.
So in the case of a Bo3, if you’re betting on the Maps Total being Over 2.5, it means you’ll win your bet if either team scores a 2-1 victory (i.e. match lasted 3 maps in total). And if you bet on the Maps Total being Under 2.5, you’ll need either team to crush its opponent 2-0 to win the bet.
Other Bets
No matter the league, there are always more betting options for you to explore. For example, you can make a wager on a team to be the first one to slay Baron Nashor, draw first blood, score a Pentakill, and so on. Some sites offer special betting options where you can choose which players will deal more damage or get more kills compared to their counterparts. These bets usually involve more attractive odds, although it’s harder to predict their results. Still, with proper preparation and stats analysis, you can definitely make money here.
Live Betting
Another option you have is making your bets live. While not every match will be open for in-play betting, you can find great opportunities here by reading the in-game situation and backing a team that looks like it’s going to make the most out of it.
And if you know that a certain team is a favorite, you can bet on it to make a comeback after starting a series with a loss for much more attractive odds. Just make sure that your stream doesn’t have any delay, or you’ll end up basing your decisions on things that happened several minutes in the past.
What League to Bet on?
Even if you’re familiar with the betting options, there’s still one question remaining: what league should you bet on? We’ve already covered major LoL competitions in our viewing guide, but there’s definitely value in following lesser-known regions. Since fans (and bookmakers) are attracted to the biggest tournaments, other leagues often aren’t as explored or researched by both parties.
This puts you in a prime position to make money off LMS matches or, say, Challenger Series games. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should rush bet on small competitions only. Generally, you should always bet on leagues that you know the most about since your expertise will make it easy to spot opportunities that others would miss.
Conclusion
We hope this guide was helpful to you. Provided you pick the right bookmaker and are selective about your options, there are countless opportunities waiting for you in the world of League of Legends betting. Stay tuned for the next part where we’ll explain how to predict a match winner!