With T15 In The Books, What’s The Next Big Thing For eSports Betting?
Published: Aug 9, 2015 - Last Updated: Sep 26, 2022
The big news in eSports this week was that the Evil Geniuses team picked up the top prize in the Defence of the Ancients 2 (DOTA2) Valve-organised tournament The International.
The North American-based team, one of the strongest and oldest eSports teams, took home a purse of over $6.6 million for winning the 2015 competition in Seattle, beating 15 other teams to the top prize.
Of course, that does mean that The International tournament, which has been a rich source of eSports betting the past few weeks, has now completed but the good news is that there is still plenty of DOTA2 action to enjoy across a number of different league events still in progress.
We’ve also expanded our range of bookies this week to include Betway, one of the premier sites for eSports betting in the UK, which we hope will give eSports fans a real chance to enjoy some high quality betting with this site over the coming weeks and months. There’s even a special promotion you can take advantage of when you join, which is a real rarity on betting sites.
One final thing – remember that most companies still only put up odds on eSports events just a day or two before the event is taking place, so it is always well worth checking the eSports section of the sites listed below regularly throughout the week incase any further markets are now being made available to bet on.
Here’s what eSports fans have to look forward to this week.
Unikrn
League of Legends is the primary focus for Unikrn and indeed almost all other eSports book providers this week with a number of summer events scheduled to be run over the next week or so.
On Tuesday the EULCS Challenge Series is in its final stages with a third place match up between huge favourites Games 2.0 and the massive outsiders Denial Sports EU.
The 12th August sees the NALCS Challenge Series reach its exciting climax with hot favourites Team Coast taking on Renegades and on the same day the LCK Champions Summer Series is set to continue when Week 13 kicks off with Najin E-Mfire taking on SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy facing off against CJ Entus.
There are other match ups in the LCK Champions Summer Series and the LCS Summer Series Semi Finals in both Europe and North America later on in the week too, with the weekend clashes between Origen and H2K Gaming in Europe and Team Impulse and Counter Logic Gaming in North America, arguably the highlights of the week.
10 Bet
Unsurprisingly, LoL takes centre stage at 10 Bet too, with the company offering odds on a number of key match ups throughout the week including many of the important match ups from the big LoL tournaments currently running including games from the EU LCS and NA LCA Summer Playoffs.
From the 10th August, 10 Bet is also offering a number of Money Line betting and Spread Betting options on match ups in the StarCraft2 Proleague event. Big match ups in this event include Jin Air Green Wings taking on SBENU and what looks like to be an evenly contested match between Dream and Zest on 11th August.
Ladbrokes
At the time of writing, Ladbrokes don’t actually have any scheduled eSports events in place for beyond Sunday 9th August, however given that the company offers betting on many different League of Legends tournaments, not to mention other eSports, it may be prudent to check first thing Monday morning or throughout the week to see if the company has added any extra markets to its eSports offering this week.
Pinnacle
Pinnacle are offering their usual high number of selections on eSports market with League of Legends and StarCraft 2 bets the primary options available this week.
For StarCraft2 fans, you can bet on a trio of events including the Gfinity League as it reaches its climax in the UK on Monday, as well as the Intel Extreme Masters and the ever-popular SK Telecom Proleague which sees a busy schedule of matches throughout Monday and Tuesday this week.
There’s also a couple of markets available for League of Legends too later this week, with Championship Series match betting available from Thursday onwards.
Bet365 Sports
On Bet365 its StarCraft 2 which takes centre stage this week with two big events, the SK Telecom Proleague and the UK-based GFinity Masters events offering Bet365 punters two different methods of betting on this popular eSport.
Monday 10th August sees a whole host of match ups in the SK Telecom Proleague, with nine games taking place at 10:45 GMT, plus there will be other games scheduled to take place in this popular and long-running league later on in the week.
The StarCraft2 Gfinity Masters has its semi finals (between First and TRUE and Snute and DeParture) taking place on Sunday. And once the results of this are known, you’ll be able to bet on which of the two finalists will take the $5,000 first prize in Monday’s final.
Bet365 are also offering a number of odds on League of Legends events including the Championship Series, which reaches its finale this week.
Remember to check back throughout the week to see the latest betting available on eSports with Bet365.
William Hill
StarCraft2 is the big eSport available this week on William Hill with match betting available in the SK Telecom Proleague.
There’s some intriguing match ups here between the likes of Curous v Rogue, Bravo v Skyhigh and a big clash on Monday between Samsung Galaxy and CJ Entus, with the latter the 2/5 favourites.
Throughout the week, William Hill will update its eSports service to include other bets from other eSports events as and when they are available including Counter Strike: GO matches that may not be easy to find on other sites, as well as League of Legends matches from Thursday onwards.
Betway
Our newest addition to the list of bookmakers offering eSports betting has arguably the widest selection of weekly bets available out of all bookmakers.
In addition to the betting on games like StarCraft2 and League of Legends that we have stated are available on other sites, Betway is also offering a number of eSports betting options this week on several Counter Strike:GO competitions including the CPL, ESL, Uprise and Champions League events.
The company also offers a number of Enhanced Multiple bets, which allows you to place an acca bet at greater odds than you would ordinarily receive for backing the selections individually on your own slip.
You can even also bet on whether you think some eSports could be part of the Winter Olympics by the year 2030 (though you may have to wait a while for the outcome of that bet!).
With a large number of eSports available and a wide range of bets, not to mention the only eSport promotion we could find on any sports betting site, Betway is well worth a closer look throughout the week for your eSports betting needs.
Since: August 10, 2015
