CS:GO Betting

CS:GO, or Counter-Strike Global Operative, is an esports game that comes from one of the most famous first-person shooter game franchises in the world. It is a global esports phenomenon and has sold over 40 million copies since it burst into the market in 2012. Betting on CS:GO is a huge industry with specialized websites and databases generating millions of USD, GBP, and EUR, each year. The CS:GO gambling industry is growing fast, too.

But how does betting on a video game like CS:GO work? Let guide you on how to bet on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches, leagues, and tournaments.

How Does CS:GO Gambling Work

CS:GO has amassed a huge following in the esports world, and with the huge market that it creates, it also garners a lot of cash flow with betting. People who follow the esports leagues have an idea of the outcomes of some games, and the thought of them making a bit of money while doing so sounds like a good deal. There are a lot of different competitions in CS:GO and thus a lot of options in terms of what people can wager on.

Here are a few examples of the types of Counter Strike gambling.

CS:GO Real Money Betting

The first way that people bet on CS:GO is like any other normal way to wager in sports, with real money. This is probably the most popular among the types of betting. This is also popular among all forms of fans and gamers of first-person shooters or just esports in general. There are a lot of sites wherein you can bet real money on esports leagues for a specific team to win, or be in the top 5, or top 3, etc. There are many things to bet on in the game.

CS:GO Item & Skin Betting

Another thing you can wager on CS:GO is the in-game items and skins. This is usually for the people who actually play the game and want their own accounts to become stronger and better in a way. For those who aren't familiar with skins, it enhances the look of your player, so it is mainly a cosmetic feature of the game, although some skins offer an advantage in attributes like speed or agility. Skins can also be applied to improve the look of your guns, gloves, and knives since it is usually the things you see when playing a first-person shooter game. Items that can be wagered are mostly perks and attachments to improve your guns in-game.

CS:GO Social Betting

Social betting refers to the process of how you can bet rather than what is at stake. Although it usually is money, social betting is when you make your choices or bets public. It means it can be viewed by several people. You also can see what the other people are betting on as well. With this type of betting, you are able to see who the crowd favorites are and who they don't think will win. This creates odds that can either play in your favor or against it. The odds also usually determine the multiplier of your winnings if you bet on the favorite or the underdog.

CS:GO Fantasy Betting

Fantasy Betting in CS:GO is similar to the fantasy sports betting in your NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, and other professional sports leagues. You will pick from a pool of professional esports players. You will be given a budget, consider it as a salary cap, and then you will create the best team possible from local or international professional esports players given your budget. Whoever creates the best lineup which has the best performances overall will win the CS:GO, fantasy league.

CS:GO Bet Types

Classic match winner betting has more chances of you making proper choices on your bets because you have statistics, numbers, and player/team tendencies for you to base your decisions on rather than leaving everything up to chance.

Market	Type	Description
Match Winner	Classic	The Match Winner bet type. There are two teams battling it out with different objectives depending on the game type. Your only choice is to bet on who you think would be the winning team between the two. This only covers a single match.
Tournament Winner	Classic	Similar to the Match Winner, this type also makes you choose who the winning team is between two competing teams. The only difference is that this covers the whole tournament and not just a. singular match.
Handicap	Classic	The handicap betting type is one a lot of people are familiar with, especially in Las Vegas. It is betting on favorites and underdogs. Most of the time, if you bet and win on the underdog, you would get more money compared to when you bet on the favorite and win. This is when odds come into play.
Over/Under	Exotic	Over/Under betting is wagering on a specific thing to happen for x number of times in a given period. For CS:GO, for example, how many grenades are used in a match, total knife kills, total headshots, and many more. There is a set number, and you bet on whether it will go over or under the number given.
Most/Least	Exotic	Like Over/Under betting, you bet on a specific statistic, but you also choose which one would achieve that statistic. Like most/least kills, most/least deaths, most/least matches won, etc. You can either bet on teams or specific players.
First Blood	Exotic	This betting type is straightforward. First blood means first kill, so it is basically betting on which team or player would get the first kill in a match/round/or tournament.
Knife Round	Exotic	This is betting on who would win the knife round.
Top Fragger	Exotic	This is betting on the top fragger in the game, meaning those who utilized them more to get kills.

For those who just started betting or want to start betting on esports and CS:GO, exotic-type betting might not be the best choice to start out with. The results of those are very unpredictable, and you have no basis on outcomes.

CS:GO Main Events

CS:GO has numerous events wherein you can wager stuff on whether it's cash, skins, items, or anything else. Each event is different in terms of its popularity, the number of participants, who participates in it, and the prize money to be won by the esports athletes or teams that become victorious.

CS:GO Majors

The started way back in 2013 in Sweden. It is sponsored by Valve, the company that brought Counter-Strike and Half-life into the gaming world. It started with about a $250,000 cash prize which then ballooned into around $2 Million today. When we look at the CS:GO universe, the majors may well be considered as one of the most, if not the most, popular events.

World Electronic Sports Games

The World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) is an event with participants from all over the world, hence the name. It is originally from China and was created by Alisports (Alibaba Sports). It started out with a prize of over $5 and a half million when it took place in 2016. Much like the Olympics, the WESG, the players in a team must come from the same nation, essentially creating a national team for them to compete. In early. 2019, they changed the ruling to allow 2 foreign members in a team. It has over 100,000 viewers, with its average run-time of 45 minutes.

ELEAGUE

Known also as EL, the ELeague is an esports league based in the United States. It is broadcasted through a television show on TBS. EL featured two dozen teams worldwide to compete in CS:GO through the course of a 70-day season each year. It had a pro-league format with a regular season, playoffs, and finals. This league gains its popularity through it being broadcasted on national television. It amasses over 1.3 million viewers, with its run-time being around 120-130 hours.

ESL One

The ESL One league is known to be one of the premier professional CS:GO league in the world. It is also one of the big pro leagues in esports in general. It spans four continents: Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. It comprises 24 teams each season. It started in the first half of 2015 and has grown and continues to grow into one of the most popular leagues today for competitive gaming. This tour in 2021 might not be able to accommodate fans due to the pandemic, which would certainly upset the 180,000 viewers that this league gets.

Katowice

One of the biggest annual esports events features 24 of the best CS:GO teams worldwide. These teams have competed for a little over a year in ESL Pro Tours to earn their shot to compete in this event. This head-to-head battle with other competitors can be the chance for someone to etch their name in the esports history books, all while being able to take home a sum of over a million dollars. It has over 1.2 million viewers at its peak with a massive air-time of over 100 hours.

Dreamhack Events

The DreamHack Open, one of its premier esports tours before DreamHack Masters, was launched in 2012. The Official game featured in this circuit since 2015 has been CS:GO. There have been many changes to the event's format throughout the years. Still, today it is made up of six teams participating through invitations, two qualified teams from Europe and North America, respectively. The half a million viewers that they get over their run time of over 7000 hours surely await this event every season.

CS:GO Betting Advice

Now, you may think that CS:GO betting is all about finding the best esports players based on their winning statistics and banking on them to help you bring home the big bucks, right? That may be the case for a lot of individuals, especially if luck is on their side, but there are also a lot of other ways wherein you can play the odds to be in your favor. Also, just general tips so that you're able to keep your head above water in the deep trenches of what is competitive esports betting.

Bet For Value

Value betting, or EV betting (expected value betting), involves utilizing an equation that calculates the amount of money that you would be able to receive given how much money you would place on a bet. This is detrimental if you wish to extend the longevity of your betting to last for a long time. Even the best bettors have situations wherein they don't win. What they do is take advantage of the odds and play them so that every bet they make potentially favors them.

Winning money is at the top of the list, but the confidence in the bets you place, being able to go on winning streaks for extended periods of time, and always coming out on top at the end of the day is always a better option. Calculating odds on your bets to keep your risks at a minimum is what elevates you from being a novice to a pro when it comes to betting.

Gain Expertise For Specific Betting Patterns

If you can find out the betting habits of the other people who bet on CS:GO, then you can use that information to play in your favor. You can check who they usually vote for, who the favorites are to win, and who the underdogs are as well. With this information, you can utilize the value of your bets as well, like if you want the bigger return for your money, if you win, you will bet on the underdog. You can also see the trends if usually, the underdog wins or the favorite wins, and make your decision from there. The patterns of betting that other people do can give you an idea of how you should place your bets.

Avoid Exotic Bets

Exotic bets are generally bets that are very thrilling but not necessarily based on statistics. It is suggested that if you don't have any extra money to bet, or if you were to have a specific budget on betting, this type of betting should not be on your radar. Since it cannot be based on statistics, previous winners, or even the skill and tendencies of the esports players that compete in the game, this type of betting is left completely to chance, and if that is the case, then the risks you will take won't be kept to a minimum.

Specialize In a CS:GO League

Avoid spreading yourself out too thin. Betting on anything and everything in the vast amount of betting types available on CS:GO is definitely a recipe for disaster. Keep it specific at first. There are multiple leagues, multiple tours, and multiple matches to choose from. The best way to minimize your risk is to choose a specific league, a specific type of bet, and a specific pool of players to range your bets in. It makes it easier to follow and easier to get statistics from them. You can also know insider news that may affect the outcome of certain matches, like tension within teams, new trades, and new acquisitions.

Find Correlations Between Teams & Maps

When following a specific league or even a specific team or player in CS:GO, you might be able to predict their performances in specific events. Some players and teams perform better in specific maps like de dust2 or assault. They also have different event specialties like team deathmatches, arms race, and demolition. With this information on their tendencies, you might be able to play the odds a little bit further and make decisions on your bets based on statistics and information from you following the specific team, player, or league.

Study Each Team's Form

Studying the forms of the team/s that you're betting on can range from their composition all the way to their recent performances. You should look at the members of the team. Do they have newly acquired players? How is their team chemistry? Do they have problems with teamwork? And other questions as well, like how did they perform in their last stint? Do they struggle with specific game modes? Specific maps? All this studying will make you confident in the bets that you would place for a specific team because you know that you did your homework.

LAN vs Online CS:GO

Studying the team's form would also bring out the question of if they would perform better on LAN or online. There are plenty of things to think about with these two game modes as well. There is still a chance that online gaming would lag or have some technical difficulty while gaming. Although some online competitions would have the players play in their own set-up in the comfort of their own homes, unlike LAN wherein everything is set up, and they have no say in the equipment used like keyboards, mouses, headsets, and screens.

Never Go All-In

Minimizing risk also means minimizing the amount of your bet. Never bet the whole of your bank account in a single bet even if you're absolutely sure that you would win. There is always a chance that the outcome would not play in your favor even if there is only a 1% chance that it may happen, it still may happen, and if it does, and your entire bank account is lost, then that spells trouble in your betting moving forward.

Don't Place All Your Bankroll With a Single Bookmaker

There are a lot of things a bookmaker can do. They can lock your account, reinstate your account, or simply just take off and disappear with the money. This is why you also shouldn't place all your money with one bookmaker. Similar to not placing all your money on one bet.

Play CS:GO Yourself

Probably the best way to be able to bet wisely is if you play the game yourself. You would have a first-hand experience of the difficulties of the game, the fundamentals on how to work with people to win, the specific game modes, and the terms and slang that other people who play the game use as well. You can also test out some strategies yourself, thus making you know if specific tactics would work against other teams and particular game modes.

Learn From Online CS:GO Communities and Tipsters

Our last tip is to listen to the community. If you just started out betting in CS:GO, you can learn a lot from the people who have been part of the community for a while and are willing to share their experiences and their own tips. This allows you to skip the stage wherein you make rookie mistakes by listening to the people who already made them.

CS:GO Betting - FAQ

Answers to the most common questions about betting on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Some may think that CS:GO betting is just betting on the top players and you get to win when the team you bet on wins. However, you should always think about the different factors that can change your leads. Be mindful and follow the best advice.