We have taken a look at the best esports betting sites there are and offer a more in depth view of how we evaluate online betting sites on a whole.
We aim to only present you the best esports betting sites. There are ton of traditional bookmakers who offer esports betting, which is why you will find not just pure esports betting sites such as GG.bet or Loot.bet, whose focus is mostly and sometimes even exclusively on esports.
Instead, we also include excellent betting sites such as Bet365, Pinnacle or Unibet, who are considered some of the best online betting sites, which also includes great coverage of esports.
For more details, you are always encouraged to read our reviews of each individual betting site to get a better feel for them.
We don’t claim to simply introduce the best online betting sites to you.
We are here to tell you all about the online betting sites we believe to be the absolute best.
This doesn’t mean you need to believe us, but we do hope that our thoroughly researched advice will be enough help for you that you can check out your favourite esports betting sites yourself and make an educated decision on where to sign up.
Here we will also tell you about our criteria for our reviews and how we rank the sites we have reviewed for you. It should go without saying that this list is by no mean all inclusive or even finished. New esports betting sites pop up all the time, owed to the fact that esports betting is becoming more and more popular. So, we’re here to keep you continuously updated to the best of our ability.
Keep in mind that this is our subjective list of online betting sites that also offer esports betting. Elsewhere, you will find different top lists that are based on different criteria and preferences. This is also not the final word on ranking as there are always new sites for us to review and check out for you, so check back for an updated list at a later time if you are looking for a new place to put in your bets.
Our list of the 6 best esports betting sites, with a one-word review of them:
Esports betting sites can essentially be sorted into two categories:
That means using the same standards for all betting sites is somewhat difficult. There are general aspects we cover regardless of the focus of each esports betting site:
These things are important regardless of the focus of each betting site. The fundamental differences between both types of esports betting sites will become obvious in these areas:
Ultimately, all esports betting sites we review for you are checked for all of these aspects.
But they do weigh differently depending on whether we are looking at a traditional bookmaker or a dedicated esports betting site.
Finally, personal preferences will prevail. We review all esports betting sites as objectively as possible, following the outlined criteria as mentioned above. But even we have preferences when it comes to design or deposit methods or esports that are covered. Other aspects such as competitive odds or number of esports games available and markets on offer are much more clear-cut, of course, which is why they weigh more heavily in our ranking and determining the best esports sites.
So, which are some of the best esports betting sites out there?
GG.BET offers a great range of esports for you to bet on and with a license from the Malta Gaming Authority they are also a very safe option for you to choose. They have competitive odds, provide free live streaming and offer convenient deposit and withdrawal methods for you. Whilst still relatively new to the market, GG.BET has proven reliable and is widely considered one of the best esports betting sites around.
1xBet is much more of a traditional bookmaker that also offers excellent esports betting. They also offer a comprehensive online casino and are a popular one-stop-shop for every form of online betting and gambling out there. They particularly offer a massive range of payment options, even accepting various cryptocurrencies and Steam payments. Whilst they have low minimum deposits, they also place few limits on punters.
Bet365 is another traditional bookmaker that has been around for over two decades and has customers around the world. They are one of the biggest online betting sites in the world, extremely trustworthy and very reliable. They have a strong esports offering besides providing a full gambling portfolio. Even though esports don’t play a big role here, you’ll find a great range of markets and excellent odds for esports here.
Getting the best odds on your bets is one of the main criteria to choose a betting site. We are looking for fair and competitive odds for you, meaning that the margin the bookmaker adds to profit shouldn’t be unreasonable.
What does that mean? As a simple example you get Team A playing against Team B and the bookmaker calculates the odds based on various statistical analysis, which take form, recent wins and strengths as well as weaknesses of each team into account.
In the end, they may arrive at odds that predict a probability of 60% that Team A will win, which means Team B only gets a probability of 40% to win. However, once the odds are determined and we do our calculations, we get a probability of 63% for Team A to win and for Team B we may end up with 42%. All of a sudden, we are at 105% in total, which should not be possible.
Well, that’s the bookmaker’s margin, which is the profit they make.
The added difficulty with esports betting is that virtual games are being played and traditional bookmakers are not quite there yet with how to calculate those. They are simply lacking experience.
This means you will often find vastly different odds at the various bookmakers and esports betting sites, which is very confusing sometimes. But this is a good thing as you are likely to be able to shop for very juicy odds at times on the right events.
Among the sites with the best odds is Pinnacle. Incidentally, they were the first bookmaker to offer esports betting and therefore have the most experience. Whilst a traditional bookmaker, they have a lot of advantages.
Pinnacle has been around since 1996, which makes them one of the oldest bookmakers in existence. They’ve always been ahead in the market, including being the first to offer betting on esports nearly a decade ago. They give punters some of the best odds (not just for esports) and have the lowest margins available. They may not be exclusively focused on esports, but if you are looking for more than that, you’ll find them an excellent choice.
Which sites give you the most games and bets? That’s not an easy question to answer. Generally speaking, however, the dedicated esports sites do have the better coverage. They simply offer more games for you to bet on and most of the time more markets.
Loot.bet primarily focuses on esports, though they also offer some casino games to their range of products. They have more than 20 esports for you to bet on, depending the available matches, you can easily find 22 or more games to be on. And they offer a great range of markets for each of these games.
GG.bet don’t offer quite as many games to bet on as Loot.bet, but they are still an excellent option with a great range of games for you to bet on. Their clear advantage of Loot.bet is the better interface, which is much easier to use and provides more information at a glance.
We’ve given you a few ideas of which esports betting sites are good for what, so it’s time to give you a list of all our betting sites. This list will regularly be updated as we review new esports betting sites and bookmakers for you. If you think a betting site is missing, do let us know and we do our best to check it out for you.
Although most of you probably know how to create accounts online, fund it with money and using it to place esports bets, we thought we would create a simple guide for those of you who might be a bit unsure how to go through it all.
Let’s talk a little bit about opening an account at an esports betting site. The easiest way to do that is to follow the link we provide in each review. Then follow these steps:
Usually, you’ll receive a confirmation email, which will verify your email address and then your account is available for funding.
In order to start betting on your favourite esports, you will need to fund your newly opened account. That’s also quite simple and straightforward:
Depending on your deposit method, the transaction may be a little more involved in some cases, but confirmation in the end is always required and the deposit is almost always instant.
Possible deposit methods are usually:
By the way, skin payments are usually only available at dedicated esports betting sites, not at any of the regular betting sites.
Betting on esports is not unlike betting on traditional sports. Your betting options and markets are different, however.
You can always check the status of your bet on your bet slip. And you usually have the option of adding more than one bet to your bet slip, to place single bets or combination bets.
The main difference are the markets you’ll be able to bet on when betting on esports. You’ll be able to simply choose the match or tournament winner, of course. But there are terms such as map winner, first map, first kill, first turret, over/under bets, first blood, handicap, total rounds and much more than that.
The essentials of placing a bet, no matter which market you bet on, are always the same, though. And that’s as simple as outlined above.
If you are unsure what to bet on, check out some of the esports betting tips generated by our community.
Dozens! Among the most popular games you’ll find are Counter Strike: Global Offense (GS:GO), DOTA 2, Overwatch, League of Legends, Hearthstone, Street Fighter V, Starcraft II, Heroes of the Storm, Call of Duty, FIFA, NBA 2K and a few more.
Playing video games has not been outlawed anywhere as far as we are aware. Esports is a more professional way of engaging in popular video games. And whilst there are some grey areas in countries where esports have not been officially regulated, esports as such are not illegal. Just about anyone can engage in playing esports.
Again, since regulators are somewhat overlooking esports, betting on esports is generally speaking not illegal. We can’t make a blanket declaration for the whole world however, as the situation is changing constantly as regulators keep adapting to the changing environment.
No. Whilst most esports betting sites offer a wide variety of esports, leagues and matches for you to bet on, not all of them cover smaller events or even all esports. You need to check your chosen esports betting site to be certain that the esport you are interested in is well covered there.
Yes, most esports betting sites offer in-play betting on matches and tournaments. You’ll often find more markets opening up as a match unfolds.
A majority of dedicated esports betting sites will also have live streaming from the events available. Often, you’ll get access to live commentary and some livelier sites even have a live chat that allows you to comment as well.
No. Traditional betting sites usually won’t accept skins as payment, and many new betting sites don't offer it either. Most esports betting sites that focus primarily on esports will have skin payment available.
