New betting opportunities with eSports

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New betting opportunities with eSports

Esports Betting – Info, Games & Esports Betting Tips. New betting opportunities with eSports

A current trend in the betting industry is eSports. More and more betting providers include this category in their offer and offer various betting options accordingly. But the knowledge about it is so low in a large part of the sports weather that many do not yet dare to tackle the topic. That is why we are happy from the betting base to be able to cover this area and to offer our readers information about upcoming tournaments, matches and analyzes in the future.

With this information, we hope to be able to help you choose the right tips, but also to make it easier for prospective customers to find their way into the world of E-sports.

That is why we have written the following article, in which there is a short but sufficiently good insight into e-sports. After going into general aspects of e-sports in the introduction, we will present five important e-sports titles in the second section. Since we are of course also interested in betting, we show which betting providers offer eSports betting.

New betting opportunities with eSports

Esports – a little introduction

E-sports, often written as eSports or without a hyphen, is the name for electronic sports. As in thinking sports, the participants in e-sports do not exercise physically, but perform in a different form. In the case of esports, the ability to successfully play a computer game is paramount. What may seem like an easy task for many readers is really very difficult and hard work. As in other high-performance sports, the power density in eSports is usually very high. If you are out of shape on a match day and only miss a few percent of your potential, you can quickly lose a game.

New betting opportunities with eSports

Different skills are required

The pro-gamers have to be fit in different skills to win games at competition level. On the one hand, many motor skills, especially hand-eye coordination, and on the other hand intellectual skills are required. Depending on the game, the pro gamers also act as a team, so teamwork is of great importance. Most of the skills are trained with special programs rather than with the game itself. However, the individual games also usually have to be played or trained for a few hours a day in order to keep up with the competitions.

You also shouldn’t let yourself go when it comes to your physical condition. As a result, many e-athletes also practice physical sports, some of them even very successfully and with high ambitions.

New betting opportunities with eSports

Potential is far from being exhausted

However, the number of pro gamers who can live with their e-sports is relatively small compared to older sports. German football alone employs more professional athletes who can live with their “hobby” than there are well-paid pro gamers around the world. But e-sports is growing, which is not least due to the inexorably increasing quality of video games. The budgets of the games can keep up with those of Hollywood films more and more, or sometimes even exceed them many times, and story telling is also getting better and more emotional, so it is no wonder that more and more gamers are found – but also more and more Parties who want to participate in the success of the video game industry.

 

E-sport is not yet an officially recognized sport

Politicians don’t quite see it that way and don’t see eSports as a real sport in Europe. But if you recognize chess as a sport, it is only a matter of time before e-sport, which already has very professional structures and in which the prize money is far higher than in chess, is recognized as an official sport. So far, this has only been the case in a few countries, including China and North America. The Chinese are also among the most successful e-athletes, with a large number of pro-gamers also coming from South Korea – the country of origin of eSports.

In South Korea, eSports is almost like soccer in Germany

In South Korea, the pro gamers are celebrated like the soccer stars here. It seems the most normal there in the world when the 40,000-seat Seoul World Cup Stadium fills up easily and fans cheer for their favorite teams in the League of Legends game. Of course, the matches in South Korea will also be broadcast on television and streamed on countless websites. Politicians even have their own esports department and Naver, the search engine in South Korea, has introduced its own tab for e-sports, under which you can find all the important news and links to events.

It is astonishing that despite these aspects and the largest top companies in South Korea as sponsors, e-sports only make up a small part of the industry. This is related to the great pursuit of perfection that many Asian countries have. Training is seen as a top priority in South Korea, school days often go from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and because that’s not enough, there are even holiday schools. There is not much time left to establish yourself in e-sports. Some throw the school for it, but also take a big risk, because the number of participants in the championships is of course limited.

However, if you make it this far or wait until after your apprenticeship, you can get a lot of fame as a pro-gamer in South Korea, be present in all major media and earn an incredible amount of money, especially for South Korean conditions. The prospects for German pro gamers are far from rosy, but that doesn’t stop them from becoming part of the E-sports scene.

Most successful eSportsman in history

In the early days of esports, it was mainly players in South Korea who imported high prize money. In the game Starcraft, top stars secured themselves
like “Flash” and “Jaedong” large sums of money. The latter had already earned over half a million US dollars in 2013. One of the most famous faces of the Esports scene today is the South Korean superstar “Faker”. In the League of Legends game, he is the most successful player of all time and has already won three world titles with his team SKT T1. Although the prize money for LoL is not as high as for other games, the top stars are still among the top earners. Allegedly, “Faker” signed a contract with SKT T1 that earned him over $ 2.5 million a year.

In terms of prize money, the German Dota2 player “Kuroky” is probably the top dog. As one of the best players in the scene, he won that in August 2017
The International 7 tournament, with a prize pool of over $ 24 million. This puts the millionaire ahead of all other professional gamblers when it comes to prize money.

German athletes

There are now several high-earning German players, especially in League of Legends and CS: GO. German organizations such as SK Gaming and Schlake 04 play in the LEC, Mousesports and Big are active in CS: GO. The number of German professionals has increased again in recent years. Players like “Upset” in LoL (Schalke 04) or “tabseN” in CS: GO (Big) are now well-known stars on the scene. At the FIFA World Cup 2018 (FIFA eWorld Cup 2018), the German representatives disappointed. But just recently, 16-year-old German Dylan “DullenMike” Neuhausen won the FUT ChampionsCup (FIFA 2019) major tournament in Bucharest and secured $ 50,000 in prize money. Furthermore, three German players reached the semi-finals. It may finally work out in 2019 with the world title of a German player.

Clans are the associations of eSports

In addition to the national teams, there are of course clubs, so-called clans, in e-sports. Here, many players come together to form an association, whereby not every member necessarily has to be a pro-gamer, but also an ambitious hobby player can play in a weaker discipline. A clan usually has different teams that compete in a wide variety of disciplines (or games). You can compare this with FC Bayern Munich, for example, which is very successful in football and basketball and chess, among other things. There are also other parallels, such as the ownership of a club house, a training room, full-time administrative staff, social engagement and annual budgets in the millions, in professional clans.

What is still despised in football in many places is everyday life in the e-sports scene, namely the existence of work teams. Companies such as computer manufacturer Acer, computer shop Alternate or Korean Samsung have long recognized the advertising potential and are leading successful teams in E-sports.

Well-known clubs are represented in eSports

As was only a few months ago in the media, VfL Wolfsburg signed two pro gamers. You don’t have to guess which discipline they will compete in – of course it’s football in the form of FIFA. VfL has taken a bold step and will now officially participate in tournaments of the ESL (Electronic Sports League) and in the virtual Bundesliga from Electronic Arts (developer and publisher of FIFA). One can assume that this is the future and, at least for the game FIFA, more and more classic football clubs will get into E-sports. Even Hertha did this a few years ago and the wolves will certainly not be the last team of this kind.

The Top 5 Esports Games

Even though FIFA is predestined as a sports game for an important discipline in E-sports, there are far more important games in which there is more audience and, above all, higher prize money. We will now go into five games and briefly introduce them, but point out that this list is not complete and that there are other interesting games and disciplines besides FIFA.

New betting opportunities with eSports

Esports Games – StarCraft 2

StarCraft 2 is a real time strategy game released in 2010 and distributed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the successor to StarCraft from 1998 and is thematically based in science fiction. Real-time strategy means that the actions must be taken by the players in real time, which means that, in contrast to turn-based strategy games, quick action and quick reactions are required. StarCraft 2 can be played in 1 against 1 as well as a match in which two teams compete against each other.

Each player or team chooses one of three different races, each with its own peculiarities. The aim of the game is to defeat the opponent by eliminating their base or combat units. To achieve this, each party first expands its army with different units that are “produced” in different buildings. However, these buildings also have to be built first, which requires raw materials that have to be mined in advance. As soon as the player feels strong enough, you venture into the opponent’s base, which ideally has a suitable answer. These aspects alone require a basic tactical concept, which is even more complex thanks to the different values ​​and attributes of the individual units.

It is no coincidence that StarCraft 2 has a lot of tactical elements. It is considered a fairly complex game, but which is also the attraction. Blizzard has tailored this title, which consists of 3 individual parts, especially for E-sports and has already integrated various leagues internally in the game.

Outside of the in-game league system, StarCraft 2 is played in top-class tournaments that are held specifically for this discipline. The most famous tournaments are the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS), the Global StarCraft 2 League and the OnGameNet StarLeague. All these tournaments are held individually, with the ProLeague there is also a team tournament.

As is common with all games, StarCraft 2 is also played at major events that house different disciplines. Broadly speaking, the events mentioned so far are in principle the individual championships and there are also various Olympics in which several video games are played. StarCraft 2 can still be found, for example, at DreamHack or in the Intel Extreme Masters, which take place in different cities around the world every season.

New betting opportunities with eSports

Esports Games – Dota 2

Dota 2 is the successor to a modification of Warcraft 3. Warcraft 3 is an old real-time strategy game from Blizzard, which was popular today, but still is today. In 2003, a hobby developer programmed a modification called Defense of the Ancients for Warcraft 3. For this mod you still needed the original game Warcraft 3, which changed with the release of Dota 2. The main developer of Defense of the Ancients is now under contract with the game publisher Valve Corporation and is primarily responsible for the development of Dota 2. All essential elements of the first part were also adopted in Dota 2.

In short, like StarCraft 2, it is a real-time strategy game, but one with a completely different game mechanic, which is why a sub-genre was created at the time for the first part of Dota, namely Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA). In a MOBA, buildings and raw materials are not built. In addition, no army is led, only a single hero is controlled. In contrast to games like StarCraft, which mostly play 1 against 1, 2 teams compete against each other in Dota. So a match is played in mode 5 against 5, which ensures a lot of action, frolicking and a lot of team play.

Good team play is the be-all and end-all in Dota 2 to achieve the game goal. The goal is to destroy the other team’s main building. The main buildings of the teams face each other diagonally. In the lower left corner of the map is the base of Team A, in the upper right corner the base of Team B. Both bases are connected with 3 so-called lanes, which you have to walk to get to the opposing base.

A simple walk to the other base is not enough, because on the way the lanes in the opposing half are protected by watchtowers that have to be done. In addition, each team also has computer-controlled units to support combat. The individual heroes become stronger during the game, on the one hand through experience points that are collected and on the other hand through gold, which you get as a basic salary and also as a reward, for example by killing opponents. With the gold you can buy important items from shops distributed on the map and level up with the experience points, so that you get more skills in the course of the game.

Each hero has his own attributes, passive skills, active skills and is assigned a specific role. Since there are currently 110 different heroes, great individuality is required. In addition to teamplay and game-specific skills, it is also important for a team to choose the right combination of heroes. Before a 5 against 5 match, the heroes are chosen alternately, so that one team can always react to the other team and create the constellation that is most convinced that it is superior to the opposing team.

Dota 2 is mainly played in the tournament “The International” in addition to the big events, at which many disciplines can be found. This is the largest Dota 2 competition that has been held annually since 2011. Most recently it took place last August this year, the next big tournament will follow in November in Frankfurt. One of three further announced major tournaments by publisher Valve will take place in the Festhalle for the first time in mid-November. The prize money will be at least $ 3 million and we will report about it.

New betting opportunities with eSports

Esports Games – League of Legends

League of Legends, often abbreviated LoL, is like Dota 2 a MOBA. It is much older than Dota 2 and is distributed by Studio Riot Games. Riot Games has only had one big game with LoL so far, but it is the most played game in the world. Well over 70 million accounts are registered and it is played by around 27 million players every day.

But what makes it so successful and why is it the top dog compared to Dota 2? On the one hand, LoL has an advantage, since it came on the market about 4 years before Dota 2, which was an insane advantage. On the other hand, there are some small differences in play, some of which can be regarded as better, some as worse. As in other areas, there are sometimes fierce discussions between the two fan camps, which is now the better game. We only want to present a few small objective differences here, but not go into depth.

The first difference that immediately catches the eye of the layperson is the graphics. In LoL, the graphics are not quite as mature and a bit worse. In addition, the gameplay in LoL is much faster. This applies on the one hand to movements and fights, but also to character development. In League of Legends, unlike Dota 2, you don’t lose gold when you are killed, and the opponents in Dota 2 can deny you important experience points by giving your own AI supporters the final blow to death. This gives you much slower experience points and gold in Dota 2. There is only one shop in League of Legends where the heroes can put their gold in items.

Overall, LoL is nevertheless the much faster game, where you can also buy playful advantages by buying individual heroes and also equipping them with runes, all of which are already available in Dota 2. However, both titles are basically very similar and are also appreciated by the player community, as well as in e-sports.

That is why there are very highly endowed events and tournaments in LoL. However, the focus is on the league process, which is very pronounced in LoL. In Europe, franchising was introduced at the beginning of 2019 and the new league LEC was introduced, and the teams now have fixed starting places and significantly more money. The biggest LoL event is the World Cup in October. The event broke several records last year. The prize money of € 5.7 million is impressive. Likewise, the high number of viewers in the final between Fnatic and Invictus Gaming, which had an average of 19.6 million viewers per minute and a total of 99.6 million individual viewers. The World Cup will be held in Europe in 2019.

New betting opportunities with eSports

Esports Games – Counter Strike: Global Offensive

Counter Strike is definitely one of the most popular computer games among non-gamers. The game is usually perceived negatively. It is always mentioned when tragic rampages happen, but then completely torn apart in the media. This is usually followed by entire “documentaries” that deal solely with this game, but in more than 90% of the cases several falsehoods, often even brazen and deliberate lies, are spread to generate headlines. Counter Strike is undoubtedly the most violent game among the disciplines mentioned here, which is naturally not for everyone, but you should still leave the church in the village with the description and stick to the facts.

Counter Strike is a series of games that, like Dota 2, came from Valve and originated in 1999. At that time, a group of hobby developers programmed a modification for the popular first-person shooter Half-Life. In this modification, two teams, the terrorists and an anti-terrorist unit, competed against each other and had to achieve their mission goals. The two most common missions for the anti-terrorist unit were to defuse a bomb and rescue hostages. Accordingly, the terrorists had the opposite goal in mind. In order to achieve the mission goals, a team really tried to act as a team and had to keep an eye on the opponents as well as the goals. Even if the goal of the game could be achieved without killing, it was usually necessary. In Counter Strike you had different weapons to choose from, which you could buy with money earned in the current match. If a player on a team was killed, they were not allowed to participate until the start of the next round. So it was possible to completely get the opposing team out of the game, which also won the round.

There is now Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO), which is the third important expansion after Counter Strike: Source. Nothing has changed from the game principle, but everything has become more detailed and realistic. Nevertheless, the title is still rated by the USK with an age rating of 16 years, which shows that the game cannot be as brutal as the press always portrays it. In contrast to Counter Strike: Source and Counter Strike 1.6, CS: GO was very well received in the player scene, so that you no longer play two different versions at the tournaments, but instead agreed on Counter Strike: Global Offensive in a very uniform manner.

CS: GO is mainly played at major events where Valve sponsors its major events. The last tournament of this kind took place at ESL One in Cologne this year and will take place at the DreamHack in Cluj-Napoca in late October. We will probably report on this as well.

 

Esports Games – Overwatch

Overwatch is in! The newcomer from Blizzard is called Overwatch. Games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm are now a thing of the past. At the beginning of 2019, Blizzar stopped the HotS esports department and is now fully committed to Overwatch. Blizzard introduced the Overwatch League early on and wants to use it to promote the Esport of its game.

The game Overwatch has its own niche because it is played like a moba, but also includes first person shooter elements. In 6v6 mode, teams choose their characters. There are a total of 29 different characters, which are divided into three classes, tanks, causers and supporters. Similar to a shooter, there are various game modes such as “Capture the Flag” or “Assault”, which are about conquering and holding objects. In addition, the death match is played, which is about getting a certain number of kills on the opponent.

The variety is retained on different cards. Each player controls his character, who has three abilities and carries out “normal” attacks in addition to these special attacks. These have to be hit by aiming like a first person shooter. That is why Overwatch establishes the connection between first person shooter and MOBA and combines elements of both types in its gameplay.

Best Esports betting tips

After briefly introducing the most important games, we would now like to focus specifically on eSport betting. Since the area is still very young, it is understandable that not every betting provider offers the opportunity to bet on eSports, but the number of bookmakers and betting options is growing steadily and could multiply quickly if it is successful. There are betting providers that only marginally address the topic of e-sports and where you have to search the page to get to the eSports area, and there are bookmakers who take esports very seriously and even specifically for e-sports have created informative landing pages.

The most popular bets found in eSports are so-called moneyline bets. You bet on the specially chosen favorites in a match and get your winnings paid out if they win. The handicap bets loved by many are also represented in eSports and work on the same principle as HC bets in football or ice hockey.

In large tournaments you can often find the opportunity to bet on the overall winner. This is less often offered in competitions that take place regularly (such as a league operation) than at world championships.