E-Sports is an exciting and fast growing spectator sport, it is also great fun to place a bet on.
Whether you are an e-sport enthusiast that just wants to add an extra bit of spice to the e-sports matches you are watching, or a seasoned gambler looking for new markets to exploit, e-sports has something for you.
But with e-sports being so new in the market, despite its fast growth, it may not be obvious straight away which good online bookmakers are currently taking e-sports bets.
Also, even those that are, not all offer the best range of e-sports to bet on, the most interesting bets, or the best odds and bonuses.
At esportsbettingpro.com we’ve gone through all of the bookmakers currently offering e-sports to find you those that are both trustworthy and are offering the best service to customers.
Our top 3 bookmakers are:
Each of these bookmakers offer a great service to their customers, but they each have their own benefits and drawbacks.
All bookmakers try to differentiate themselves by offering a slightly different service, only you can decide which of these factors are most important to you.
But don’t worry, you’ll have a little help from us as we look at the pros and cons of each.
E-Sports Offering
This is obviously a big factor for most esports gamblers.
What e-sport games are being offered by the bookmaker, what tournaments, and what types of bets do they offer?
This recently has had a big change, where at the end of 2015 you would likely see only the very largest games offered for eSports betting e.g. LoL, DotA 2, CS:GO and Starcraft 2.
However we are now seeing a number of other e-sports being offered, such as Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, World of Tanks and Smite.
We’ve also seen a greater variety of betting options offered for these games.
At first you would have just seen match winner and tournament winner odds available, but now it’s common to see handicap bets, first kill, first to 10 kills, and map winner betting options.
This gives you a fantastic range of betting options, adding a little spice of variety to your gambling, and it’s growing more and more constantly.
Of our bookmakers, Betway currently are offering the best range of games, tournaments and betting options.
Worth checking out and you get a double your money bonus straight away.
Bonus Offers
Most bookmakers offer a signing up bonus to new customers to help entice you to their company.
Taking advantage of these can be a great way of increasing your betting pot without spending additional funds from your own bank account.
Most of these offers require you to make a deposit first and to then place a bet, however assuming you are planning to do so anyway, this isn’t that much of a drawback.
It’s important to look at the terms and conditions of the bonus offer to make sure you don’t miss out on your bonus by failing to meet a criteria, or worse, to feel like you’ve been tricked.
These usually include that the bet you make must be of a minimum level of odds, and that you must bet your bonus funds a certain number of times before withdrawing (usually at least once).
Of our bookmakers, Betfair have the best new customer bonus, and certainly one of the very best around of all sportsbooks.
They will give you 3 £10 bonus bets once you have made your first £10 bet.
Betway offer a good bonus though, where they will give you a bonus bet equivalent to the amount you first deposit, up to a maximum of £30. They also have a number of additional benefits with their loyalty scheme.
Pinnacle Sports take a slightly different tact to betting bonuses, in that they don’t offer any. However they use this to help them offer the very best odds around instead.
Obviously you can take advantage of both Betfair and Betway’s offers to help give you two bonus deals and that can help you decide which of the bookmakers you prefer.
Though we’d start with Betfair if you need to stretch your cash.
Long Odds
Who are offering the very best odds to make your e-sports bet? An important question if you are a serious gambler looking for the very best value.
Placing a £10 bet at odds of 2.7, compared to odds offering by another bookmaker of 2.95 for the exact same bet, could lead to an extra £2.50 in your returns.
Might not sound like a lot, but why place a bet to win less, rather than more?
It’s true to say that one bookmaker may offer the best odds on one bet, while a different bookmaker may offer the best odds on another.
That’s why serious gamblers will sign on to a few bookmakers to ensure they can place their bet with whoever is offering the best odds at the time.
Personally, it only takes a couple of minutes to signup to our top 3 sportsbooks, and you don’t have to commit to a deposit till you are ready to bet.
It simply allows you to gamble more effectively and take advantage of the best odds; all of our bookmakers do offer excellent odds, but can vary a little between tournaments.
If you’re looking for the very best though, and just want to stick with the same company throughout, Pinnacle have an excellent reputation for the odds they offer.
If you’re a UK gambler though and can’t use Pinnacle, Betfair have an extremely strong reputation themselves for the odds they offer.
Reputation and Service
You are trusting your bookmaker to treat you fairly, and keep your fund secure.
It’s why we write in-depth esports betting sportsbooks reviews which we’ve researched in-depth to give you the best information.
While some bookmakers seem to offer great bonuses and odds for customers, they may not turn out to be as good as expected once you’ve joined.
You want to make sure you bookmaker is secure, honest, and has great customer service.
All three bookmakers we offer have great reputations – otherwise they wouldn’t be in eSportsBettingElite.com.
They offer a wide variety of deposit & withdrawal methods, so you feel secure in managing your funds, have easy to access customer service using a variety of methods, and are well established bookmakers with a long history of operating fairly.
This makes all three of these great options for you to use as a bookmaker.
What Next?
You should now have a good understanding of the most important aspects to choosing a bookmaker, and know a bit about the three bookmakers we support on eSportsBettingElite.com.
However do you understand e-sports betting odds, what they represent and the difference between decimal and fractional odds?
Check out the next part in our beginner’s guide where we answer the all-important question: how to calculate sports odds?
Alternatively if you want to know more about the bookmakers that offer e-sports betting then check out our e-sports bookmaker’s reviews right now to get everything you will ever need to know about each.