eSports Handicap Betting Guide

Antoan Vasilev | 2017-08-25 |

We have mentioned it a hundred times already: eSports are one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, with enormous potential. The incredible dynamic in most of the eSports games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, DotA 2, and Overwatch bring the attention of million fans around the world.

Gaming events become bigger and bigger with every following year. Of course, betting on eSports is something really exciting, and nowadays you can do it on the best sportsbooks in the world. Now, we will speak more about handicap bets and their usage in eSports betting. Learn how eSports handicap bettings works and how to maximize your profit by correctly using it.

What is Handicap Betting?

The definition of a handicap betting is quite simple. This type of bet is the process where a bookmaker turns a sporting event with varied odds into an even money contest. This happens by giving an advantage or disadvantage to certain competitors in order to even them out.

Usually, handicap betting is used in points-based sports like football, basketball, tennis, and of course eSports.

How Does the eSports Handicap Betting Work?

To explain how the eSports handicap betting works, we will give you a short example from one of our partners – Pinnacle.

We will talk about the Counter-Strike: a Global Offensive match between the French team Vexed and the Danish team Rogue. Rogue is the team considered as a favorite in the game, and that’s clear from the odds. The handicap here is -4.5 for Rogue and +4.5 for Vexed.

In other words, the French shooters start the match with 4.5 rounds advantage. So to win the handicap match they need 11 rounds. On the other side, Rogue starts the game with -4.5 rounds. Handicaps work in a similar manner in relation to the format of the match.

If its Bo3 (the first one with 2 wins is the winner), one of the teams starts with +1 win. So to win the match, the other team need 2 straight wins, while the team with +1 needs only one map.

This is how eSports handicaps work. It’s not something too complicated. Most of the eSports matches don’t finish with a clear win, so if you know the form of the teams, you can take advantage of the offered handicap bets.