Esports Betting Canada at LeoVegas

The popularity of esports (an abbreviation for electronic sports) has grown hugely around the world and throughout Canada in recent years. Essentially, it is competitive gaming, but as with real sports, there are now fans around the world who follow their favourite esports players, and teams, and watch matches unfold live. This has helped to see a boom in the online esports betting industry.

What Is Esports Betting?

Esports are now streamed live to millions of fans around the globe, which has made esports an industry that is worth billions. There are two main types of esports: classic esports games like League of Legends, and simulation of real sports.

Today, we have professional and esports tournaments with players competing for money which has led to the esports betting industry to become a huge business. The basic premise of esports betting is much like real sports where you place a bet on teams or players to win a particular game or tournament at the odds on offer.

However, unlike real sports, esports also has markets where you can bet on people playing strategy games etc. against each other. The variety is huge and there will be esports betting markets open for specific tournaments too.

Generally, there are two options for placing an esports bet, which are pre-match and live betting options. Pre-match betting means you make your selection before the start of a game, whilst live betting allows you to wager on markets as the action is taking place.

It is important to note that if you are new to esports betting, you are encouraged to do your research first due to the huge number of markets on offer. Learn about the teams and players that are involved and the games they play.

What Are The Most Popular Esports?

Whilst there are many esports that involve the simulation of real sports, many of the most popular esports are multi-player combative games. Here, we look at some of the most played games around the world.

Dota 2

Released in 2013, Dota 2 is a multiplayer battle arena game that is very popular in North America and Europe. The game is generally played in teams of five, with each player tasked with defending their own area on a map. The winning team is the one who destroys a structure called “Ancient” within their opponents’ base.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 2 (CS: GO 2)

Released in 2023, this first-person shooter game is the fifth in the Counter-Strike series. Usually played between two teams, terrorists and counter-terrorists, the idea is for the terrorists to take hostages and plant a bomb, whilst the counter-terrorists must save the hostages and defuse the bomb.

League of Legends

Released in 2009, League of Legends a multiplayer real-time strategy game that is very popular in Asia. It is played between two teams with the winners being the ones who destroy a structure called ‘Nexus’ in their opponents’ base.

Overwatch

Released in 2016, this is a first-person shooter game that is competed for in teams of six. Played around the world, but most popular in Asia, the objective is to either secure control points on a map, or to transport a payload from one area to another within a specific timeframe.

Major Esports Events

There are many major esports events organised by large esports production companies, which are hosted around the world each year. The sums of money on offer to professional esports teams for winning these tournaments are huge, which make esports odds on them popular for esports fans and esports betting alike.

For example, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) Major Championships, commonly known as the Majors, was first organised by DreamHack in 2013, and was hosted in Jonkoping in Sweden. The total prize pool then was $250,000, which was split among 16 teams. Since that opening tournament, the Major circuit has expanded considerably, and recent tournaments have advertised prize pools of $2,000,000.

Other major events include The International (Dota 2), which is an annual esports world championship tournament that is hosted and produced by Valve, the developer of the game. First held in 2011, the competition consists of 20 teams who either qualify based on their results from the Dota Pro Circuit, or by winning regional play-offs in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, South America, Southeast Asia, and China.

The prize pool for The International has been crowdfunded since 2013 and offers the largest single-tournament esports prize pool, which has reached $40,000,000.

Another of the major esports events that attracts players and fans from around the world is the League of Legends World Championship, which is commonly abbreviated to the Worlds. This annual tournament is hosted by Riot Games with teams competing for the Summoner’s Cup as well as a multi-million-dollar prize.

The final of the 2018 tournament was watched by a global audience of 99.6 million people, and brought a ceremonial, dramatic atmosphere to the competition. Its success has continued to grow, which has helped to make the League of Legends one of the most played games in the world.

How To Bet On Esports?

Betting on esports at LeoVegas is very simple and incredibly exciting to do. First, you will need to navigate your way to the sports betting page and select ‘Browse Sports’ where a drop-down menu will be revealed. Here you will find the Esports section and, by clicking on this, it will open a list of the different competitions that the site has esports betting markets for.

These markets are for specific games, and within each game there are live sports betting markets, event betting, and outright betting markets to choose from. Do your research by having a look at the markets on offer and get an understanding of the games that are covered so you can choose a market that will interest you.

Esports Betting Odds

The esports betting section at LeoVegas offers a huge number of markets, covering top esports and events from around the world. You might be new to esports betting but wagering on it is much more straightforward than it might seem.

You will notice many of the competition betting pages will have outright markets, and separate event markets. Event markets will cover who might win that specific game, whilst outright markets tend to focus on who could win a tournament.

LeoVegas will offer the best odds on some of the main esports betting markets, which include ‘match winner’. This market is simply who you think will win that game, with generous odds being offered.

The Map Winner market will see you betting on who will win the map of that game, whilst the outright Event Winner market means you are wagering on who might win that competition, rather than on a head-to-head game.

There are also Match Events markets where you can bet on things like ‘Team to Score the Next Kill’, ‘Team to Score the Most Kills’, and ‘Total Kills Scored Over/Under’.

Live Esports Betting

Live esports betting is an exciting way to place bets and comes with many advantages, such as the live streaming of matches through LeoVegas. This allows you to watch the game unfold so you can get an understanding of the gameplay and place a more educated bet based on what you can see.

With live esports betting through LeoVegas, you can place a bet as you would normally on any market, but because the game is taking place live, the odds can change quickly depending on what is going on in the game.

Mobile Esports Betting

Mobile esports betting has transformed how people can now watch and bet on esports. LeoVegas provides the best esports mobile betting experience both in browser form and via its mobile app allowing you to bet from the comfort of your own home, or on the move by downloading the app to your smart device.

Both the browser and app will give you access to everything you need to bet on esports so you can enjoy the excitement of this unique gaming experience.

Esports Betting Tips

One esports betting tip would be to try and play some of the top esports betting games you wish to bet on, so you understand their format. These games also have reviews you can read and statistics you can research to help you become an esports expert, which will benefit your betting experience.