We can safely say that esports betting has grown from a niche hobby into a multi-billion-dollar global industry. It is very popular in some parts of the world and every year is better than the previous one. That’s one of the reasons why so many people bet on it.
There are many sites that allow people to do this, and some of them focus specifically on these digital sports. Most of them look similar, but people who have not used them may not know some of the most interesting factors behind them, so let’s dive in and learn more details about everything.
A lot of bookies rely on AI
One of the first things that you will notice after visiting such a site is that there are tons of data because most will let you bet on different sports. In fact, the best Esports bookies will have every option in existence and provide you with all kinds of information like the odds, recent transfers, live streams, and more.
Since esports move fast and bookies need to keep up, a lot of them rely on different kinds of machine-learning models that monitor micro-events like cooldown timers, ability usage, and all kinds of other things. A lot of esports bettors take these things for granted, but the truth is that they make a huge difference.
Some platforms track more than 10,000 live points per match and adjust the odds every few seconds. This can only be achieved by applying an efficient AI system that outperforms human analysis.
Odds can shift faster in esports
People who place bets on regular live matches know that the odds shift every couple of seconds. This is also true for esports betting, but traditional sports move more slowly than these ones. As a result, the odds in live esports betting change significantly faster and you have to be prepared for it.
To be fair, this is not true for all esports because it really depends on the title. If we examine some of the most popular options, such as Dota 2, League of Legends, and CS: 2, we can see that the odds are indeed faster. Every single movement in these games can have an effect on the odds and can flip an entire match.
There are some studies that show the leading esports betting sites often update their updates as much as 100 times per minute. This is far more frequent than any football or basketball sportsbooks.
It is common for esports bookies to hire former pro players
One of the reasons why some esports bookmakers are better than others is due to the people who work there. Speaking of that, it is common for former professionals who understand a given game to be part of these bookies. The sites use them to help other staff with meta shifts, patch updates, and player tendencies.
Many bookmakers quietly recruit these insiders to interpret data and refine their prediction algorithms. Not every player wants their fans to know that they are affiliated with iGaming companies, which is one of the reasons why you do not hear much about this.
Esports bookies depend a lot on unofficial data scraping
Although some esports have been around for many years and have centralized platforms that provide data, most do not. As a result, bookmakers often have to use data from unofficial sources. This is one of the reasons why you can often find enormous odds mismatches when comparing several betting platforms.
Depending on the area, the gray-area data collection leads to slight broadcast delays that clever bettors have attempted to exploit. This can be done, but you really need to know what you are doing, so unless you are a professional, it is better to avoid that.
Courtsiding exists in esports
What a ot of people don’t seem to understand is that courtsiding exists in esports. This is usually something that happens in tennis, but it is also common in esports. Courtsiding occurs when someone with faster access to a tournament feed places bets before the odds are adjusted. In other words, these people take advantage of the better odds before the bookmaker makes the necessary adjustments to reduce them.
As you can imagine, bookies are not particularly happy that this happens. As a result, a lot of them have taken the necessary steps to apply different delays and specific detection systems that will block these kinds of wagers.
Esports bookies run simulations before every major event
The last point that may shock some of you is that many esports bookmakers run different simulations before every major event. It is common for sites to run more than 100,000 simulations to estimate probability distributions. These kinds of simulations help determine opening lines long before the public sees them.
