eSports surebets

About esports

Esports disciplines are those in which gamers play games. Most of these games were originally intended to be eSports, some were not. The fact is that some of them were created back in the days when there was no e-sports. Due to the fact that online games have long been considered the domain of “geeks”, children and other “frivolous people”, neither arbers nor bookmakers paid attention to e-sports for a long time. And the very name “esports” brought a lot of smiles. Until the moment when prize pools of millions of dollars, and later tens of millions, began to be awarded at cyber tournaments. The youngest eSports millionaire was only 9 years old when he received his prize money. As you can imagine, this changed everything radically. Including for bookmakers and, as a result, for sure bettors.

Is the hype around eSports justified?

Here we need to digress a little into the history of this discipline to make it clear why it took off so much among arbers and why it is still considered relevant (although the situation has changed dramatically - a small spoiler). Even when the tournaments gained relative popularity, the “standard” bookmakers did not include e-sports in their line (despite the presence of complete exotics such as Gaelic football). Then people from the gaming industry took matters into their own hands, realizing that they could make good money on bets. The first lines of e-sports disciplines appeared in previously unknown offices. They accepted bets only on this type, ignoring the traditional areas of interest of bookmakers. The most famous example of such a startup later became GGbet. These offices were founded by people close to the gaming industry, but little knowledgeable about bookmaking matters. Of course, advanced arbers noticed this immediately. The arbs were so profitable and hung for so long that you could catch them with your hands and still have an incredible ROI (we won’t bore you with unproven numbers, especially since those days are long gone). Of course, they caught it with their hands not because of some strange principles, but because eSports simply weren’t in the scanners. This could not continue for long and gradually profits began to decline. “Regular” companies also began to offer their line to eSports competitions. And they had enormous experience in dealing with arbers. Although at first the pool of “old-timers” offices still traded very well with the newly-minted gaming bookmakers. After all, the old companies had the opposite problem: they have experience, but there are no eSports analysts. More precisely, there were few of them, and the rest generally copied their lines. And the sport itself is unpredictable. Plus, manual surebets are difficult to track. There are fewer bans, fewer cuts, which means less overhead for drops. Therefore, the topic lived for quite a long time by Internet standards.

But then COVID hit. Even those who had previously turned their noses up at it as a fashionable hobby that would soon pass paid attention to e-sports. This was one of the few competitions that was not stopped during the pandemic. You probably think that by this time bookmakers have already become involved in cyber and it was they who “killed” the topic with manual cyber surebets. But no, the culprit will surprise you - scanners. It was the pandemic that pushed software creators to include cyber disciplines in the list of sports, as their popularity skyrocketed. Which made manual arbs simply useless. True, the Internet is now replete with advertisements for courses like “hand bets for eSports.” But these people simply decided to dump information that they no longer need. But to be completely honest, let's answer two questions.

• Is it now possible to find surebets manually in eSports? Yes, you can. Just like in other sports.
• Is it possible to make money from this? Very little. It’s hardly enough to live on, even with a big bank account.

Why is this happening? Those arbs that you found manually have already been found by the scanner. While you are just watching it, the arbers and the bot have already placed both shoulders. While you bet manually, the odds will already drop, or even stop being accepted altogether. Therefore, there is a fairly large percentage of negative fsurebets (compared to working with a scanner). Now one of the top scanners in terms of price-quality ratio is BreakingBet. It is he who occupies the first line of our rating - and they also work with e-sports. Safety is often cited as an advantage of manual bets on Live eSports. But this is a myth. Yes, a professional arber’s account will be cut in three days, and yours in three months. But this only means that he bet as much (if not more) than you in three days (assuming equal pots). That's the whole solution. Accordingly, he earned the same amount in three days as you did in three months “in safe mode.” So is it worth it now to engage in arbitrage on eSports? Of course it is. Esports have many advantages over traditional sports.

• A large number of tournaments. They do not depend on the weather and are held at any time of the year.
• Number of matches. In addition to the main draw, bookmakers have long accepted bets even on qualifying events for relatively minor competitions. And in the matches themselves, several cards are usually played, which are themselves “mini-matches”.
• You can bet around the clock, as tournaments take place in all time zones.
• Predictability is quite low, especially in live, where the course of a match, the outcome of which was seemingly predetermined, can change dramatically. This promotes a lot of surebetting.

At the same time, there is hardly a professional arber who limits himself only to this sport. This is just one of the types, and all its advantages do not force you to give up traditional sports. Now let's move on to the features that you will have to deal with.

The most popular eSports

Let's start with the types of disciplines. If you are just starting to dive into this topic, we recommend focusing first on the “big three”:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, better known as CS:GO
• League of Legends, abbreviated LoL
• Dota 2

These are the most popular games among tournament organizers, and therefore among bookmakers. Interestingly, the viewer is not particularly taken into account: the popularity of a particular game in tournaments is often determined by the desire of the developer to promote his game. If we take not only the number of matches and tournaments, but add to them the number of prize money (which attracts the viewer and then the bookmaker), then we can add the following games to the big three:

• PUBG Mobile;
• Fortnite;
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege.

These are your “second wave” games. Once you master them, you can add the rest. For example FIFA, Call of Duty, Overwatch... There are a lot of options. But add gradually. Why? More on this in the next section.

What to consider before starting eSports surebets

Game rules

E-sports are very different from traditional sports. And first, you need to understand, at least at the “everyday” level, how these games work, how victories are achieved, what options, etc. Therefore, it’s worth starting with the “Big Three”. And then, after mastering them, connect others. Perhaps in some of the less popular disciplines there simply won’t be enough matches for you to want to spend your time on.

Bookmakers rules

The situation here is the same as in classical sports - they all have their own nuances. For example, in Counter-Strike there is overtime, but not a match, but a map. You need to know all these nuances, otherwise there is a big chance to put your leverage on the wrong outcome.

Choosing a bookmaker for betting on eSports

This is where we wouldn’t recommend bothering too much. Everyone has had e-sports on their list for a long time, we still need to look where it is not. Those bookmakers that used to be purely gaming now have a “regular” line. Therefore, there are no longer any secret offices with super-profits. Bet where the arb is, where you like and feel comfortable. The only thing is that it is better to always include the already mentioned GGbet in the scanner: it has the largest line at the moment and a list of e-sports.

Conclusion about eSports surebets

Are cyber surebets dead? No, everything is fine, they are alive and well (without irony). Is this really a bonanza? Once upon a time it was, but now it is no longer there. However, you can still make money from them. Just take your mind off the idea that this is some kind of Eldorado, and work with e-sports, like with other surebets. Don’t forget to take into account all the features (rules), otherwise you will lose money at first. And continue to work in the usual arber mode.