The Best eSports Betting Sites
in the UK

Introduction to Esports

Before you can conquer the throne and become a true esports champion, you’ll need to learn a bit more about the games themselves. For that reason, we’ve compiled some of the basics right here. Take a look.

What are esports?

Simply put, esports are competitions where players use video games to beat each other. Depending on the game, they can work in teams or as individual players, capture flags, destroy enemies, or complete various other objectives. The popularity of these competitions has led to an explosion in esports betting in the UK, although the golden age is yet to come.

Some of the most popular titles in this field include strategy games like League of Legends, Dota 2, and Starcraft II. The revamped classic shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and fast-paced, colourful Overwatch are favorites for action-driven players and punters.

Of course, the Battle Royale mode is still going strong with games like Fortnite and PUBG. There is always the extremely fun Rocket League, where you play football using small toy cars. The best part of online video game betting is the fact that the list keeps on changing; you never know what will be popular in a year or so.

The difference between regular sportsbooks and esports betting

So, just how is betting in the field of esports different to doing so on football, cricket, or virtual sports?

For all intents and purposes, when it comes to betting, esports are almost identical to traditional sports. You choose which team (or player) will win along with a number of different parameters. They depend mainly on the type of game you’ve chosen.

For example, with LoL, you can bet on the winner, the number of kills, or which team will be the first one to perform a specific task like slaying Baron or destroying a tower. On the other hand, CS:GO match betting sites usually offer a much more straightforward experience where you bet on the winning team, with or without a handicap, or try to guess the exact score. Sports games such as FIFA are basically exactly the same as betting on real-life football, except for the fact that it’s one person controlling an entire team in a match.

Regular and grey markets

Given that betting on esports is a fairly new concept, you might come across operators in the so-called grey market. These are websites that either don’t have a licence or work under different laws and regulations than the ones approved in the UK. While some of them might not be scammers, you are certainly better off using trusted, reputable companies.

The best esports betting sites on our list are usually located in Malta and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. You can always scroll to the bottom of the page or read the terms and conditions to make sure the site has a licence. If any of these operators work under different rules, we will clearly acknowledge that in our reviews.

Esports Free Bets & Offers

Old-school betting sites can be still a little slow in adapting to new trends. Unlike regular and virtual sports, esports rarely have special promotions outside of dedicated esports betting sites. That said, you can already find stuff like initial deposit bonuses, free bets, and even accumulator bet bonuses. Just like with football, when a major tournament is running, esports bookmakers will provide special offers and incentives to their players.

How to Claim Free Esports Bets and Special Offers

When it comes to bonuses, there is very little difference between esports and traditional sports betting. Let’s quickly run over some of the most common things you should pay attention to when looking to take advantage of those bonuses.

• Deposit requirements: As with standard sports bets, free esports bets will typically require an initial deposit in the form of a £5, £10, £20, or higher bet. There are also more casino-like offers that match your initial deposit bonuses with funds you can use on whatever bets you want. No-deposit bonuses are a rarity in esports, just as they are in traditional sports.
• Promo codes: A lot of betting bonuses (esports included) rely on promotional codes that have to be entered either at registration or from your user dashboard. These typically have a limited lifetime and often sites will rotate them on a monthly, per-event,  or seasonal basis.

• Time constraints: Speaking of time, whether you’re looking at the best CS:GO gambling sites or one focused on more traditional betting, the same rules apply: your free bets and other bonus offers usually have to be used up in a very short timeframe (up to a week) or they will expire.

• Bet amounts and eligible games: Another similarity with traditional sports betting lies in the fact that your free bets and bonus offers will usually apply only to certain esports titles. Furthermore, they usually tend to be on the low side (£5 or £10) and often have additional caps on the money that it’s possible to make from them.

• Special incentives: A feature unique to video game betting sites, this one follows a gaming industry trend that’s become a micro-economy of its own in the past decade. Players of games such as CS:GO and Fortnite are willing to pay exorbitant sums of money to change the appearance of their in-game avatars, so some crafty sites have started including special rewards for punters in the form of in-game character and weapon skins. Think of these as unique but potentially very valuable bonus rewards.

Major Esports Titles

CS:GO betting

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a first-person shooter in which the players are divided into two teams: terrorists and counter-terrorist forces. The objective for the terrorist team is to plant a bomb in a designated area or prevent the opposing team from freeing the hostages. CS:GO esports betting sites allow you to get in on the action and bet on every map, players, or the total score.

CS:GO is among the three most popular esports right now. Valve-organised CS:GO Majors (championship tournaments) offer prize pools of up to a million dollars with teams competing all over the world, and there are many other leagues and tournaments as well. The audience may not be quite as big as for League of Legends or Dota 2, but CS:GO tournaments and leagues are still major esports events.

In addition to match and tournament winners, players can bet on map winners, first blood (first kill of the match) and first map winners, correct map and score alternative match handicaps, and more.

League of Legends betting

In addition to CS:GO, the best betting sites have a lot of League of Legends events to bet on. With 27 million daily players and a huge international audience, it is one of the largest esports markets in the world. In League of Legends, there are two teams of three or five players, and the ultimate goal is to destroy the opponent’s base structure. The players control the so-called “champions,” who fight their way to the base using spells and melee attacks. Different champions have different strengths and weaknesses; knowing how to use those to create a well-balanced team that can respond to any challenge is the most important part of the game, and consequently the betting strategy.

Besides the players, the maps contain computer-controlled minions, turrets, inhibitors, and various neutral monsters. When and how these enemies/structures are destroyed can also be a part of your bet. The best League of Legends betting sites will let you bet on various aspects of the match, including the first team to destroy a tower/inhibitor, first team to 10 kills, the total towers destroyed (over/under), the team to score most kills, the teams to reach/win the finals, and the correct map score. You won’t be surprised to hear that, on top of those specialist bets, there are also match and tournament/league winning bets to be made on this game.

Dota 2 betting

Since it’s the same game genre as LoL, Dota 2 plays out in an almost identical way. Dota 2 gambling sites are extremely popular mainly because of their vast number of tournaments and impressive prize pools. There is some serious competition going on, which makes sense considering how incredible the prizes are. Last year, one of the biggest and most significant tournaments organised by Valve – the Dota 2 International – had a prize pool of over $34 million. It’s no wonder punters all over the world want a part of this action.

The main betting markets are of course tournament and match winners, but you can also make more specialised bets like which teams will reach the final, first kills, first team to reach 10 kills or destroy a tower, map winners, first to slay Roshan, and the best regional teams.

Fortnite betting

If you plan to bet on esports, you have to know about Fortnite. With viewer hours on Twitch (the most popular esports streaming platform) reaching 100 million per month, this game is hugely popular with audiences. It’s also a game with massive funding, as developer Epic Games has put $100 million into the prize money fund for 2020 alone.

It’s also an ever-changing game with constant updates that can drastically affect strategies for both players and bettors, which means that betting markets can shift dramatically as well. At its core it’s a competitive multiplayer shooter called battle royale, where potentially hundreds of players fight each other on huge maps with the ultimate goal of being the last player standing.

Esports betting sites have only recently started adapting to Fortnite’s popularity. The ever changing META (most effective tactic available) makes it difficult to be good at betting unless you truly understand the ins and outs of the game, but the rewards definitely make it worth taking the time to understand how the game works.

The main markets other than match and tournament winners are kill count, top three, five, or 10 winner, region of the winner, and triple shot (if any of your three chosen players win, you win the bet).

Overwatch betting

Overwatch and betting sites have a slightly shorter history than some of the games we’ve noted above. The first Overwatch League was organized fairly recently in 2018, but the event nowadays draws millions of viewers across the globe. Published by Blizzard Entertainment (of Starcraft II fame), Overwatch is an objective-based team shooter that’s similar to CS:GO at a basic level (two teams shooting at each other). However, it has many of its own intricacies, such as unique player class characters called heroes with their own skillsets, similar to how LoL and Dota 2 champions work.

Aside from a range of smaller tournaments, the main event to bet on is certainly the Overwatch League, which is split into stages and culminates in a Grand Final, with options to bet on both the stage and overall winners. The best sites for esports betting will also allow you to bet on map winners, correct map score, first map win, individual match winners, and more.

Other Important Esports Titles

Rocket League betting

Of all esports (other than FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, which are actual football games), Rocket League is the one that’s most similar to a traditional sport. The game is basically a competitive football match where players each control a car and try to score goals against the opposing team.

The main event is the Rocket League Championship Series or RLCS. Markets other than match and league winners include totals (like the average number of goals, saves, or assists, which you then bet over or under on) and player vs player stats.

Rainbow Six Siege betting

Ubisoft’s popular team-based shooter is in a lot of ways similar to Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and the best CS:GO betting websites often also offer bets on Rainbow Six. This game is also similar to Overwatch in that each player on both teams picks unique characters called Operators that come with their own unique skillsets.

The largest tournament is the Rainbow Six Pro League, which has hundreds of thousands of viewers. It’s then broken down into smaller regional leagues, which you can bet on individually.

Typical markets include guessing the correct map and map winners, overall score and match winners, match handicaps, league region winners, and more.

Starcraft II betting

Although once a bastion of the competitive gaming industry, this real-time strategy game has lost some of its popularity with viewers and on esports betting sites over the years. That said, it still has a very rich calendar dominated by the World Championship Series Global Finals (WCS for short). Other events to look out for are the Intel Extreme Masters, DreamHack Masters, and WESG.

Betting markets are somewhat more limited than they are for other esports, but you can bet on map, match, and overall tournament winners. You can also try to guess correct map scores and even make unique bets like which player/team will gather more of a specific resource during a match.

Call of Duty betting

Call of Duty is a competitive first-person multiplayer shooter that has had 13 different versions since its debut in 2003, and hundreds of millions of players and viewers over the years. While there aren’t as many Call of Duty betting sites as there are for CS:GO or Rainbow Six, it’s a rising esports game, mainly due to the popularity of the Call of Duty League.

Betting markets are pretty much identical to the likes of CS:GO, with round, map, and match winners, overall winners, final scores, as well as more exotic bets such as first blood, knife kills, and the first team to win a round.

FIFA betting

We’ll keep this short and sweet. As is the case with Pro Evolution Soccer (PES betting), here you’re betting on what is effectively a fairly realistic simulation of a football game, with competitors each controlling one entire team (one player at a time). It’s pretty popular on esports betting sites too. Betting markets mirror those found in conventional football, such as match winners, goal scorers, first goal, total number of goals scored, and many other over/under and handicap bets.

Although tournaments are fairly short-lived, the popular FIFA 21 Challenge had nearly 330,000 peak viewers and more than 260,000 viewers on average.

Major Esports Tournaments to Bet on in 2021

The world of esports competition is full of exciting tournaments with prize pools reaching up to a million dollars. In total, Dota 2 tournaments have provided financial awards amounting to more than $220 million. That is quite some motivation for professional players and one of the main reasons why Dota 2 betting sites are all the rage right now. The second place on this wall of fame goes to CS:GO, which has awarded over $93 million so far. This is followed by Fortnite with $84 million, LoL with $73 million, and Starcraft 2 with just under $33 million.

Remember, of course, that the ongoing COVID-19 crisis has affected all sports tournaments including esports heavily in 2020, and no one can be sure it won’t have further effects on tournaments in 2021. Thankfully, unlike traditional sports, esports work perfectly well online, and the best CS:GO sites (as well as other big betting markets) will always have something for you to bet on.

Here are some of the largest esports tournaments you should know about if you plan to get in on the betting game in 2021.

League of Legends World Championship

With several different brackets, teams, and players from across the world, the World Championship has become one of the most popular tournaments across all forms of esports, and that’s without even mentioning the million-dollar prize pool. The developer, Riot Games, has organised the competition in several stages throughout the year. This includes the Spring Split and Summer Split, which video game gambling sites allow you to bet on individually.

At the end of the full season, the best teams from each region qualify for the League of Legends World Championship Finals. In 2020, the final tournament was organised in Shanghai, China from 25 September to 31 October. According to the developer, more than 100 million viewers tuned in to the World Championship Finals between FunPlus Phoenix and G2 Esports, with 44 million simultaneous viewers watching the event. The date of 2021’s Championship is yet to be decided, but it will most likely happen in September.

Dota 2 International

Although it missed its day in the sun this year due to the global pandemic, one of the largest festivals in esports is set to return in 2021 in Stockholm. Top betting sites for esports have long followed the International, a tournament hosted by Valve since 2011. With the prize pool for 2019’s tournament reaching a record $34,330,068, it is without a doubt  the biggest esports event in gaming. Despite this year’s setback, it reached nearly $40 million in gathered funds, so you can be sure that next year’s outing will be the largest one yet.

ESL Pro League

The Electronic Sports League was launched in 2000 as the international version of the Deutsche ClanLiga, but has since grown into the largest esports company in the world. When it comes to esports betting, although ESL organises many leagues for all major esports, the largest event you should be aware of is the Pro League for CS:GO.

Season 12 was split into regional online-only leagues, while Season 13 and 14 will hopefully return to their standard format between April and May (Season 13) and September/October of 2021 in Malta. With prize money at $750,000 and tens of millions of viewers worldwide, it’s definitely one of the major events to keep an eye out on.

Fortnite World Cup

Speaking of esport betting in the UK, Fortnite’s World Cup is definitely one to keep an eye out on. When a game not only makes billions of dollars by itself, but its developer is a company that makes billions more from outsourcing the Unreal Game Engine, you can expect that it will get not only a huge fan following but major support in terms of huge event prize pools from developers.

With a prize pool of $3 million in 2019, this was set to be one of the biggest gaming events of the year before COVID-19 put a stop to the proceedings. With a global pool of 350 million+  players and next year’s event promising to be by far the largest one yet, esports betting sites  will surely be following this one closely, and so should you.

The Overwatch League

Although it has only been around for a couple of years, the Overwatch League has contributed majorly to the success of the game with both esports viewers and bettors around the globe. It follows a model similar to NBA or NFL, with independently sponsored city-based teams and a regular season and playoff format.

The prize pool for the 2018 season was $3,500,000, and this number was raised to an eye-watering $5,000,000 in 2019. As with other major esports leagues, it had to shift to an online-only format in 2020, but we are expecting a comeback with larger-than-ever prizes and incentives if things return to normal in 2021.

Esports Tournament Schedule

In addition to these popular tournaments, here is a schedule of some other currently confirmed events that you should keep an eye out on at UK esports betting sites in late 2020 and early 2021. This is by no means an exhaustive list, as the dates of most of the big tournaments are yet to be announced. Keep checking back here and on your favourite betting sites, as new events may pop up and schedules may change.

Dota 2

• Meisterschaft 2021 Season 3 – 01 March 2021 – 09 May 2021
• One Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Jakarta – 06 June 2021 – 30 June 2021
• 2020 Asia Pacific Predator League – 01 May 2021 – 31 May 2021
• 2020 The International – 01 August 2021 – 31 August 2021

Starcraft II

• Bombastic StarLeague 11 – 19 February 2021 – 28 March 2021

Rocket League

• 2021 RLO Masters March – 04 March 2021
• RLCS Season X – Spring: South American Major- 25 March 2021
• 2021 Telialigaen Spring Playoffs – 25 April 2021 – 25 April 2021

Overwatch

• 2021 Overwatch League- 16 April 2021

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

• 2021 Pinnacle Cup – 03 March 2021 – 04 April 2021
• 2021 Elisa Nordic Championship – Sweden – 05 March 2021 – 28 March 2021
• 2021 Elisa Nordic Championship – Norway – 06 March 2021
• ESL One Cologne 2021 – 6-18 July 2021
• CS:GO Major Championship Fall 2021 – 1-14 November 2021
• 2021 WESG Latin America Brazil Finals – 07 March 2021 – 07 March 2021
• 99Liga Season 17 Division 1 – 08 March 2021 – 12 June 2021
• 2021 ESL Pro League 13 – 09 March 2021 – 18 April 2021

League of Legends

• 2021 LCS Mid Season Cup – 19 March 2021 – 10 April 2021
• LCS 2021 Summer – 03 June 2021 – 01 August 2021
• LCS 2021 Championship – 06 August 2021 – 28 August 2021
• MSI 2021 – 1 May 2021

Rainbow Six: Siege

• 2021 Operation League MY/SG/PH/ID Season 2 – 04 March 2021 – 19 March 2021
• 2021 Japan League – 13 March 2021 – 18 September 2021
• 2021 European League Season 2 – 18 March 2021 – 25 April 2021
• 2021 Asia-Pacific League – South Division – 18 March 2021 – 15 April 2021
• 2021 Campeonato Sudamericano – 19 March 2021 – 09 April 2021
• 2021 Asia-Pacific League – North Division – 19 March 2021 – 16 April 2021
• 2021 Brasileirão – 20 March 2021 – 18 April 2021
• 2021 Campeonato Mexicano – 21 March 2021 – 11 April 2021
• 2021 North American League – 24 March 2021 – 29 April 2021
• 2021 Six Invitational – 01 May 2021 – 31 May 2021

Valorant

• 2021 VCT Masters 1 Stage 1 CIS – 12 March 2021 – 21 March 2021
• 2021 VCT Masters 1 Stage 1 Turkey – 12 March 2021 – 21 March 2021

PUBG

• PUBG WEEKLY SERIES: EAST ASIA Phase 1 – 07 April 2021 – 16 May 2021

FIFA 21

• 2021 eLibertadores PlayStation 4 – 15 March 2021 – 17 March 2021
• 2021 eLibertadores XB1 – 15 March 2021 – 17 March 2021
• 2021 eChampions League – 28 May 2021