Esports live match statistics

Betting on esports in Canada

Whether you want to place a bet on FaZe eSports to win in a match of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) or the Toronto Raptors to win an NBA match, the process is the same. Betting on esports in Canada is the same as betting on traditional sports like basketball or ice hockey. The only real difference is that in esports, the match is played digitally through either a PC, gaming console or a handheld device. While a match in the NBA is, of course, played in the physical world. The bets are presented the same way, and you will find plenty of betting markets and odds in Canadian sportsbooks.

What is esport?

By now, most people know of esports, but few people know the whole spectrum of the industry, its size and popularity around the world. In simple terms, esports is a broad term used to describe competitive computer- or video gaming. Contrary to what many people think, esports is not something new. Competitive gaming stretches back all the way to 1962. Several competitive gaming tournaments were held the following decades and started gathering momentum in the early 90s together with releases of legendary gaming consoles like the Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive.

As personal PCs became widely available to consumers, along with internet access, esports, as we know it today, came into existence. This meant organized offline tournaments, professional circuits such as the Cyber Professional League (CPL). Game titles like Counter-Strike, Starcraft: Broodwar and Quake helped make esports mainstream.

If we go back to the early 2000s, Starcraft: Broodwar trail blazed the way for all of esports. Starcraft turned into a cultural phenomenon in South Korea. A large percentage of the population owned a copy of the game. Esports tournaments and leagues were organized. Large corporations got involved with sponsorships, professional South Korean Starcraft players became superstars and could earn a lot of money from competitive gaming. It was during this time that KeSPA (Korea e-Sports Association) was founded and created a framework for organized competitive gaming. A framework that was later adopted in the rest of the world for other games like Dota 2, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rocket League and many other popular esports titles. Starcraft: Broodwar was also the first esports that was frequently offered for esports betting by sportsbooks. Both pre-match and live esports betting since esports can always be streamed online since matches are played over the internet.

Today there are many esports, each with its set of tournaments and leagues, and of course, with hundreds of millions of fans from all over the world. With a large majority being of legal age, the demand for esports betting in Canada and globally is huge. In 2021, the total market value for esports is expected to surpass 1.25 billion Canadian dollars. A large portion of this comes from esports betting revenues.

How to bet on esports in Canada?

As we already mentioned, placing a bet on esports follows the same process as when you place a regular sports bet. First, you would need an account with a Canadian bookmaker that offers esports odds and betting markets. Since esports is so popular in Canada, most bookmakers today offer esports betting. The amount of esports and betting markets offered can, of course, vary greatly depending on what bookmaker you bet with. Further down on this page, we have highlighted our three favorite bookmakers for esports betting in Canada.

Once you logged in to your bookmaker account, find the esports betting section of the website or mobile app. Locate the match you want to bet on, open the esports match page, and you should see the full market offering. If it is a live match, then a good esports bookmaker would have a live stream available, typically from Twitch. Locate the market you want to bet on, add the selection to your betslip, enter your wagering amount and place the bet. That’s it - I hope you win!

As with any type of bet you place, whether it is League of Legends, Dota 2 or a basketball match in the NBA, you can learn about the match, the teams and find statistics that could help you make better decisions when betting.

Different types of standard esports bets

There is more than one way to bet on your favorite esports. You will find slight differences between different esports and a lot of common betting markets that are shared, for example, Moneyline or Match Winner bets. Placing different types of bets and learning about new markets can be fun, it enriches your betting experience, and you may be able to find value on specific markets in a match you want to bet.

• Match Winner - what team will win in an esports match.

• Point Spread - a point spread is applied to an esports match to create even odds for both teams to win. The favorite team gets a minus (-) handicap, and the underdog gets a plus (+) handicap.

• Totals Bet - also known as Over/Under, is a bet on the number of points, maps or rounds in an esports match.

• Correct Score - bet on the exact outcome of a match, e.g. in a Best of Three maps game, bet if the match will end, for example, 2-0, 1-2, 2-1.

• Outright Bet - also known as Winner bets. Outright bets can only be placed in advanced, typically before a tournament start, where you could bet on What Team will Win Dota 2 The International, for example.

Different types of special esports bets

Special esports bets are markets that are exclusive to esports that you will not find in traditional sports. Learning more about special bets can improve your betting experience, and if you become good and know a lot about esports, you could take advantage of good odds when the opportunity arises.

• Map Winner - Bet on what team will win the first map, second map, the third map and/or any consecutive map/s.

• First Blood and First Kill - In some esports betting sites, you will find markets where you can bet on what team will get the first kill in a match.

• Race to X Kills - Bet on what team will first get 5, 10, 15, 20 kills.

There are, of course, many more types of bets; both Dota 2 and League of Legends, for example, have a long list of markets that are exclusive to the respective game. The best is if you visit a well-established esports betting site and have a look for yourself. You can find a list of our favorite Canadian esports betting sites below.

Sites to bet on Esports in Canada

Esports betting in Canada is becoming increasingly more popular. There are over 30 different esports available for betting. The availability of each esport different depending on if there are ongoing tournaments or not. Some esports have a higher frequency than others. For example, CSGO, Dota 2 and League of Legends have matches and odds available for betting on a daily basis. Other less popular esports like Rocket League and Call of Duty have esports betting available on a weekly basis. Then there is esports like World of Tanks and Smite that are only available bi-annually or annually in relation to world championships.

Depending on the popularity of an esport and the popularity of a tournament or league, the market offering varies greatly. A popular CSGO match can have 50-100+ betting options, while a less popular CSGO match can have 1-5 betting options. Typically, less popular esports like World of Tanks or Smite often only have one betting option available.

Then, of course, what bookmaker you bet with matters the most. If a bookmaker has a bad esports offering, it does not matter if it is the finals of Dota 2 The International. They will have a poor offering. On the contrary, a good esports bookmaker like the ones listed below will have a huge offering on the same match. So if you are interested in esports betting in Canada, be careful what bookmakers you choose. You want to register with one that has a lot of betting markets and availability of esports betting in both pre-match and live (with live streaming).

What both sites below have in common, besides esports, is that they all accept crypto payments like Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins.

Gamdom esports

Gamdom was one of the original skin gambling sites dedicated to CSGO and Dota 2. Through the years, they kept a highly reputable status as a skin gambling site and then transitioned to become a fully licensed a regulated bookmaker that offers both esports betting, traditional sports betting and casino games. Through this transformation, they managed to stay true to their roots and still offer some traditional skin betting-type games like Crash, Roulette and HiLo. Gamdom comes with a chat room, so you can interact with other users on the site.

When it comes to esports betting, Gamdom stands out as one of the best options in Canada. You can easily find their offering in the dedicated esports betting section of the site. They have both many matches and betting markets to choose from. Most live matches have a live stream available, so you can watch the game while you bet. To learn more about Gamdom, we suggest that you read our thorough Gamdom review.

What are the major esport tournaments and leagues

As we already mentioned, the first competitive gaming tournament was held all the way back in 1962. Competitive gaming has, of course, come a long, long way since then. The first prize in the first-ever tournament was a subscription to the Rolling Stones magazine. The latest prize pool in Dota 2 The International was $34,330,069. The growth of esports prize pools in the last decade has been nothing short of spectacular. A larger and larger prize pool has created an incentive for more tournaments to be organized, which in turn has lead to an increase in the number of esports professionals competing in tournaments. Below are some of the biggest esports tournaments and leagues in the world.

Dota 2 The International

Dota 2 The International, often abbreviated to TI, is the world championship in Dota 2. It is the largest esports tournament in history. TI 2020 was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. TI 2021 has not yet been announced for the same reason. But the crowdfunding of the TI prize pool is ongoing. Currently, it is worth over $40 million. TI 2021 is expected to be played in Stockholm, Sweden. You can expect plenty of esports betting options once we get closer to the starting date.

League of Legends World Championship

The world championship of the League of Legends is often referred to as “Worlds”. This is the second biggest esports tournament yearly. League of Legends is an incredibly popular game and esport. With hundreds of millions of fans worldwide. There are even discussions about including Worlds as an Olympic event in the 2022 Asian Games that are scheduled to take place in China. The next edition of Worlds is scheduled to be played in China, with no date available yet and with a prize pool of $2,225,000.

CSGO Blast Premier

The esports scene for esports is the most active one, with literally hundreds of tournaments yearly. One of the biggest and most prestigious is the CSGO Blast Premier. In this tournament, top-tier teams from around the world compete. CSGO fans rejoice, and esports punters are kept busy. The Blast Premier Finals of 2020 was delayed until January 2021, where Natus Vincere won and walked away with $600,000 from the $1,000,000 prize pool. No date has been set for the next CSGO Blast Premier finals, but we expect it some time towards the end of 2021, and with a minimum prize pool of $1,000,000.