How to bet on professional CS:GO

Global Offensive which was released in 2012, yes that game is now 10 years old. As a game and as an esport it has been a mainstay for many PC gamers. With the gaming industry now estimated to be worth a whopping $300 billion, you would imagine there are a lot of eyes on this game.

However, given the fact that the majority of gamers don’t actually game on a PC, due to some people thinking it’s more difficult to get into, or the fact that compared to a console it is a lot more expensive to get a decent rig. There aren’t quite as many people who watch or play Counter Strike compared to some of the other big-name FPS games, like Call of Duty or Halo. Because of this, as an esport, Counter-Strike found itself being overtaken by these games over time.

Fast forward to the present day with brands like 100 thieves who were founded by call of duty legend Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag with the help of a massive multi million dollar investment from Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. A lot of console gamers who would have most certainly heard of Nadeshot from back in his professional Call of Duty days and followed him as he started his own esports organization will have found themselves turning to games they had never even heard of or seen before, like League of Legends and CS:GO and as a long time gamer and big follower of a

lot of esports, these are the kind of things I love to see.

Alongside all of these console gamers discovering more esports, there will have been plenty of people who will have stumbled into it due to Covid-19. Covid shut down most in-person sporting events worldwide during the pandemic. These people who usually watch or gamble on live sports, as well as the big TV networks, had to fill the gaps left behind by Football and Basketball etc. A lot of the networks filled these gaps with esports. In particular I remember seeing a lot of Overwatch, FIFA and League of Legends on the TV during this time.

Gambling on esports isn’t necessarily a new thing either with plenty of sportsbooks offering markets for esports for quite a while now. However, more and more sportsbooks took up esports during the Covid-19 pandemic as they were finding it hard to keep the cash flowing for obvious reasons. But one thing that may surprise you is just how many esports and variations of esports you can gamble on through certain bookmakers. Not only that but the sheer amount of lines available in some of that esports is a real sight to behold.

For example, there are many legal Betting Apps in MD that will allow you to gamble on professional CS:GO, including upcoming fixtures in the Blast Premier World Final due to take place on Wednesday 14th December. So if you were wanting to try your luck and stake some money on CSGO, checking out the fixtures and using Outsiders Vs Team Liquid as an example here, you can get Outsiders as the -225 favourites, this would see a $5 stake return $7.22, while the underdogs, Team Liquid are at +162, this would return $13.12 from the same stake. This is a pretty basic bet.

But, as I mentioned, it isn’t just the fact you can gamble on CS:GO that is interesting. It is now where you can break it down in more detail if you’d like to, so if you know your stuff like many esports fans do, you could potentially use that knowledge to your advantage. Looking a little bit deeper into the fixture above, you can get Outsiders at -175 to win Map 1, which returns $7.85 while Team Liquid are +125 returning $11.25. But that’s not all, if you wanted to you could even stake on how many rounds there are going to be on each map. For Map 1, Over 27.5 rounds is +100 returning $10 from $5 and Under 27.5 is -138 returning $8.63 from $5.

If you wanted to go even further however, you could instead break it down a little more by staking on a multiple-line accumulator. For example, if you were to stake on an accumulator consisting of the following, Outsiders to win, over 2.5 maps (Outsiders win 2-1 as opposed to 2-0), under 27.5 rounds on Map 1, Over 27.5 rounds on Map 2. Individually the bets wouldn’t really return much as seen above, but a 4 line accumulator would actually return $47.55 from that $5 stake we used earlier. So, it is one way you can potentially make your money go a little further. However, we do always recommend gambling responsibly.

With a lot of money on the line in some of these esports tournaments, using the BLAST Premier: World Final 2022 as a big example, you’re talking 8 teams involved fighting for their share of $1million, with the winning team taking home a $500k cut, you can guarantee more and more casual eyes will be on esports in general, with those casual eyes brings more potential for sponsorships, meaning bigger prize pools and in turn more casual eyes. The professionals get paid more and theoretically esports as a whole grows more competitive and more entertaining.

So, gamers, what are your thoughts on the growth within the esports side of the gaming industry? Is having more casual eyes on your favourite games a good thing? Based on what I said previously I think it really is a good thing, it’s worth noting that if you said to a casual fan “these guys are playing in the Rocket League World Championships” versus “These guys are playing Rocket League for a share of $2 million” it’s fairly obvious which of these statements is going to bring more attention. The more attention the bigger the prize pools and everybody wins. Though, some may argue that the integrity of the esport is at stake when more money is involved