Best Esports Betting Sites | Find The Top Esports UK Bookmakers

List of bookmakers for esports by game

A greater number of online bookmakers in the UK now offer betting opportunities on eSport and it is a growth area for online betting. Over $19b is expected to bet on esports across the world in 2020.

Esports Fans only Watch and bet on one game

Whilst sports betting fans may watch and bet on horse racing, football, golf and tennis, and maybe even more, it turns out that esports fans are loyal (in the main) to one game and will consider only watching and betting on one.

According to esports Trends Analysis carried out by Newzoo, 71% of fans watch only one game rather than overlap by following 2 or more games.

This would suggest that betting on esports will require a little more in-depth analysis to which betting site is best for each game

With that in mind, I thought we would hunt out the best betting site for each of League of Legends, Dota2, CS:GO and 

This is a list of some bookmakers [not all] that offer esports betting online in the UK where you could grab a free bet for registering a new account to make your first esports bet with by game.

Number of Betting Opportunities

Depending on how much of a fan and how much you know about e-sports this may be a subjective category, but I have it at the top as I am looking at which betting site would be the best for the most enthusiastic esports betting fan.

This update was conducted in March 2020, and the following number of events were available by bookmaker taking bets on esports

If there was ever an event to get excited with spread betting it would be esports for sure. 

As a matter of course, I checked both Sporting Index and Spreadex, two spread betting firms operating in the UK and found to my dismay, they didn't offer esports betting. I would image spreads could be a good approach to esports betting

e-Sports Game Coverage

Bet365 smashed this category with the following 6 games covered.

I checked out each bookmaker and the main games from the list and found that each offered coverage of all, which is a good sign. When this data was originally collected they didn't, so it would seem that every bookie is trying to provide as much event coverage as possible. This is an improvement from when this article was first written

Range of Betting Markets

Taking the Vici Gaming v LNG Sports LoL Match I was looking for how many different markets were available to bet on.

Bet365 blew everyone out of the water with an incredible 34 different markets for this single match

The others were all around the same with a more limited range but the most popular betting market types all covered, which is important.

These were both standouts as the remainder offered just the single outright winner market.

UNIBET

1. Match Odds
2. Map handicap
3. Map 1
4. Total Maps Over/Under
5. Map 1 First Blood
6. Map 1 Champion kills Handicap
7. Map 1 First to 10 Champion Kills
8. Map 1 Total Champion Kills Over/Under

4.2 / 5 288 Ratings

An impressive array of betting markets, despite offering worse odds. Betfair esports betting is a trade-off.

Betfair Review

• Map Winners
• Total Maps
• Yes/No Handicaps

SEE OFFER Betfair Review

Betfair

1. Map 1 Winner
2. Map 2 Winner
3. Home to win a Map
4. Total Maps over/Under
5. Correct Score
6. Away to win a Map
7. Vici Gaming +1.5
8. LNG Sports +1.5

As you can see, both Unibet and Betfair offered an impressive number of different betting markets to consider.

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Betting Odds

With the growing interest in esports and with the amount of money on offer for the tournament’s most of the major bookmakers jumped on board and started putting up competitive odds.

Betway have always been towards the top of the list for best odds, especially when it comes to the underdog, but also are very competitive for favourites.

Other firms who have been getting more competitive are the likes of bet365, Unibet and 888sport, but as for daily best odds, Betway is top of the pile.

Esports betting odds Example

Taking a single CS:GO game to compare prices across each bookmaker, I found there to be very little between the prices offered.

Betfair and PaddyPower were unable to offer the best price on either side. Unibet and bet365 shared the honours for best price available on The underdogs, and in fact, as expected had the same price for the favourites which was bettered by Betway, offering 1.85 for each side. 

Juggernauts v Unique CS:GO Betting Odds

Betfair odds in the table is from sportsbook

Growth in esports

It is the fastest-growing betting sport in the world right now, and the total worldwide amount of money bet on it by 2020 is expected to be… Wait for it…. $19billion

And it is still in its infancy.

In February 2022, the average number of players for the popular football simulation game, Football manager was 71,686, which is remarkably close to the figure in February 2020 which was 71,186, highlighting the return to ‘normal’.  

Other games like Dota 2, which has remained incredibly popular despite being released back in 2012, actually had a fairly significant increase in average players when comparing the same months, boasting over 450,000 players in February 2022 compared to just under 406,000 in 2020. 

This was not the case for all games we analysed though, with PUBG: Battlegrounds suffering the biggest drop in average players, going from 417,812 prior to the pandemic, then experiencing a huge spike in players over the next year, peaking at 1,584,886 in April 2021 when restrictions were still in place. Since then, it has declined dramatically to a lowly figure of just 17,551 in February this year.  

The peak number of monthly players also told a very similar story for all five franchises we examined, with Football Manager again being an example of this. It went from 122,479 in February 2020 to 119,863 in the same month this year. 

Again Dota 2’s popularity has continued to stay strong, boasting consistent peak monthly playing figures throughout the last two years. A month before the first lockdown, it was at 663,812, rising as high as 801,121 in April that year. February this year saw a peak of 725,851, showing that its peaks from the pandemic have continued to remain long after restrictions have been fully lifted. 

PUBG: Battlegrounds, however, was the opposite of Dota 2 showing huge declines in the last two years. Figures from two years ago (before the pandemic) were just above 93,000 peak monthly players and that continued to rise, eventually reaching a high of 3,236,027 in April 2021. This year again saw a dramatic drop-off, with just 67,846 players in February 2022.

Esports Earnings

But don’t dismiss this as simply kids playing computer games for fun, these are bonafide professional gamers earning a living and a good one at competing internationally in these games. Thousands of people around the world are making a living by playing video games competitively.

Many people may have heard of Fortnite.  At the end of July 2019, a sixteen-year-old became the World Champion, winning the Fortnite World Cup and pocketed a cool £2.25 in the process.

esports and esports betting is here to stay and it will continue growing at an incredible rate in years to come.

Our research showed that the highest earning esports player in the World had earned over $7million back in November 2021 and there were over 100 players who had recorded in excess of $1million in prize money. Data 2 was the top game for earnings with the top 21 earners all playing that game. Fortnite had earned one player over $3million though, with Counter Strike Global Offensive the other game played by esports players in the top 75 earners. 

Back in 1008 there only a handful of recognised esports tournaments with 34 players sharing total prize money of $131,700. By 2020 the number of professional players had increased to 4,782 with prize money growing to $122m. The highest earning countries were USA and China with South Korea, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, France, Canada, Germany and Finland making up the top 10. 

There is though some disparity between the top earning male and female esports players with the highest earning female player taking home $415,691 compared to the top male at $7,183,918.

Is betting on esports legal?

Absolutely!

And most sports betting site will now offer events and odds on the outcome of local and international esports matches.

You'll find esports listed in the sports betting menus. A little while ago they used to be found in the Specials betting sections, but as things are evolving quickly, betting sites are seeing the potential in the sector and it is os offered as a standalone sport now

Which bookmakers offer esports in play betting?

All dependant on the matches, some of the lesser tournaments will not be covered in play, but the major tournaments, especially those covered live on Twitch will be available to bet on in play, you can usually get these bets on with betway and bet365.

Which bookmakers offer live esports streaming?

Because of the abundance of streaming events elsewhere on the internet and TV + streaming deals it seems bookmaker streaming has taken a backseat.

If you looking to place your bet and keep an eye on the match then platforms like Twitch, YouTube and Smashcast all offer you the chance to watch the matches live whilst keeping an eye on your bet.

Which bookmakers offer esports stats for betting research on their websites?

From what we have found there are not any bookmakers who offer statistics on their site

This is most probably due to the number of games played, teams compete across multiple platforms and games and keeping track would be a big task.

The Betway blog is a good read and brings us regular news on esports, they are also one of the few who offer daily boosts on the eSport odds.

Betway certainly seems to be leading the way in esports betting.

Esports Betting Related Questions

Further Reading on esports Betting