Esports has quickly grown into a world-class scene, where millions of excited fans gather to watch their favorite pros battle it out in order to see who is the best. Stemming all the way back from when esports were nothing more than glorified LAN parties, the level that the scene has grown to is nothing short of astounding. With its recent popularity, esports affords fans to try their best at analyzing the play of their favorite professionals, and it allows them to then bet on who they think might be the next big champion. Different games have different ways to analyze them and to bet on them, so stay tuned in order to hopefully discover an esports title worth your time and effort for some online sports betting.
What is League of Legends? (LoL)
League of Legends, released in 2009 by Riot Games, still stands as the most popular esport of 2024 and 2025. Its free price and easy-to-run graphics make for a very low barrier of entry, this in turn helps boost popularity globally, regardless of economic status. Over the past 15 years, it’s attracted many players and fans alike due to its high replayability and unpredictability. Being the largest esports title, it’s also the prime candidate for someone looking into sports betting in the context of esports titles.The major tournaments found in relation to League of Legends would be the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds), as well as regional leagues such as the LCS (North America), LEC (Europe), and LCK (South Korea). Keeping up to date and watching these events will provide insight into the best teams and strategies over time.
If you’re unfamiliar with the game and wish to get into it in order to analyze and bet, you must first learn the basics. The most essential would be the objectives of the game itself, which are to destroy the enemy Nexus, as well as controlling key objectives like dragons, and Baron Nashor, and destroying enemy towers while defending your own. It is recommended that you try and learn these yourself and what they look like online, before watching League of Legends esports games yourself.
Additionally, many professional players enjoy streaming their practice sessions when not in a tournament. Stopping by every once in a while to view how the players you’re following are actually playing the game while making sure to keep an up-to-date profile of them including weaknesses and strengths would be beneficial to your chances of betting correctly more often than not.
Analyzing statistics in League of Legends
Gold Per Minute (GPM) is a metric that indicates how well a player or team is farming gold, which is important due to gold being what you use in order to acquire new items and consumables. Make sure to compare GPM between teams in order to better predict who will win in the mid-to-late game phases.The Kill/Death/Assist Ratio (KDA) is a statistic that reflects an individual player’s usefulness and impact in fights. The more kills and the fewer deaths, the higher the ratio (for example, 4 kills and 2 deaths would be a ratio of 2.0, but 3 kills and 2 deaths would only be a ratio of 1.5).
Objective control is an important aspect to keep track of as well, teams that can consistently secure dragons, Barons, and towers will most likely win later in the game. A strong jungler is key to achieving this, so make sure to pay extra attention to the junglers of both teams.
Lastly, make sure to be up to date on champion win rates. Playable characters in League of Legends are called “champions”, and some champions and/or specific team compositions of champions have a higher likelihood of winning than others. Because Riot Games often patches and rebalances champions, it’s important to check on this statistic whenever you hear about a new patch, or just once in a while regardless to make sure that you haven’t missed anything. To add onto this, make sure to follow how teams perform against specific opponents, and their ability to adapt to new patches or changes. Teams that are bad at adjusting to a new meta will often struggle against more flexible enemy teams.
What is Dota 2?
Dota 2 is a competitive multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game released in 2013 by Valve Corporation. The game served as a sequel to Defense of the Ancients, an old community-made mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Another older title that has seemingly stood the test of time, Dota 2 is still one of the most popular games on Steam and is also one of the most popular titles in esports to this day. The game is known for its high skill ceiling and depth, as well as its massive prize pools and developer support from Valve themselves. Dota 2 is also slow-paced enough in order to make good and educated sports bets on popular sites that support it, such as Stake. Overall, while it has roots from all the way back in the 2000s, Dota 2 remains an unforgettable experience that is also completely free on Steam.The biggest esports tournament in Dota 2 remains “The International” (TI). The International remains the largest and most prestigious tournament, organized, hosted, and funded by Valve Corporation. Alongside TI, the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) includes Major and Minor tournaments from across the world that set the stage for the best teams. Regularly keeping up to date with both TI and the DPC will ensure that you can spot new upcoming teams, as well as being able to keep tabs on already established legends of the sport.
One of the most important aspects of learning how Dota 2 works is to learn the Heroes within the game. Dota 2 features over 100 different playable heroes, and learning to properly understand their roles in the game (Carry, Support, etc.) and how they synergize together is an incredibly important essential skill for properly keeping along with the game and how it’s played.
Additionally, focusing on the Draft Phase of the game is an undoubtedly important part of following it. Analysts and casters will often discuss how certain hero picks counter the enemy’s strategy, and listening in can provide you with the same insight. The draft phase can often be make-or-break, and can at times determine the outcome of the entire match.
Analyzing statistics in Dota 2
Net Worth is an important key metric that shows how much gold a player or team has collected over the entirety of the match. If one team has a noticeably higher net worth, this can often snowball into stronger items, which earn more gold, which after some time will ultimately result in a win.Kill Participation indicates how involved a player is in their team’s kills. High participation means that that player is contributing a lot to their team, and should be kept track of.
Hero Selection Trends should also be watched, as teams with a much more flexible hero pool are much harder to counterpick in the aforementioned Draft Phase. These teams will often also follow current hero win rates in order to maximize their winnings chances, which is why it is essential to know how different teams function as well as their rigidity/flexibility in their hero picks and synergy.
Tower and Objective control is also important to keep track of, as dominance in map objectives by one team will most likely lead to them winning. Watch for teams who are regularly good at securing Roshan, as it can often swing momentum in their favor.
Lastly, make sure to follow how teams adapt to the ever-changing meta, and monitor their teamwork during high-stakes moments such as team fights or base defenses.
What is Counter-strike: 2?
Serving as the newest game that will be covered today, Counter-strike: 2 is a first-person shooter released in late 2023 by Valve Corporation. The second game on this list that Valve has made, CS:2 serves as the pinnacle of its genre, featuring high-paced team fights and shootouts that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It serves as the fifth entry in the Counter-Strike series, surpassing its predecessor Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). It features many major tournaments (which are also referred to as “majors”), though its $15 price tag in order to obtain Prime Status (allowing for premium matchmaking with other Prime Status players) makes it slightly less accessible to the average person than the other games mentioned today. However, if you can swallow the cost, CS:2 is sure to provide an extreme level of engagement and fun for those looking to test their skills as a Twitch shooter.While CS:2 has no directly Valve-hosted tournaments in the same way Dota 2 does, it does have its collection of majors, most commonly hosted by ESL under the IEM name. These tournaments most often take place in cities like Katowice, Cologne, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne, Shanghai, and Austin. Overall ESL has aimed to have a global reach with their major tournaments, as well as providing large prize pools to those who aim to win them.
CS:2 takes place over rounds, where each round lasts about a minute or two and involves a 5v5 between both teams. One side is the terrorists, who must reach one of two bomb sites on the map in order to plant a C4 bomb and win the match. Counter-terrorists must prevent the terrorists from reaching the bomb sites but do have the ability to defuse the bomb after it has already been planted, as, once planted, the bomb has a 45-second timer until it finally detonates, requiring the terrorists to defend their newly planted bomb until said detonation. If one team wins a round, it gives them a point. The first team to obtain 13 points wins, with teams switching sides after 12 rounds.
Learning how CS:2 works and how to properly follow it includes learning the maps. Maps like Dust II, Inferno, and Mirage are mainstays in the game and each includes their own strategies and chokepoints. Every map in the game is a certain level of “T-sided” or “CT-sided” (meaning the construction of the map itself is more friendly to terrorists or counter-terrorists) and knowing the different maps in this fashion will allow you to better predict outcomes. Additionally, keeping track of the map rotation is important, as Valve will remove some maps and add new ones after some time. The most recent example would be the controversial map Vertigo being removed from the pool of maps, though it is still available to play in CS:2 in more casual modes.
Analyzing statistics in Counter-Strike: 2
Due to how fast-paced and hectic CS:2 can be, it can be challenging for someone new to the game to properly follow everything that is going on, but there are some general trends and markers that you can mentally watch out for and jot down.Average Damage per Round (ADR) is a statistic that shows how much damage a player does on average in a single round. Every player has 100 health, so if a player has 100 or more ADR, it’s likely that they’re scoring one or more kills per round, and therefore contributing highly to their team.
Counter-Strike 2 also has a money system, with players receiving money at the end of every round in order to buy their guns. The winning team receives considerably more money than the losing team, so you will often see losing teams employ “eco rounds” in which they buy nothing the next round and save and pile up their money across two rounds in order to face their enemies with more premium weapons and armor in an attempt to turn the tide against them.
Additionally, watching players’ KDA (Kill, Death, Assist) ratio is a good metric for determining which players are the stand-outs of their respective teams.
All in all, the world of esports is massive, and while the most popular esports have been compiled here, other ones such as Valorant, Apex Legends, and Rainbow Six Siege are also titles worth researching and analyzing.
