For each successful strategy there are two key components - to have a system that you have found to work and to have the discipline to follow it very strictly. You can not be successful in eSports betting without any of those two things. Maybe you can be, but you have to be a very lucky guy. Having a system that works is the way to be profitable.
On the other hand, to have a strategy, you need to be aware of the rules in electronic sports to perfection and then find out what works best for you. In other words, you first need to become an expert - know the shape of the players, their strengths and weaknesses, the in-game performance, and how they play in a team.
Once you determine which markets are most profitable for you, go to the second part of the equation - the sequence. To be consistent means to stick to your plan, adapt, and improve it. But it is very important, no matter whether you are betting for fun or profit, accept a disciplined approach to your betting.
On which esports you should bet?
Suppose you have already played the game Counter-Strike. When you've made the first steps in this old school game, you hardly knew the first time, which weapons to use? Of course not. You have started using one, then second, third, and so you have gained knowledge of which suits you the best. The same thing is with betting - we advise you to start with one eSport at the beginning. It does not matter whether CSGO, Dota 2, LoL or WoT.
This is usually the game you already know, you know how to play, so take advantage of that and start studying other important aspects. Read the news, follow all the teams and players on Twitter and Twitch, and always be informed about the form of the competitors. Watch how they play, on which cards are stronger, which ones are less well represented. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of each team. Explore everything, explore teams, track game results, track the way teams play, even history of the tournaments. Every small detail can be useful. The more knowledge you have before you make your bet, the better chance you have to make the right decision.
Once you build a routine for one cybersport, start using the same routine for other sports. It is not necessary to know all the games, but if you do, it will give you the advantage of having more betting opportunities.
Which markets to choose?
The second important step in building a good betting strategy is to focus on certain markets. These are currently the most popular eSports markets:
- Match winner (single)
- Match winner (combination)
- Special markets (card winners, over/under, etc.)
- Systems
- Live betting
For starters, start betting on winners from one or more matches and slowly start exploring special markets, combo bets, handicaps, and live betting.
Betting system
The betting system simply means - how to invest your money. Here you can choose one of the following systems, you can develop also your system:
- All in - every time
- Every time you bet with the same amount
- Using a progressive betting system
We advise you to start betting with a fixed amount on each bet and then when you level-up, start using a well-established system such as Martingale or Fibonacci.
After selecting a start amount and depositing this amount in one or several bookmakers, divide the start bankroll to 20-100 units. If you are a more aggressive player, select a smaller number of units for higher bets. If you are a more conservative bettor, then divide the bank into a larger number of units.
We recommend you to never risk more than 5% of your entire bank in a single bet, no matter how "good" or "100% sure" the game may be. Bets are unpredictable, and even more so in electronic sports, where sometimes chances are severely distorted. Do not bet on your favorite team. This can mislead you.
How to find value bets?
An important part of any winning strategy is finding good odds. What exactly does this mean? When you have chosen a match, it's a good idea to look at the odds for this game at different bookmakers with the idea of finding the highest odds. Therefore, we advise you to open accounts with several reputable bookmakers that offer bets for electronic sports. The purpose of this is to always be able to bet on your desired event and under the best possible conditions.
This will also allow you to find a simple bet with more value. This is a bet on which you predict that the chances of an outcome are higher than the bookmaker odds. For example, if a team is given odds of 1.60, that is a chance of 62.5% that the team will win the match. But once you have done a detailed analysis of this game, you can conclude that the chances of winning the team are higher - 72%. This means that the bookmaker could underestimate your team, this will represent a value bet.
Take notes on your bets
At this point in your life, you are probably familiar with spreadsheet software and tools such as Excel or Google Sheets. If not, do not worry. We want you to know that tracking bets are extremely important. Track the following items when betting on electronic sports:
- The games you bet
- The odds you bet on
- The system you have used
- Your budget (invested and returned profits)
- Efficiency in cyber betting
- Other notes
We recommend you do this for (at least) the first half a year. The ultimate goal is to have as much information as possible so you can filter what works and what does not. The goal is to focus on your profitable markets and eliminate the markets where you are losing money.
Strategy evaluation and improvement
You can’t fix what you don’t know. That's why evaluation is so important to track your bets. Once you have enough data on eSports betting, you can find out what to improve. Maybe there are markets where you miss something or do you have a wrong approach?