Betting on e-sports

So I was looking on pinnaclesports site earlier on and I noticed on the side bar 'e-sports'. This is the first betting operator I've seen give odds on Starcraft 2, LoL & DOTA. Found it quite interesting that you can in this day and age actually bet on esport matches, also on pinnaclesports they do allow winners, so its feasible someone who knew a lot about the teams/players and knew what was value could actually profit in the longrun like people do on other sports.

Was anyone else aware that you could bet on Starcraft2, LoL, DOTA??

Don't want to encourage anyone to bet, but since I bet/trade on sports I found it interesting.

I see it as potentially flawed in that playing online does allow a level of anonimity and hence their could be a higher possibility of things like fixing games than in real sports.

That's a very good point edh. However I don't think theres enough money in it at the momemt to make that such a threat. On the other hand as you said about the level of anonimity I guess its plausible that players could bet on themselves or fix matches to make more money, not likely to be regulated heavily or even at all I can imagine.

I'd love for it to become available on betfair, as if there was some liquidity in some of the matches I can imagine it'd be fantastic to trade on as an inplay event, mainly due to so many people having little knowledge about the game/s it would likely be quite volatile price wise with people not being able to price a match up correctly.

Because it's such a new area in betting edh I can imagine its going to throw up some interestng angles for quite a while yet.

However I don't think theres enough money in it at the momemt to make that such a threat.

But you could put a huge amount on it if you could find a bookie that will take the money. Here's a scenario:

1. Professional player wants to make a huge amount of cash and isn't afraid of fraud and will put some money into it.
2. They have a friend who can't even work out which way round to hold a mouse and is happy to play along and get a share of the winnings.
3. They arrange a game between themselves.
4. The friend puts a huge amount of money on them winning against the professional player on odds of 99:1 against.
5. They then play the game and the friend amazingly wins. How has this happened? They were both playing each other but from the other ones account. There is no way of proving who actually played on the an individual account unless you're going to have lots of cameras, nasal recognition etc.
6. Bookie has to pay out a vast sum of money.

You find another sport where you can't actually tell that kind of fix. In horse racing don't you think someone would notice if the favourite was mysteriously replaced by a donkey?

Now realistically you can expect some allegations of fraud to pop up in such cases. Bookies do monitor bets made at ridiculous odds that then win and if patterns are spotted, they'll pass it to the Police. The problem is that this will potentially devalue those results that do go in an unexpected direction and there will be allegations of fraud even when there is none, simply because no one can prove anything.

2. They have a friend who can't even work out which way round to hold a mouse and is happy to play along and get a share of the winnings.

Good luck getting him into an exclusive Starcraft 2 pro-league with a six/seven-digit prizemoney, sponsors, ten-thousands of viewers etc.

Totally agree with asyyy, even if it's higher chances of fraud on the same time I don't think it wouldn't be such big problem, at least not in the beginning.

Yea edh, what asyyy said basically. This isn't your run of the mill, friend is a pro so I can play vs him and get bet on.

It's treated as an actual sport, and as such only 'pro' player's play in it, otherwise no bookmaker would take it obviously.

I thought this was another spam thread

How about betting elo?

Betting ELO?

Yes, comprehensive and integrated betting mechanism for spectators.

I would be surprised it there was no betting on Starcraft 2, Lol and Dota. To be honest, e-sport is very very big (could be bigger of course), especially in those games. SC2 has a tremendous viewership. And I could actually bet on it and probably win a lot of times. I follow Starcraft 2 very closely I know the biggest players and their skills.
The lastest Dreamhack a few day ago had 100k viewers online. And not counting the ones who actually were there physically and watched the matches.

I can tell you that the pro players and the ones that organize and sponsors (both the events and players) take it very seriously. I've only heard of 1 case in SC2 where two players botched a match, they were severely punished and their reputation went to hell. One of those players quit the game all-together and went to LoL.
In LoL you may have a bit more fraud going on, heard of a few scandals there, but SC2 is very clean and professional. Don't know the status of Dota though, don't follow that.

Sounds interesting ai
Will have a chat with you sometime on IRC.

Hey I write a blog betting on esports and wanted to add some things to your conversation:

The limit for wagering on esports at Pinnacle Sports is very low (€ 100) and they only offer bets on the biggest leagues. I don't think that a lot of pro players will give up their spot for a couple of hunderd bucks.


If you want to find out more about esports betting I want to invite you to my blog:

link removed by moderator

Well €100 isn't exactly a life changing amount so I can see why people would be unlikely to cheat for it. I certainly see why it's capped.

Please take some time to settle in before using the forums as an advertising platform, esportsfever.

I can see your point and and did not want to abuse this fourm! I just wanted to add some sources if this is not welcome - no problem! I hope you dont mind I changed back my homepage on my profile!
If you feel the need to change it again do me a favour and pick something funny - life is boring enough. :-)

It is not welcome because it clearly benefits you with views and SEO. Seeing how you apparently joined only to plug your site, I can't accept keeping the links until you've shown that you want to stick around on the forums. I repeat, we are not an advertising platform.

I'm changing your profile again, and putting you in a restricted user group for now.

EDIT: And rot13 isn't boring

Could you please PM me your blog link would like to take a look, I have one also so you can follow mine if you like. I don't bet on esports, but I do bet/trade on tennis.

I will check out the limits on pinnaclesports also, didn't realise it would only be a £100 max limit..still I guess that's not bad for such a niche sport actually when you think of probably how little people bet on it. I see though obviously there are the restricted maximum bet sizes (as per usual on pinnacle) until nearer the event, and they are quite small amounts on esports, but not unexpected.

It is not welcome because it clearly benefits you with views and SEO. Seeing how you apparently joined only to plug your site, I can't accept keeping the links until you've shown that you want to stick around on the forums. I repeat, we are not an advertising platform.

I'm changing your profile again, and putting you in a restricted user group for now.

EDIT: And rot13 isn't boring

So just to get it clear: you reserve the right to change my profil information at any time. Maybe next time do a little post for me... Read my messages...
What is this here? The 1984 version of Facebook?

Okay sorry but this goes a little to far - you have made you point and let me know that I am not welcome here.
Have fun....and bye!!!

So just to get it clear: you reserve the right to change my profil information at any time. Maybe next time do a little post for me... Read my messages...
What is this here? The 1984 version of Facebook?

Okay sorry but this goes a little to far - you have made you point and let me know that I am not welcome here.
Have fun....and bye!!!

Absolutely. If this is a misunderstanding, I'm sorry and I wish it could have been cleared up earlier. But as it seems, your main intent in joining this forum was to publicize your website, which I deem unacceptable.

I have to deal with spammers here all the time and I don't ask their permission before wiping their profile and banning them. I showed some clemency here as you were on topic and wished to contribute to the conversation (therefore I opted to only remove the links and not ban you automatically) but that doesn't change the fact that joining the forum mainly to advertise is not welcome.

While I agree that my actions are rather harsh and I could indeed have approached you in private to resolve the issue, my default point of view was (and still is) that you are only here to gain views and SEO. Your two edits on Wikipedia four days ago pushing your website as references (even though I'm sure it would not be recognized as a reliable source) show that you are indeed working on that.

I don't regret my decisions and I disagree with your interpretation of this as illegitimate censorship.

EDIT: swapped two sentences

So just to get it clear: you reserve the right to change my profil information at any time. Maybe next time do a little post for me... Read my messages...
What is this here? The 1984 version of Facebook?

Okay sorry but this goes a little to far - you have made you point and let me know that I am not welcome here.
Have fun....and bye!!!

No.1 rule of every forum and message board: never question the admins and mods. Even if you think you're right, you should build up some reputation before ranting. Also, I don't think you get how any forums work: It's not a basic right, but a privilage to use it. Play it by the book, or you'll find yourself fast on the unlucky end of the Allmighty Banhammer.

In your first post, the link was removed by me.

No.1 rule of every forum and message board: never question the admins and mods. Even if you think you're right, you should build up some reputation before ranting. Also, I don't think you get how any forums work: It's not a basic right, but a privilage to use it. Play it by the book, or you'll find yourself fast on the unlucky end of the Allmighty Banhammer.

In your first post, the link was removed by me.

I disagree. I gladly take criticism from members, new or old, for my administration and moderation of the forum. Anyone is free to disagree and question me on a personal level. I can make mistakes, but I still don't think this was one.

(Sorry to have questioned you as a mod )

Also, I believe I actually rot13d the link in the first post before you came, which was then undone by this person and then removed again by you. I might be wrong on that one.

That is how I perceived this too.

In before mods take over this thread entirely... Oh wait