This article is based on my own experiences as an E-sports bettor on League Of Legends and Overwatch which seeks to share a passion and does not aim in any way to be exhaustive. It gives some thoughts on how to bet on E-sports by highlighting the notable differences with the so-called "traditional" sports. My vision exposed via this webpage is obviously open to any discussion allowing to make it evolve and to improve it.
This article introduces E-sports to people who have little or no knowledge of this new emerging discipline. Unfortunately, it is often not highlighted by the mass media in relation to the important evolution of this phenomenon in recent years. It will deal with the strategic aspect of sports betting, ignoring the mental aspect which I believe is common to other types of betting.
E-Sports being a discipline in its own right, there are some notable differences in the sports betting market compared to traditional sports betting:
The main skill of an E Sport bettor is for me to know the game on which he bets on the tip of his fingers, its lexicon and the different evolutions of the game and even to anticipate them. For that there is no secret, you have to watch a lot of games to understand the different strategies and repetitive patterns of the game. You have to be able to anticipate the scenario of the game from the beginning to the end and the choices made by the coaches. You need to be aware of the metagame (the most common and often the most effective strategy used to win) and known strategies to complete your scenario. It is also necessary to be aware of the game's news and what the developers want to do.
The knowledge of the teams and the different competitions on which the bettor bets comes second for me. It is important to know the teams you are betting on and their playing styles. Each team often has its own strategies of predilection, more or less effective depending on the circumstances. This is a determining factor for betting on "facts of the game", such as Over/Under.
You also have to be comfortable with all the social networks through which players, commentators and analysts communicate a lot. As you know, information asymmetry is a huge factor in the sports betting world. If you have information that the bookmaker does not necessarily have, it will be easy to detect the values. It is also necessary to know the different sites that provide information about sports betting in general.
Understanding and interpreting the statistics is necessary to make the right choice of bets. However, statistics should not be the main motivation for choosing a particular bet, but only a support point. It is also necessary to know the good statistics sites that have relevant data, which can sometimes be difficult to find on certain games.