The following entry level article about Dota 2 betting will be useful to those who want to bet on esports but don’t know a lot about the topic yet. Yesportsbet.com analysts will tell you about the history of DotA 2 shortly and then discuss betting on it. How to bet on DotA 2? What are the main factors to take into account? Can you win a lot with it? Let’s check it all together.
DotA 2: Most Popular Betting Discipline History
DotA 2 is one of the most popular esports disciplines. Its developer and publisher the Valve company organizes the tournament named The International every year to invite the strongest teams from all over the world to compete for huge prize pools. The prize pool of The International 2019 reached $34 330 068. It was the absolute record for esports, and the sum is higher than some regional competitions from “real” sports might ever have.
Nowadays, the standard DotA 2 esports prize pool is more than $200 000. DotA 2 tournament broadcasts gather more than 200 000 people daily to watch them offline and online. In many countries, local TV channels also show big esports competitions.
For instance, in 2019, the Swedish entertainment channel TV-6 in cooperation with DreamHack TV announced the broadcasting of The International 3 tournament. On the national channels of China (CCTV) they frequently speak of DotA 2 in news. Esports competition broadcasts on national television gather millions of viewers in China.
Short History of DotA 2 Betting
The history of DotA 2 betting begins with the release of the game that happened in Cologne during the GamesCom 2011 (August 17-21). Bookmakers from Pinnacle Sports noticed the huge esports potential of that game and gave the first betting line on its first tournament – The International 1. The interest about DotA 2 continued growing among both viewers and investors. As a couple of years passed, the number of DotA 2 esports competitions increased significantly, and led to the rise of the audience and the growth of betting numbers, too. According to Pinnacle Sports, the overall quantity of esports bets exceeded one million in December 2014. In our times, DotA 2 betting enthusiasts have a rich choice of options and events to bet on.
What to Bet on in DotA 2?
DotA 2 tournament matches have the following formats:
- Best-of-1 (BO1) – one round, one team wins;
- Best-of-2 (BO2) – two rounds played, a 1-1 draw or one team 2-0 win are possible;
- Best-of-3 (BO3) – one team needs to win 2 rounds
- Best-of-5 (BO5) – one team needs to win 3 rounds.
Classic bookmaking companies give the following DotA 2 betting lines:
- Bet on the winner – everything’s clear here, you try to predict the match winner.
- Bet on the round winner – choose the team you predict to win one of the rounds.
- Asian handicaps.
Esports betting companies additionally offer the following list of options:
- FirstBlood bet – which team will take the first kill on the map;
- Willtakefirst 10 kills bet – which team reaches 10 kills first;
- FirstRoshan – which team kills Roshan first. Roshan is the strongest neutral creep on the entire DotA 2 map. After his death, teams can loot the Aegis of the Immortal – the powerful item giving the additional life to its holder during 300 seconds;
- Round duration bet – the bet to determine the round duration: total more/less than 25 minutes.
According to the opinion of betting analysts, classic betting lines are enough to enjoy the process without taking unnecessary risks. It is difficult to predict results on additional options. Favorites can easily fail the early game stage, and your additional bets won’t play.
What Factors Matter When Betting on DotA 2?
1. Find a Reliable Information Source
The chosen website should allow you:
- Tracking the latest results of different teams, and their overall rating position. With that, you can understand what the team’s current shape is.
- Tracking head-to-head matches.
- Getting more information on the tournament: the prize pool, the list of participants, tournament brackets and tables, rules, etc.
2. Match Selection
That is a critical betting aspect you should consider in any case.
- Check if the match is important for the team you plan to bet on. If the match does not influence the tournament position, the team can easily play relaxed, test new strategies or enter the game without key players.
- Take the team’s schedule into account. It is difficult to play several series during one day.
- Know tournament rules. Tournament rules are critical. If teams from different regions compete with each other online, the game server matters a lot. Split-seconds can solve the result of the match, so you should take them into account.
- In case of online competitions, consider the DDoS-attack probability. Organizers usually give players some fixed time to solve such problems, but if they fail, the team needs to continue the match without one player. Bookmakers do not provide moneyback for such matches. No team can be safe before those troubles. Still, inexperienced and less professional teams are more likely to get into them.
3. Social Media
It may seem surprising, but bettors should track social media profiles and communities belonging to players and teams they plan to bet on.
- This is how you find out about possible roster substitutions.
- It is the way to be aware of possible schedule changes in advance.
- It is the window to see the inner atmosphere of the team.
- And it is the way to know more about physical and mental conditions of players.
4. Experience
When betting on LAN-finals, you should consider the experience of teams. The fact that the certain crew showed good online results doesn’t mean they will be equally good during the public LAN event.
5. Intuition
DotA 2 is an unpredictable game. Unlike in traditional sports, there is no long-distance leader. So, counting on your intuition may matter way more than all the analytics you perform before placing the bet.
