Esports betting has grown with an incredible pace through the years and the options are close to unlimited in this day and age. One of the most important factors when betting on esports is to do so at a reliable operator that offers the games and odds you are interested in. We will present some of the best options for CS:GO betting further down and we also recommend you to have a look at our operator reviews, which includes many of the industry leaders.
Many people relate CS:GO betting with skin betting, which has been incredibly popular ever since the early days of the game’s release. If you have experience from that, making the transition to betting with real money will be a smooth one, but as it differs you will benefit from our content regardless. There are also operators who accept both skins and real money as currency as they offer ways to trade between the two.
With all that being said it’s time for us to have a look at how to choose the right operator for your needs.
Where to Bet on CS:GO?
CS:GO betting has become increasingly more popular over the years and one of the most important questions is where to bet. Operators have many names – bookie, sportsbook, bookmaker or betting site to name a few, but at the end of the day the only thing matters is what they offer you as a player. We like to use a few categories to determine whether the site suits you or not. We do so with the following questions:
- Is the operator available for players where you are from?
- Are they trustworthy and reliable?
- Are their betting markets for CS:GO good?
- Are the odds competitive and/or better than others?
- Do their bonuses suit you?
This might seem like quite a few questions for choosing where to bet, but they are very important ones to ask yourself. The most important factor at all times is to know you are betting with an operator you can trust. For this their license speaks volumes and at betting.com we guarantee you that all of our partners have secure licenses that ensure your safety. An operator’s longevity in the industry together with their reputation is also a factor that indicates quite well how reliable they are. All of this information is covered in-depth in our reviews and we highly recommend reading them before choosing an operator, as we regard this as the most important factor when doing so.
When choosing a betting operator for CS:GO it will obviously be key that their game selection and odds are good in comparison to others. For CS:GO this is an easy task as most operators have a vast selection, as the game is one of the most popular for esports. However, if you like to bet on smaller events some will do far better than others. Comparing odds between operators is also beneficial as they can differ quite a bit. For this purpose our odds comparison tools come in handy to guarantee you the highest CS:GO odds available on the market. Every operator will take a so-called cut, which creates the house edge that we are looking to beat. The lower the cut, the better it is for the punters.
Last, but not least – bonuses! Yes, this also a key factor when choosing where to bet. Bonuses vary heavily depending on the operator you choose and they range from no bonus, to free bets to big initial deposit bonuses. It’s not hard to find out which bonus each operator offers and if it suits you, however we recommend to always read the terms and conditions thoroughly to not end up getting a surprise down the line. For all of our recommended operators you can find this information in the operator review.
What Site is Best for CS:GO Betting?
This is the question it all boils down to and while it’s impossible to answer, as we all have different needs and preferences, there are still good suggestions to make. CS:GO betting is as mentioned highly available, but many operators have a small selection of either games or betting markets still today. We have chosen our three top picks for betting on CS:GO due to their great selection of games and markets, together with being reliable and good sportsbooks overall. The best odds for CS:GO betting in our opinion can be found at:
- Unibet
- Betway
- Bet365
We believe these three truly show what CS:GO betting is all about and they are a great place for the beginner as much as the veteran bettor. A combination of great odds for CS:GO and being veterans in the industry you can trust wholeheartedly makes them obvious choices. There are many other good choices for betting on CS:GO, but to get going any of these three will be a great choice.
Strategy for CS:GO Betting
We now know a little bit about betting in general and where to do it, but the next step to take is to understand HOW to do it. We will begin with saying that whether you play for small amounts with a small budget or the total opposite the main rule is the same – never play for more than a small amount of your budget per game. It’s also important to understand how important it is to truly find good odds and games to bet on, as the operators have a good grasp of what they are doing and we are trying to beat them. With that said there are obviously ways for us to be profitable and we will start by looking at a few ways we can get ahead of the operators and find mistakes in how they set their odds lines. For CS:GO specifically these are a few ways to do research about a game:
- Analyse earlier results and statistics (on HLTV for example).
- Look for information on the teams and players social media, as they can give fast information about a stand-in for the game or other unexpected circumstances.
- Be aware of which maps will be played or are the most likely to be played, as this is directly tied to expected outcomes. This also means knowing how good different teams are on different maps to begin with of course.
- Look at more markets than the winner of the game. We will have a deeper look at this topic further down, but always keep in mind there’s many more markets available.
- Remember livebetting can be a good option, as CS:GO has big swings in games and understanding how and why these happen can bring you a big advantage.
- Last, but not least watching a lot of CS:GO is maybe a no brainer, but it still needs to be said. Understanding the game and seeing the teams in action will help you a whole lot, as statistics is not everything.
If you manage to combine a few or all of these things you have gotten a long way. However, none of this will ever matter if you don’t follow the most important rule – NEVER play for more than your limits. This is what bettors would call bankroll management and it’s the most important factor and always will be. Betting is called betting for a reason and an outcome of a game is never, ever certain. This holds true for CS:GO, and maybe even more so than some other esports games. CS:GO includes loads of random moments that form and shape the whole outcome of a game. One day you will hit a cold streak and if your bet sizing is too big, you will eventually lose it all. So, what are appropriate limits then?
Without going too in-depth just yet and making it too complicated from the get go we think a general rule as start would be to normally bet around 1% of your bankroll at a given match or market is a good start. This could vary as there are different strategies to follow and different games or selections can create differences. For example we can’t view a 50/50 game the same way we do a tournament winner who is 1/100 to win. The key factor for success will always be to follow strict limits as cold and hot streaks happen.
When you familiarize yourself with betting on CS:GO, or any esport for that matter, you will encounter punters talking about bet sizes in the form of “units”. This represents a percentage of your total bankroll and therefore 1 unit would be the equivalent of 1% of your total bankroll.
Long story short it doesn’t matter how good our research and knowledge is if we don’t do this. The edges we are looking for are thin and we need to treat them as such. Especially for CS:GO betting beginners we recommend to keep your bet sizes down and build a bankroll slowly, while we can also learn from our mistakes. Keeping track of all of your results is also key, so that we can see our long term results and adjust to do better in the future. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but good research and proper bankroll management will show in your results long term. At betting.com this process is fully automatic if the games are offered through our site, but don’t worry, if they aren’t you can manually fill them in through the automated bet tracker. The ability to analyse your betting history on CS:GO can be a game changer if done properly, as we can find our strengths and improve further, but more importantly find our weaknesses and plug the leaks.
Time for us to have a look at what options we have when it comes to betting on CS:GO.
Betting markets for CS:GO
As we have mentioned a few times already, CS:GO offers odds on many more markets than the game winner. This is important to keep in mind as sometimes the odds for a winner might not be attractive, but others options might be. In all honesty the odds set for the winner of a game are usually the ones the operators set closest to the actual real numbers. As such we can find value elsewhere with the right research. These odds are not offered by every operator out there, but that’s why it is also important to choose a sportsbook that fits your needs in this area. Let’s take some examples of betting markets usually available for CS:GO.
- Map handicap – Offered for almost all games played best of three/five. You simply bet on one team with a handicap like -1.5 or +1.5 in the game.
- Round handicap – Also a very common option and means betting for one team to win by more than x amount of rounds on a map. Or likewise, to not lose by more than x amount of rounds.
- Over/Under rounds – Betting on a map including over or under x amount of rounds.
- Over/Under maps played – Offered for best of three/five series.
- Win a specific round – Usually offered for the pistol round, but some also offer live betting on any round at all. Usually these take a big cut, but if you have knowledge about the economic state of the game it might be a good choice.
- Kills by a given player – Not the most common market out there, but a very interesting and entertaining one. Can be used with an advantage with good knowledge about the matchup and the maps being played.
These are some of the most common, but also uncommon markets offered for CS:GO betting. We recommend you to always keep all of the possibilities open when you do research for a game. There is no reason to only look at one of our options when we are doing our background work and a lot of times you can find better odds by looking outside of the most common ones.
An interesting way to view your betting options is to not pay attention to the operators’ set odds before you do your research. You can simply look over the games and all available information and set your own odds in your mind before checking them out. This might sound tricky and while it’s hard in the beginning, it will develop your understanding of how and why the lines are as they are. This also helps you to have no other bias than your own research and knowledge to back it up. For CS:GO betting this works very, very well as there is an ocean of statistics to help you out. Even if this can sound difficult for a beginner, it is a good habit to get into and as research together with a non-biased view is a few of the main pillars to become a successful bettor we hope you approach it that way!
How Can I Become Better at Betting on CS:GO?
We hope that this guide to betting on CS:GO has helped you with an overall picture of how to approach it. Both when it comes to choosing an operator, understanding the markets and odds, but also how to start building a strategy on how to do it the right way. As betting in general is a big and complex topic there is obviously much more to learn. Learning just by yourself and by doing it is a good way, but there are also ways to get a shortcut.
In our betting section we offer both a more in-depth strategy guide for esports betting in general and we also publish short articles about different betting topics. Keep an open mind to learning more about betting in general and not only on CS:GO or esports – the same rules apply for every type of betting. At betting.com you can find a big variation of topics you can learn from in our betting university. These include betting strategy, deep dives into more niche betting markets, psychological and mental topics as well as comparing different types of operator options.
Our goal at betting.com is to provide a way for a new bettor on esports to get going and enjoy betting, but also to move towards being a professional one, together with offering value even to the veterans. We hope you have enjoyed reading this CS:GO betting guide and if you are interested in taking the next step on your betting head over to our betting university to find out more!
