The online gaming industry has grown to become one of the leading entertainment industries in the world. To make the most out of this explosion, most (if not all) bookmakers have recently opened their markets, allowing punters to bet on their favorite games. By far, one of the leading online gameplay on the market to play and bet on is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. According to a 2020 report published by Statista, CS: GO boasts an estimated 24 million monthly users. As if that is not big enough, the game reached the 1 million mark peak concurrent players in February 2020, which is the highest ever recorded in any game.
If you’re a greenhorn in online gaming and online betting, this comprehensive guide will take you through what CS: GO betting is, how it works, and how you can make money with CS: GO by effectively placing your bets. While at it, we are also going to breakdown you can read your CS: GO odds.
What Is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a multiplayer shooter game where two teams of five members on each side try to take down one another. And as the name suggests, on one hand, is the offense team, or the terrorist side, while on the other side is the defense team or the counter-terrorist side.
How Does Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Work?
In terms of gameplay, CS: GO operates under a very basic principle. The terrorist side tries to kill off every member of the counter-terrorist team by either planting a bomb and blowing it up after a 45-second timer or within the 1:55 time-bound round.
Counter-terrorists, on the other hand, are obsessed with trying to stop the terrorists from planting the bomb by either wiping off the entire enemy team within the 1:55 time-bound round, delaying their plan to plant the bomb within the 45-second timer or defusing the bomb before the explosion.
Each CS: GO game has a total of 30 rounds, although it does go for overtime occasionally. The game is split into two halves with each team swapping sides halfway through the rounds, and the winner is declared after winning a total of 16 rounds.
That said, there are multiple competitive CS: GO tournaments running throughout the year, and they come in different formats including single elimination tournaments and league systems with play-offs.
And even though most of them are mainly played online, Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment, which are the companies behind the game, organize major tournaments with huge prize pools in big sports and entertainment venues like London’s Wembley Arena and the Barclays Center in New York.
Now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s delve deeper into the betting aspect. And the first thing we are going to discuss is how to read odds.
How to Read CS: GO Odds
When it comes to betting (online or offline), the first thing you need to familiarize yourself with is how the odds work, what they mean, and how to calculate the possible winnings in any given bet.
In CS: GO, if the team you are vouching for is listed with negatives odds, it means that it is favored to win the match or the event in question. As such, if your team wins the potential winnings are relatively lower compared to those of a team with favorable odds. That said, there are many situations where placing your bets in favor of an underdog team actually turns out to be a better play.
Different Types of CS: GO Bets
When it comes to betting types in Counterstrike, there are three major ways to bet. They include betting on the map winner, series winner, or event winner. All these three bet options come with different odds and conditions, which is why it’s important to go through everything before placing your bet.
CS: GO Map Winner Bets
In professional Counter-Strike play, an active pool has a total of seven maps. Depending on the tournament’s format or the stage at which the tournament is, the games are profiled in two major formats i.e best-of-one or best-of-three. There are occasional instances where you will find a best-of-five format, although it’s super-rare.
Another important thing to mention when it comes to betting on the map’s winner is the availability of maps. In some instances, punters have the opportunity to know the map at hand in advance, although in most cases, it is decided during the pick phase. It is at the pick phase where teams get to eliminate maps out of the equation, as well as pick their favorite map.
One of the most helpful sources of information including team statistics per map is HLTV.org. The site collects helpful Counterstrike information, which can help make informed betting decisions, especially if you have prior knowledge of the map being played.
CS: GO Series Winner Bets
Unlike in the map winner bets, the series winner bets are a little different and complex. Here, the odds are listed such that at least one of the maps that have been selected will ultimately end up being a favorite for both teams. And in most cases, it is more than likely the third map. This means that the one map that has been omitted by the two teams after the pick phase becomes the favorite.
If you’re not sure of the teams that are playing or even which may offer a better bet, HLTV.org ranks all the top teams in the world, which would be a good place to start. Along with that, the site also posts all the supplemental information that you may need about a particular team, be it the past matches or current results.
Such information is particularly important as you may find a team that has lower rankings in the global ranks but does a great job beating good teams. Conversely, you may find a team that has a reasonably good rank but currently undergoing a rough patch, which is an important piece of information to consider before placing your bet.
All in all, knowing the current form of the beth Counter-Strike teams is important in informing the betting decision you take.
Event Winner/Futures Bets
When you are looking to place a bet on a particular team winning a tournament outrightly, there are some important factors to consider. Once again, you need to consult HLTV to see the current global rankings of the team, and once you have settled on the teams you want, check their recent performance as you may consider putting your money elsewhere.
Another important consideration before placing a bet on a particular tournament is its format. In most cases, all the tournaments follow pretty much the same format while others come with a completely new format. A good example is the Blast Pro Series format. Simply Google the tournament’s name and you should be able to get an outline of the format.
5 Tips To Help You Effectively Bet on Counter-Strike
Before you start betting on Counter-Strike, there are many other things you need to consider. In this section, we are going to list a few nuggets to keep in mind before you even consider locking anything in.
• First and foremost, if you want to be a serious CS: GO punter, you should make HLTV your best friend. The site is the Mecca of stats and information on everything touching professional Counter-Strike, which you should always consult the site. By doing so, you are able to pull out past and present stats of a particular team and make informed decisions.
• Another important tip to consider especially when you are betting on tournaments/futures is their recent performance against other top teams. Many gamblers make the mistake of only looking at the HLTV rankings only to face the disappointment of their favorite teams losing to a much smaller team.
• The format of the tournament is equally important. This is especially the case when it comes to betting on events/futures. The more a tournament has best-of-one formats, the more the chances of getting a wild upset later.
• Checking the current form of any given team is particularly important in CS: GO. As such, even if your team has a higher rank, ensure you have counterchecked their recent match history. And if you are unsure whether they have participated in any event, you can quickly hop on twitch.tv and search for their previous performance to have a better visual understanding of their gameplay.
• Last but certainly not least, always look for the teams that are participating in a particular tournament. If a team like Astralis is attending the tournament, you can be sure that it will be a blast.
Final Thoughts: CS: GO Betting
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is bigger than it has ever been. With dozens of online league matches and on-site tournaments going down every week, you have countless opportunities to make your CS GO betting predictions. Better yet, the number one spot at CS GO world is constantly switching up, and no individual or team is ever guaranteed to win.
This makes for an extremely fun, exciting, and exhilarating experience, which is what betting is all about. While at it you also get to make money, as well as meet new CS: GO enthusiasts from around the world. And with the above-mentioned tips, you shouldn’t have a problem placing your first CS: GO bet.
