Betting tools have become a go to for many US sports bettors for gaining these valuable insights, and uncovering other details that can enhance their results. But while there are tons of choices for NFL EV optimization or NBA player research, eSports is still a young market, and not many betting tools or software cover it just yet. That’s where we come in.
Having reviewed countless betting tools and software, we have encountered a fair few that do eSports. Appreciating the plight of the eSports fans and bettors, we have compiled a shortlist of the best betting tools for eSports bettors – with EV, excellent arbitrage opportunities, and insights for bettors to make smart decisions.
Best Betting Tools for eSports
It is not easy to find betting tools specifically for eSports, the majority of the software and tools you will come across stick to the 4 major US sports and college sports. Even big sports like soccer, tennis, golf, and UFC are not as widely covered as the US sports, so the pickings for eSports betting tools are a lot slimmer.
From the few tools that do actually cover eSports betting, we narrowed down the options to only pick the top rated tools that can really make a difference. Below we have highlighted the very best betting tools out there to take your eSports betting strategy to the next level.
#1. OddsJam
One of the most well known betting tools in the US, OddsJam has a special category reserved for eSports betting. It covers Call of Duty, CS:GO, CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Rocket League, Starcraft and Valorant, which are the eSports that most commonly appear in US sportsbooks. You can view the odds provided on these eSports at all the top US sportsbooks, and get premium analysis of the winning probabilities, vig, EV+ for the bets, and line shop for the best prices.
We like how OddsJam goes into very specific betting markets, presenting all the team props, player bets, and niche eSports betting markets that may store high value. Beyond this, OddsJam has arbitrage bets, sharp money odds, bet tracking, promo finders, and deposit optimizers to tweak your betting strategy to perfection.
The only downside is that OddsJam is pretty expensive, coming up to about $200 per month (it is billed monthly, with a daily subscription price of $6.60). You can save 15% on the annual subscription, which takes the price to around $162 to $167.40.
OddsJam Pros:
- Breaks down the odds with EV, average prices and win % insights
- Arbitrage betting, middles and low holds
- Promo finder and deposit optimizer tool
- Covers all the major eSports competitions
- Bet tracking and optimization
OddsJam Cons:
- Not all eSports events have full coverage (props etc)
- Subscription is too expensive for casual bettors
#2. Bet Hero
This betting tool doesn’t just cater to the US, it is also big in Europe and covers over 20 sports, with odds sourced from hundreds of sportsbooks. The eSports coverage is better than any of the other tools we have come across, with top leagues in Counter-Strike, Dota 2, eSoccer, League of Legends, Mobile Legends, Rainbow Six, Starcraft, Valorant, and many other hot eSports. For single games, Bet Hero covers game outcomes, spreads, map/round totals, partial game derivatives (1st map/round, etc), and even props for highly covered events. For such hyped up events, you can get odds comparisons at over 150 sportsbooks, which is phenomenal coverage for eSports betting.
Bet Hero is not just a line shopping tool. It also provides EV+ analysis, arbitrage bets, a portfolio tracker for optimizing your bankroll, and a bespoke Bet Checker function. With the Bet Checker, you can enter the odds on any bet, and Bet Hero will give you an approximation of the value of the odds, however we found it is still a new function and doesn’t work with eSports wagers.
Bet Hero’s Tracking function is one of its most useful features, logging your bets and monitoring the stake size, odds, EV, CLV, and your profit margin. Using it, you can look back at your historic results, tracking the CLV against your bought prices, observe the EV calculations against the real results, and optimize your future bets based on what works best.
Bet Hero Pros:
- Best eSports coverage with over 40 international and regional leagues
- Competitive arbitrage betting suggestions
- Has accurate EV analysis for eSports bets
Bet Hero Cons:
- Bet Checker doesn’t work for eSports
- Many sportsbooks are international and not available in the US
#3. SureBet
SureBet has a very simple interface, but this tool packs a massive database of arbitrage bets, middles and high value wagers encompassing virtually all sports. The betting tool covers all the most popular eSports, including Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Dota, NBA2K, King of Glory, Mobile Legends, League of Legends, Valorant, Warcraft and Rainbow 6. In total, there are 20+ eSports categories to pick from, and SureBet extends its reach to all the biggest international and regional eSports contests.
The betting tool specializes in arbitrage wagers, pooling odds together from nearly 400 sportsbooks, and filtering by market, odds, time, and, most importantly ROI. At any given time, you can find millions of arbitrage bets, tens of thousands of value wagers, and thousands of middles. The interface and overall design is very dated looking, and when you first open it, it has an endless list of wagers to pick from with little to no organization. But on the right hand side, there is a filter tool that helps you narrow down the options based on sport, league, sportsbooks, tournaments, ROI, age, number of outcomes, and even advanced filtering settings.
The best part is that SureBets is much cheaper than other comparable tools. The value bets are free, and the arbitrage wagers are part of the Professional package that costs €25.90 per month. The Professional+ includes middles as well, and costs just €27.90 per month. Considering most arbitrage tools in the US will cost you around $100 or more per month, SureBet is a highly affordable tool.
SureBet Pros:
- Far more affordable than average arbitrage tools
- Comprehensive filtering tools
- Scans odds from nearly 400 sportsbooks
SureBet Cons:
- Very basic design
- A lot of the sportsbooks are not regulated in the US
- It doesn’t have detailed EV assessment with any vig, hold and win % calculations
#4. Props.Cash
Props.Cash is primarily an NBA and NFL props betting tool. It scans the player performance metrics, historical data, recent form, and injury reports to make a database where you can research your next bets. Props.Cash also covers Counter-Strike Global Offensive, giving rare insights into individual player performances, and analyzing these metrics against the market prices at top US sportsbooks.
You can pick players on CS:GO teams, and check their form, recent game performances, and even jump into metrics like Average Rating by Map, Kill-Death Difference, Average Damage Per Round, Assists, Flash Assists, and other crucial information. Props.Cash is highly detailed, and you can cross refer the data based on different CS:GO prop markets – by map and by kills or headshots. One of the specialties of Props.Cash is its visual presentation. It collects the important data, and converts it into charts, so you can analyze the metrics visually.
This helps identify trends, compare the historical data from different games, and gain a good understanding of player form and consistency. A research tool first, Props.Cash doesn’t offer much insight into odds and market assessments by sportsbooks. You get basic line shopping features that compare the odds at various US sportsbooks including DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and so on. There is also a Historical Line function, and an Alt Lines feature, but these are rarely provided for the CS:GO bets – Props.Cash usually gives them for NBA or NFL bets.
Props.Cash Pros:
- One of a kind CS:GO player research tool
- Analyzes metrics on eSports gamer/team props
- Basic line shopping on top US sportsbooks
Props.Cash Cons:
- Not all features are provided for eSports
- Props only betting tool
- Only covers CS:GO
B2B Betting Tools for eSports
When searching for the best eSports betting tools, you may come across software like PandaScore Oddin.gg which are independent data providers and API solutions developers. These providers have full-stack eSports solutions, including integrated odds screens, statistical analysis and AI powered projections.
But they are B2B solutions.
Basically, that means they are not made for commercial use, but instead for betting tool operators that want to branch out into eSports and use specialized solutions to create a bespoke product for their users.
Therefore, pricing models can start from hundreds of dollars per video game, with real-time data costing over a thousand dollars (per game).
These are not intended for the average bettor.
Top B2B eSports API and Data Providers:
- Sportradar
- PandaScore
- Abios
- GRID
- Oddin.gg
eSports Betting Considerations
As a younger market than the major US sports or sports like soccer, tennis and golf, the eSports betting coverage and statistical analysis are not as readily available.
Where a betting tool can source thousands of data points for a single NFL game and analyze hundreds of betting markets for EV+ or arbitrage bets, the options are a lot slimmer on eSports. This is because:
- Fewer Markets/Coverage: Even the best eSports betting sites may have a handful of props bets. Most games only have the standard moneylines, total maps, and map spread bets
- Fewer Data Points: The major sports have an abundance of statistics, which are documented by sports data providers like SportRadar, ESPN, Genius Sports, Stats Perform (Opta), and more. For eSports the documentation is not as comprehensive, though it is growing in size
- Less Market Demand: There are far fewer CS or Dota 2 bettors than there are NFL fans. With less demand, there is less public data to go on when looking for crowd betting trends and where the public sentiment lies
eSports is more niche betting than mainstream, and this creates pros and cons that you must be aware of.
eSports Betting Pros
On the plus side, this means that there is more guesswork done by sportsbooks. They have less public data and data providers to deliver the analytics with which they will calculate the odds. In betting terms, that translates to broad over and under estimated odds, opening up possibilities for bettors who do their research. The sportsbooks may unilaterally bias their odds towards a heavy favorite, creating high value on the underdog. Or, base their projections on team stats and performances, without going into the finer details such as the hardware, player psychology, audience impacts, and other factors that can influence a game.
eSports Betting Cons
This opens up many great opportunities, but there are cons that you should be aware of too. For eSports and other sports considered niche or fringe, the sportsbooks tend to raise their juice a little. They won’t get the same volume of bets as popular sports, and without the same pool of data to fall back on, the sportsbooks tend to cover their risks with slightly higher juice.
Where eSports Betting Tools Come Into the Picture
EV, arbitrage, and line shopping tools are specifically designed to pick out these inconsistencies and give you a fair assessment of the risk vs reward. There are tools that devig odds, calculate the true value, and even give you rough hit rates of winning probabilities, to put you ahead of the market.
The other big pro about niche sports betting is that the discrepancies in the odds tend to be a lot larger. This makes it easier for the tools to weigh the sportsbook prices and lines against each other, looking for higher arbitrage betting opportunities. Plus, they can make more accurate EV analysis, cross referring the odds to look for heavily biased prices and underestimated potential outcomes.
Whether you want to hedge your eSports bets, capitalize on high value opportunities, or diversify your strategy with various betting angles, the best eSports betting tools can help you build smarter strategies and optimize your bankroll.
eSports Betting in the US
Most states with legal sports betting allow eSports wagers, but there are some states with constraints on this specific sport. Esports betting may not be available at most sportsbooks in the following states:
Sports Betting Legal – eSports Limited
- Arkansas
- New York
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Wisconsin
- New Hampshire
- Montana
- North Dakota
In the following states, sports betting is legal but eSports betting is explicitly not.
Sports Betting Legal – eSports Betting Not
- Pennsylvania
- Indiana
These are the 20+ states that have legalized eSports betting, and they have no restrictions on sportsbooks providing eSports bets.
Sports Betting Legal – eSports Betting Legal
- Arizona
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Tennessee
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
Esports betting falls into the same category as betting on professional sports in these states. They have the same minimum legal age conditions, KYC requirements, and the same house rules on the betting conditions as any other sport. Just like betting on any other sports, you must pay tax on eSports betting – a federal betting tax, which is around 24% and will be withheld from your payments, and an income tax (if applicable in your state of residence).
eSports Betting Tool Features
Each betting tool and software has its own purpose. There are platforms that provide numerous betting tools, rolling them into one to give you better versatility. Then, some platforms stick to specific functions, such as statistical research or just arbitrage bets.
To give you a better idea of what’s out there, you should learn about how these tools work, and their intended purpose for optimizing your eSports betting strategy.
Odds Tracking and Line Shopping
Odds trackers, also called checkers, are the simplest betting tools out there. They are used to analyze the different prices given at sportsbooks for the same bets, so you can compare the odds and look for the best lines for your wagers. However, there are nuances to line shopping that can impact the value of the odds you get from a tool.
How many sportsbooks the tool covers, the depth of betting markets it explores, and how quickly the checker scans odds can make all the difference between one betting tool and the next. Ideally, you want as much coverage as possible, even if some of the sportsbook odds listed are not available in the US. This gives you a clearer idea of the prices of the odds.
Having near real time odds scanning is just as important. We have seen a lot of negative feedback relating to “fake odds” or “false prices”. In the majority of cases, it can be explained by the speed of the refresh rate. Especially when odds can fluctuate greatly in the space of minutes.
EV+ Betting Analytics
Expected value is a percentage, rated based on the odds provided and the projected win possibility. There are numerous ways to calculate the projections, basing the calculations on the odds prices or statistical analysis to gain a real idea of how likely a bet is to win.
Essentially, these tools aim to optimize your bankroll by pinpointing bets that have a more favorable risk to reward ratio, so that you can get better value for your money and pick the smarter bets.
Arbitrage and Hedged Betting
Due to market scarcity and fewer resources to base the odds on, niche sports can present arbitrage and hedged bettors with significant opportunities. When the discrepancies are large enough, it opens a door for arbitrage bets, where you can hedge your wagers at different sportsbooks to lock in a profit regardless of the outcome.
Arbitrage betting tools can be rated by their ROI potential, the number of sportsbooks and markets they cover, and how quickly the odds refresh. The latter is crucial because while eSports may not be as mainstream as NFL betting, if a sportsbook prices the odds that deviate too much from the market consensus, they won’t leave the price up for long.
All markets tend to converge as the event draws nearer. Arbitrage betting is all about calculation, scanning the odds, and quickly snapping them up when an opportunity presents itself. The best arbitrage tools also have 1-click bet functions and notifications to keep you updated whenever an opportunity pops up.
Statistical Analysis
Research tools are not easy to come by for eSports fans, as most data providers (think Opta, SportRadar, ESPN, Genius Sports and so on) tend to stick to mainstream sports. The few sports data providers that cover eSports may not go to the same lengths in their documentation, so you have fewer stats to go on, and next to no tools to compare these metrics efficiently.
That’s where eSports betting tools can help you. The research oriented tools can dig up lots of information and fast. Instead of manually hunting down the stats, such as a CS:GO player’s headshots or kill/death ratio in their past 5 games, betting tools can draw up charts instantly, and even provide H2H comparisons so you can measure the performance data of one player against another.
The goal is to cut the time you spend researching to a minimum, and maximize your decision output by drafting up charts with which you can get all the necessary insights.
Bankroll Optimization
Betting tools that include bankroll optimization or trackers are always going to rank a little higher in our valuation. Gone are the days when you need to manually create spreadsheets and log every single bet you place into a chart. These tools can record your progress and the best ones can also generate valuable data that can help you build your strategy.
For instance, they can track your profits, analyze the EV from every bet you placed, and some can also monitor the CLV and show you how well you fared against the closing line value. Some betting tools also have in-built stake sizing strategies. These calculate the optimal stake for any bet you want to place, helping you to maximize the value and mitigate risk in the long run.
Most Popular eSports to Bet On
There is an increasing trend of US sportsbooks diversifying into eSports wagers, and more betting apps than ever now offer generous lines and intriguing markets on these sports. A few years ago, you would only find a select few sportsbooks offering eSports wagers. Between them, you could only bet on a handful of games, with only moneylines, total maps and possibly map spreads to pick from.
But given the growing demand of eSports across the US, sportsbook operators have now expanded their offering. The top US sportsbooks have a plethora of eSports categories to pick from, including eSports games like FIFA and NBA2k, which offer virtually the same types of bets as you would get for a soccer or NBA game.
Below are the eSports that stand out for being the most popular, with more betting markets, parlay and SGP building opportunities, and widespread coverage at the top US sportsbooks.
Counter-Strike (CS:GO and Counter-Strike 2)
CS:GO and its successor, Counter-Strike 2, are widely regarded as one of the most popular eSport to bet on. The tactical shooter game is renowned for its fast paced rounds, great pool of statistical data, and continuous tournament schedules. They are deeply strategic games, influenced by map pools, pistol rounds, and armory management, and within the Counter Strike betting markets, the top US sportsbooks provide an abundance of niche wagers, both pregame and live.
Biggest CS Events
- Counter Strike Majors
- Inteal Extreme Masters (IEM)
- ESL Pro League
- BLAST Premier World Final
Types of CS Bets:
- Moneyline
- Map Moneyline
- Map Spreads
- Total Maps
- Total Rounds per Map
- Pistol Round Winner
- Correct Score
- Player Kill Totals
- Total Headshots
- Total Assists
League of Legends (LoL)
Riot Games’ Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (Moba), is one of the most bet on eSports, with sky high viewership figures and a deep pool of betting markets to base predictions around. Games can last anywhere from 15 minutes up to 45 minutes, featuring two 5-player teams go head to head in best of 3 or best of 5 series.
Picking Champions and assembling teams is half the battle, and can directly influence the game – this is a key stage for bettors – and then how the players respond to each other, use their resources and distribute their efforts across Summoner’s Rift is critical to predicting who will win.
Experienced LoL players have an advantage with their knowledge of the game, Champions and potential hurdles up ahead, and LoL is often covered with both a variety of pregame, and many live bets during play.
Biggest LoL Events
- World Championship
- Mid-Season Invitational
- Regional Leagues (LCK, LPL, LEC, LCS)
- Regional Playoffs and season finals
Types of LoL Bets
- Moneyline
- Map Moneyline
- Map Spreads
- Total Maps
- First Blood
- First Tower/Dragon/Baron
- Total Towers
- Match Duration (minutes)
Dota 2
Dota 2 is notorious for producing epic games that can swing dramatically in a matter of moments, opening key opportunities for bettors to get extremely high value live odds and cashout opportunities. Also a Moba game, the goal of Dota is to destroy the enemy team’s Ancient. Players pick unique Heroes, each of which has its own special skills, and they can then gain XP and gold by killing creeps, level up, buy special items, and dominate the three lanes. Strategy is essential and mistakes can turn a game on its head, leading to drastic momentum shifts.
There are plenty of high scale tournaments and massive prize pools to boost Dota 2’s mainstream appeal, and this lends to a greater demand for Dota 2 bets. There are enough props and team bets to create intriguing SGPs and parlay wagers across multiple games. But experienced Dota 2 players tend to lean on the live bets, where they can time their wagers to get extremely high EV wagers or cash out bets in winning positions.
Betting tools can certainly help players work out the market odds and moving averages, to understand sentiment shifts and where the public is betting. Bankroll optimization is crucial to any Dota 2 bettor’s strategy, as there will always be opportunities to gain long shot odds, which can translate to hedging opportunities or early cashouts. But without premeditated stake sizing strategies, it can be a hugely risky game to play.
Biggest Dota 2 Events
- The International
- Dota 2 Majors
- ESL One
- DreamLeague
- eSports World Cup
Types of Dota 2 Bets
- Moneyline
- Map Moneyline
- Map Spreads
- Total Maps
- Total Kills
- First Roshan
- First Blood
- Total Towers Destroyed
- Match Duration
Other Popular eSports
Then, you will find the likes of Starcraft, Rainbow 6, Call of Duty, Valorant, Overwatch and even Fortnite. Just take note that not all sportsbooks may offer eSports bets – and if you are in a state where it is legally restricted, then you won’t find any at all.
Be sure to check the best US sportsbooks for their offering, and we have even found eSports categories at the top social sportsbooks and DFS platforms.
Finding the Right Tool to Perfect Your Strategy
All betting tools have their own proprietary algorithms for finding value, and the EV+ at one tool may not be the same as the EV+ at another. Exploring how they work, what they cover, and what types of features they provide is crucial to understanding whether or not the tool works into your personal eSports betting strategy.
You can read our in-depth reviews on any of the betting tools above, or head to our All Reviews page to check out other betting tools and software. Our reviews will tell you everything you need to know about the tools, but to see how they work into your personal strategy, its best to give them a test and see.
Through our links, you can get discounted first subscriptions or free trials – be sure to copy any promo codes we supply, and then use our links to get that newcomer discount, and then test the platform thoroughly in those first few days, weeks or first month.
