Esports Betting Sites
Australia was at the forefront of the Esports development about 10 years ago. Serious organisations were set up that fielded teams for Starcraft 2, Call of Duty and Counter-Strike tournaments.
Now, Esports betting in Australia faces hard times after the 2016 law banning live betting. Then Riot Games, a company that created League of Legends, went out of the country. That’s why few Australian betting sites offer to bet on Esports today, but some still do, and some Esports bookmakers have a pretty good offering that includes bets on quite many games. In this article we will tell you in detail about Australian Esports, about the Esports games popular in Australia, and of course, about the best Esports betting sites.
The List of Esports Betting Sites
Esports Betting in Australia in 2024
Esports are a form of competitive video gaming that is watched by millions of people around the world. In recent years, Esports have exploded in popularity, with tournaments being held in hugely popular games such as League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2.
Originally, Australia was primarily a Riot Games territory (League of Legends, Valorant), unlike much of the rest of the world where Valve reigned (CS:GO, DOTA 2). Riot Games seriously invested in Australia and created the Oceanic Pro League for League of Legends (LoL). But in 2020, the company closed its Australian offices and abolished the Oceanic Pro League. This put the brakes on the industry’s development in the country, as most Esports clubs were founded as LoL teams.
But the biggest blow to Esports in Australia was the banning of in-play betting in 2016. The government decided that betting sites were constantly pushing the idea that it’s pointless to watch the game without betting and banned online Esports betting services. Betting sites were only left with the option of accepting bets by phone. However, they adapted quickly and automated the system of quick betting on Esports online by phone. There were plans in the government to close this window as well. Nevertheless, it is still allowed to accept live bets by phone. Still this is a significant discomfort compared to the quick wagering on Esports betting websites that everyone is used to. Pre-match betting is quite difficult in Esports: in LoL and DOTA, a lot depends on the draft, the first leg of the battle.
Thus, Esports betting options in Australia has been greatly stifled by the regulation: for most betting sites, the market has simply become uninteresting. In 2023, it will not be easy to find about 10 Aussie bookmakers taking Esports bets. In our review, we’ll describe all these Esports bookies that diligently go against the tide.
Riot Games is now operating in Australia again. Perhaps, thanks to this fact, Australian Esports will get a second wind. The company is actively promoting Valorant, its new first-person shooter. Tactically, the game is similar to CS:GO and just as geared towards a competitive format. In this shooter, even beginners immediately start playing in a tournament format: 5×5, with a limited number of rounds (25).
LoL still remains the most popular among Esports titles in Australia. It is followed by CS:GO and DOTA 2. Next in line are Overwatch (from Blizzard) and Valorant for now considered the “second tier”. The number of competitions and their popularity cannot be compared with the top three.
Those interested in CS:GO can participate in a number of tournaments of varying levels. The biggest of these is the ESL Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) tournament, which had its finals run in Sydney until 2019 inclusive. No tournament has been held since then.
The Esports tournament bracket is similar to championships in real sports, it goes like this:
- Lower Regional Leagues
- Regional Championships
- Regional Finals
- Continental and international tournaments
Accordingly, from level to level the amount of prize money and popularity of the matches increase, also among Australian punters. If you want to bet on Esports in Australia, you’re likely to have no problem finding an Esports match in any of the top disciplines.
As well as these games, you can bet on Starcraft 2, Rainbow Six Siege, King of Glory, FIFA and the NBA in Australia.
How We Ranked Esports Betting Sites in Australia
Our criteria for picking the best Esports betting sites in Australia are broadly similar to our criteria for choosing online betting sites best for real sports betting.
The only exception is live streaming. In real sports betting, the availability of live streams on the bookmaker’s website is important because a user may not be able to watch a match for free. In Esports, by the winter of 2023, all tournaments are still streamed for free and almost any Esports event can be watched on Twitch or YouTube. In addition, Esports live betting is banned in Australia. That’s why we consider the factor of live streaming to be less important for the final evaluation of recommended Esports betting sites.
The main criteria for our evaluation of betting sites for Esports are as follows:
- Esports betting site is licensed and reputable
- Variety of disciplines and tournaments to bet on
- Competitive odds & different betting markets
- Number of deposit and withdrawal methods
- Quality of customer support service
- Bonuses with free bets and promotions
How to Bet on Esports at an Australian Bookmaker
William Hill never dreamed how easy it would be to make a bet in the 21st century. Thanks to the internet, you no longer have to go to the bet shops. There’s something nostalgically enchanting about looking through a list of bets printed on multiple sheets, picking up a bet slip at the betting shop, and then walking back to cash it in… Now you can make an Esports bet in a few taps.
- Log in, or sign up at any of the betting sites for Esports
- Find a discipline you’re interested in
- Choose a match you are interested in
- See what betting odds the Esports betting site is offering and select a box with these odds
- Open the bet slip, if it does not open automatically, and enter the amount you wish to bet on the chosen Esports betting market (be careful with zeros and commas)
- Confirm your bet
In some cases, the bookmaker will write that the bet is not accepted because the betting odds have changed. You can either accept this and bet anyway, or choose another option. Usually Esports bookies allow you to tick the “automatically accept when odds go up” box in the settings.
Bet Types on Esports in Australia
Most Esports have a roughly similar scenario: two teams compete on one of the maps included in the game’s official map pool. The number of maps played may vary. This is the scenario used in DOTA 2, CS:GO, League of Legends, Overwatch, Valorant and Rainbow Six Siege.
Based on this, the betting options for these disciplines are also about the same. Apart from the range of markets, which is usually wider for the three most popular games: DOTA 2, CS:GO and LoL.
Here are the markets you can bet on:
Match winner
This is the easiest Esports betting market – on who will win the whole game.
Map Winner
It’s a similar betting market, only on a particular map. Often teams play more than one map in a match, and you can bet on each map. If there is more than one map in the game, be sure to consider how the team plays on that particular map: for each, there are locations where they play excellent, and locations where they are less strong.
Totals
There are bets on totals by the number of maps played, individual team totals on a particular map, and in CS:GO – totals by the number of rounds in a particular map. A customer bets on the total over/ under 2.5 maps played in a match. In fact there will be either 2 or 3 maps , and one of these bets will win and the other will lose. An individual team total is a bet on whether a team will win, for example, more or less than 13.5 rounds on one map.
These bets are also available for the vast majority of popular Esports matches.
Handicaps
These are bets that will make the game more interesting if the strengths of the opponents are clearly unequal. You can bet on the favourite to win with a negative handicap, or on the outsider with a positive handicap. A handicap is the difference you must add to the actual score to find out if your bet wins.
For example, a handicap (-2.5) means our team starts with a penalty. This bet will win if we subtract 2.5 from the final result and it will win in any case. Thus, in CS:GO to win a handicap (-2.5) on a single map, our team must win 16-13, 16-12, etc.
You can even win with a negative handicap on outsiders (CS team). In real sport, handicaps can be both fractional and integer. If you bet on an integer handicap and the game ends up with a draw, the Esports betting site returns the bet – meaning you didn’t win and you didn’t lose. Integer handicaps are not yet widespread in Esports due to the limited range of betting markets – the sphere is still developing.
Betting on special rounds. CS:GO and Valorant have pistol rounds at the start of the game for each side, when players do not yet have money for rifles. Winning a pistol round allows the team to gain an economic advantage over their opponent, which often leads to winning then the second and sometimes third round.
In CS there is also at times a knife round. It is used to determine the side the team will start playing for on the deciding map (called the decider) if the score is even.
Outrights
Betting on the tournament outcome even in real sport is not as popular as other bets, because the you have to wait a long time for the bet to be settled. Besides, if you really believe in the winner of a tournament, it almost always will be more profitable for you to bet on the win of that team or player in every single match.
The example from the screenshot: You can bet on one of the teams, the handicap of one of the teams on the maps and the total of the maps played. You only have to click on the odds and enter the betting amount in a bet slip.
Best Games & Tournaments for Australian Esports Betting
There are different Esports games to choose from on Australian Esports betting sites. This chapter will tell you what tournaments are being held on the most popular ones.
League of Legends
Locally there have been OPL – Oceanic Professional League – tournaments – from 2015 to 2020. After the closure of Riot Games’ offices in Australia, the league was abolished.
Now regional League of Legends tournaments take place under the LCO series. Winners of the regional stages qualify for the bigger tournaments. Namely:
The Mid-Season Invitational. This is a separate large tournament, which is considered an opportunity to prepare for the World Championships, though it is a status tournament in itself. It is an international competition. Riot Games oversees regional leagues around the world, including in Oceania. Each year the Mid-Season Invitational takes place in a new region. In 2022 it was held in South Korea. The tournament has a prize pool of over $200,000 with the winner of 2022, China’s Royal Never Give Up, receiving $75,000. Australia’s ORDER team finished 7th-8th.
League of Legends World Championship. It is similar to football championships. The 16 teams are divided into 4 groups, with 2 teams in each group advancing to the playoffs.
Apart from that, you can also bet on matches in other tournaments, which are run by different organisations. The Hitpoint masters series and the LVP Superliga, for example.
CS:GO
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular Esports games in betting world/ It also offers a large variety of tournaments starting with numerous regional leagues.
Then there are the regional and international minors and majors. Lately, major esports tournament takes place twice a year, also there are more minors. CS:GO tournaments are most often named after the organiser. Major Esports tournaments are organised by ESL, PGL, BLAST. ESL tournaments may start with IEM – Intel Extreme Masters.
Some CS:GO matches take place every day, there is always something to bet on.
Dota 2
DOTA’s major and minor tournaments structure is similar to CS:GO. There are tier 1 competitions where the best teams compete. These include PGL, ESL and regional DOTA Pro Circuit tournaments. Speaking of major tournaments, The International has the biggest prize pool in cybersport, it is presented on many betting sites, even if they can’t be called Esports-oriented. Tier 2 – lower level regional tournaments and tier 3 – tournaments through which young players will progress to the top leagues. One or the other Esports matches of these tournaments are played daily.
FIFA
The biggest FIFA tournament is the FIFA eWorld Cup. The GT series (organised by GTSports Leagues) is also considered a major tournament. There are also many other tournaments that look like amateur competitions. Information on them is hard to find on the internet and the system of these tournaments is difficult to understand. There is probably no point in trying to keep track of such leagues. In GT series games, you can bet on players based on their ranking – it’s available on the GTSports Leagues website.
Overwatch
Overwatch from Blizzard is not the most popular discipline in Esports today. Nevertheless, you will be able to bet on individual games at the best Esports betting sites.
Overwatch has four tiers of leagues.
- Open Division. Open Division games are open to anyone who wants to take part, and users can choose any region, including Australia.
- Contenders Trials. This is a tournament where some teams can go up, others can go down. The 4 best performing teams from the Open Division and the 4 worst performing teams from the Contenders meet. The winners go on to the Contenders. So it’s an analogue to play-off matches in a real sport.
- Contenders. In this series, each of 7 regions hold tournaments with 12 teams. It is the last step before the top division.
- Overwatch League. This is the top league. It includes the Kick of Clash (with $225,000 prize pool) and Midseason Madness (with $1,000,000 prize pool) tournaments.
Starcraft 2
Starcraft (from Blizzard) is one of the oldest disciplines in Esports. The first professional teams in Starcraft (the first part) started to appear back in 2002. The sequel was released in 2010. It now has regional qualifiers and larger tournaments, just like other Esports disciplines. The regional tournaments have penny prizes of less than $1000. In the larger Global Starcraft League (GSL) competition, the prize pool is $123,000. While this is quite a large amount of money by itself, this is a small prize compared to the top three in the Esports world.
Professional Starcraft II is experiencing a decline in popularity. Only the best Esports betting sites now offer bets on this discipline.
Rainbow Six Siege
A relatively new title in the Esports games list. Rainbow Six is Ubisoft’s first-person shooter. It has, as usual, an attacking side and a defending side. The main difference from other shooters is the focus on confrontation tactics. Siege has multi-level maps and lots of destructible objects, giving great tactical variation for both sides. There are many teams from clubs familiar to Esports fans from other games: FaZe Clan, G2, Virtus.Pro, Cloud9, FURIA and others.
The biggest tournament in this game is called the Six Invitational. In 2021 the prize pool was $3 million.
Below, there are several regional leagues. For example, the European league pays a prize of $450, 000, while local leagues of some countries give out less than $100,000.
Teams from Australia compete in the Oceanic Challenger League. In 2021, the prize pool was $23,000.
Despite its popularity among gamers, Rainbow Six is poorly represented in Esports betting. Only the best Esports betting sites offer bets on this discipline.
Top Esports betting AUS Websites – Coverage Comparison
Betting sites | LoL | DOTA 2 | CS:GO | King of Glory | Valorant | Rainbow Six | FIFA | Overwatch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BetStar | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Ladbrokes | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Picklebet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Neds | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Bookmaker.com | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Unibet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
TopSport | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Betfair | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
BoomBet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Is Esports Betting Legal in Australia?
Generally speaking, Esports betting is legal in Australia, but there is one BUT: you can’t place bets In Play. And that’s a very important point. The peculiarity of Esports is that many spectators may not understand who plays very strong, and who is mediocre, but they are still interested in watching the match, because it’s dynamic, exciting and colourful. Because of this, live betting is the best dish in Esports betting options. If to bet in the pre-match, on the other hand, you will have to get into a variety of leagues, tournament statuses and team games. For newcomers to this burgeoning betting industry, it’s not an easy task. Especially if you are interested in betting on more than one game.
However, if you are prepared to spend some time on making yourself acquainted with the statistics, betting on luck or NAVI, because they are spoken of everywhere, you will be very interested in pre-match betting as well.
Any licensed bookmaker is allowed to accept Esports bets in the same way as with regular sports betting. There is no specific regulation of Esports betting options in Australia.
Top Esports Betting Sites – Reviews
Picklebet: Best Esports Betting Site Australia
One of the best betting sites for Esports was founded in 2020 in Australia, but this Esports betting site operates in the United States and Canada as well. Here is the widest selection of Esports bets. You can even find Esports bets on games that have been forgotten, like Call of Duty. The widest selection of betting markets is offered by this Esports site for LoL and FIFA. As for the former, it is one of the most popular disciplines in Australia, as for the latter – an incredible number of matches a day takes place.
Let’s take a look at what exactly is on offer.
LoL. There are over 100 matches a day. The range of betting markets for a LoL match is average. In the lower leagues, for example, you can not bet on totals by the number of rounds in the map. There are kill totals, yes/no bets on quadrakill and pentakill (respectively 4 and 5 kills of enemy champions with an interval of no more than 5 seconds). On online Esports betting sites with a good choice of markets you can bet on first blood, first Baron and first inhibitor.
The Baron is a powerful neutral monster, the killing of which gives the team reinforcement. The bet is on which team kills it first. The inhibitor is a structure that holds back the appearance of enemy Super Minions and the bet is on the first one destroyed.
In lower league matches betting options are very few. In bigger tournaments, which the online sportsbooks pay more attention to, you can choose from 70+ betting markets, including handicaps on maps won, exact score, first to reach 5, 10, 15 kills, map duration, who will do 30 kills.
Picklebet has decent Esports odds. Picklebet takes a rather high margin among other Australian betting sites of at least 7.5% for any of the markets regardless of the match status. To be fair, it’s not the best Esports odds, but it’s not the worst either.
CS:GO. CS doesn’t offer many matches per day, but the list of betting markets is wider, with an average of 60 to 100 markets per each game. In general, the betting system is similar to that described above in LoL, only without Barons and Inhibitors. The range of markets is as wide mainly due to the fact that you can make an Esports bet on any exact score in map, giving you 30 betting options per map. You can find here plenty of handicaps per round and round totals per map. When it comes to CS:GO round betting, Picklebet easily hits the top Esports betting sites.
The margin for CS:GO is around 8%, which is average when compared to other Esports betting sites.
DOTA 2. Bets here are similar to LoL, so betting sites usually offer both disciplines to bet on. There are bets as: first blood, first tower, first barracks – which team will destroy first tower, first barracks. Additionally, there are bets on total kills and total rounds in the map, first to reach 5, 10, 15, 20 kills and exact score of the match. The margin is around 8%.
Picklebet focuses on cybersports, and the selection of disciplines is huge like nowhere else which is an advantage for Esports bettors. There are betting tips on various games. At the same time, in many other respects this Esports betting site does not reach the top level of the market. Fans of traditional online sports betting have nothing to do here – the bet selection for all events is very moderate. Also the Esports betting site has a rather high margin with quite an average list of betting markets and not many payment methods – only debit/credit cards and POLi. Live streaming is scarce, but that’s understandable: it’s illegal in Australia to bet on Esports In Play. If you want to watch, go on Twitch, it’s free there. Despite its disadvantages, Picklebet is one of the contenders for the title of Australia’s best Esports betting site.
Ladbrokes Esport betting Australia
At first glance, it would seem that this betting site is poorly adapted for betting on cybersport. Indeed, the bookmaker doesn’t focus on this sporting type. The main course on the menu is for fans of traditional online sports betting: horse racing, Aussie rules, baseball, etc. Esports comes right after darts in the list of all sports. However, on closer inspection, the British old boy (founded in 1886) pleasantly surprises with variety, so it can be called one of the best esports betting sites. All popular Esports betting disciplines are represented. Choice of Esports bets is quite decent, even outside the top three LoL, CS, DOTA. For example, for Valorant Champions Tour there are 42 markers per match, for King Pro League (King of Glory game) – 16 markers per match. In big CS:GO matches you can sometimes bet on the personal kills total of each player.
Ladbrokes’ margin for Esports is usually around 8%.
The downside for Esports bettors is that the section is difficult to navigate. Not the games take the central place, but particular tournaments, and there are very many of them, and this creates confusion.
Ladbrokes has been operating in Australia since 2013. Its sports betting section includes 25+ sports, as well as politics. The priority, of course, is horse racing, for which detailed statistics is provided.
Payment methods accepted by Ladbrokes are: VISA / Mastercard, PayPal, POLi, BPAY, Flexepin, PayID.
Neds Esports betting Australia
There’s not much to say about Neds, as this Esports betting site is very similar to Ladbrokes. The online sportsbook came to Australia in 2017 as a standalone project, but the Brits bought it out a year later. They now offer all the same bets. For example, CS:GO – Monster Energy. MIBR Academy vs Daotsu Esports. MIBR – 1.90, Daotsu – 1.83, 25 extra Esports betting markets.
Are there any aspects which Neds is better at than Ladbrokes? Well, we did our best and found two differences:
- The access to Esports betting markets in the mobile version is 1-click faster;
- Neds Card, which allows you to make purchases using your account funds.
Payment methods accepted by Neds are : VISA / Mastercard, PayPal, POLi, BPAY, Flexepin, PayID.
Bookmaker.com.au Esports online betting site
Another platform that should be mentioned in the list of the best Esports betting sites, but with a certain clarification. It’s another copy of the Ladbrokes website, offering the same range of disciplines and the same Esports odds. Accordingly, it has the same advantages and disadvantages. If the black and yellow colour scheme is more to your liking than the red or orange, you can try Bookmaker.com.au instead of Ladbrokes or Neds, the site is just as good.
Like Neds, Bookmaker.com.au also has its own card that can be used to pay for purchases. Are there any differences, comparing it to Neds or Ladbrokes? Well, we did our best and found two: Bookmaker.com.au Card (which is good) and no live-chat (which is bad).
BetStar Australia Esports betting
BetStar is one of the best Esports betting sites for fans of cybersports betting we’ve seen. At first glance, it looks like a betting site that’s solely geared towards traditional sports betting. Esports isn’t even on the home page – you have to open the list of all the sports to find it. But there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there.
Firstly, all the more or less well-known Esports disciplines are represented. Of course, it depends on the popularity of the sport and the professional level. There can be no Esports coverage for the lower tiers. For example, for the regional leagues of Rainbow Six Siege only win-loss bets are offered. But you’ll find a good selection of bets for most games, from 30+ (DOTA 2, Valorant) to 60+ (LoL, CS:GO). They include not only totals and handicaps, but also bets on pistol rounds in CS, destroyed inhibitors in LoL, players’ personal kills statistics and more. On the whole, the list of bets offered is slightly poorer than the average of strong competitors. But BetStar is one of the few online bookmakers with a margin on Esports that almost never exceeds 8%. At most online sportsbooks, 8% is the minimum. You could say that BetStar has found the golden mean in terms of price and quality.
The Esports betting legal platform has been in business since 2007. It started out focusing only on horse racing, but now it has more than 30 sports in its list.
BetStar has its own card, which you can order from your personal cabinet and receive by post in 21 days. The card can be used in shops as a normal debit card.
The betting shop accepts several deposit methods. Visa/Mastercard, PayPal, BPAY, Flexepin, PayID and BetStar card.
Unibet Esports betting site
Unibet closes our list of the best sites for Esports betting. There’s still a good selection of disciplines, though it is not as wide. You can bet on CS:GO, LoL, DOTA 2, Rainbow Six, Starcraft 2 and Call of Duty. For the competitions in the top three sometimes there is some choice – about 10-20 bets. As for most Esports events, you can only bet on one or the other team to win. Am advantage of Unibet in terms of Esports is the low margin. Usually it is not higher than 8%.
Unibet is a reliable bookmaker that has been operating since 1997. In 2012, it obtained an Australian licence in the Northern Territory region.
Unibet’s payment methods: Debit/credit cards, POLi, PayPal, Apple Pay.
TopSport Australia Esports betting
TopSport is an Australian bookmaker that has been in business since 1998.
The Esports range of disciplines this bookmaker offers is surprising: it does not include CS:GO, only DOTA 2 and LoL are presented. There are usually three types of bets on them: win, one handicap, one total. However, if you bet on these games, it makes sense to keep an account at TopSport. When you want to bet on just a win, a handicap or a total, you’re likely to find the great Esports odds here. And TopSport is way ahead of all its competitors by the margin on Esports. Here it’s around 5.5% (all the others have a margin of 7.5% to 8.5%).
A set of deposit methods is acceptable: Visa/Mastercard, POLi, BPAY, Cash, Bank Transfer.
Minimum Requirements for Esports Betting Sites
Bookmaker | Minimum deposit | Margin for Esports |
---|---|---|
Ladbrokes | $10 | 8% |
Neds | $5 | 8% |
Bookmaker.com | $5 | 8% |
Picklebet | $10 | 7,5-9% |
Betstar | $10 | 7-8% |
Unibet | $5 | 7,5-8% |
TopSport | $10 | 5,5% |
Picklebet:Top Esports Bookie
- Focus on Esports
- Excellent coverage of Esports events
- One of the newest Esports betting sites
What Esports Betting Sites Have the Best Bonuses?
Australian law prohibits the advertising of betting bonuses for the Esports betting industry. We can’t provide information about promotions and free Esports bets that bookmakers offer. Information about them is available on betting sites only after you sign up. You can explore the Esports betting bonus programme on the following websites.
What to Know Before You Bet on Esport Betting Websites
We mentioned above the criteria that we use when we assess the betting sites. We recommend you to use them to choose the best betting site for Esports. Here are several advices that should help you in Esports betting and choosing a bookmaker:
- Esports betting is seasonal. There is no regulated split by seasons in competitive gaming. However, it actually exists. The Esports year starts in January and ends in November. That means that two-three months can divide major or even average tournaments. This schedule can be well mixed with some traditional sports. For example, in summer, when the English Premier League and the NBA have off-season, you can bet on top LoL, CS:GO, or Dota 2 tournaments. In winter, conversely, you can focus on European football or American basketball. You need to consider season schedule when you look for Esports bet sites during off-season. In this case even the best site for Esports betting can’t offer a good range of markets, with some bookmakers even remove an Esports discipline from the list of sports. It doesn’t mean that such Esports betting sites are bad, they just don’t want to offer markets for unpopular off-season matches of low professional level. You can learn the current situation with our help as in our reviews of betting sites: Esports information, that we provide is relevant to a season.
- Assess the number of markets for matches of different professional levels. Esports have fallen victim to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was even worse than for many traditional sports. Esports haven’t fully recovered yet. Many disciplines used to have strong tier-2 stage before 2020. There were many teams that were ready to challenge the top teams and struggle for prize money in the play-offs of prestigious tournaments. Now there’s almost none left. Tier-1 teams compete against each other. Many tier-3 teams have evolved but their matches are not really interesting and they can’t attract many Esports fans and punters. A lot of Esports betting sites don’t even offer markets for the tier-3 events. In case there are such markets, you can find a very limited number of options compared to the top games. However, many betting sites offer only Team to win markets, and this is definitely not enough. Totals, handicaps, even some prepared combined bets can be offered for the tier-3 matches. If you’re interested in the whole range of professional levels, find out if the range of markets that a bookmaker offers fits you well.
- Don’t be late to make a pre-match bet. We remind you that live betting in Australia is forbidden. If you’re late to make bet on a game before it starts you will only be able to place a bet on the next map in case the format allows it. You need to keep in mind that Esports games have streamings with delays. So, if you see the teams preparing for the match, it may already have started. The delay may take from several seconds to 15 minutes. Take a look at the time when betting sites stop to accept bets to understand which one gives you more time to take a decision.
Payment and Withdrawal Methods on Esports Betting Sites in Australia
Esports betting sites do not generally offer a great variety of payment methods. Many will limit them to bank cards, money transfers and a couple of electronic payment instruments. The Australian branches of big international bookmakers usually have more. Let’s look at the main payment methods and online payment services of Australian betting sites.
Bank cards. VISA and Mastercard. The standard payment method used by all Esports betting sites. Very quick and easy to use. Deposits are made instantly and the minimum deposit is usually $10.
Bank transfer. An old and not very convenient method, as it takes some time to transfer the money. Usually, it takes up to 3 business days. Still, many betting sites support it.
E-wallets. The most popular method for online betting in Australia is the local POLi system. All of the bookmakers we’re talking about in this review accept payments using POLi.
Esports betting sites also use other electronic payment systems, but not all of them. Some offer Bpay, others have Skrill and Neteller, some have PayPal, Apple Pay or PayID.
Bookmakers’ own cards. Several Australian betting companies issue their own cards. They are issued to customers on request. Such a card is similar to a regular debit card, only instead of a bank account, the customer uses it to operate an account at the betting company. He can pay with the card in a shop or make a purchase online, but this payment option is available only on the best Esports betting sites.
Neds, Bookmaker.Com and BetStar all issue their own cards.
Cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency payments are slowly gaining the attention of a small number of people. The reason for that is frequent bans and restrictions from governments of different countries, as well as periodic hacks of bank servers. Cryptocurrency is helping to address both prohibition and financial security problems, so more and more people are at least interested in blockchain and crypto opportunities. However, by 2024, none of the legal Australian Esports betting sites have introduced cryptocurrency payment options.
Payment Methods for Esports Betting in Australia
Esports Betting Apps for Aussies
Mobile betting apps are indispensable if you want to bet quickly and out of home. More and more people are betting with apps than on betting sites these days, as they are almost as good as desktop sites in terms of functionality. They are easy to navigate, the selection and accepting bets is easy.
All of the Esports betting websites described in this review have mobile apps for both iOS and Android.
What to look out for when choosing a mobile app? Most modern apps can do everything what is needed, so we would first focus on which bookmaker you want to bet with in principle, whether in the app or using the betting site. Some apps will have one-click faster access to the events you’re interested in than others. This might be relevant if you want to bet In Play and do it quickly, but you can’t do that in Australia anyway because live betting is banned by the law.
An important consideration for a betting mobile app is the convenience of use. How clear and comfortable it is for the client to use it, whether there is a solid chance of making a bet by misclick, which happens much more often on the phone than on the computer. Whether the app is not cluttered with various floating symbols like the chatbot in the corner (there are several bookmakers in Australia which have the bigger part of their screen littered with small icons, but none in this review).
Another advantage of the app is the availability of live streaming, though we need to say that even the best Esport betting sites with mobile apps rarely support video streaming. Basically, you can choose any bookmaker app you like, they’re all pretty good.
The Future of Esports Betting Sites
It’s hard to predict the future of Esports betting services in Australia. If the law banning live betting is not abolished, the market will continue to stagnate with fewer bets and higher margins. Already only a seventh of all legal bookmakers in Australia offer Esports betting. Esports in the country is also going through bad times, and only an attempt to create a dedicated Esports bookmaker, Picklebet, is encouraging. Being among best Esports bookmakers, this one is not the best betting site in general, unfortunately.
There is no doubt that the games themselves will get more interesting and entertaining and this could draw a new generation of players, Esports fans and bettors. Additionally, in recent years there have been attempts to create Esports disciplines in VR games. Some of these have good qualities to evolve into a full-fledged Esports arena.
Esports Betting in Australia – FAQ
What’s Esports?
Esports is the competition between users and teams in various popular computer games. The competition is similar to a real sport, only the action is conducted while sitting in front of a computer or console. In Esports betting the most popular games are LoL, CS:GO, DOTA 2. The second echelon are Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, Valorant and Fortnite.
What is the difference between Esports and gaming?
Esportsmen do not play for fun, but for results. The whole team may dislike Map X a lot, but they are forced to practice there regularly because their opponents are always picking this map.
How similar is Esports betting to regular sports betting?
These types of betting are quite similar in mechanics. At the moment the difference is that Esports is not as well controlled, and it is much easier to cheat there, and it is very hard to prove. Therefore, except for the biggest competitions, you can never be sure that both teams are playing seriously.
Is Esports betting possible all year round?
One of the biggest advantages of Esports for a bettor is that the games take place all the time, though top events run from January to December, so there is a long winter off-season break between the big tournaments. We are referring to the popular games: DOTA 2, CS:GO, LoL. In other disciplines, the number of games available for betting is very limited.
Are all betting sites offering the same Esports tournaments?
No, all bookmakers offer a different set of Esports tournaments. Although most of them only offer to place Esports bets on the three most popular games: DOTA 2, League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But some offer more games: Rainbow Six, King of Glory, Valorant, FIFA.
Which is the best Esports betting site in Australia?
There are a few platforms which could be named ‘the best site for Esports betting’. We would give BetStar the priority. They have a great selection of bets and low margins.
Picklebet is great in many ways either. They have the biggest number of games and events there, but the margins are higher than most competitors offer, and not all of the events have a wide enough range of sports betting markets.
Ladbrokes, Neds and Bookmaker.com.au are solid in the middle. Their range of Esports markets is slightly smaller than Picklebet’s and their margin is a little higher than BetStar’s.
What is the best way to watch live streaming of Esports?
It’s very simple and completely free. Go to Twitch and enter the names of the game and/or of competing teams and there will almost always be a stream you want. Many betting sites do have live streaming, but it’s very hard to find legal Australian Esports bookmakers who do that.
Are Esports bets allowed in Australia?
Yes, you can place Esports wagers, but you won’t find many Esports betting sites to choose from. There are about a dozen out of about 70 legal Australian sports betting sites which accept bets on Esports. We have described the top 7 in this review.