Kambi-owned esports data and odds provider Abios has published its 2023 Leaderboard report, outlining the top esports disciplines and teams. The data shows that Counter-Strike continued to dominate the esports betting sector.
The report shows that the old classic, which recently received its new iteration, Counter-Strike 2, attracted 56% of all bets made with Kambi. Next up was Riot Games’ League of Legends, which contributed 24% of the total bets. LoL’s main competitor, Dota 2, came in third with 14% of all wagers. Rounding up the top 5 were VALORANT and Call of Duty, which were responsible for 3% and 2% of all esports bets, respectively.
The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) was the most bet-on event, attracting a whopping 10% of all bets in 2023. Next was another Counter-Strike event, namely the ESL Pro League. Coming up third was BLAST Premier.
Abios celebrated a year dominated by CS betting by also publishing information about the teams that attracted the most bets. As one can imagine, this included some of the most popular teams in esports. The list of bettors’ favorite teams was topped by G2 Esports, followed by Team Vitality and FaZe Clan. The fourth place was occupied by Team Liquid, while the fifth was claimed by Cloud9.
These results are more or less in line with Abios’ 2022 Leaderboard report. For reference, 2022 was also dominated by the same state of play and top five esports games, although back then some League of Legends tournaments and teams had managed to claim spots in the top rankings.
Industry Leaders Must Better Understand the Fans
Abios also shared some predictions for the future. Niclas Sundell, Abios’ sales director, shared his thoughts on the matter, saying that co-streaming will likely continue to be a major part of esports in 2024. The popularity of co-streaming and watch parties skyrocketed in 2023 and is expected to continue to increase.
Sundell highlighted the importance of understanding the fans:
As esports continues to mature and become an integrated part of any modern online sports betting offering, it is essential for sportsbooks and other industry leaders to understand what products and services esports fans are looking for.
Niclas Sundell, sales director, Abios
Speaking of Abios, last year, the esports specialist launched esoccer to fill the gaps between sporting events.