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.

The post Abios: Counter-Strike Continues to Dominate Esports Betting appeared first on Keno Wizard.

According to a number of prominent community members, gambling websites that are being promoted on Twitch have been failing to offer basic protections to players, such as failing to carry out mandatory background checks on consumers and verifying their age for one.

Is Counter-Strike Gambling Sprawling Out of Control, Again

The situation as of today reminds the mid-2010s when clandestine esports betting sites were focused on player acquisition and sought to onboard as many paying customers as they could. A Reddit post that has accumulated more than 320 comments has discussed whether the CS:GO gambling scene was becoming too big again and whether Valve would intervene to attack gambling websites again.

Many players pointed out the fact that such gambling websites have been promoted on Twitch and they have led to an unhealthy uptick in the number of bettors. Some suggested that Valve would have to intervene as well and “destroy” the sector or shutter websites. This is easier said than done.

For one, many of the operators that are running today are legitimate and licensed establishments. Betway, Rivalry, Pinnacle, and bet365 are just some of the examples of companies that provide players with betting on Counter-Strike, among dozens of other video games.

They are licensed and have the legal right to operate. Fans were mostly referring to the case of CS:GO skin betting, which was clamped down on Valve, the developer and publisher of CS:GO following a class-action lawsuit against the company by parents whose children had spent, in some cases, thousands on digital cosmetics for the video game.

Interestingly, according to some prominent organizations, including the Esports Integrity Commission, esports does not necessarily appeal to underage individuals, with the ESIC confident that betting on video games is mostly reserved for people of the legal gambling age which is 18 or 21 years in most jurisdictions.

Esports Betting Dynamics Are Much More Complicated

However, the community’s criticism towards content creators who spent ubiquitous time on creating gambling content makes a lot of sense as these influencers have prioritized gain from gambling partnerships over the well-being of their followers.

xQc, who used to stream Overwatch, has been a passionate supporter of gambling and has vituperated against gambling streams being restricted on Twitch. Much of what is said on Reddit is conjectural, and it doesn’t fully grasp the dynamics and realities of what esports betting has become – a regulated vertical within the growing sports betting ecosystem.

However, fans do have a point – the CS:GO gambling scene is growing and this is not always done in a way that is best for fans and consumers. For one, fans know when they are seeing too much gambling content promoted to them on stream – and they are right about this.

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