An Introduction to Overwatch Betting

Betting on Overwatch is an easy way to improve your excitement level when watching competitive matches. You can watch The Overwatch League casually, but it’s a completely different experience when you’ve also bet on it. The thrill is incomparably higher.

If you’re not accustomed to Overwatch betting, what you need to know is that this form of gambling (and esports betting in general) works just like the traditional one. If you’ve ever placed a bet on a basketball or a football match, you probably know exactly how it works. Nevertheless, this guide will give you a solid introduction to esports betting odds, Overwatch betting markets, and the best Overwatch betting websites.

What Overwatch gambling sites can offer you is a platform where you’re allowed to put your Overwatch knowledge to use. If you’ve been watching the professional scene for a while or have a decent understanding of the game, esports betting sites provide you with full coverage of The Overwatch League and the opportunity to bet on every single match.

When you first sign up on an Overwatch betting site, you will be offered a welcome bonus of up to $100. This bonus is received after you’ve made your first deposit. Whatever amount you choose to deposit gets doubled, but only up to $100. So if you deposit $300, your total will be $400. Bookmakers generally then ask you to place bets using that bonus before you can cash out. But there’s nothing stopping you from placing a double-bet on a match whose odds are 1.85 – 1.85. Sure, you will lose 30% of the $100, but you’re still left with $70 in free money.

Overwatch Betting Odds

Overwatch betting odds can have one of the following 3 forms: decimal, fractional, and American.

The most common type of esports betting odds that you’ll encounter is the decimal one. That’s because these odds are very easy to read and understand, which makes bookmakers prefer them over the other. They always look like this: 1.58 – 2.16. If you choose to bet $10 on team A, your wager gets multiplied by its odds: $10 * 1.58 = $15.8.

Whatever follows the 1 is the percentage that represents your profit. In this case, 58%. If the odds go above 2.00, your profit goes above 100%. So in the case of team B, whose odds are 2.16, your profit would be 116%. When you win your bet, you always get back your original wager plus your profit. The wager remains constant but the profit varies based on how high the Overwatch betting odds were.

Fractional odds are less popular but you will encounter them on some Overwatch betting sites. So it’s important to know about their existence and understand how they work. They always look like this: profit / wager. Or, more generally, x / y. Wagering $y will give you a profit of $x.

American odds are the most counterintuitive of the 3 and they look like this:

Team A: -x / Team B: +y

The + sign indicates the underdog (in the bookmaker’s evaluation, of course) while the – sign indicates the favorite. You need to wager $100 to make $x. But you will make $y for every $100 you wager. Of course, you don’t need to wager $100. But the American betting odds show you what amount you would make if you did. If you wager just $10, that amount gets divided by 10.

When you understand these kinds of gambling odds, you’re almost ready to start betting on Overwatch.

Overwatch Betting Markets

Overwatch betting markets are all the various types of Overwatch bets that one can take for a given match. Overwatch gambling sites will usually give you as many options as they can for every OWL match. And for the big matches, they’ll provide you with even more.

The most important Overwatch betting markets are the following:

• Tournament winner: before the tournament begins, you can predict its winner. Just make sure to place your bet before the start of the event. Because after it starts, you will no longer be able to do this.
• Match winner: this type of Overwatch bet gives you the chance to predict the winner of a particular match.
• Map winner: In Overwatch, matches take place on a series of maps and use the Bo5 format. When you bet on Overwatch, you can bet on every single map. This means that you don’t need to bet on the entire match. Just pick a map and bet on it if you know that a certain team plays really well there.
• Handicaps: These Overwatch betting markets are a great choice when you’re either very optimistic or a bit pessimistic about a team’s chances of winning. If you expect a crushing victory, you can bet on more than just a simple victory at any score and predict a triumph with a map handicap of 1.5 or even 2.5. Or, if you want to bet on a team but think that it might actually lose, you can predict that it will win if it starts with a map advantage of 1.5 or even 2.5.

How to Find the Top Overwatch Betting Sites

Because of the huge growth that esports and esports betting has experienced over the last 10 years, finding great Overwatch betting sites is not as complicated as it used to be. In fact, it’s quite easy. But you still need to pay attention to a number of aspects:

Payment Methods

The top Overwatch gambling websites will give you a wide variety of payment methods to choose from. Furthermore, you’ll be able to withdraw your money whenever you want and the transaction will be quick and secure.

One positive aspect of modern esports betting is that bookmakers are fully regulated and need to comply with all kinds of standards. Therefore, their platforms and services are highly reliable.

UI/UX

This is another important part because if you don’t like it or find it hard to understand, instead of having a better tournament viewing experience you’ll feel like you need to work hard to enjoy yourself. Fortunately, esports betting sites tend to have very beautiful platforms that are easy to use.

Proper Match Coverage

This is the most important part by far. Make sure that the Overwatch betting site you’re using covers every match from The Overwatch League and ideally much more. Because you never know when you might start wanting to bet on other esports as well. Bookmakers like Rivalry, Betway, and Arcanebet excel in this area. Their services are heavily focused on esports and everything worth watching is properly covered, with multiple esports betting markets for each match.

Live Betting

This is another key aspect of a great Overwatch betting site. People who bet on Overwatch often like to do it while they are watching a game. But if you’re ok with betting before the match begins, live betting is not as important.

Overwatch Betting Tips

For most people, Overwatch gambling is just another hobby. They enjoy betting a few times per week on the big matches, so they do. But if you want to take it to the next level, you need to do it as rationally as you can.

Develop Your Own Overwatch Betting System

You should keep track of your bets and develop your own system. If you know ahead of time how much you’re going to bet, what’s your minimum and maximum wager, how many times per week do you intend to bet, what is your damage control procedure and so on, your results will improve significantly.

Study the Game and Its Pro Scene

The better you understand Overwatch, the easier it is to predict what a team will try to do with a certain composition. And the better you understand the team itself and how it likes to play on a given map, the more accurate your evaluation will be in every situation.

In The Overwatch League there are 20 teams. If you’re serious about betting on Overwatch, try to spend some time studying them.

Another thing that you can do is to take advantage of what the pundits say. Some people’s job revolves around watching and analyzing Overwatch matches. Ahead of each match, they provide people with an analysis of the situation. This analysis can greatly improve your results as an esports bettor.