Esports betting sites
Best Esports Betting Sites: Coverage, Licences and Payouts
Esports betting sites are sportsbooks that price competitive matches in games like CS2, League of Legends, Dota 2 and Valorant. This page covers three of them, with each one's licence, restricted markets and payout record set out in full. Coverage depth varies more than bonus size does, so start with which titles and markets a book actually carries.
Not every book listed here accepts players in every country, and the restrictions change, so check the restricted-markets column before you register. Live esports odds carries the prices across all four titles we track.
By the BO5 editorial teamRecord checked 2 September 2026
We earn a commission if you sign up through a link on this page, which helps keep BO5 running. It does not influence the rating we publish or the record we set out below.
How the scores are built
Six weighted criteria, plus caps that stop a book scoring past its own regulatory and payout record.
How we rate operators| Operator | BO5 score | Licence and body | Restricted markets | Esports titles priced | Standout market type | Payout record | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GG.BETEsports-first | 3.5 / 5 | Curaçao, held by River Entertainment B.V. | United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Malta, Australia. Sweden is not on the operator's own exclusion list but is subject to a regulator prohibition order. Sanctioned jurisdictions are excluded separately. | Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, StarCraft II, Overwatch, Call of Duty | Map winner, Map handicap, Total maps | Delayed-withdrawal complaints recur on public registers from 2021 to 2026, usually resolved on identity verification. | 2 September 2026 |
| ThunderpickEsports-first | 3.8 / 5 | Curaçao, held by Paloma Media B.V. | United States, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Malta, Spain, Switzerland, New Zealand, Curaçao. The operator blocks further jurisdictions beyond this list, and it blocks several regulated markets that comparable offshore books still accept. Widely circulated third-party lists date from 2023 and contain entries that are not countries, so we publish only what we could confirm. | Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Sixteen or more further titles | Map or game winner, Map handicap, Total maps | Delayed-withdrawal complaints recur on public registers from 2023 to 2026, clustering after a large win. | 2 September 2026 |
| Stake.comCasino-first crossover | 3.5 / 5 | Curaçao Gaming Authority, plus local licences | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Peru, Ontario. The operator's terms list more than forty restricted jurisdictions, and published third-party lists contradict each other on several of them. Some markets are excluded from the international site precisely because Stake serves them through a separately licensed local entity, which is a different thing from being shut out. | Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Other titles and sports | Match winner, map winner, some handicaps | No multi-year delayed-payout pattern found in the public registers. One hot-wallet security breach on record, in 2023, with no reported user losses. | 2 September 2026 |
How we assess an esports betting site
We assess a book on what it prices and on what it does when you want your money out, in that order. What follows is a curated set of three operators we cover, ordered by esports coverage depth rather than by what any of them pay us. It is not a list of every licensed sportsbook.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Esports coverage depth | 25% | How many titles the book prices, and whether esports is a primary category or a side tab. |
| Market variety per title | 15% | Whether it lists per-map winners, handicaps and totals, or stops at the match winner. |
| Odds value and pricing | 10% | Where its prices sit against the rest of the board on the same match. |
| Payout speed and payout record | 20% | Published withdrawal windows, and what complaint registers show about whether they hold. |
| Licence and regulatory record | 20% | Which licence it holds, what recourse that gives a player, and any regulator decision on record. |
| Live betting, streaming and platform | 10% | In-play markets, streams on tracked matches, and how the app behaves. |
The rubric caps a score where a regulator has acted or a payout pattern is on record, so a well-covered book cannot score past its own record. The weights, the caps and the per-criterion working are published on how we rate operators. If you only bet Counter-Strike, our CS2 betting sites list covers the same books against that one title.
The esports betting sites we cover
Each card sets out what the book prices, who holds its licence, where it will not take you and what its payout record looks like. The working sits on the review behind it.
GG.BET
An esports-first sportsbook pricing more titles and deeper per-map markets than most mainstream books, under a Curaçao licence and an open Swedish prohibition order.
3.5/ 5
how we rate operators- Titles priced
- Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, StarCraft II, Overwatch, Call of Duty. Depth peaks on Tier 1 and 2.
- Licence
- Curaçao, held by River Entertainment B.V. Checked 2 September 2026.
- Regulatory record
- Spelinspektionen prohibition order, published 13 March 2025.
- Restricted markets
- United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Malta, Australia.
- Payouts
- Cryptocurrency, on a fully verified account. Delayed-withdrawal complaints recur on public registers from 2021 to 2026, usually resolved on identity verification.
- Sign-up offer
- A sportsbook welcome offer exists. Its amount and wagering condition are not published here, because our record and third-party sources disagree on whether a code is needed.
Thunderpick
An esports-native sportsbook live since 2017, pricing more than twenty titles alongside peer-to-peer pool betting, crypto-only and with no regulator decision on record.
3.8/ 5
how we rate operators- Titles priced
- Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Sixteen or more further titles. Depth peaks on Tier 1 and 2.
- Licence
- Curaçao, held by Paloma Media B.V. Checked 2 September 2026.
- Regulatory record
- No regulator decision recorded against this operator.
- Restricted markets
- United States, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Malta, Spain, Switzerland, New Zealand, Curaçao.
- Payouts
- Cryptocurrency, on a fully verified account. Delayed-withdrawal complaints recur on public registers from 2023 to 2026, clustering after a large win.
- Sign-up offer
- A sportsbook welcome offer exists, separate from the casino one and on different terms. Its amount and wagering condition are not published here until they are checked against the operator's terms.
Stake.com
A crypto casino with a sportsbook attached, run by Medium Rare N.V. under a Curaçao licence plus local licences in several regulated markets. Esports is a category inside it rather than the product.
3.5/ 5
how we rate operators- Titles priced
- Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Other titles and sports. Depth peaks on Tier 1 and 2.
- Licence
- Curaçao Gaming Authority, plus local licences. Checked 2 September 2026.
- Regulatory record
- No regulator decision recorded against this operator.
- Restricted markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Peru, Ontario.
- Payouts
- Cryptocurrency, on a verified account. No multi-year delayed-payout pattern found in the public registers. One hot-wallet security breach on record, in 2023, with no reported user losses.
- Sign-up offer
- A sportsbook welcome offer exists. Most published figures for this brand quote the casino offer instead, so nothing is published here until the sportsbook terms are checked directly.
Esports bet types, and which ones exist per title
Nearly every book lists a match winner, a map or game winner, a handicap and a totals market. What changes between titles is the unit those markets are measured in and how far down the tiers they survive.
| Market | What you are backing | CS2 | Valorant | Dota 2 | LoL | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match winner | The series winner. | All tiers | All tiers | All tiers | All tiers | Often the only tier-3 market. |
| Map or game winner | One named map in the series. | Widely listed | Widely listed | Widely listed | Widely listed | Called game winner in Dota 2 and LoL. |
| Map handicap | A win by a stated map margin. | Bo3 and up | Bo3 and up | Bo3 and up | Bo3 and up | Absent on a best-of-one. |
| Total maps | Over or under a stated map count. | Bo3 and up | Bo3 and up | Bo3 and up | Bo3 and up | The line is almost always 2.5. |
| Total rounds or kills | A map passing a round or kill count. | Rounds | Rounds | Kills | Kills | The unit changes by game. |
| First blood or first kill | The opening kill of a map. | Tier 1 | Tier 1 | Common | Common | Settles in the first minutes. |
| Outright winner | The tournament winner. | Field set | Field set | Field set | Field set | Moves hardest in group stages. |
| Player props | One player's kills across a map. | Intermittent | Intermittent | Rare | Rare | Esports-native books only. |
| Live in-play | Any of the above while the map runs. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Prices lag your stream. |
A map handicap starts one team a set number of maps ahead or behind before the series begins, so backing a team at minus 1.5 maps in a best-of-three means they have to win 2-0 for the bet to land.
Prices move with form as much as with the matchup, so check the CS2 team rankings before taking a handicap. For current prices open the live CS2 odds board, or check the fixtures on Valorant matches, Dota 2 matches and League of Legends matches.
How to bet on esports
Five steps, and the second is the one most guides leave out. It also decides whether your first withdrawal is painless.
- Check the book takes your countryStart with the restricted-markets column above rather than with the offer. If a book excludes your country the registration form will not complete, and an account opened from a market a book does not serve is the one most likely to have a withdrawal held.
- Verify your account before you depositMost books run their full identity check at the first withdrawal rather than at registration, which is why a payout quoted in hours can take days. Upload your documents while nothing is riding on them.
- Find the matchWork from the fixture rather than the book's front page, which promotes what it wants to price. Check who is actually playing: stand-ins are common, and a lineup change is the most under-priced information in esports.
- Pick the marketDecide what you expect before you look at what is on offer. A view on a clean sweep is a total-maps or handicap bet, not a match winner at a shorter price.
- Confirm the stake and check the priceCompare the price against another board first. On the same match the spread between the best and worst price is wider in esports than in football, and it comes out of your return.
For step three, today's CS2 matches board carries the fixtures, the times and the lineups we hold.
Access: apps, countries and prediction markets
Where you can bet, on what device, and what is not a sportsbook at all even when it looks like one.
Esports betting apps
Most esports-native books ship an app carrying the same markets as the desktop site, and a few are web-only with a mobile layout instead. The difference is not the market list, it is the live experience: an app that pushes price changes is easier to bet in-play on than a page you refresh. Availability by platform and store varies by market, so check the operator's own site.
Where each book will and will not accept you
The restricted-markets column in the table above lists what each operator publishes, with the date we checked it. Two things are worth knowing. First, the registration form is the real test: if your country is excluded, the sign-up will not complete. Second, a book being reachable from your country is not the same as it being licensed there, and several offshore operators have been the subject of regulator prohibition orders for that distinction. Nothing here is legal advice.
Prediction markets are not sportsbooks
Exchanges such as Kalshi list esports outcomes as event contracts on a designated contract market, regulated as a financial venue rather than as gambling. You are trading a contract against other participants at a price set by the order book, not taking a price from a bookmaker, and you can usually sell out before the event settles. The trade-offs are different too: no bookmaker margin, but thinner liquidity, a trading fee, and none of the consumer protections that come with a gambling licence. It is a different product, and it is worth not confusing the two.
What to actually watch out for
The risk on an esports betting site is rarely that it will not pay. It is that something in the terms, the licence or the verification process stops it paying quickly, and that you find out at the worst moment.
Public complaint registers are the useful evidence. AskGamblers and Casino Guru both publish individual cases with dates and outcomes, which makes a pattern visible in a way a star rating never does. Read them over an observation window rather than as a verdict, and note what the resolved cases turn on: usually verification, not refusal.
| Risk | What it looks like | How to check before you deposit |
|---|---|---|
| An offshore licence with limited recourse | An offshore licence in the footer, and a dispute process that ends with the operator. | Look the licence number up in the issuing regulator's register. |
| A withdrawal held on incomplete verification | A payout pending past the published window, with no date from support. | Verify before your first deposit and keep a record of it. |
| Limits applied after a winning run | A stake ceiling or transaction cap appearing once an account wins. | Read the account-limits clause, not just the bonus terms. |
| A bonus that locks your own balance | A wagering requirement that must clear before any withdrawal. | Check whether it covers the deposit too, and what odds qualify. |
None of this is a judgement on any operator's honesty. Where a regulator has published a decision we report it with the regulator named and the date given. The caps in our rating methodology are how that evidence reaches the score.
These are matches on the board with a price against them right now.
- Isurus Gaming v PeladonaCounter-Strike 2 · Live2.09 / 1.66
- Grasp Legion v Team QuartzCounter-Strike 2 · Live1.10 / 5.71
- Sashi Esport v MetizportCounter-Strike 2 · Live2.26 / 1.57
- G2 Esports v Team FalconsCounter-Strike 2 · Live5.40 / 1.14
- UNiTY esports v Black PhoenixCounter-Strike 2 · Live1.19 / 4.21
- Nordic Partners v nicetryCounter-Strike 2 · Live3.17 / 1.31
- Team Brute v DESEMPREGUEIDOSCounter-Strike 2 · Live1.25 / 3.58
- JiJieHao v Team 33Counter-Strike 2 · Live2.68 / 1.42
Esports betting site questions
What is the best esports betting site?
There is no single best esports betting site, because the books differ most on which titles they price rather than on price itself. Esports-native operators carry deeper market menus on CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends and Valorant, including map handicaps and per-map totals that mainstream sportsbooks often do not list. Large regulated sportsbooks usually offer stronger consumer protection alongside slower and narrower esports coverage. The trade-off is coverage depth against regulatory recourse. Check three things before you choose: which titles the book prices, which licence it holds, and which countries it excludes.
Is esports betting legal?
Esports betting is legal in most markets that license online sports betting, because regulators generally treat an esports match like any other sporting event rather than as a separate category. What varies is which operators may serve you. In the United States, esports markets are offered by licensed sportsbooks in states that permit online sports betting, and availability is set state by state. In the United Kingdom and across most of the European Union, esports betting sits inside the existing licensing regime. Offshore books licensed in jurisdictions such as Curaçao often accept players from markets where they hold no local licence, and several have been the subject of regulator prohibition orders for doing so. Check the restricted-markets column above and check your own jurisdiction. This is not legal advice.
Can you bet on esports?
Yes. Every major sportsbook now prices at least CS2 and League of Legends, and esports-native books price several more titles with deeper market menus.
Do esports betting sites accept crypto?
Many do, and crypto is usually the fastest route in and out. Esports-native books tend to support more than a dozen coins, while large regulated sportsbooks usually support none. A crypto deposit does not remove the identity-verification requirement.
Why is my esports betting withdrawal delayed?
The most common cause of a delayed betting withdrawal is incomplete identity verification, because most books run their full check at the point of the first withdrawal rather than at registration. Public complaint registers make the pattern visible: on AskGamblers, delayed-withdrawal complaints against offshore esports books recur across multiple years, and in a large share of the resolved cases the resolution is the completion of verification rather than any action on the operator's side. Other causes are a bonus balance still carrying a wagering requirement, a withdrawal method that does not match the deposit method, and per-transaction limits that split a large withdrawal into instalments. Complete verification before you deposit, keep your own records, and use the operator's formal complaint route before a public register.
Is betting on esports profitable?
For almost everyone, no. Bookmaker margins on esports are typically wider than on the major traditional sports, and treating betting as income rather than entertainment is the point at which it stops being safe.
Betting responsibly on esports
Betting is entertainment with a cost, not a way to make money, and every market on this page is priced so the book keeps a margin. You must be 18 or older to bet, and 21 or older in some markets. Set a deposit limit before you place a first bet rather than after a losing run, and use the operator's own limit and self-exclusion tools if you need them. If betting has stopped feeling optional, GamCare, BeGambleAware and Gambling Therapy all offer free confidential support.
Open today's esports odds
The next useful step is a price. Open the live CS2 odds board for Counter-Strike, open the cross-game esports odds board for all four titles at once, check today's CS2 matches for the fixture you want, or read how we rate operators before you take any score here at face value.