Welcome to our Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting guide, where we will teach you everything there is to know about how to bet on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, how to approach it, where to find the best esports bookmakers, and ultimately, how to profit from it. So if you’re wondering how to bet on CS:GO, you’ve come to the right place!
What Is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – Gameplay Basics
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a tactical first-person shooter game and the fourth game of the Counter-Strike series. Since its release in 2012, this Valve masterpiece has been one of the most popular games in the world and remains one of the most played PC games worldwide.
The game by itself is very simple to understand, even though there aren’t many FPS titles that are quite like it. CS:GO is a team-based game where two teams of five players compete on various maps, each team with its own goals.
One team takes over the role of Terrorists, and the other team is Counter-Terrorists, and the roles dictate what the team’s goal of the game is. While the Terrorists have to either eliminate all the Counter-Terrorists or plant a bomb at one of two sites on the map and let the timer run out, Counter-Terrorists must do everything in their power to prevent the opponents from completing their task.
That can be achieved by either eliminating all Terrorists, preventing a bomb plant or by defusing the bomb after it is planted. So while they have different goals in the game, the first team to eliminate all opponents will win the round.
The game is played as a best-of-30, meaning that the team that wins 16 rounds first wins the game. A CS:GO game can also include overtime if the teams are tied at 15-15. After the first 15 rounds, the teams switch sides, with Counter-Terrorists taking over the role of Terrorists and vice versa.
Even though the goal of the game is pretty straightforward, CS:GO is a highly tactical game, requiring players and teams to plan efficient strategies, have efficient map movement, smart usage of utility, and by working as a unit to accomplish their goals. The fact that CS:GO is easy to play has definitely helped it explode in popularity, while its high skill ceiling has helped it become one of the most-watched esports titles in the world.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Roles
Since CS:GO is a team-based game, each member has to take over a role in the team to form a cohesive unit of five players that work towards the same goal. Usually, the roles are determined by the weapons the players use, but that isn’t necessarily the case, as the player’s roles are far more apparent by watching what the player intends to achieve in the game.
Entry Fragger
As the name of the role suggests, the entry fragger in CS:GO is the first person to enter into a bombsite or objective when the team is attacking. Entry fragger’s role is to initiate the attack by either getting an entry kill or at least providing its team with enough support to make a play.
Players who take over this role must have quick reaction time and perfect aim to be effective, mainly because this role offers high risk due to attacking players finding themselves at a disadvantage when pushing onto the site.
Support
Every team game has to have a support player, and CS:GO is no different. Players who take over the support role have only one goal they have to achieve in a game – help their teammates by pushing with entry fragger, providing cover, or using utility.
While a support player doesn’t need the lightning-fast reflexes of an AWPer or the accurate aim of an entry fragger, he has to be well versed in the different utility items and have good knowledge of the map. And even though support players often don’t get the recognition they deserve, they remain a vital part of any team composition.
In-Game Leader
Every CS:GO team needs to have a captain, someone to call the shots – and that’s where an in-game leader (or IGL) comes in. In-game leaders are rarely behind flashy plays, and they rarely top the scoreboard, but that’s never their primary goal.
Instead, IGL’s main role in the team is to keep the entire squad on the same page, forge strategies, and organize the flow of the game. In-game leaders will often call the shots, and decide whether the team should buy, which site to push, or how to execute overtakes. Like a captain in any other esports game, IGL is the brain behind the team.
Lurker
Lurkers focus on outmaneuvering the opposing team by looking for ways to surprise the opponents and achieve easy kills on isolated players. Often, Lurkers will sit on the opposite bomb site than their team and try to eliminate rotating players, disrupting the opposing team’s game flow.
The main trait of a lurker is excellent map knowledge and a good sense of timing, as they have to predict how the opponents will move ahead of time. Although lurkers often operate solo, they’re a vital part of any CS:GO team.
AWPer
Perhaps the flashiest role in CS:GO and definitely a role everyone wants to excel at is AWPer. The player who takes over this role has to excel at using the “Big Green”, which means having immaculate accuracy and lightning-fast reflexes, allowing him to eliminate opponents with a single bullet.
Often teams will build their economy around providing their AWPer with a sniper rifle (AWP), but since the weapon is very expensive, any AWPer must also be able to wield and efficiently use rifles.
Notably, all the CS:GO roles are fluid, meaning that players will not always stick to one role and should be able to fill in whatever role is missing on the team. However, while anyone can wield AWP, players who have spent years perfecting the craft to play the AWP position will perform significantly better with the weapon.
How Do You Bet On CS:GO?
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive might be the best game to start your esports betting journey if you’ve never bet on esports before. The game is fairly simple to understand, but CSGO betting is also very accessible, largely thanks to the game’s popularity.
CS:GO is undoubtedly one of the most popular esports titles among viewers and esports bettors, which explains why so many bookmakers cover this game. This leads to a situation where you’ll be hard-pressed to find an online betting gambling site that won’t offer CSGO esports markets.
Notably, CS:GO is not only extremely well covered by esports bookmakers, but it’s also available for betting on traditional sports betting sites such as Bet365, William Hill, and Pinnacle.
But even though it’s easy to find online sportsbooks where you’ll be able to bet on CS:GO, you also have to know where and how to find the right one. And beyond that, you must learn a thing or two about the game, how to read and understand CSGO betting odds and get familiar with all the bet types available to you.
That will require some time, investment, and dedication, but anyone can do it, just like anyone can profit from betting on CSGO.
The Best CS:GO Betting Sites
Every successful CSGO betting journey begins with picking the right esports betting site that can offer you everything you’ll need for an enjoyable experience. Since so many online betting sites cover CS:GO, finding a good bookmaker might sound like a time-consuming task, but it doesn’t have to be like that.
To recognize top betting sites, you only have to look for a few things, but most importantly, the bookmaker you choose must be legit, licensed, and follow online gambling regulations. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t be using shady betting sites, which will put your personal information and your money at risk, so prioritize only bookmakers that operate legally and hold valid licenses.
Besides operating legally, all good esports betting sites should offer competitive CSGO betting odds and enough betting markets, so you can bet on whatever match or tournament you wish. Notably, the CS:GO odds will vary from bookmaker to bookmaker, and no esports betting site will always have the best prices – still, you should register with only those betting sites that can regularly provide you with competitive odds.
Lastly, it helps if the CSGO betting site you chose has other features like live streams of games and in-play betting options. Even if you don’t plan to engage in live betting, it’s nice to have that option. Similarly, it is beneficial if the bookmaker has a mobile betting app and generous bonus promotions. While the latter might be more indirectly helpful to your CSGO betting, neither of those features are as important as solid betting odds generous market offer.
How Can You Bet On CS:GO?
Betting on CSGO is no different from betting on League of Legends, Dota 2, or any of the traditional sports. You still need to register with a betting site, and you will usually use very similar bet types. However, while the traditional approach to betting on CSGO is no different from betting on any other esport or sport, there’s another way to do it.
Like most other esports titles, CS:GO is also available on skin betting sites, which allow you to bet with your CS:GO (or Dota 2) skins instead of money. Although very few sites actually allow you to wager your skins on a match, skin CSGO betting sites will accept your in-game skins as a deposit and give you its value in betting money or the website’s wagering currency.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is not the only esports that is available on skin betting sites, but as a game whose skins are used to deposit money on bookmakers, it’s readily available on all skin bookmakers. So if you decide to bet on CS:GO with skins instead of real money, you’ll have plenty of options to do so.
CS:GO Betting Bonuses
Every betting site will have some betting bonuses and promotions ready for its users. At the very least, each bookmaker will have the initial bonus in the form of a welcome bonus, which usually comes in the form of a first deposit bonus. But even though some betting sites won’t have anything beyond that, most will.
Betting bonuses and promotions are the easiest way for betting sites to attract new users to the platform, which explains why you will find them everywhere you look. From welcome bonuses, which will award you anywhere from 50% to 100% matched deposit on the initial bonus amount to accumulator boosts, free bets, and special tournament promotions.
The amount and the variety of bonuses you’ll receive will depend on the bookmaker you choose and the esports title you plan to bet on. Some esports betting sites will have more bonuses than others, just like you can expect to find more esports-exclusive promotions on more popular esports games like CS:GO.
But remember that some bonuses will have certain requirements you’ll need to fulfill, like a max qualifying bet stake for an acca boost, or placing a bet on a certain tournament to grab the free bet. So make sure that you read the terms and conditions of the bonuses the betting sites offer and use a bonus code if the bookmaker asks for it.
Even though bonuses and promotions are the best and easiest way to get extra value for your money, you shouldn’t emphasize the bonus offer when picking a betting site. Offers are great, but you’ll get much more from a bookmaker offering solid betting odds and enough betting markets.
CS:GO Betting Odds
Before you can start betting on CS:GO, you have to understand how to read the betting odds. That’s fairly simple, mainly because CS:GO odds don’t differ from the betting odds you’ll find on sports betting sites or while betting on other esports.
However, you should know that the odds will differ from bookmaker to bookmaker. Often, the betting offer on the same game won’t be the same across all betting sites, meaning that Bet365 could have FaZe Clan priced at 2.10 to defeat Natus Vincere, while William Hill could have FaZe Clan priced at 2.00. So if you want to succeed at betting on esports, you should have accounts with multiple bookmakers, allowing you to price shop and always bet with the best odds.
Moreover, it’s beneficial if you know how to read and differentiate between decimal odds, American odds, and fractional odds. But even though all three show the same thing, the odds format displays the numbers differently, so the only real difference is where you’ll find these odds formats.
American bookmakers will use the American odds format, UK bookmakers will use the fractional odds format, and most other betting sites will use the decimal odds format. But since all bookmakers allow you to change how the odds are displayed, you don’t have to know how to read all three.
CS:GO Bet Types
While betting on CS:GO, you’ll quickly notice that there are many betting markets available, ensuring that you’ll always be able to bet on CS:GO games the way you like. However, while the are many bet types available for CSGO betting, learning them is pretty straightforward because they’re no different than the bet types for other esports titles, except for prop bets.
Here we will look over some of the most common bet types, how to use them and why they are so popular.
Moneyline
Moneyline is the simplest and most common bet type you’ll find while betting on CS:GO, and it will often be the first bet you will place on the game. With a moneyline wager, you’re simply placing a bet before the game begins and predicting which team will win, and it doesn’t matter by how much they win or how long it takes them – the only thing that matters is the game’s final result.
Handicap Betting
Handicap betting (also known as line betting) is one of the most popular ways to approach wagering on CS:GO. With handicaps, the bookmakers even the playing field between two CS:GO teams that are not evenly matched.
The bookmakers will give the weaker team a virtual advantage and a virtual disadvantage to the stronger team in the form of handicaps. For example, if Natus Vincere are expected to defeat Team Spirit in a best-of-three series, a bookmaker will offer a -1.5 map handicap on Natus Vincere and a +1.5 map handicap on Team Spirit.
The handicaps then get added to the final score, in this example, deducting 1.5 maps from NaVi and adding 1.5 maps to Team Spirit. In other words, Natus Vincere must win 2-0, while Team Spirit must win at least one map for your bet to hit.
Totals
Totals or over/under is another basic bet type that is available for betting on any esports and is a fairly simple wager. With it, you’re predicting whether a certain statistic in a game will reach a predetermined value or not, which can include anything from maps played, to the number of kills, number of rounds won, and anything in between.
You can use totals even for in-play betting when you can place bets on a round-by-round basis or in pre-match betting, where you’ll be able to predict whether the upcoming series will end in two or three maps (in a Bo3) series.
Notably, totals are also available for tournament betting. For example, you can bet on how many games a team will win in a CSGO Major championship or how many kills a player will score throughout the tournament.
Proposition Bets
Proposition bets (or prop bets) are bets made regarding an occurrence or non-occurrence of a specific event in a game that does not directly affect how the match will end. In CS:GO, prop bets can be who will get the first kill, will a player score an ace, or will a team win both pistol rounds.
Outrights
Win outright (or futures bets) are wagers made on a future event, most commonly on which team will win the next tournament. This is one of the most popular CS:GO bet types among esports bettors, mainly because outright winner odds are usually very high and can easily reach double and even triple digits.
Group Betting
Group betting is only available in CS:GO events such as Major tournaments, and it includes various wagers, including which team will win their group at a CS;GO Major championship, which team will finish the group in the last place, or which teams qualify for the knockout stage.
Some bookmakers will even have special group bets available, such as how many matches a team will win during the major events’ group stage and even head-to-head betting between two teams in the same group. Although not as commonly available as other bet types, group betting is still one of the most exciting ways you can bet on CS:GO, mainly on major tournaments.
CS:GO Live Betting
Live betting has become increasingly popular in the online esports betting world, and it’s particularly common among CS:GO bettors. Even though in-play betting is not for everyone, it’s easily the most exciting way you can approach betting on esports, and if done correctly, it can also be highly profitable.
But if you want to bet on CS:GO live, you have to have access to a betting site with live betting markets and live streaming options. Luckily most esports betting websites will have both, allowing you to bet on live matches as you please.
However, before you engage in live betting, you should first learn the basics and get a firm grasp of how CSGO betting works. Live betting, while arguably more enjoyable, is far more demanding and requires good knowledge of the game, the players, and the teams. Still, once you are confident, you should definitely give live betting a try!
Best CS:GO Events To Bet On
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the biggest esports titles with one of the most well-developed competitive scenes. There are thousands of CS:GO teams and numerous tournaments and events throughout the year, ensuring you’ll always have something to watch and bet on.
Admittedly, there are way too many CS:GO tournaments to count, and the betting sites often fail to cover them all. And that’s fine, as it’s unfair to ask CSGO betting sites to offer betting markets for all tournaments. However, a good sportsbook should at least cover the biggest events, including BLAST Premier, Major Championships, ESL Pro League, WePlay Academy League, and Intel Extreme Masters competitions.
Of all the available tournaments you can bet on, these are undoubtedly the most exciting because they welcome some of the world’s best CS:GO teams. Moreover, they’re usually well-covered by bookmakers, providing plenty of betting markets and more than enough betting options, especially in the two major tournaments.
CS:GO Betting Strategies
Anyone can bet on CS:GO, but not everyone will make a profit from it, which is the sad reality of both esports betting and wagering on conventional sports. However, if you have the right approach, anyone can improve his chances of making some extra cash from betting.
Here we will check some CS:GO betting strategies that will help you on your betting journey.
Bet only on the best esports betting sites. And esports betting guides will tell you the importance of using a solid bookmaker for your CS:GO betting needs, and it can’t be overstated how important this is. Not only does the betting site need to be legit and licensed, but it also has to provide you with solid odds and enough markets so you can approach betting on CS:GO the way you want.
Do your research. Not doing the research before placing your bets is the biggest downfall of any new bettor, and while it’s an obvious piece of advice, it can’t be taken for granted. Analyze the team and player stats, compare their form with the enemy team’s form and make sure that you’re on top of the latest news, as only this way will you be able to make smart bets.
Never chase your losses. A very common phrase you’ll hear when gambling and a very important to remember for anyone wanting to enjoy responsible gambling. No matter how good you are at betting on CS:GO, you will encounter losing streaks, which can last for days, weeks, or even months, but if you’re doing your homework and placing smart bets, your luck will turn around, and you’ll get back on the horse.
Remember that CSGO betting won’t make you rich overnight, and if you have this mentality going into it, you’re bound to fail. Betting on esports is a long journey that has its obstacles, including losing streaks, so even though you can’t expect to make a lot of money quickly, you can come out ahead in the long run if you have the right approach and stick to your plan.
CS:GO Betting FAQ
Where can I bet on CS:GO games?
You can bet on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches on almost any online betting site, including esports bookmakers and traditional sportsbooks. As one of the world’s most popular games, CS:GO is extremely well-covered by most online bookmakers and is the perfect game for anyone wanting to start his esports betting journey.
Can you bet real money on CS:GO?
Yes, you can bet real money on CS:GO, the same way you can bet real money on any other esport or sport. Besides being able to bet money on CS:GO, you can also choose to bet your skins, albeit this is only available on skin betting sites.
Can you Gamble in CS:GO?
Technically, you can gamble in CS:GO by buying skin boxes and trying your luck on getting new weapon skins. But then, there are also online gambling sites that offer the players an option to bet on matches and play various casino games with their CS:GO skins.
Where can I bet CSGO skins on matches?
You can bet with your CS:GO skins on all online skin betting sites, which will accept skins as a deposit method. These skins then get converted either into real money based on their market value or into the site’s currency, which you can use to bet on CS:GO matches.
What is the best CS:GO gambling site?
There is no single best CS:GO gambling site. Instead, there are many great betting sites you can choose from to bet on CS:GO, including Midnite, Bet365, William Hill, and ThunderPick.
