The many in-game variables, such as hero drafting, builds, Roshan, spells and game dynamics makes it an amazing game to play and watch, meaning many fans are keen to find out how to bet on Dota 2.
From a gamer standpoint, it can sometimes be difficult to translate game variables into betting markets. It is especially true when it comes to Dota 2 betting. It takes strong analytical and management skills to win a bet on Dota 2, so much so that it almost becomes a meta game itself.
Staying close to the action is crucial if you're aiming to bet on Dota 2. Luckbox offers already an easy way to keep updated on your favorite teams and events through our filters and search fields.
How to bet on Dota 2: The basics
1. Understanding odds
Under every bet type On Luckbox, there is a number. In Europe, this number is often a decimal number. If you bet on one of the market described below this number represents the multipliers assigned to markets. The money you put on the market of your choice will be multiplied by that number if the conditions of the market meets.
If you are betting on a market with odds of 2.00, the money you are putting at stake is debited and you will retrieve twice the amount you put if you win.
Some examples
If you bet €2 on a market with odds of 2.0, you are first debited €2 when you bet and then credited €4 if you win (net win = €2). If the odds were 1.20, you would risk €2 to win €2.40 (2 x 1.20 = 2.40, net win = €0.40). If the odds were 1.50, you would risk €2 for a return of €3 - your net win being €1.
What is an underdog?
The underdog is the team that is less likely to win a game. Of course, higher odds are associated to the underdog winning the game or getting more kills. This means that betting on the underdog offer higher returns on your initial investment.
2. Combo betting
To increase your betting returns, you can try to pick an underdog. While this is always fun to catch an underdog win, it can prove a pricey strategy over the long run.
There is another option Luckbox is offering: combo betting. In traditional betting, this would be !mentioned as accumulator bets. You can decide to cumulate some markets. Your combo bet will win if ALL the conditions are met.
In this particular example, you can decide to bet on Ninjas In Pyjamas @1.45 and Team Sirius @1.84. If you place a combo bet, your final odds will be 1.45 x 1.84 = 2.66.
When you combo bet on both Ninjas In Pyjamas and Team Sirius to win, you are debited €1 to place your bet. €2.66 will be credited back to your account if NiP AND Team Sirius win. If only one of the team loses, your €1 is lost.
You can add as many compatible markets as you wish to increase your odds and potential returns, but keep in mind that you are increasing your risk of losing your initial investment as your bet is lost if only one condition of your combo is not met.
3. Live Betting
Luckbox focused on staying the closest to the action and is offering live betting on every Dota 2 professional game, with live streams associated in any of the available languages it is in, one click away.
You can bet on Dota 2 games as you are watching them to optimise your decision-making process. A lot of the below described markets will be available to bet live nd you can watch the stream in 'normal' or 'theatre' mode too.
More esports betting guides
Types of Dota 2 bets
Knowing the available markets can help you take the most fun out of the Dota 2 games you are watching. While the game outcome market (or moneyline) is the most popular type of bet, other markets can highlight your deep knowledge of the game and add on to your wins. You know that Virtus.pro will kill the first Roshan in the first map of their game against Evil Geniuses? It's ok, Luckbox covers that and even offers you the stream to watch your win happen.
1. Moneyline
This is the most common bet and simply translates in human terms as the outcome of the game or betting on the winning team. Both teams playing best-of-ones, best-of-threes or best-of-fives cannot draw. A draw is possible in best-of-two games (1-1), meaning there are three outcomes possible in such games.
2. Map betting
If your analysis of the game has spotted a clear opportunity in game 1 ('Team A has not lost a game 1 for years, Team B has never won any' for instance), you might choose to reduce the risk of your bet to a single map. Alternatively, you might have no idea about how those two teams would perform against each other and you'd rather save your bet trigger for Map 2, which gives you another opportunity to stem the risk.
3. Overs and Unders betting
Over and unders are always decimals numbers ending with .5. Betting on a score to be under 2.5 means that you win if the score is 2 or less. Betting on a score to be over 2.5 means that you win if the score is 3 or more. The over/under mechanism is used in multiple markets like handicaps, kills, map victories etc.
4. Negative map advantage
The most common map advantage bet given the nature of Dota 2 games are Team A -1.5 and Team A -2.5. The first one means that Team A win the match by 2 games or more (if it is a best-of-three, you are betting on Team A to win 2-0, if it is a best-of-five, you are betting on Team A to win 3-0 or 4-1, if Team A wins 3-2, you lose the bet.
5. Positive map advantage
Betting on Team A +1.5 means that you are betting on the team to win the match with an advantage of 1.5 games at the start of the game. You win if Team A win 2-0, 2-1 and if it loses 1-2 too. The only case where your bet does not win is if Team A loses 2-0.
6. Kills advantage
Team A -3.5 means that Team A starts the match (or the map) with a 3.5 kills disadvantage compared to their opponent. Betting Team A -3.5 means you think that Team A will win versus Team B by four kills or more. If you bet on Team +3.5, you will win your bet if Team A wins or does not lose the game by 4 kills or more.
7. Total / Map / Team kills
If you bet on over 52.5 Total kills, you will win if the addition of both teams' kills are 53 or more. If you bet on over 28.5 Map 1 kills, you will win if the addition of both teams' kills are 29 or more.
If you bet on Team A over 60.5 kill, you will win if Team A's kills addition every map of the game is 31 or more.
8. First to 10/20 kills
If you bet on Team A First to 10 kills, you win the amount of your wager mutiplied by the associated odds if Team A is the first to reach 10 kills in the game or map selected.
9. Roshan kills
You can chose to bet on the team to kill the first or second Roshan ('Roshan 1 kill' and 'Roshan 2 kill' on Luckbox) on a given map.
10. Courier kills
You can also chose to bet on whether a courier will get killed during a map or a whole game. On Luckbox, you will have to select the 'Yes' or 'No' box to open your betslip and confirm to place your bets.
11. First blood
If you bet on Team A First blood, you are betting on Team A to kill a hero first compared to their opponent. You win the amount you wagered multiplied by the odds displayed in the box under the team name of your choice.
12. Team to destroy barrack 1 / tower 1
Same here, on Luckbox, you can bet on the team to destroy barrack 1 or tower 1 on a given map. Those kind of markets can be really fun to bet live but are only game facts so these markets need to be considered carefully.
13. Godlike streak
Betting on a Dota 2 team to get a Godlike streak on a game or a particular map.
Bet on Dota 2 with real money
Betting on Dota 2 with real money obviously incurs some risk. Gambling should always be fun and you should only ever bet what you can afford to lose. You must be 18 to bet and in a country where the operator is licensed.
To find out more about gambling safely, head to Luckbox's responsible gambling information page.
Bankroll management
Any professional gambler would advise you on bankroll management beforehand, it is a necessary part of every betting strategy. So much so that bettors are usually talking about betting units (1% of your Dota 2 betting bankroll) rather than amounts.
If you keep as a golden rule to never bet more than 5% of what you are ready to lose (your bankroll) in one go, you should keep it fun for yourself long enough to consider winning on the long run. The fun of possibly winning thanks to your favorite team should always be bigger than the disappointment of an equally possible loss.
Free bets and bonus codes
Betting companies will often offer incentives to attract new customers and keep existing ones and this no different in esports. These bonuses are often a great way to try out a betting company without risking too much but bear in mind there are almost always conditions such as wagering requirements or minimum odds relating to such offers.
Typically, betting bonuses come in three forms:
- Free bets - credit you can bet with but not withdraw
- Free cash - credit you can withdraw after betting once
- No-deposit offer - you get a bonus just for creating an account
The move away from skins
What's Valve stance? Well, it's complicated. The creators of Dota 2 started offering back in March 2019. The American giants were looking less keen on the matter the year before.
It seems Valve's stance on relations between esports and betting have softened, possibly due to the extraordinary revenue esports betting can potentially yield.
It's here to stay
"Major esports leagues such as those for popular games League of Legends, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 continue to rise in value at a meteoric pace, projecting to be worth $906m in 2018 - Less visible to outsiders, the gambling market around those leagues is even more robust." *Noah Smith for Washington Post, Apr 16, 2018
The verdict is seemingly unanimous - esports betting is the next thing. Jurre Pannekeet was reporting for Newzoo a year ago that esports betting revenue is as big as the esports revenue all together and mentions it as a parallel (meta?) economy.
Dota 2 betting tips
The Dota 2 API is open source allowing third parties to directly take any public game information from the client. This allows multiple websites to offer extensive data services. Among the most useful and credible in the community are DOTABUFF.com and trackdota.com.
Do your research
DOTABUFF.com is the most extensive database you can find about Dota 2. Teams, events, matches, games, players, all that in clean boarded statistics adjustable by multiple game variables. Perfect for pre-game analysis, drafting scenario speculations and game dynamics hypothesis. While DOTABUFF.com is perfect for past matches, there is a better tool for making live decisions when the game is not going your way.
At TrackDota.com any professional Dota 2 live game data is tracked. Every tower, Dota 2 teams and players net worths or XP over the game is displayed through an efficient and nice UI in real time.
Is your current bet going wrong? The fastest way to know why and to which extent is to check trackdota.com for the game live data feed. You can then correct your punt with a full set of data to back up your live decision.
Find Dota matches to bet on
The multiplicity of Dota 2 professional events as well as the ever growing amount of money at stake in these events' prize pools allow Dota 2 fans to enjoy game action all year long, concluded by what has become a legendary esports competition already: The International.
The Dota Pro Circuit
Whether it be between two Dota 2 playing sessions, or after work, there is almost always a Dota 2 game on. With no fewer than than five Majors and five Minors throughout the Dota Pro Circuit, the games on streams are also top-quality and the funniest to watch and bet on as a chance to the holy TI shield is at stake: this, money can't buy.
DPC 2019/2020 schedule
The 2019/2020 DPC schedule was severely affected by COVID-19. Before the disruption, the calendar looked like this:
Dota 2 Majors
MDL Chengdu Major (TNC Predator)
Nov 16-24, 2019
Prize pool: $1,000,000
Chengdu, China
DreamLeague Leipzig Major
Jan 18-26, 2020
Prize pool: $1,000,000
Leipzig, Germany
ESL One Los Angeles 2020
Mar 15-22, 2020
Prize pool: $1,000,000
Los Angeles, USA
Major TBD
May 2-10, 2020
Prize pool: $1,000,000
Major TBD
Jun 20-28, 2020
Prize pool: $1,000,000
Dota 2 Minors
Dota Summit 11
Nov 7-10, 2019
Prize pool: $300,000
Los Angeles, USA
WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020
Jan 9-12, 2020
Prize pool: $300,000
Bukovel, Ukraine
Minor TBD
Mar 3-7, 2020
Prize pool: $300,000
Minor TBD
Apr 22-26, 2020
Prize pool: $300,000
Minor TBD
Jun 9-13, 2020
Prize pool: $300,000
Pictures: Helena Kristiansson / ESL - @dota2ti Twitter account
