Gambling has closely followed professional video gaming competitions (or eSports) almost from the eSports beginning, which is around the early 2000s. In the years that followed, the two became closely associated, though they’re still fairly limited to the general public and only popular in avant-garde gaming and eSports gambling circles.
Fast forward to the 2010s, professional eSports tournaments and betting on eSports are no longer a commodity. Today, basically any person with an internet connection and a compatible device can bet on, or even play professional eSports events on a whim.
Site name | Available eSports | Bonus | License |
---|---|---|---|
LOOT.BET | CS: GO, Overwatch, Starcraft 2, League of Legends, King of Glory, PES 2020, etc. | 100% match on first deposit up to £100 | Curacao Government |
GG.BET | CS: GO, Rocket League, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Dota 2, Overwatch, etc. | £20 risk-free bet | £20 risk-free bet |
Betway eSports | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Dota 2, Overwatch, Rainbow 6, World of Tanks, VALORANT, etc | £30 free bet | Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), UK Gambling Comission, etc |
arcanebet | CS: GO, Dota 2, ing of Glory, Starcraft II, Overwtch | 100% match deposit bonus up to €/$30 | Curacao Govt. |
Cyber.Bet | CS: GO, Overwatch, LoL, Rocket League | 100% matched deposit bonus of up to £250 | Curacao Govt. |
Dota 2, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Overwatch – these are just some of the video games that have dominated the eSports scene over the past 10 years. Naturally, as the top eSports, these games have produced the majority of matches for betting on every online betting site that features an eSports category.
In terms of the choice of eSports to bet on, the options have never been more diverse than they are today. There are dozens of games that have risen to professional sports and every online betting site is looking to get in on the action.
Unique in many ways, Hearthstone deserves much credit for keeping avid eSports gamers and bettors entertained for years. In this article, we will deal with the general aspects of the game and the eSports, and provide you a basic betting guide for Hearthstone eSports matches.
What is eSports Betting?
Esports betting is essentially the same sports betting, only we’re talking about a whole different kind of sport.
To put it simply, see betting on Hearthstone or Dota 2 as betting on basketball or football. The betting markets can be identical, similar, or completely different, while the two sports cannot really be compared. Though same-genre games like League of Legends and Dota 2, or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty, for instance, are similar in terms of gameplay, others are just beyond comparison. Take, for instance, Overwatch and Street Fighter. Both are top eSports, yet feature an entirely different gaming format.
The point being, while you may be familiar with some of the eSports betting markets, i.e. types of bets, in eSports betting it all comes down to how well you know the game mechanics, as well as the players who participate in eSports matches.
Hearthstone – The Basics
Hearthstone is a revival of a fringe game genre — the tabletop trading card games.
It was developed and released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2014 and quickly became part of the competitive eSports scene. Hearthstone is a love letter to the classic collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. At the time, this was a card game unlike any other—one that spurred players to create whole fantasy worlds out of a plain-looking deck of cards. Today, Magic is also a highly successful online digital card game and its influence persists to this day, nearly three decades since it first came out.
Meanwhile, Hearthstone is arguably the greatest online collectible card game that partially draws inspiration from Magic.
Hearthstone is a digital, free-to-play, turn-based card game. That is, a game where players take turns when playing. But the game borrows what it can and introduces plenty of new features and nuances, furnished with tons of new options and a simplified, yet competitive game format.
With Hearthstone, Blizzard has accomplished two things: revived the fantasy collectible card genre, and diverted attention to one of their old classics. Hearthstone, originally titled Heroes of Warcraft, expands on the universe of Warcraft and World of Warcraft, bringing the same characters, spells, relics, and other features from the beloved franchise to the online table.
Overview of Hearthstone Gameplay
Understanding how Hearthstone is played is key to making your bets count.
The match begins with the tossing of a coin to determine which player goes first.
A typical Hearthstone match features two players on a virtual table who play using different cards from their deck collections intending to reduce the opposing player’s health.
The decks can contain four different card types: minions, spells, quests, or heroes. Each card has distinctive features tailored to a specific hero class such as a mage or a rogue. Every card also has specific information concerning health, attack, and mana.
Hearthstone players draw a card from their deck when they play a hand, but not all cards can be played in a turn. Decks can have a maximum of 30 cards. Players draw from their decks until they either win the match or use up all their cards.
This is simply a broad summary of how to play this super-fun digital card game. To better understand how it works, we suggest downloading the game and start playing. After all, it’s free-to-play!
Hearthstone Tournaments
Blizzard Entertainment’s games have had a bigger impact on the eSports industry than any other video game developer. In 2018, Hearthstone topped 100 million players worldwide, making it, temporarily, one of Blizzard’s most played games.
This massive global popularity has, naturally, given rise to major professional tournaments and, in turn, to Hearthstone betting markets.
The game became part of the competitive eSports scene even before it was publicly released. In fact, the first Hearthstone tournament was held at BlizzCon in late 2013, months before the game’s official release.
Hearthstone’s professional competitions are the main fodder for eSports betting sites and there are numerous tournaments organized each year. Top players from across the world compete for sizable chunks of prize pools reaching up to $1 million.
Even a smaller tournament can have rewards that skilled Hearthstone players find difficult to ignore. For example, the 2021 Masters Tour Orgrimmar awarded a $25,000 prize for the winner, and tens of thousands in real money and other prizes for other
There are two main professional Hearthstone tournaments organized each year: the Masters Tour and the Grandmasters.
The Masters are divided into several tournaments such as the Masters Tour Ironforge, or the Masters Tour Orgrimmar. The masters feature 400 players competing for a portion of $250,000.
The best masters players will advance to the top-tier of Hearthstone professional competition -the Grandmasters – to compete in the World Championship for the title champion and a share of a $500,000 prize pool. The Grandmaster World Championship brings together the best 48 Hearthstone players in the world from three regions – America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific – to play one another in an exceptionally competitive format.
Hearthstone eSports Gambling Sites
On top of being a top digital card game, Hearthstone is also an intuitive strategy game. This makes betting on this game much more interesting, and challenging.
Competitive Hearthstone events between highly skilled and experienced players create high odds for enthusiastic eSports punters throughout most of the year, and matches are widely covered by almost any online eSports betting site.
Betting odds may differ from one site to another, though most eSports bookmakers give bettors a relatively high edge. The odds are usually displayed either as fractional or decimal. To calculate how much money you could win from your bets, just multiply the amount you bet by the odds for a specific player. For example, if you bet £100 on 1.95 odds, your prospective win would be £195.
Hearthstone Betting Guide
Before you start placing bets on Hearthstone eSports matches, you should have at least a basic understanding of the game. You can check out Blizzard’s simplified and concise ‘How to Play’ guide or, better yet, download Hearthstone yourself and start playing.
Hearthstone is quickly becoming one of Blizzard’s most popular games, and games are growing more competitive by the year.
Unlike some eSports, Hearthstone is exclusively 1v1 and there’s no team play involved. It involves fast-paced gameplay that requires players to make split-second decisions and think on their feet, with a single late game card being able to change the direction in which the match is going.
You need to keep abreast of the latest developments, changes to tournament formats, and statistics of individual players to make smarter bets.
After you’ve carefully read the rules about the different (but also sometimes limited) ways Hearthstone cards and card decks can be used, open any video of a Masters or World Championship match to see how the pros do it. You can always learn something by simply watching the different playstyles and strategies talented competitors employ during an average Hearthstone eSports match.
If this is your first time betting on Hearthstone eSports matches, you want to bet small amounts of money until you get the feel of how a match progresses and how individual players adapt to the opponent’s style of play.
Additionally, depending on which eSports betting site you use, check for betting tips for specific eSports games the bookie may be offering. The top eSports betting sites will have entire blogs or thorough guides to help beginners make more insightful bets.
Betting Markets for Hearthstone
Games like CS: GO, Dota 2, or League of Legends have traditionally had a wide range of eSports markets, yet for Hearthstone the betting markets are somewhat narrowed down to a few options.
Match Winner
This is the simplest bet of all, offered for all eSports games. For Hearthstone, every player has specific odds to win the match based on how good the player is, and you simply bet on which player you think will win.
Correct Score
Hearthstone games are played in multiple rounds and you can predict how many games a Hearthstone player will win during a match-up.
Handicap Betting
The best-of-five format of Hearthstone games allows for handicap betting when one player has a clear advantage over the other. In Hearthstone, a handicap is an imagined (dis) advantage that the betting site gives to a player before the game begins.
Outright Winner
Also called a futures market, an outright bet is yet another simple and basic wager the majority of eSports betting sites provide to punters. It is similar to a match-winner, but you make a pre-tournament, or futures, wager on the player you think has the biggest chances to win an entire Hearthstone tournament.
How we Choose the Top Hearthstone Betting Sites
If you’re not cautious when browsing for a new Hearthstone betting site, you can easily stumble on an operator who is either unlicensed or fails to adhere to eSports betting standards.
With this article, we spare you the trouble of having to look at and analyze dozens of sites before you decide which one suits you best. Every single Hearthstone betting site on our list is considered highly credible and has undergone exhaustive licensing and regulation screenings to be allowed to open up its sportsbooks to paying customers.
Other criteria we took into consideration include bonus offers and customer support. That means you will find at least one bonus promo for new players at each site on our list, along with stellar customer support. When you entrust a betting site with your money and private information, you expect to receive customer support of the highest level.
Moreover, we made sure that the majority of sites cover a wide range of Hearthstone matches and tournaments, as well as provide live streaming options to follow those events in real-time after you place a bet.
The Best Hearthstone eSports Betting Sites
When it comes to eSports betting, Hearthstone is still going strong in 2021 thanks to the variety of competitions Blizzard and other eSports organizers host every year. Even throughout the turbulent 2020 and 2021 and amid a global hiatus of sports competitions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hearthstone events continued to draw in thousands of players, and tens of thousands of spectators.
To cut to the chase, here are what we consider to be among the best eSports betting sites for Hearthstone:
- LOOT.BET – an eSports-oriented site with a wide selection of eSports games and a live streaming option; bonus includes 100% match on first deposit up to £100; bonus activated with a min. deposit of £20; other terms and conditions apply; +18;
- GG.BET – wide coverage of sports and eSports events; bonus includes £20 risk-free bet on losing wagers; +18
- Betway eSports – a trusted sports betting site with eSports coverage; offers a £30 free bet as a bonus; terms and conditions apply; +18
- arcanebet – site with a focus on eSports markets; gives new customers a 100% match deposit bonus up to €/$30; terms and conditions apply; +18
- Cyber.Bet – offers live streaming for eSports events and a great mobile betting platform; 100% matched deposit bonus of up to £250 using promo code brains; terms and conditions apply; gamble responsibly; +18
FAQ
What are the Best eSports to Bet On?
Apart from Hearthstone, you mean? Matches for League of Legends, CS: GO and Dota 2, also informally called the 'big three' eSports games, are among the easiest to find on online betting sites and often offer very favorable odds.
Which Hearthstone Betting Sites Have the Best Odds?
Each site on our list sets competitive odds for all eSports fixtures, so you can't go wrong regardless of which one you ultimately pick.
Can I Bet on Hearthstone in 2021?
Season 1 of the Hearthstone World Championship is already underway, with the final weeks of the tournament's first season set to conclude on May 30. Worry not, because there are still the Week 8 playoffs scheduled for June 4-June 6, which usually include the most exciting matches of the competition.
Where Can I Watch Hearthstone Tournaments?
Hearthstone eSports events are usually streamed on platforms like Twitch.tv, or you can check the Hearthstone Esports YouTube channel channel for more information.
Can I Bet on Hearthstone on My Mobile?
Yes. Each of the eSports betting sites we listed is mobile-compatible, and some even have personalized mobile apps.