ESI Gambling Report: The International 7 has shown the potential for an array of markets in esports

02 August 2017

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For the first time in living memory the outright markets provided for Dota’s flagship tournament, The International, have truly shown the potential for scope of outright esports markets.

Multiple bookmakers have opted for an extensive range of markets, mainly based off Valve’s compendium but it’s comfortably the most comprehensive range of markets seen prior to an esports event that we can remember. Bet365 continue to lead the charge.

The bookmaker has offered a staggering:

  • 168 tournament markets (including specials);
  • 18 markets per match;
  • 1464 total markets.

Simply put — it’s a fitting way to price up the world’s biggest esports tournament by prizepool. Over $23,000,000 (and counting) is on the line in Seattle and Dota 2 offers a wealth of data to create innovative markets. Whether it’s based GPM, XPM or kills, last hits, assists, game time, tournament heroes picked — there’s a huge amount of data points and we’ve finally seen them being utilised pre-tournament.

It owes in large part, arguably, to game developer Valve’s in-game Compendium. It encourages players to make predictions on a multitude of statistics across the tournament and thus automatically keeps tabs on the results. Therefore one would assume it makes a bookmakers job a whole lot easier when the data is 100% reliable and the markets are effectively ready made. 

Bet365 has not only taken those markets but also created specific hero versus hero match-ups and player versus player match-ups so there’s a huge amount for punters to choose from. The only criticism is that a user has to scroll an awful lot through “Specials” to actually find exactly what’s being offered. There’s little segregation so the user experience isn’t overly optimal — but that’s but a small gripe. 

The markets are available until tournament action gets underway in around six hours — so for those who want to have a look, make sure you act quickly. They won’t be around for long.

It will be interesting to see if bookmakers price up the tournament again pre-main event. There’s a day in the middle (6th August) where the Group Stages are done, but we rarely see esports events updated for outrights mid-tournament. Unlike in football, where you can bet on the overall winner at pretty much every point, it doesn’t tend to be the case with esports for whatever reason. Here’s hoping that it may change in the future. 

Several other bookmakers have been offering impressive markets as well — Bet365 was just the first we noticed and the most comprehensive out there. 

For those wishing to have a dabble on The International 7 — check out our “Ready, Steady, Cook” series. 

  1. Outrights;
  2. Day One. 

Esports Insider says: Let’s hope this has set the precedent for future esports events — not only for Dota but multiple titles. It’s an impressive effort.