How to Bet on Counter Strike: Global Offensive

Toby Marshall
30 May 2022
How to Bet on Counter strike

Obviously, people love playing CSGO. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive may have been around for years, but its popularity isn’t even close to dwindling. However, it has another audience – those that like to bet on the games and tournaments, so today we look in detail at how to bet on Counter Strike.

There is no bigger esports betting audience than the CSGO gambling audience – with Counter Strike bettors coming from all over the world. There are now all sorts of betting options, making the viewing experience even more exciting. 

If this is something you are thinking about taking up, then here are some things you need to know about how to bet on Counter Strike before you get started.

The Gameplay Basics

You cannot hope to have any success betting on Counter Strike if you don’t have a grasp of the game basics. At face value, this is a pretty simple game to understand. Two teams face each other on a game map. One team is the terrorist team. Their aim to win the game is to either plant a bomb that detonates or kill every member of the opposition team. The other team is the counter-terrorist team. Their goal is to defuse the bomb and stop it from exploding – or to kill every member of the terrorist team.

In a professional game, a CSGO map will consist of a best of 30 tournament. As such, the first team to win 16 rounds will win the map. The teams take it in turn to be terrorists and counter-terrorists, switching sides after round 15 – the halfway point of the map.

Although the gameplay is basic, there is some complexity in the economy of the game. Players are required to buy everything they need from guns and grenades to armour, for every single round. Players can make money in a variety of ways, such as making kills, planting bombs, defusing bombs etc. In terms of both playing and betting, the economy is by far and away the most strategic and complicated aspect of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and may take some time for beginners to fully understand.

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How to bet on Counter Strike – Understanding Odds

When heading over to the top CSGO betting sites, you will likely come across two types of odds formats for making bets on the game – Decimal Odds and American Odds.

If you find your odds in decimal format, then you will be able to find them pretty easy to understand. You simply take the amount you stake and multiply it by the decimal odds – and that will be how much money you would walk away with if your bet should win. So, for example, Entropiq may be given odds of 2.7 to win a series and you wager £100. In order to work out how much money you would get in return, you simply multiply your bet (£100) by the odds (2.70) and you would work out you get a £270 return (which includes your £100 initial bet – so a profit of £170).

The other format you might see for CSGO betting is American Odds, and understanding the difference it important when knowing how to bet on Counter Strike. These consist of numbers in relation to -100 (evens). If a bet is -100 (even) then a winning bet will return the amount that you bet plus the same amount for winning. So, if you bet £100 on Astralis at -100 and your bet won, then you would receive £100 (your winnings) plus £100 (your original stake) – so a total of £200.

If you see a team with odds that has a (-) minus sign, then these are favourites to win. The number after the minus sign is how much money you would need to bet to win £100. So, if you bet on Team Liquid at -150, you would need to wager £150 to win £100.

If a team has odds with a (+) plus sign, then this indicates that they are the underdogs in the match. The amount following the plus sign is how much you would win if you were to bet £100 on the game. So, if you bet £100 on Thieves to win at +150, then if the team won, you would win £150 plus your original £100 bet.

The good news is that many CSGO betting sites allow you to change the type of odds you prefer to see displayed on the betting site to suit your preference.

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Let’s take a look at an example bet…

F’natic  -250 v Team Vitality +185

Here, F’natic is considered a -240 favourite to win. Team Vitality is the +185 underdog. So, if you bet £100 on F’natic to win at -250, then you would walk away with your £100 original bet plus £40 in winnings – total £140. 

How to bet on Counter Strike – Different Types of Bets

CS:GO has a wide variety of betting options – most of all esports. As well as standard game bets, there is almost an endless number of prop bets and unique wagers just for one series alone.

But let’s start with the most popular and simplest of them all, the basic moneyline bet.

Moneyline Bets

A moneyline bet is as easy as it comes when it comes to how to bet on Counter Strike – and perfect for those new to it. It simply involves you choosing which team you think will win the series outright and then making a bet on that team.

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So, if you think that Team Liquid will beat FaZe and you decide to place a bet of £40 on Team Liquid as the -135 favourites, then if your bet was to win, you would get back your original £40 bet with an extra £29.63 in winnings on top. Obviously, in this case, it isn’t always simple to work out your bets if you don’t always bet £10 or £100 etc, so you can always use an odds calculator to help you work it out.

Most series will be played in a best of three format, so you can opt to make a money line bet on each of the individual maps as well, not just the overall winner.

Spread Bets

As we stated above, most higher-level CSGO games are played in a best of three format, which makes spread betting an interesting choice for CSGO bettors.

So, if you think Evil Geniuses will beat MIBR in the series, but Evil Genius is a massive moneyline favourite with odds of -350, this bet might not look great value. You don’t really stand to make much profit from a win. In this case, you can look at Map Spread (also known as Map Handicap). Evil Genius’ map spread might be -1.5 at +100. This means that Evil Geniuses will need to win the series by two maps for you to win your map. So, basically, it would need to be a 2-0 victory in this case for you to win your bet. However, if this happens, you would win 3.5x your wager by betting the spread as opposed to making a simple moneyline wager.

Totals Bets

A CSGO totals bet revolves around the number of maps played out in a series. So, in a best of three series between Renegades and mousesports, then the bookmaker might set the total at 2.5. When making a bet, you need to decide whether or not you think the series will have more or less than 2.5 maps played (3 or more or 2 or fewer). You need to bet on OVER if you think it will go to 3 maps and UNDER if you think it will be won in 2 maps.

Futures Bets

If you want to get in early for good odds, then you can bet on an event before it begins. These are normally pretty simple and straightforward bets – the winner of a tournament usually. A CSGO bettor might look to make a futures wager on the winner of the Blast Pro Series Global Finals and see odds such as this:

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  • Entropiq- 140
  • Na’Vi +275
  • Team Liquid +470
  • Ninjas in Pyjamas +710

You can place a bet on which one of these four teams you think will go on to win the tournament. As you can see, in this example, Entropy would be considered the favourites to win the tournament and Ninjas in Pyjamas are the biggest underdog in the Series. This is important when understanding how to bet on Counter Strike.

Prop Bets

This type of bet is better if you are more familiar with the game and understand the mechanics of it a bit more. These can make CSGO bets even more fun. However, there are so many of these, that they need a Props bets guide all to themselves! Here are some of the main ones:

  • Map Winner
  • Correct map score
  • Map spread bet
  • Will a map go to overtime?
  • Team to win pistol rounds

So, there you have a basic guide to betting! Counter Strike betting can be a great way to get even more out of your love of the game, as long as you know what you are doing and sign up with the right CSGO betting site. So, get familiar with the game, do your research and you’ll be in the best position to start making the best CSGO wagers! Enjoy and good luck!

Author Toby Marshall