One of the most anticipated StarCraft 2 tournaments is just around the corner, with the world's best players getting ready to fight for their share of $500,000 in prize money.
A legendary esports event, the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice is a CS:GO tournament held in Poland. In this guide, we'll go over all the participating teams, details about the schedule, as well as everything you need to know about IEM CS:GO betting!
The Dota Pro Circuit is in full flow. The next big tournament in this seasonal circuit is the PGL Arlington Major. Texas is the location, Esports Stadium Arlington is the venue of choice, and seventeen brilliant Dota 2 teams will be eyeing their chances here.
The LEC (League of Legends European Championship) is entering a new decade starting with the inaugural Winter split. From team rosters to an all-new tournament format, the league will be seeing much more competition.
Esports betting Canadian players can enjoy does exist and it is legal. In fact, Canada is one of the top 10 esports countries in the world. This article will explain where and how to bet on League of Legends (LoL), StarCraft 2, CS:GO and other esports in Canada.
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Canadian esports punters have access to a wide range of exciting betting sites that offer a variety of markets on different competitions. In this section, we tell you more about some of the best Canadian esports betting sites available. You can also see how we rank some of the top esports betting sites in Canada and use filters for country, games and payment types.
Pinnacle is one of the most popular esports betting sites for Canadian players. In fact, esports is the website’s second most popular sport second only to soccer. Pinnacle promises the best esports odds and highest limits for esports betting online.
The bookmaker offers a relatively long list of esports to bet on. They are:
Like many other Canadian esports betting sites, Pinnacle has more markets for CS:GO and League of Legends than any other esport. Some of the markets available for Counter Strike include money line and handicap bets on the online Snow Sweet Snow tournament. There’s also team total kills, 16th round winner, ‘will there be a knife kill?’, winning margin, and many more.
LoL has even more bet types available at Pinnacle. For the PG Nationals offline tournament in Italy, Pinnacle has odds for the winner on each map, handicap, total kills, and correct score. Moreover, for the League of Legends Northern Championship, the bookmaker had correct score, money line for each map, total map kills, and handicap.
Pinnacle is so dedicated to esports it even sponsors a tournament organized by Relog Media called the Pinnacle Cup. It happens online once a year and the prize pool in 2021 was 100,000 USD, with first place getting 80,000 USD. Read our full review of Pinnacle esports here.
Canada esports players visiting Arcanebet will find CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends and StarCraft 2 betting odds. They also have a 100% first deposit bonus up to 30 CAD. To get the Arcanebet sports welcome offer, you just have to enter the Arcanebet bonus code when you make your first deposit of at least 10 CAD and wager the bonus amount 15 times.
When we reviewed Arcanebet, it had odds on Dota 2’s Fdc Season 3 group stage. For Team Magma versus Aster.aries, there were match winner, 1st map kill handicap, total map wins over/under, and correct score. In addition, Arcanebet’s stats showed 71% of bettors had backed Team Magma to win with the other 29% getting behind Aster.aries.
Arcanebet’s Esports section has five main tabs: All, CS:GO, Dota 2, LoL and StarCraft 2. You can count on Arcanebet to have odds for most Counter Strike tournaments. At the time of writing, the bookmaker had odds on ESEA CS:GO, the ESL Pro League, Esl Championnat National, plus Dust2.dk and more.
Moreover, in the left sidebar, you can see all the upcoming tournaments for various esports, which could help you plan your next bets.
You should also look out for no deposit bonuses at Arcanebet. This is a kind of popular esports promotion they have offered before and you never know when it will happen again!
Betway is an excellent choice for esports betting in Canada and elsewhere, with its Esports Club, new customer offer, and more. Betway’s Esports Club incentivises bettors to deposit $25 on esports in one week to receive a $10 free bet reward. You can claim this perk every week. Plus, new members from Canada can get a matched bonus up to $200 with a first deposit of at least $10 once they wager the deposit and bonus amount five times at odds of at least 1.75.
In addition, League of Legends betting fans will be thrilled to know Betway is offering a matched free bet up to $10 on the League of Legends European Championship.
Betway’s featured esports include:
With these esports come some exceptional tournaments and championships. CS:GO alone brings competitions like the ESL Pro League, ESEA North America/ Europe, the BLAST Premier, the ESL Latin America League, and the Intel Grand Slam. The Intel Grand Slam has an incredible $1 million prize pool that the best Canadian esports betting sites will want to offer markets on.
All of the CS:GO major tournaments have prize pools of at least one million dollars but some events are even more lucrative. For instance, the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and the ESL One Rio boast prize pools of double that: two million USD.
And if you like casino games as well as esports, Betway has an exclusive Counter Strike-inspired slot game called One Shot Multiplier. Read our full review of Betway esports here.
888sport has live streams for esports betting in Canada so you can bet on and stream LoL, CS:GO, Dota 2 and Valorant. When we visited 888sport, there was betting on a wide range of esports tournaments. Fans of Canada esports would be interested in the following major events:
Compared to Betway, for example, 888sport offered much better variety for esports event betting. Furthermore, the bookmaker’s welcome offer is a 100% bonus up to $200. You can see how other esports bonuses compare in our Best Esports Betting Bonuses 2021 article.
888sport even has an excellent esports blog for Canada esports bettors, with articles on subjects like, ‘Top esports Tournaments by Prize Money Pool’ and ‘Best Players & Teams Competing in esports’. Read our full review of 888 esports here.
The main esports Canada betting site Betsafe hosts are Dota 2, CS:GO, Call of Duty and League of Legends. LoL’s LEC, North America League of Legends Championship Series, Lol Pacific Championship Series, and the LoL Turkish Championship League events had the most markets when we visited. Players who register at Betsafe can get their sports welcome offer. It consists of a 100% bonus up to $200, plus 50 free spins on the casino slot Mega Moolah, which boasts a progressive jackpot. Read our full review of Betsafe esports here.
Yes it is legal to bet on esports in Canada, however many of the popular esports betting sites are actually owned by foreign companies. This is in part because gambling sites need a government-issued gambling license to be based in Canada, and a license is not as easy to acquire as it can be in places like Malta, the UK, and Curacao. Also, Canada has different provinces and legal jurisdictions within them, which makes creating new gambling-friendly laws more difficult.
Moreover, some foreign online bookmakers ignore that there are different laws for Canadian esports betting sites in different provinces, and this can give gambling a bad name with Canadian authorities.
It is probably easier to sign up for betting sites based in other countries where gambling laws are clearer and more relaxed. For instance, Pinnacle is one of the most-visited esports betting sites for Canadians, but it is based in Curacao. Pinnacle’s betting site has become so ingrained in North American culture, it even earned a mention in the classic New Jersey mob show, The Sopranos. Mob boss Tony Soprano was recovering in hospital when a fellow patient bet $50,000 on a boxing match courtesy of “Pinnacle, man… Pinnacle!”.
To bet on esports in Canada, you will need access to an accepted deposit and withdrawal method. Also, bear in mind that many betting sites require you to deposit and withdraw using the same method. In addition, some payment methods that are accepted by one bookmaker in a certain country might not be accepted by a Canadian website. Nevertheless, options like debit card and bank transfer are very reliable, while there are usually e-wallet options for every esports betting site. You can use the following esports payment methods on most Canadian esports betting sites:
Some of the most popular games for esports betting in Canada are League of Legends, StarCraft 2, CS:GO, Dota 2, and Valorant.
League of Legends or LoL, is a hugely popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, launched in 2009. It has since become arguably the most popular esport in the world and the biggest game in online esports betting.
As it’s such a popular esport to bet on, LoL betting markets can be found almost everywhere, including at Betsafe, Pinnacle, Arcanebet, Betway and 888sport.
Gen G Esports, Fnatic and Top Esports, are some of the best LoL esports teams in the world. Despite their run-of-the-mill name, Top Esports from China, with the help of Korean players, are far from boring when competing.
They made the finals of the LPL Spring 2020, beating Invictus Gaming to get there, and have a 56% win ratio. They also have an ELO rating of 1,225. However, DWG from the Republic of Korea are ranked number one in the world.
To see more LoL esports teams that are performing well in different competitions, you can see the LoL Esports standings. It gives you information on competitions in North America, China, Brazil, Europe and elsewhere.
StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, is a sci-fi real-time strategy video game by Blizzard Entertainment. In competitive StarCraft, Korean players tend to be more explosive and attacking, using quick counterplays, while European players almost change the map into a chess board by taking lots of bases.
The best StarCraft 2 players in 2020, by competition winnings, were:
In StarCraft 2 esports, the 200 highest-ranked players from each region, the Americas, Europe, Asia, and China, go head-to-head in the Grandmaster League. Currently, the top player in the Americas is SpeCial from Mexico, the top player from Europe is Serral from Finland, the top from Asia is Nice from Taiwan, and the top player from China is TIME.
Look out for these players in StarCraft events on Canadian esports betting sites. These stars could be some of the best players to bet on.
CS:GO is possibly the joint most popular esport in the world, alongside LoL. It’s the leading first-person shooter esport, while Canadian esports bettors can also bet on competitive matches of another, Call of Duty.
Like League of Legends, you can find lots of CS:GO markets on Canadian esports betting sites. Although Arcanebet is based in the UK, more than 10% of its esports punters come from Canada. In fact, the website is most popular in the ‘Great White North’. And although Arcanebet doesn’t shout as loudly about its esports offering as Betway and 1xBet do, it has a fantastic selection of CS:GO markets.
Canadian esports punters should be aware of the game Dota 2 if they want to sample the most vibrant flavours in the competitive gaming universe. It’s not the most famous esport but it is the most-played game on Steam, enjoyed by millions each day. Dota 2 is a MOBA video game by Valve and you can find betting odds and live streams on the best international and Canadian esports betting sites.
For example, one of our favourite Canadian esports sites, 888sport, recently covered the DPC China Lower Division, the FMWH Dota 2 Championship, and the DPC China Upper Division with odds. 888sport had Team Aster as favourites at 1/11 for their tie with Team MagMa who were outsiders at 5/1.
Valorant is a multiplayer tactical first-person hero shooter by Riot Games, which is free-to-play. The matches are five-on-five and players can use different weapons, such as SMGs, shotguns, rifles, snipers, sidearms, knives, and machine guns.
Valorant is the up-and-comer in the esports betting scene, so it will be no surprise to those in-the-know that up-and-coming esports bookmaker Betway offers odds on it. Those who like esports betting in Canada can stake their money on the Valorant Champions Tour and expect many more Valorant markets in future.
If these games don’t pique your interest, there are many more esports games to bet on. For instance, there’s Apex Legends, Fortnite, Rocket League and EA FIFA soccer. And if you are the kind of esports bettor who prefers to gamble on the go, mobile esports games might float your boat.
If you’re starting to bet on esports in Canada, but you’re not sure which teams are the real deal. Or maybe you’ve been on a break from esports and you need a quick update. Either way, let us tell you some of the in-form teams and those with so much quality that they could provide solid bets in future matches.
One of the biggest and most bet-worthy names in esports right now is Disney-sponsored Team Liquid. They are best-known for competing in StarCraft 2 and Dota 2 esports but they have now earned more prize money in Counter-Strike (4,921,425 USD) than in StarCraft (1,521,387 USD).
Their esports winnings in Dota 2 come to an astonishing 22,993,431 USD and their total earnings are over 36 million USD. It’s worth noting though that Team Liquid have earned this money from a massive 1,914 tournaments.
OG, who have only recorded 109 tournaments, have earned a huge 34,388,223 USD. OG are owned by Red Bull, the same company that funds the soccer teams Red Bull Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg. This team is more discerning with the esports they play, choosing CS:GO, Dota 2, Super Smash Bros and Valorant.
To round off the big three esports teams that you should consider betting on, there’s Evil Geniuses. They have won 24.3 million USD from 860 esports tournaments in a long list of games, but mainly Dota 2, with Call of Duty their second most lucrative esport. Evil Geniuses will be busy in 2021 and have matches in the ESL Pro League 2021 coming up.
Look out for Team OG’s Johan Sundstein, aka NOtail, from Denmark. He’s earned 6.9 million USD playing Dota 2 esports. Johan is 27 years old and has won The International event twice with OG.
Kelsie Pelling or KayPea is a native of Vancouver, Canada, and she’s known for playing League of Legends esports. She was also picked up by Red Bull. In addition, the online and esports star has 783k followers on Twitch. But more importantly, Kelsie has a kill/death ratio of 5.33 so you might consider betting on her or her team to get the first kill.
One of the best Canadian esports players at the moment is Artour Babaev, aka Arteezy. He’s won over 2.2 million USD in his career and is ranked 23 in the world for Dota 2. If, as a Canadian esports punter, you want to support a countryman, Arteezy could be an interesting pick in upcoming competitions. Arteezy plays for Evil Geniuses.
Yes, you can bet on esports in Canada, however, there are more betting websites based outside of the country. Canada’s disparate gambling laws in different parts of the country make it difficult for betting companies who want to use Canada as their base. They would also need a government-issued gambling license.
Yes, you can bet legally on esports in Canada using any licensed international or Canadian esports betting sites.
Some of the best esports betting sites for Canadian players are Pinnacle, Arcanebet, Betway, 888sport and Betsafe.
Canadian bettors can bet on all the best esports, including League of Legends, CS:GO, Dota 2, Overwatch, and Valorant. There are also Canadian betting markets for Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty and StarCraft.