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Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTG Arena) is one of the latest games to become an esport and you can find MTG Arena betting odds on specialist betting sites. In this ultimate guide to MTG Arena betting, we tell you how to wager on the game, some of its biggest tournaments, and the players we expect to be favourites to win them.
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Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTG Arena) is a game published by Wizards of the Coast. It is an extension of the strategy trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, aka Magic, which was released by the same company, in 1993. MTG Arena allows players to go head-to-head on PC, Android and iOS, and has given a new dimension to Magic competition.
Street Fighter heroes, such as Chun-Li, will star in Magic in 2022. Chun-Li’s card comes with the Multikicker spell. There is also a collab with Fortnite in the offing.
The best MTG Arena players tend to be competing at the World Championship but it takes a special player to take away the title. Moreover, there are three major championships throughout the year, offering big money, where you tend to see a healthy variety of winners, giving you a better chance of attractive Magic odds. Let’s discuss some of the very best players playing at the moment.
Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa aka PVDDR, from Brazil, has won more than anyone else from MTG Arena competition, with $337,800 in career earnings. In 2011, Da Rosa became the youngest ever player to win 300 Pro Points. He’s also a YouTuber.
PVDDR won his first Magic World Championship in 2020, which was the only Magic esports accolade previously missing from his trophy cabinet. It also bagged him $300,000 in prize money.
Andrea Mengucci has earned $323,300 in his Magic career, just $14,000 less than PVDDR. Mengucci, from Italy, won the Mythic Invitational in 2019, which earned him $250,000 from an amazing $1 million prize pool. This was the biggest prize pool ever in a Magic esports tournament.
Mengucci was hugely disappointed with the announcement in May that the Magic tournaments circuit was going to change, and he said on Twitter: “A big part of my career I worked hard on has been erased. I won't be traveling as much and won't see good friends possibly forever.”
But it looks like Mengucci will continue to compete, adding: “Today’s announcement was a big bump in the road, but I’ll try my best to keep making quality content for @channelfireball and do my best as a streamer! Never give up!”
The Portuguese has been excellent in the last two years, with his top performance a second place at the Magic World Championship in 2020. This finish won him $150,000 and showed he is one of the best MTG Arena players in the world. You should really consider Carvalho when looking at MTG Arena betting in the near future.
In the Magic World Championship, the best 16 players from the season clash for a share of the $250,000 prize pool and the right to call themselves the best Magic player in the world. The 2021 event will take place between October 8 and 10.
Who qualifies for the Magic World Championship?
The Challenger Gauntlet has historically followed on from the three majors, Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim and Strixhaven, and allowed players to qualify for the Magic Pro League and Rivals League. However, from the 2022-23 Players Tour Season, it will be a competition where players can qualify for the Magic World Championship.
The Zendikar Rising Split, with a prize pool of $250,000, is one of three majors which lead to the Magic World Championship. The last Zendikar happened in December. Brad Barclay, from Scotland, won the 2020 event.
Kaldheim is an invite-only tournament, which in 2021 took place in March. To qualify, you must take part in either the All Magic Pro League or the Magic Rivals League or you must be one of the players who earned six or seven match wins on Day Two of the December Kaldheim Qualifier Weekend. This championship pays out $250,000 so it’s a miss-it-miss-out occasion.
The Strixhaven Championship also has a prize pool of $250,000, and is the third major event of the year, which usually takes place around June. Some 250 players take part. The invitees included all members of the Magic Pro League and Magic Rivals League, winners from Strixhaven Qualifier Weekends, some from online qualifiers, super qualifiers, and Champion Showcases.
Further, the winner of the Strixhaven Championship 2021 was Sam Pardee. Sam was delighted to get his first major tournament win and take home $150,000. He was the eighth seed for the competition and showed you don’t have to be a favourite to win in MTG Arena. Sam beat unfancied John Girardot for the title. Interestingly, the event was overrun by Jeskai and Izzet decks.
For better or worse, the 2021-22 season will be the last for the Magic Pro League and the Rivals League as organizers Wizards of the Coast direct the esport back to more in-person, tabletop play. In the 2021-22 MTG Arena season, there will be Set Championships and a World Championship but no League Weekends or Gauntlets.
MTG Arena betting still has growing to do so some of the best betting sites to find odds on competitions are ones with more niche esports. In this section, we discuss some of the sites we like where we expect to find MTG Arena bets for future matches.
EGB is an online betting site encompassing all kinds of esports betting so it is also one of the best places to look for MTG Arena betting odds. It has Dota 2 betting, plus NBA 2K odds and more.
Players can also pick up betting bonuses at EGB and one thing that makes them special is they can become available at any time. For instance, they had an exclusive promotion in August where you could get a deposit bonus up to $200. This promotion was to celebrate the return to esports competition after the summer break.
Moreover, EGB sometimes have prediction contests on esports like CS:GO, where you can share a prize pool of around $12,000 and win exclusive in-game skins, if you earn the most points from game day questions.
Luckbox is an ultra-modern esports betting site that offers odds on games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, plus League of Legends bets, Dota 2 odds and more niche options like betting on Warcraft 3.
If you sign up to Luckbox, they will give you a welcome bonus of 100% up to €100. One of the other highlights of Luckbox is they have a news section with articles including esports predictions. Some articles give you the chance to make predictions on LoL, CS:GO and Dota 2 matches and win a €5 free bet.
LootBet is a company that specialises in esports betting. Their site has an awesome modern design and currently has odds on an amazing 25 esports. They don’t just cover popular esports with Rocket League betting and Fortnite markets, they also have coverage on King of Glory betting and odds on FIFA. The full list of esports they offer can be seen in the table below.
Esports featured at LootBet
If that’s not enough to intrigue you about LootBet, you can also get a 100% first deposit bonus, plus 35 free spins when you sign up. There’s also an esports ‘ESL’ Gift Pack which includes a €100 deposit bonus, €20 free bet, and 10 free spins. You might not know that LootBet has online slots, such as Wolf Gold and Vikings Winter, as well as esports betting.
MTG Arena betting is still in its infancy so please do not expect as many betting markets as you can find on esports games, such as CS:GO and LoL, however, the most likely odds to crop up will be for the outright winner of tournaments and individual matches.
If you want to play some MTG Arena betting you can bet on players to win upcoming tournaments and events. This sort of bet is called an outright and is most likely to be found on the Magic World Championship, plus majors like the Zendikar Rising Championship.
Bet on your chosen Magic The Gathering Arena player to win individual matches with match winner bets. These bets are just for the victor of a particular match, unlike outright bets that are staked on the winner of an entire competition. Of course, the odds of a player winning a single one-on-one match will be shorter than for the same player to win a tournament, which involves more variables.
One of the ‘super powers’ for anyone thinking of trying MTG Arena betting is to have the broadest knowledge of the available cards and decks possible. You’ll want to know what decks work best against others.
What’s more, if you follow the matches of MTG Arena players via streams online or even at events, if you can attend, you’ll get a better idea of how particular players approach their games. This can give you a key advantage to making strong predictions.
If you are looking to build your Magic The Gathering Arena collection, you might want to know the odds of getting certain cards. So this next section tells you how reward distribution and rarity work in MTG Arena.
Wildcard Drop Rates
When you redeem a Wildcard in MTG Arena of a certain rarity, there’s a chance you could get a card of the same rarity in return. The odds of this happening are in the table above. However, if you do not get a card of the same rarity, you will have a better chance of getting one next time.
For example, if you redeem a Mythic card but do not receive a card of the same value in return, there will be a better chance of getting a Mythic on the next pack, until you eventually receive one. After that, the chance of getting a Mythic goes back to the base rate, one in 30.
MTG Arena betting has the potential to explode into a very exciting and enjoyable scene in the near future. The esports itself has all the ingredients to produce entertainment and tension, plus there are big-money events that punters will want to bet on, and bookies will surely want to provide odds for.
Plus, despite a current shortage in MTG Arena betting odds, we are optimistic that as the esport evolves, more betting sites will allow you to place bets on the game. Keep an eye on our website for news of future MTG Arena events.
Yes you can download the Magic The Gathering Arena app on mobile.
Some of the best MTG Arena players in 2021 are Paulo Damo da Rosa, Andrea Mengucci and Marcio Carvalho. Autumn Burchett is one of the best female MTG Arena players at the moment.
Some of the best sites to look for MTG Arena betting are EGB.com and LuckBox, because they keep up with the latest popular esports.
Yes, MTG Arena is one of our favourite free-to-play mobile esports games.
This tournament takes place between October 8-10.