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Despite only having entered the scene in 2015, Rocket League has seen a steady rise in success over the years, seeing hundreds of thousands of viewers across the world watch the best ‘soccar’ players compete for millions. Our below Rocket League betting guide covers the top teams, best bookmakers, and everything else you need to know!
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Rocket League is one of the most popular esports in the world, alongside giants like CS:GO and League of Legends. Therefore, there is an excellent chance that your favourite betting sites offer betting lines of the unique ‘soccar’ gaming title. Naturally, some bookies are going to be better than others, but we're here to help you to separate the best from the rest.
Whether for traditional sports or esports, bet365 is definitely one of the best bookmakers around, offering diverse betting markets for all kinds of titles.
In terms of betting odds, the sportsbook offers lines for major tournaments such as seasonal majors, regional cups, and of course, the much-awaited RLCS World Championship. This allows bettors to place future, pre-match, or in-play wagers on any tournament no matter the time of the year. bet365 has long been trusted for its reliability, and this remains the same for Rocket League betting.
Pinnacle calls itself ‘The home of esports betting’, and for good reason. They house the best Rocket League betting odds and one of the highest betting limits in the industry. They even have a dedicated esports blog with interesting and useful articles for bettors, including how to’s, predictions, and match previews – all of which will help you get your money’s worth when placing bets on the game’s tournaments all year round.
So, if you are looking for a no-frills esports betting experience, then you can count on Pinnacle as your go-to for placing value bets on Rocket League!
Like Pinnacle, GG.BET is one of the better-known bookmakers who live and breathe esports. Developed by esports enthusiasts and professionals, the esports-focused bookie quickly rose in popularity despite only being founded in 2016. They achieved this feat by providing a fast and convenient way for bettors to place bets on their favourite esport games and teams.
With a wide range of betting markets, generous betting bonuses, and multiple accepted payment methods, GG.BET has become a staple for those looking to get into esports betting. This, of course, includes betting lines and dedicated deposit and cashback promotions for Rocket League tournaments.
Rocket League esports consists of matches all-year round from fall, spring, and winter. With the addition of four new regions to the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) in 2021, there’s even more competition to be had in Psyonix’ premier esports league. In the coming months, we will find out which teams will end up qualifying for the annual RLCS World Championship in August.
Outright odds for the RLCS 2022-23 season’s Winter Split Major as of March 22, 10:00 CET. (Source: bet365)
In 2023, Rocket League continues to grow as an esport where players continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible inside the game. At the time of writing, the RLCS 2022-23 season is almost halfway through with the Spring split right around the corner. But before that, the best teams from each region will compete in the upcoming Winter Split Major in the San Diego Convention Center.
Groups for the #RLCS Winter Major are in 😤 Which group are you most looking forward to watching? 👀 pic.twitter.com/tbhhsZFF8Y — Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) March 6, 2023
Groups for the #RLCS Winter Major are in 😤
Which group are you most looking forward to watching? 👀 pic.twitter.com/tbhhsZFF8Y
— Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) March 6, 2023
In the past season, Gen.G burst into the Rocket League scene by winning the year’s first split major last Fall. So, it only makes sense that the team is one of the favorites for the coming major. Alongside them, we would put FaZe Clan as another worthy competitor given their standout performance in the Winter Invitational.
Lastly, we would look out for European teams Karmine Corp and Team Liquid in their respective groups as part of the Top 4 teams to qualify straight into the quarterfinals in the Winter Major playoffs.
Rocket League esports has come a long way since the RLCS first began in 2016. However, in terms of the variety of markets available, the game has not reached the same levels of commercial success that mainstream or Tier 1 esports have yet. Nevertheless, Rocket League esports is booming, with plenty of competitions for bettors to watch and enjoy.
An outright or futures bet in Rocket League means betting on the outcome of a tournament or series such as the RLCS or the Collegiate Rocket League. Futures can be fun because it gives you a team to rally behind throughout a tournament. But more than that, outright betting lines have much higher odds which gives a much higher return. This is primarily because upsets happen all the time in high-stakes tournaments where the difference between winning and losing can be decided by one seemingly insignificant mistake.
For futures, you can bet on teams to win the tournament outright or alternatively, bet on which team will win their group, reach the grand finals, or even the region of the tournament champion.
On the short-term side, you have moneylines where you simply pick which team will win a game or match. Moneylines are straightforward with odds changing on who is favoured to win the match (otherwise called the favourite). This makes it easier to understand for the novice bettor who is just starting to get into betting. But no matter your experience with betting, moneylines are the most popular betting market because you cannot go wrong with placing a bet on the match winner.
In Rocket League, matches are played out in best-of series. With a handicap or spread bet, you are then betting how hard a team will win or lose in a given match. In this type of betting, the bookmaker gives point advantages and disadvantage to each side, represented by the ‘handicap’ or spread. This evens out the odds between the underdog and the favourite and further adds complexity to betting.
For example, in a standard best-of-five RLCS series, a -2.5-match handicap means that your chosen team has to win by more than 3 games ahead (a 3-0 sweep). Meanwhile, a +2.5-match handicap means that your team needs to win at least 1 game to land a payout.
For totals, esports bookmakers will present a set number of goals to be scored in the match (e.g. 15), allowing you to bet if you think there will be more or fewer goals scored than this number. For this type of market, your knowledge of the teams playing could give you a big advantage. Look up teams’ playstyles which include how many points do they score per game and how proficient they are at defending. This will allow you to have a better grasp if teams will go over or under the set total.
This market is self-explanatory really, but it is perfect if you feel confident about exactly how a match will turn out from start to finish. All you need to do is predict what you think the final map score will be. Odds for correct map score have a higher payout than average because of its riskier nature (i.e., there are six possible outcomes in a best-of-five series in which only one will win).
Following in the footsteps of fantasy sports, Rocket League naturally has its own fantasy series because it is, quite simply, playing football using a car. In fantasy Rocket League, you recruit pro players given a set budget to draft your own ‘fantasy’ team. After, your team competes versus other players’ fantasy teams to see who can earn the most points.
In fantasy Rocket League, players are priced based on their performance on previous tournaments and events. Of course, better performing players will have a higher salary which means you have to be smart with how you manage your budget. Players earn points per game given their performance in the RLCS, which can be based on the following metrics:
As the game continues to grow, there have been even more fantasy platforms that you can choose from such PrizePicks or even community-made ones such as FanRL. This can be a great way to test your knowledge of the game’s esports scene, as well as giving you the chance to learn valuable insights that can help in esports betting later on.
Rocket League is a fun, modern twist on soccer where players control cars to score goals. Created by Psyonix in 2015, the name of the game is derived from the rocket-powered vehicles that players use and manoeuvre on the field. You can customise your car to stand out and compete against your opponents on who can score the most goals after a set time.
In each game, there are two teams of up to eight players each, and you can play in either single player or multiplayer mode, online or offline. However, in professional Rocket League esports, there are only three players in a team usually with the following roles: a forward, midfielder, and back (defender).
As a team-based ‘sports’ game, Rocket League requires players to make use of raw skill, strategy, and teamwork to win on the field. Using rocket-powered cars, players have to skillfully manoeuvre the ball through the field and into the opponent’s goalpost using basic and advanced movements such as aerials, dribbling, and wave dashing.
As many would say in the community, Rocket League is easy to pick up but incredibly hard to master. In a dynamic 3v3 field where all hell is let loose, even the simplest moves can be hard to consistently pull off. However, much like the traditional sport that it is based on, this is what makes the game appealing, as the rules are fairly straightforward and accessible to beginners.
Being a game that takes after soccer, you will encounter terms that should already be familiar to the average viewer. Terms like kickoff, goals, assists, saves, and shots can be understood within the context of traditional sports.
But since Rocket League makes use of rocket-powered cars, there are all-new terms that are introduced when you tune into a stream of RLCS. Terms like demolition or demo, aerials, dribbles, and boosts can be a good starting point when getting to know the world of Rocket League. If this is your first venture into gaming, learning the everyday esports terms and terminology can help you get acquainted with the scene as well.
Over the past few years since the game’s launch, Rocket League has skyrocketed into being one of the more recognisable esports titles in the scene. With viewership in the hundreds of thousands and prize pools reaching millions of euros, Rocket League has already cemented itself as a top-level esport with a passionate community rallying behind it.
With Psyonix and now Epic Games working together to bring the game to even greater heights, Rocket League’s esports ecosystem can only go up from here.
Let's run it back. 🔥 Introducing the 2022-23 #RLCS Season! We're just getting started. 📰: https://t.co/2O2oS40jLp pic.twitter.com/mRwdeArOMi — Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) September 16, 2022
Let's run it back. 🔥
Introducing the 2022-23 #RLCS Season! We're just getting started.
📰: https://t.co/2O2oS40jLp pic.twitter.com/mRwdeArOMi
— Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) September 16, 2022
The biggest Rocket League tournament is Pysonix’ own Rocket League Championship Series, where teams like Gen.G, FaZe Clan, and G2 Esports compete for the chance to be the esports’ best team. Since the tournament series began in 2016, the RLCS has grown to be a worldwide sensation being played in countries all over. In Season 10 of the esport, the RLCS has the following regions in-play:
The RLCS season fires up with an open qualifier, before each split in Fall, Winter and Spring. Within these splits are three regional events each with a tournament open, cup, and invitational played out in succession over each split. For the 2022-23 season, the RLCS will go along the schedule as follows:
In the open and cup, teams compete to gain enough points to qualify for the invitational nearing the end of each split. By the time the invitational comes, 16 teams from each region go head-to-head to see which 4 teams will qualify for the RLCS Major waiting at the end of each split.
As mentioned, each split ends with a major where the best teams represent each of their regions and compete to be the best in the world. These majors are second only to the RLCS World Championship in prestige and have hundreds of thousands of euros up for grabs every split.
Each major, whether in fall, winter, or spring, has 16 teams compete with the number of teams per region being decided by their region’s past international performances. As such, Europe and North America each have 5 teams competing, with Oceania and South America having 2 teams each, and lastly MENA and Asia-Pacific having 1 team each to complete the 16. Placing highly in the split major also gives out RLCS points that help teams qualify for the world championship at the end of the year.
Saving the best for last, the RLCS hosts the World Championship at the end of each season to see which team is qualified to be called the best team in the world. This year, the tournament will take place from 4th-13th August and feature an impressive €1.93 million prize pool.
To start, the tournament will feature a wildcard qualifier with a 16-team Swiss system format where the Top 8 teams proceed to the group stage. Come Groups, 16 teams will face off in a double-elimination bracket where the Top 4 of each group proceeds to the playoffs. There, the remaining 8 teams will knock each out in a single-elimination bracket until one is crowned king. All matches are to be played in best-of-seven series.
In 2016, Psyonix knew that Rocket League had what it took to be a successful esport. At which point, they announced the first-ever season of the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS). Over the years, the game has continuously grown from its initial €50,000 prize pool to now reaching near €2 million in the upcoming 22-23’ World Championship.
Initially, the RLCS only had competing teams from Europe and North America back in 2016. In its first season, Kronovi would lead iBUYPOWER to win Rocket League’s first world championship. This would set the tone for the rivalry that would ensue between EU and NA in the coming seasons. Soon, the game’s growing fame would bring teams from countries and regions all over the world to join in on the competition.
Now, the RLCS has seven competing regions globally with each having their own regional circuit to qualify for international tournaments like the split majors and the world championship. Players like Turbopolsa, Kaydop, and Squishy would then make their stamp in the game’s history after monumental wins across the years.
If you already have plenty of game time under your belt, you are likely already well-equipped to bet on Rocket League and make smart predictions. It's important to be well-informed about Rocket League's esports scene, the game’s meta, teams’ statistics and their respective strengths and weaknesses.
Below, we have compiled a few useful tips that we think are worth bearing in mind.
Researching teams and players pre-match can help you make better informed decisions when it comes to betting. Having a sound rational for your esports predictions will help you win more of your bets in the long run.
It is relatively easy to do your homework on Rocket League teams before a matchup or tournament. There is a wealth of invaluable material out there like on Liquipedia and Shift, where you can find latest results, tournament updates, and more news about players and teams. Some sites even give you head-to-head stats on the teams involved in each game, like results of previous encounters.
In an esport that is constantly evolving, taking note of each tournament’s format can be important for how these competitions play out. For example, a single-elimination format can lead to more upsets because it will take only one bad series for a good team to be knocked out. Meanwhile, a double-elimination or group stage format can allow teams the leeway to improve across the tournament.
Remember to adapt your perception of how team power rankings in a tournament based on how they perform. If you happen to spot an underdog that can go toe-to-toe with the league’s best teams, for example, you can make good money off them when no one has yet seen or recognised their value.
In 2023, there has already been a good amount of time for teams to create new strategies and gain a significant advantage since the game's release in July 2015. That being said, the game continues to be pushed past its boundaries and that means that there are always going to be things you should research about the meta to help you bet smarter.
Teams like FlipSid3, NRG and Cloud9, for example, have developed play styles and tactics which have helped them win championships, and which rivals have since tried to recreate. For instance, Team BDS blew away the competition in the 2021-22 season with the antics of Monkey Moon. This proves that the more imaginative, cunning teams are the ones likely to gain an advantage as the game continues to evolve.
Despite this, mastery of the basic in-game skills will always be just as key to deciding the outcome of games. And understanding that, as a viewer and bettor, will be your ticket to better predicting which team will come out ahead.
Since Rocket League has surged in popularity, you can now watch each of the RLCS’ regional leagues at your own convenience. To follow Rocket League and its esports scene on the daily, you can check out their official Twitter, Instagram, Discord, and Reddit. As of now, here are the announced schedules and broadcast streams for each of the competing regions:
Rocket League has established itself as a prominent name in the world of esports, thanks to its unique and replayable gameplay, as well as its high skill ceiling. Drawing inspiration from traditional sports, Rocket League is one of the most accessible esports to understand, making it an ideal game for both new and seasoned fans.
As a result, Rocket League has tremendous potential for growth, and it has become a popular choice for players looking to bet on esports. There are now many Rocket League betting sites available, each with its own unique features and offerings, giving fans plenty of options to choose from.
For those interested in betting on Rocket League, the game's enduring popularity ensures that it will continue to be a staple in the esports world for years to come.
Yes, you can bet real money on Rocket league matches and tournaments. However, be sure to check if your country of origin allows for sports betting before placing any wagers.
Some of the best betting sites for Rocket League are Pinnacle, GG.BET, and bet365. They are reputable, secure, and offer diverse betting markets for pre-match, live, and future bets alike.
The most common markets you can bet on in Rocket League esports tournaments such as the RLCS are Moneylines, Total Goals Over/Under in the match, Correct Score and Outright Bets for competition outcomes.
Currently, the biggest Rocket League competition is the RLCS’ World Championship. Teams qualify for worlds through the RLCS regional tournaments, taking place over Fall, Winter and Spring.
Rocket League is on its way to becoming one of the biggest and most exciting esports around. With peak viewership now reaching the hundreds of thousands and millions in prizes waiting to be taken, it’s the perfect time to get into Rocket League betting with the stakes getting even higher.
Through our in-depth guides and reviews, we are focused on providing the best insights into esports betting.