Dota 2 betting puts you in the middle of the map, alongside the biggest teams and the best players in the world. You can follow Tundra all the way to the finals of The International, back wild cards in Majors, or stick to the legends of the game. The best sites have you covered and you can win big with the right predictions.
We’re taking a look at a key part of that ecosystem and bringing you a catch-all Dota 2 betting guide. What follows is absolutely everything that you need to make a Dota 2 bet, starting with the top sites.
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Best Site for Dota 2 Gambling Overall: SkinsLuck
“SkinsLuck offers a variety of exciting Dota 2 gambling options, including skins battles, crash games, and more. You can add your skins or make a deposit to take part in the action right now.”
Fun Games – New Dota 2 Betting Options
Take your pick from various gambling games at SkinsLuck and make the most of your idle Dota 2 skins. You can enter case battles with other players and compete for all the prizes, play games like roulette, blackjack, crash, and plinko, or try out the new upgrader feature for the chance to elevate your items from common to epic.
Open Cases – Win Skins
With some skins worth more than $1,000, Dota 2 case opening can be the perfect opportunity to win big from a small bet. You receive one free case every day and can buy more on the site.
Real Money Gambling vs Skins
SkinsLuck makes it easy to convert skins into coins and use them to gamble on the site. Of course, you can also add more funds by depositing using fiat banking methods or crypto. The first deposit comes with a 50% welcome bonus to help boost your bankroll in an instant.
Secure Login & Provably Fair Results
The platform uses Steam to ensure secure logins. This also means that you can easily browse your Dota 2 inventory and add the skins you want. Moreover, all of the games on the site have provably fair results and ensure transparent gambling sessions. The outcome is always random.
Dota 2 Betting: Everything You Need to Know
Dota 2 is a free-to-play video game created and published by Valve Corporation. It’s one of the most successful esports games ever and one of the biggest MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arena) games out there, with millions of active players. As a result, it is heavily featured on the best esports betting sites.
There are hundreds of professional teams and a professional circuit that holds around 25 big tournaments per year. Recent changes to the DPC have changed the landscape of professional Dota. But rest assured that betting on Dota 2 is one of the best ways to add a bit more excitement to these events.
The major Dota 2 tournaments bring in arenas of thousands of fans. Even the minor tournaments have impressive prize pools, with majors typically giving away millions to their contestants. At the end of this circuit, a world championship takes place, The International.
This event brings together the best Dota 2 teams from six different regions: Europe, CIS, China, Southeast Asia, North America, and South America. It’s the culmination of the game for the year, and always a big draw. Dota 2 betting sites offering odds on this event can make even the biggest tournament more exciting.
How is Competitive Dota 2 Played?
Dota 2 is a complex game to learn. There is an awful lot going on, but even with all of this, high skill teams and the best Dota 2 players can do remarkable things with the game. Each match is played between two teams of five, in an area split down the centre.
A game can last anywhere between 15 and 75 minutes, with a mixture of real-time strategy and role-playing game elements. Players pick heroes out of a pool of 124 possibilities. This isn’t just a choice of picking the best Dota 2 heroes, it also has to synchronise with their teammates in order to bring down the opposition’s Ancient, which is the most important structure inside a team’s base. When this building collapses, the game is over. The game itself is actually Defense of the Ancients 2, so it’s all about that ancient when you’re looking to gamble on it.
As the games are relatively long, Dota 2 betting live is a popular practice. There’s plenty of time to determine what’s going to happen in a match and place wagers on it.
Three Reasons Why Dota 2 Betting is so Popular
Given the game’s popularity on Steam and on the best online sportsbooks, it is clear that there are plenty of reasons why so many players enjoy it. These are only three of the highlights when it comes to placing a Dota 2 bet online:
1. Backing the Best Teams
As Dota 2 is a team sport, you can have a great time working out which legendary teams to back. Whether you are doing some Dota betting on a top European side like Team Liquid or a tough Chinese organization like LGD Gaming, there’s something endlessly enjoyable about watching these incredible gamers win you some decent profits.
2. Take Part in the Greatest Tournaments
We all know how Dota 2 tournaments like The International regularly provide some of the biggest prize pools in esports. And even if we can’t take our share of the multi-million dollar sums awarded to the winners, we can all try betting on Dota for a profitable outcome.
3. Picking the Most Profitable Dota 2 Bets
And as more bookies are starting to offer decent Dota 2 bets, it’s also great fun to hunt down the most profitable odds out there. This is something that can get even more thrilling when you use a resource like Esports.net to compare how different bookies are rating your favorite Dota 2 teams and players.
Dota 2 Betting Markets
Just as players of Dota 2 can select many different ‘heroes’, you can also enjoy lots of different gambling markets. You can find sites with lines for the team to draw blood, the first team to get fifteen kills, or even the team to slay the first Roshan. Dota 2 gambling now has a lot of different options open to you. You can also take some decent two-way bets that can give you a touch of insurance.
Whether you are betting on the team to destroy the first barracks, or are even wagering on the region of the winner of the next International, it seems that the gambling markets for betting on Dota 2 are opening up all of the time.
These are some of the main markets you can bet on in DOTA 2:
Match Result
This is the simplest type of esports betting, you can pick which team will win a match. Dota 2 matches are usually played in a Bo1, Bo3, or Bo5 (only Grand Finals) format, meaning that the winner is decided by going through a maximum of 1, 3, or 5 games, maps, or rounds (the equivalent of sets in Tennis).
For some tournaments, the organizers choose a format that includes Bo2 matches, such as Dreamleague. These types of matches can also end in a draw. You’ll be able to do these bets on Dota 2 on pretty much any site, although some will give you better Dota 2 odds.
Match Result with a Map Handicap/Advantage
Sportsbooks offer handicaps or advantages to teams based on how their performance is expected. So if a game seems like an easy win, this market will level things out a bit. For instance, betting that team A will win a match with a 1.5 map handicap against team B means that you believe team A is going to win the match with a score of 2 – 0. If it wins with a score of 2 – 1, your bet will be lost because of the handicap, which makes the final score 0.5 – 1 in favor of Team B.
In exactly the same way, if you bet that team A will win a Bo3 match with a 1.5 map advantage against team B, this means that you believe team A is going to win at least one game against team B. If it does that, even if this team loses the match with the score of 1 – 2, the real score after adding its advantage will be 2.5 – 2.
Prop Bets
This is a type of bet in Dota 2 that allows you to bet on a certain event that takes place during a certain game. Examples include: an Aegis of the Immortal being stolen by any of the teams, a player getting a Godlike streak (9 consecutive kills without dying), or a player getting a Rampage (5 kills in quick succession). Keep up with Dota 2 news to get a handle on how common these events are.
First Team
This type of bet allows you to pick which team will be the one to do something within a particular game of the match. For instance, you may be able to choose the team that will kill the first Roshan, destroy the first tower or barracks, get the first kill (First Blood), or be the first to get 10 kills on the scoreboard.
The best Dota 2 betting sites are going to offer you a lot of different choices in this area. However, this can be a bit harder to predict. Even if a team is likely to win, it is harder to judge that they’ll be the first to achieve a specific thing.
Tournament Winner
This type of bet is available before the start of a tournament, allowing you to pick the team that you believe is going to claim the title. The odds are probably going to be quite high, even for favorites, since there are a lot of unknowns at play.
Tournament Finalist
This type of bet is available before the start of a tournament, allowing you to pick a team that you believe is going to qualify for the Finals. As with betting on the winners, this type of Dota 2 is more unpredictable.
Tournament Statistic
Generally available before the start of very important tournaments, such as The International, allowing you to bet on things like the most picked hero (throughout the entire tournament), the most banned hero, the hero with the highest GPM (gold per minute) within a game, the player with the most number of kills within a game, and other statistics of this kind.
What Can You Bet On in Dota 2?
Source: Valve
As Dota 2 gaming is a worldwide phenomenon, you can expect to be able to place a bet on this classic battle arena title at any hour of the day. Whether you are betting on the legendary The International tournament or the Perfect World Masters in Shanghai, you are sure to find some great markets being offered on Dota, no matter what time zone you are in.
Obviously, it’s The International that receives the greatest amount of attention when betting on Dota 2 world. This legendary competition regularly produces record-breaking prize pools for its star players. But even when the dust has settled on this epic gaming event, there’s plenty more action out there.
Now that Valve has announced there will be no more Dota Pro Circuit tournaments, things are a little more up in the air. However, with the next year of Dota confirmed, fans can expect a plethora of new tournaments to be announced. In fact, ESL has confirmed the ESL Pro Tour.
Which Dota 2 Players Can You Bet On?
Although Dota 2 now has a reported ten million players worldwide, you won’t be betting on all of them. You’ll only want to bet on the Dota 2 players who are operating at the top level of the game.
Sportsbooks will be offering odds on the top competitions that only feature the world’s best Dota 2 players. As a result, you can look forward to placing your bets on Dota 2 stars like Quinn and Dyracho, who have helped Gaimin Gladiators become a major force in this exciting realm. And watch out for some of the current stars like Mind Control, Kiyotaka, and Boxi, who can also help you get some decent payouts on your Dota betting.
Whilst there is plenty of debate about who is the best Dota 2 player in the world, if you see a site offering generous betting lines on any team containing legends like Ceb, Ame, or Nisha, you’ll know that this could be a good betting option.
But regardless of whether you are backing a rising European star like Nine or an established Korean player like QO, you should always check to make sure that you are betting on Dota with the best odds possible.
Best Dota 2 Teams to Bet On
Despite the unfamiliarity of many Dota 2 team names, there are a few organizations who have helped punters place some bets with a reasonable degree of confidence.
- OG had been the Dota 2 team to watch for many years. The European organization had a string of big successes that included resounding wins at the Dota 2 Major Championship in Frankfurt in 2015, and a surprise triumph at the Manila Major in 2016. They went on to become the only team in Dota history to win The International twice, let alone consecutively.
- But as Dota 2 has grown in popularity, it has seen many more great teams forming a formidable challenge. Western Europe’s Gaimin Gladiators have had a monumental rise to power in 2024, winning six S Tier tournaments in one year.
- It would also be unwise to bet against teams like Team Spirit. The underdog TI winners may have had a rough 2024, but they proved they’re here to stay at Riyadh Masters.
What Are The Different Types of Dota 2 Gambling?
There are more things to do in the Dota 2 gambling space than just bet on the tournaments themselves.
Dota 2 Live Betting
For the ultimate immersive experience, Dota 2 live betting is recommended. This is the option to bet in-match whilst the action is taking place. The odds will fluctuate as match dominance changes hands, so it pays to keep a close eye on the match via a live stream. Live esports betting sites can provide a range of markets for the big tournaments and quickly update the lines to reflect the current state of the game.
Dota 2 Esports Crypto Betting
If you want to be at the cutting-edge of technology, then you can go a step further and take part in Dota 2 esports crypto betting. The best part is that crypto betting sites have fast banking, so you can simply deposit in your chosen currency, bet, and withdraw your winnings without waiting around.
Skin Gambling
You could make use of the best Dota 2 skin betting sites, where you can venture to place bets on various esports games using Dota 2 skins as credit.
It’s an age-old practice that has been popularised by Counter-Strike skin betting, but it’s also a thing in the Dota 2 community. You can simply add your skins to the platform and use them as credits for other games. SkinsLuck is the leading site in this space, and it even offers free cases where you can win extra prizes.
Dota 2 Betting Tips
Before you place your bets, we have some expert tips to help improve your Dota 2 gambling experience and hopefully, the results as well.
1. Know the Game
Dota 2 betting will often come down to your knowledge of the game, especially when it comes to live matches. We strongly recommend that you play the game and learn how everything works. This will give you a better understanding of how the heroes interact, and you may spot opportunities as soon as the drafting stage is complete.
2. Keep Up with the Esports Scene
The teams in Dota 2 change quite frequently, with players leaving and new stars taking their place. In fact, the same organization can have a completely different roster from one year to another, which often results in a different performance. Don’t bet on the team names that performed well in the past and stay up to date with recent changes. Statistics are important in Dota 2 gambling, but only if they are very recent.
3. Look for the Best Bets
The lines provided by the best Dota 2 betting sites can vary quite a bit. Before you pull the trigger, we recommend checking several sportsbooks to see which ones offer the best odds for your selections. This can help you win more in the long run and you can also benefit from different promotional rewards on the sites.
FAQs
Is Dota 2 betting available in the USA?
Yes, you can bet on Dota 2 on the best sites in the US. These cover all of the big tournaments throughout the year and provide loads of betting markets. You can also gamble on Dota 2 using skins on top platforms like SkinsLuck.
How do you place a bet on Dota?
Join a top Dota 2 betting site and make a first deposit. Navigate to the Dota 2 section and browse the available tournaments and matches. Select the bets you want to add to the ticket, enter the stake, and place the bet. Your winnings will be added to the account balance once the bets are settled.
How do you gamble using Dota 2 items?
You can join a top Dota 2 gambling site, like SkinsLuck, and play using your cosmetic items from the game. After signing up, add the skins that you don’t want to use and convert them into coins. You can then use the coins to open cases for random items, play games like roulette or blackjack, or try out the Upgrader feature for the chance to improve your items.
References
- Dota 2 Site (Valve)
- Dota 2 Esports Wiki (Liquipedia)
