LEC Betting: League of Legends European Championship 2021

The LEC is one of League of Legends biggest competitive circuits. It’s popular with both fans of the game and betting fans, and it draws a huge audience every year. Along with other competitive circuits like the LCS, LCK and LPL, it makes up a significant part of the professional League of Legends scene.

Europe is chasing the LoL Worlds  trophy for three years straight. The pressure on teams to perform is higher than ever, making it one of the most exciting regions to watch and place esports bets on.

LEC Betting - League of Legends European Championship 2021

What is the LEC?

LEC is short of League of Legends European Championship. As the name indicates, it’s the name of the pro esports LoL league quartered in Europe. Run by Riot, ten teams compete in each annual season. The league is fully franchised, with the ten teams holding permanent slots each season.

LEC teams travel from all over the European continent in order to take part and duel it out for LEC crown and a trip to Mid-Season Invitational and the League of Legends World Championship. The league is traditionally sponsored by some pretty big brands like Acer, Coca-Cola, and even American Express.

The LEC is traditionally held at the Berlin Riot Games studio.

LEC Teams

As of 2021, 10 teams are active in the League of Legends European Championship:

  • Fnatic
  • SK Gaming
  • G2 Esports
  • Team Vitality
  • FC Schalke 04
  • Misfits Gaming
  • Excel Esports
  • Rogue
  • MAD Lions
  • Astralis

LEC Format

The League of Legends European Championship is made up off two yearly Splits (Spring & Summer). Each split is divided into a Regular Season and a Playoffs stage.

The Regular Season features 10 teams competing a double round-robin best-of-1 format. The top 6 teams advance to the Playoffs. Traditionally, the regular season lasts for 9 weeks, although adjustments have been made on occasion to accommodate unexpected events like the COVID-19 crisis.

Playoffs are held in a double-elimination format, where the 1st seed picks between 3rd and 4th seed in the first round. The lower in the lower seed from the winners bracket round 2 plays in the losers bracket round 2 – the loser with the higher seed from the same winners bracket then plays in the losers bracket round 3.

All matches in the playoffs are best-of-five, and the overall winner of the split gets a direct invite to the Mid-Season Invitational (Spring) and LoL Worlds (Summer). Additional slots for MSI and Worlds are awarded for the 2nd and 3rd placed teams.

Where to watch the LEC?

The best place to watch the LEC is the official League of Legends channels on either Twitch or YouTube. Twitch is the more popular option, and viewership numbers regularly exceed the 200k mark there, with finals peaking much higher.

LEC Betting – How to bet on LEC matches

Betting on League of Legends is no different then betting on any other traditional sport or esports. Outright winners are easy to bet on, especially considering the LEC does not have a draw option and each match must end up with a winner. LEC betting as well as betting on LCS only requires your registration on an esports betting site, selecting your winner and placing the bet.

In order to maximize your returns however, it is important to know who the favorites are, which are the best LEC players and what are the best betting market to explore. Luckily, you are on the right page to explore all of these criteria.

LEC Betting Tips 2021

There are three main ways you can bet on LEC matches. They are Singles Bets, Accumulator/System Bets and Exotic Markets bets.

Each of these betting options has their own pros on cons.

  • Single bets can be placed on the winner of the entire LEC split or individual matches. Your returns are only determined by the odds of that singular result you place your bet on, and are the easiest form of betting on the LEC.
  • Accumulator and Systems bets mean tying up different match outcomes into a single betslip. If you are knowledgeable about the LEC and can predict the result of multiple matches in a single week, then these betting options are ideal for you.
  • Exotic Market bets consist of the most complex form of betting in League of Legends. These bets will include predicting specific in-game objectives and every specific outcomes. In order to guess these outcomes correctly you need a solid understanding of the meta and each individual team matchup. Some of the best odds are present in these markets, but they are also some of the hardest to predict.

In order to bet effectively, your best chance is to start playing singles bets on various matches until you are confident you can guess at least 75% of them. Once you achieve this, you can move on to making a simple system bet, where you give yourself a chance to miss one or two matches but still win the betslip.

Finally, once you are confident enough with your system bets you can try placing full blown accumulator betslips with four or more matches to get the ultimate payout.

LEC Predictions 2021

We provide weekly predictions for various leagues including the LEC in our LoL News section. Individual matches as well as mock betslips can be found there for your convenience. For the entire season we can outline several picks that should guide your main betting practices.

  1. G2 Esports is the main favorite for winning both the Spring and Summer Split in 2021.
  2. Rogue is the second best team in Europe and will likely perform well in both Regular Season Splits but flop in Playoffs.
  3. Fnatic is likely the team that will be chasing both Rogue and G2 Esports the entire season, and finish 2nd in both Spring and Summer.
  4. MAD Lions and Schalke04 are the underdogs in the LEC and are likely the teams that will battle for the last spot at Worlds 2021.

We have largely covered everything you need to know before start betting on the LEC. Remember to check our daily news for specific predictions and take your LEC betting slowly. We can also recommend you choose your betting provider carefully, and look to fully utilize an esports betting bonus for your initial bets.

History of the LEC

The LEC was first launched in Spring of 2013, and has had a Summer and Spring split every year since then. Up until 2019, the LEC was part of the duel League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) brand shared between North America and Europe. Start with 2019, the European series was re-branded into the LEC, while their North American colleagues retained the LCS brand.

Each year in the LEC has two champions one for the Spring Split and one for Summer Split. Most LEC trophies have been won by either Fnatic or G2 Esports. There was only one occasion when EU had a different champion. Team Alliance won the 2014 Summer Split, marking the only instance where G2 Esports or Fnatic were not champions in Europe.

Only Fnatic has been part of every Split since the beginning in 2013 – the other teams are more recent.

League of Legends European Championship

© LEC

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