Top 5 CS:GO Betting Sites

If you’re only betting on CSGO matches pre-match, you’re missing out on a big opportunity for profit! Live CS:GO betting or betting in-play is full of chances to profit from miss-priced odds. Betting sites have a tough time keeping up with how a game is developing. They often don’t understand the importance of certain elements in CSGO such as pistol rounds and in-game economy. This is where anyone with a bit of experience playing CSGO can have a huge advantage over the bookies and put their skills to the test.

What Is Live CS:GO Betting?

Most people are used to betting pre-match. That is, placing a bet on a CS:GO game before it begins and the first shots are fired. Live CSGO betting is the complete opposite. Betting on live CSGO games means that you are placing bets after the first round has begun. This hasn’t always been possible but more and more betting sites are now giving users this option so they can bet in-play. Live odds can sometimes be found in a different section of the betting site that you are using. For example, Bet365 have a special “Live” section where you can find any CSGO games that they have in-play odds available for. Other sites such as Betway, will simply make the pre-match market “in-play” so that you don’t have to navigate to a different area of the site.

Cashing Out In Live Games

Some of the better sites will give the option to “cash out” of a bet early. This means that you can take your current profit or loss before the bet has been fully settled. For example, if you back Team Dignitas to win at odds of 2.00 and they are now 1.50, you can use the cash out feature to take some profit early. Although you won’t get the full amount that you would if you left the bet to win, you are guaranteeing yourself some profit. Cashing out is great for live CSGO betting as it helps reduce losses and take early profits. If for example, you notice that your team is starting to perform badly after halftime, you can cash out to avoid a larger loss. In order to master the art of cash out, you need to perfect your timing. You can use cash out to a huge advantage if you have researched your team properly and you have a good idea how they will play in the second half of a game. An example of this would be if you have backed Astralis vs Fnatic on Inferno. Astralis are playing on the counter-terrorist side first and you know this is their better side. At halftime, you notice that Astralis are winning 10-5. Knowing that Astralis will be playing on their weaker side (terrorist) in the second half, you use the cash out button to take an early profit.

From this point onwards, it doesn’t matter if Astralis end up losing the match. They could never win a round again (losing 10-16) and you would still keep all of the profit you secured when cashing out your original bet.

CSGO Video Streams

Betting on live CSGO games without a video stream is like buying a lottery ticket. You are betting blind if you don’t have access to a fast live stream. Most in-play betting strategies rely on key information such as team economy, individual player performance and of course the rounds won and lost by each team. All of this information is usually available through live streams of the game that you can find across the web. It’s important to be aware of the speed of the video that you are watching. Some video streams can be delayed by up to a few minutes. This could be catastrophic to your betting profits if you place a bet without knowing key information which hasn’t been streamed yet. The best way to profit from live CSGO betting is to place your bets before the bookies update their odds after big plays. For example, you will sometimes be able to back a team at high odds even though they have just won a round that is critical for their opponents. If the opposition now has a broken economy, it is an ideal time to bet. If you are too slow to act, the bookmakers will update their odds so that your winnings won’t be as big.

Because of this necessity for speed, it’s essential that you have access to the fastest live streams of the games you are betting on. You can test which live stream is faster by opening different streams in multiple windows and cross-referencing the round times in each window.

Bet Types in Live CSGO Matches

Not all bet types are available during live games. You will tend to find that the betting sites reduce their betting options when the game goes in play, mostly because it is easier for them to manage. It’s not possible for some bet types to go in-play for obvious reasons. For example, it wouldn’t be practical to keep the “Round 1 winner” market open as the game begins. Some of the most common bet types available in live games are as follows:

Match Winner

  • Map Winner
  • Pistol Round Winner (Round 16)
  • Pre-Match Research

To achieve real success betting on live CSGO matches, you need to put in the preparation beforehand. The last thing you want to be doing in-play is running to find which team is better at playing on T-side for the following map. You won’t have time to do research when the game has begun as you should be too busy analyzing how each team is playing. Live betting can provide some extremely high odds betting opportunities. For instance, if a team is losing by 7 rounds at a score of 4-11, a little research before the game could help towards a big profit. It would be wise to bet on the (currently) losing team if you know that they have a previous history of winning games from such a losing position. This would be especially so if you know their opponents have a bad habit of throwing away a lead. Moments like these occur more often in big tournaments where nerves get the best of teams playing in front of a crowd, with a lot of money on the line.