2025 Esports Betting Report: Key Trends for Sportsbook Operators in 2026
Published: 09.03.2026
Barry Sheelan
Content Marketing Manager
Esports betting has evolved significantly over the past five years. But most sportsbooks are still following the same strategy: tournament size dictates planning, budgets flow to big international events, and regional leagues fill the gaps between majors. Titles get treated the same regardless of how differently they behave.
Sound familiar? That approach may have worked before, but the data shows it’s time to rethink it.
The Oddin.gg 2025 Esports Betting Review analyzed activity across five major titles—Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, VALORANT, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. All five grew, but the analysis of billions of bets revealed something different: how they grew varied significantly.
Those differences determine where your marketing budget, trading resources, and margin opportunities actually sit in 2026.
How esports changed in 2025
For years, bigger esports tournaments meant higher betting activity. Large prize pools and global audiences drove engagement. Building coverage around event size made operational sense.
The 2025 data from our review shows that pattern breaking down. Let’s look at two examples that highlight this:
- Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) betting increasingly followed teams and players rather than tournament names, according to findings confirmed by our trading specialists. Matches with popular teams generated steady volume even at lower-tier events. Bettors also shifted toward player-specific markets over basic match winners. What this means: promotional spend on tournament prestige misses where engagement actually happens.
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), one of the fastest-growing mobile esports titles globally with an especially strong following in Southeast Asia, showed a different pattern. While the world championship created visible volume spikes, consistent activity came from regional leagues running weekly schedules. Local league coverage sustained engagement more effectively than focusing solely on international showcases.
Both titles grew during 2025, but operators allocating resources the same way across both left margin on the table.
The review’s analysis of Dota 2, League of Legends, and VALORANT revealed distinct patterns for each as well—none of them identical to CS2 or MLBB. While some operators adapted their approach during 2025, others saw uneven returns.
Budgeting for esports in 2026
In practice, these patterns change where your budget, headcount, and margin opportunities actually sit.
Your marketing budget might be funding activation around the wrong events. If CS2 bettors follow teams rather than tournaments, spend on lower-tier matches with popular lineups outperforms spend on weak-field major events.
Your trading team might be building depth in the wrong places. If a title’s volume comes from player markets during smaller matches, allocating coverage based only on tournament size creates inefficiency.
Your margin opportunity might sit in market types you’re not prioritizing. As titles mature at different rates, where you make margin changes title by title.
Operators who recognized these patterns in 2025 adjusted resource allocation. Those treating esports as one category, though, often experienced inconsistent performance across titles.
What maturity looks like in esports betting
The Oddin.gg 2025 Esports Betting Review identifies five questions that signal how mature an esports betting market is:
- Are average stakes rising at flagship events?
- Are bettors choosing player markets over match winners?
- Do teams matter more than tournament names?
- Is most activity happening live or pre-match?
- Do regional leagues keep betting steady year-round?
Not every title shows the same pattern across these signals. Some have stable engagement across most of these areas. Others are growing quickly but still rely heavily on specific tournaments or regions.
That difference matters. It affects how you structure coverage, where you build market depth, and when you activate promotions for each title.
The 2025 review places all five major titles along this maturity spectrum, explains what's driving engagement in each one, and translates those findings into practical guidance for trading and commercial teams.
Ready to grow your esports offer in 2026?
The 2025 esports betting review includes:
- Title-by-title analysis of betting behavior and market performance
- Clear maturity assessments showing where each title stands
- Practical recommendations for market setup, coverage priorities, and promotional timing
- Insights from Oddin.gg’s esports trading specialists, based on billions of bets processed in 2025
For operators evaluating their esports approach, the question isn’t whether esports is growing. It’s whether your internal structure reflects how each title actually works, and whether your competitors have already figured that out.
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