Esports Betting Lingo – Gaming Terminology For Beginners

If you are new to eSport betting, then this article was written for you. Because there are a lot of words exclusive for eSports alone. Therefore, this esports betting glossary is dedicated to explaining the esports betting lingo to you. If you are frequenting the online sportsbook sites in Canada then you probably already know some of these words. We are going through every single definition in the esports betting terminology for you to understand. After reading this article, you will no longer be confused about a few special betting lines. If you never placed a single bet on eSports before, then check out our other article called Esports betting guide for dummies.

Esports Betting Glossary

We are going to explain the best esports betting lingo for you to understand. Let’s start with the bookmaker definition before we would dive into the actual game glossary.

First Blood Bet – In this betting category, you can guess which team or which player is going to perform the first kill against another player in a given match. Therefore, this isn’t about the winner, but about the first to eliminate a player.

First To Destroy Tower Bet – In multiplayer online battle arenas, there are objectives for the players to destroy before they could meet the winning conditions. Towers are guarding the main objective to destroy. Therefore, they are valuable and mandatory for the teams. In this betting line, you can guess which teams are going to destroy the first tower. Alternatively, you can guess what time the first tower will be destroyed in an over/under format.

Bookie – A bookmaker who gives the odds for the given betting line.

Handicap Betting – In the esports betting lingo, this is used when a team is going to win. However, they are giving handicap odds for the losing team so players can pick the specifications of the matches, and not whether they lose or not.

Over/Under – When you are betting on things such as time or points, you can bet on over/under. For example, the match will last over 20 minutes.

Stake – The amount of money you put on for the betting.

Outright Betting – When you are betting on the winner of a match or the whole competition.

Margin – Bookies are often shifting odds slightly so they can profit from it. While the actual odds of someone would be 1.00, they change it to 1.23. The difference between the actual odds and the bookie’s profit is the margin.

Esports Betting Lingo

The esports betting lingo can not be complete with the basic esports betting definitions. We gathered the most common terminology professional gamers and the gaming community uses during championships.

CS – In several games, non-player-controlled characters are appearing for both teams to kill and destroy. They are often giving money for experience points for the players. They are often referred to as “Creeps”. Therefore, CS stands for “Creep Score”. This has nothing to do with Counter-Strike. The creep score tells how many creeps an individual player or a team has killed. This way you can track who has the most money in the game.

K/D/A – Kill/Death/Assist. The KDA ratio is making up the total score of a player. The better someone’s KDA is, the better they perform if their role is a killing role and not a support or defensive role.

First Blood – The first kill in a match.

Frag – Some people refer to throwable bombs as a frag. However, frags during betting are a nice word for saying “kill”. Therefore, if you are betting on a player’s total frags, then you are going to bet on the total kills of a player. In short, this is the counter for the eliminated players by a single player or a team as a whole.

Map – While maps are an essential part of every video game. During betting the definition of the map has nothing to do with the in-game minimap. Map during betting refers to the “playing field” or the “match”. Basically “Map winner” means the team who is winning the given match. The reason why they call this a map is that, in games such as Counter-Strike, every match has a different map/playing field. Similar to how real-life sports are changing stadiums or fields.

Ban – In some esports, players are competing against each other using different heroes or playable characters with different skills. In professional matches at the start of the hero selecting phase, teams may ban a given amount of heroes. Therefore, those heroes can not be played in the match. Some betting sites let you predict the banned champions.

Length  – The length of a match in time. Often bettors can bet on the match or map length in an over/under format.

MVP – The best performing player of a given match or tournament.

BO3 – Best of 3. The teams are playing 3 matches total, and the one who wins 2 first, wins the match.BO5 – Best of 5. The teams are playing 5 matches total, and the one who wins 3 first, wins the match.

Build – In most video games players can personalize the stats of their characters by buying different items such as swords or armor. The build refers to the player’s personalized itemization for the match.

Buff – Buffs are positive status effects in the game, increasing certain stats. These buffs are often received by slaying non-player characters in the game such as dragons or jungle creatures. These buffs are valuable, therefore in the professional scene players are competing for them, trying to steal each other’s buffs. This objective is the core of map strategies and gives a reason for players to fight each other more.

Esports Betting Terminology

Reaching the end of the esports betting lingo, we also have to talk about the actual games you can bet on. Because the sportsbook sites are not always going to show the full name of a game. These are the most common games to run into. If you don’t know which one you should bet on, then check out our guide called How to pick the best eSport.

LOL – League of Legends. One of the Best esports to bet on. It is a multiplayer online battle arena where the professional players are competing against each other in a team of five. They are playing different characters with different skills on a map that always stays the same.

CS: GO – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It is one of the most popular esports to bet on, and it is a shooter game. The main objective of this game is for the attackers to deliver a bomb to given points on the map. The defenders are winning by defusing the bomb or eliminating all attacking players before they’d deploy.

VALIANT – Riot Game’s brand new shooter. Because the genre is a mix of shooter and multiplayer online battle arenas. Therefore, this game is a mix of LOL and CS: GO in a way. Players are playing in teams with different characters with different skills. However, the goal is to deploy the spike (bomb) or to defuse the spike.

R6 – Rainbow 6 Siege. This is a team shooter game, similar to CS: GO. The difference is that there is a wider range of equipment the players can use.

W3 – Warcraft 3. It is one of the oldest games in esports history. It is a fantasy strategy game where two players are facing each other. They can pick certain factions, and build cities on a map to destroy each other’s camp.

HotS – Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard’s multiplayer online battle arena. It is similar to League of Legends, except there is no itemization in the game. The maps and game modes are always changing in professional tournaments.

Dota2 – Dota2 is the strongest competitor and nemesis of League of Legends. It is the same genre and the goal and playstyle are almost the same.

WOT – World of Tanks is a unique game where players are controlling tanks based on real-life models. The playstyle is similar to a shooter game, except the movement is much slower, and the shootings are much more destructive.

Rocket League – Rocket League is a mix of football and car games. Players are controlling rocket-fueled cars to race against each other. Because the players are trying to crash into a gigantic football ball to land them into the opponent’s goal.

MOBA – Multiplayer online battle arena.

RTS – Real-Time Shooter.

Battle Royale – This is a game like Fortnite. It is a given world where players are deployed and they have to pick their weapons and equipment up on the go. A circle keeps decreasing in size. Therefore, the available size of the arena becomes smaller and smaller as the game goes on. In the end, players are forced to confront each other in a battle, as hiding will not become an option at some point.

Alternative Esports Betting Lingo

There are alternative definitions in the esports betting lingo. While betting on esports, you are going to run into this terminology in either the betting site or while you are following the championship broadcasts. According to The Bridge, these are the most common words in the esports betting glossary.

Carry – Often used to describe the player who contributed the most to the team’s victory. It is also a role for a player who picks the strongest character. As a role, the carrier’s job is to kill everyone, while others are focusing on keeping the carry alive or winning objectives.

Farm / Farming – The act of killing creeps or gaining creep scores. Farming is an important and basic requirement for players to do.

Fog of War – The part of the arena the players couldn’t see because it is out of sight for them.

GG – To show sportsmanlike behavior players say Good Game at the end of the match. According to Redbull, in the esports betting lingo, they often use this to proclaim the victory before the game would technically end.

Meta – The strongest champion and builds combinations at the given moment.

Laning – When players are farming and pushing to destroy towers.

Nerf – When the company of the game decides to bring an update that makes certain aspects of the game weaker. For example, if a champion was too strong in 2019, they are going to nerf it in 2020 so players don’t always pick the same things.

Ultimate – The strongest ability of a character.

Throw – When a player is losing an advantage due to bad decisions.

Tank – The characters or players with the most health. This role is dedicated to mitigating the damage to the opponent team.

Gank – Surprise attack.

Pushing – When players are killing creeps fast so they can reach the tower.

Ace – When everyone is dead in a team.

Eco – When players in a shooter game are not spending money in a turn so they can buy stronger equipment in the next one.

Where To Bet With The Esports Betting Lingo

According to British Esports, there are hundreds of words to know for a professional gamer. However, we have covered every single basic and most important word in the esports betting lingo. Now you can check back on this esports betting glossary if you are confused about certain items during your betting. If you wish to do eSports betting, you should visit Bet99 Sportsbook. Because they are open for every single game mentioned in this article, they are giving the best betting experience.