CSGO Betting

This page will help you get started with CSGO betting if you are a fan of this game or esports. This guide is aimed to make you more familiar with the world of CSGO and betting, so read on to familiarize yourself with Counter Strike betting markets, the different leagues, the top teams and the history of the CS game series. This is one of the three major esports today. There’s betting available on CSGO 24/7 through our recommended bookmakers.

CSGO betting in Canada

CSGO betting is available through most legal esports betting sites. On our site, you’re guaranteed to find the best licensed and secure bookmakers online that offer CSGO betting in Canada. As we already outlined above, CSGO is one of the three major esports. There are Counter Strike betting markets and CSGO streams available around the clock. Betting can be attributed to the level of success CSGO has had as an esports. Luck plays a tiny part in the outcome of CSGO matches. The game is highly tactical, where preparations, training and skills determine what teams win. As such, the game is a natural fit for betting. In turn, betting leads more people to watch esports streams. Larger audiences, in turn, bring in more money from advertising which helps prize pools grow. Larger prize pools, in turn, motivate more people to become professional CSGO esports players. In the end, we’re left with more matches and more CSGO betting markets to bet at.

CSGO betting sites in Canada

History of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The developer of this legendary game series is Valve Corporation. This is the same game developer that created Dota 2 and the Half-Life series. Counter-Strike is a multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) game which was first released in 1999. CSGO is the fourth installment of the game series. The game started as a mod for Half-Life which was one of the most popular PC games at the end of the 90s. Valve later acquired the rights and turned Counter-Strike into a standalone game. Around this time, the Cyberathlete Professional League started hosting competitive tournaments for CS, more on that later. In 2004, Valve released the second installment of the series, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. The same year, Valve made a remake of the original Counter-Strike called Counter-Strike: Source which ran on a brand new game engine called the Source engine. Most of Valves games run on this engine til this day, including the current installment of the game series; Counter-Strike: Global Offensive which was released in 2012.

Evolution of CSGO Tournaments

As we mentioned, the first forms of competitive gaming for CS dates back to 1999 with the CPL. Through the years Counter Strike esports remained popular within gaming and internet culture. Superstars of the past like HeatoN and shaGuar became faces of these new sub-cultures that gradually became more mainstream. With superstars to idolize and follow, more and more young gamers aspired to become professional gamers creating a demand for more tournaments online and offline. Going back to the humble beginnings of CS, the first CPL tournaments were held in North America. Before CPL, tournaments were small and local, usually held in a friends garage or basement. CPL commercialized competitive gaming, the first CS tournaments were held inside Hyatt Regency hotel in Texas with more and more CPL tournaments being held all over the world including Canada, UK, Germany and Sweden. There were no audiences to speak of; only players cramped into large halls with lots and lots of big, bulky stationary PCs. The prize pools were small, during CPL’s first ten years, sixty events were held worldwide. The total prize pool for these tournaments hardly exceeded $3,000,000.

Those were huge numbers back in the day. However, compared to now… the next CSGO major, ESL One Rio, will have a prize pool of $1 million with millions of people watching the CSGO streams online. In addition, thousands of people will be watching from inside the Jeunesse Arena that has a capacity for 18,000 people. CSGO esports today is a massive industry and a trendsetter for other game titles aspiring to become mainstream esports.

Popular CSGO Leagues and Tournaments Today

There are literally hundreds of CSGO leagues and tournaments active worldwide, of course with varying quality and sizes of prize pools. On this page, we will only cover leagues that are relevant for CSGO betting. Due to issues related to integrity, betting is usually only available on larger types of CSGO leagues and tournaments because these have healthy prize pools with serious professional organizations participating. The biggest recurrent, ongoing leagues and tournaments are ESL One, ELeague, DreamHack Masters, DreamHack Open, ESL Pro League (EPL), Esports Championship Series (ECS), Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), Epicenter, Starladder, PGL and Major League Gaming (MLG). All of these have massive price pools with ESL One’s being the largest with a recurring $1 million prize pools.

Popular CSGO teams and organizations

As with any type of sports, CSGO esports included, the best teams are usually the most popular. As one team falls off the throne, so-called bandwagon fans are quick to jump ship to support another more successful team. Two organizations that have a cult following regardless of the ups and downs is NiP (Ninjas in Pyjamas) and Virtus.pro. These two organizations have a rich history with players that’s stayed dominating the Counter-Strike scene for over a decade. Players like f0rest, GeT_RiGhT, NEO, TaZ and pashaBiceps built loyal followings of their own which then resulted in NiP and Virtus.pro getting huge fan bases. Currently, some of the most popular organizations include Astralis, Vitality, Na’Vi, BIG, FaZe, NiP, fanatic, Liquid, Virtus.pro, G2 and mousesports.

CSGO betting FAQ

Is it legal to bet on CSGO in Canada?

Yes, it’s legal to bet on CSGO online in Canada. In all provinces across the country, you’re able to register to a bookmaker online, use any of the available payment methods, deposit with Canadian dollars and place bets on CSGO. If you end up winning some money, you’ll be able to withdraw safely.

Do I have to pay taxes if I win money while betting on CSGO esports?

No, as a recreational person who likes to bet on your favorite CSGO teams and players now and then, you won’t have to pay taxes on any winnings you make. If you are a professional CSGO gambler, however, you will be classified as a freelance worker according to Canadian law and expected to pay taxes accordingly.

Is Counter Strike betting easy?

As with anything you do, having more information to make the right decisions is better than making decisions with no information. So, the more you know about professional CSGO, the higher chance you will have to place successful bets. So do some research about the CSGO match you plan to bet at. Visit our esports guide to learn more about esports betting.

Summary

CSGO is both a fan favorite and a betting favorite when it comes to esports. With a legacy stretching back over 20 years, Counter-Strike has cemented itself in the foundation of esports. As the game reaches its ninth year as an active esports, there are no apparent signs for the popularity to wear off. We believe that CSGO betting will remain high in demand in the coming few years.