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How to Bet on League of Legends | LeoVegas

How to Bet on League of Legends

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How to Bet on LoL Step by Step

League of Legends is one of the biggest Esports in the world with a global audience and tens of thousands of players from dozens of countries. In gambling terms, it's also one of the biggest markets worldwide for Esports betting and getting involved is simple:

  1. Start by setting up an account with LeoVegas. Once the account is ready and verified, log in to the site.

  2. Head to the sports section and select Esports to find the latest LoL betting odds.

  3. Select the betting market, with moneyline bets being the best option for beginners in Esports betting.

  4. Place the bet and just wait for the results to come in.

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League of Legends Leagues and Major Tournaments

LoL has spread to almost every continent on Earth and there are major events and tournaments in many regions, all ranked on a tier list as created by Esports experts Liquipedia.

The marquee events are at S-tier, which are either the World Championship or have qualifying spots for the Champs available. This goes all the way down to B-tier tournaments, which have qualifying spots for A and S-tier events up for grabs and C-tier which are often semi-pro or amateur leagues.

There are many tournaments available for betting, each with its own formats and schedules. Below is a selection of some of the key ones, however, this list is not exhaustive and hundreds take place throughout the year.

LCS

The LCS, or League Championship Series, is the top-tier competition for LoL in the North American region with a 10-year history. A season consists of a total of 225 games, divided over a Spring Split and a Summer Split event. There are ten teams in the competition that are the same each season, unless any teams drop out.

The Spring Split, around January to March, has two parts: an eight-week double round robin stage with BO1 matches and the playoff stage following this. The playoffs have a double elimination format, so each team must lose twice to be completely eliminated. The top two teams in the playoffs earn a spot in the Mid-Season Invitational tournament and all teams earn points toward World Championship placements.

The Summer Split, between June and August, has a similar structure, except the playoff stage instead features the top eight teams from league play. The top three teams from the playoffs also get immediate qualification for the World Championship regardless of points gained until then, so all teams have some chance to qualify regardless of the Spring Split results.

The total prize pool for each tournament is $200,000 with $100,000 going to the winners each time.

CBLOL

The CBLOL, or Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends, is the highest-level Brazilian LoL tournament and follows a similar structure to the LCS with 10 teams and two splits, however, both the dates and prices differ.

The first split, known as Split 1, is a double round robin followed by a six-team double elimination playoff stage. It takes place between January and April with a $19,000 top prize and a single Mid-Season Invitational spot. Split 2, between June and September, uses the same structure and prize pool, although the winning team this time earns a World Championship spot.

LPL

Apart from having a Spring and Summer tournament, the LoL Pro League in China has a somewhat different structure. To start with, it features a total of seventeen teams and each tournament has a top prize of close to $300,000 instead.

Each split uses the same format with a double round robin group stage and the top ten teams moving forward. Instead of a single playoff round, there are two stages. The first consists of two separate brackets with the teams seeded 3rd to 10th. The winning team in each bracket goes through to the four-team double-elimination bracket. Those teams are then joined by the 1st and 2nd seeded teams to play for the ultimate tournament winner.

The top two teams from Spring get Mid-Season Invitational places, while the winner of the Summer tournament gets seeded 1st into the World Championship.

LEC

The League of Legends European Championship has an entirely different structure from other tournaments. Here there are three separate split tournaments and an additional finals tournament in the 2023 season. Each split has roughly a $40,000 first prize, plus a $70,000 prize for the finals.

Each of the splits contributes championship points, although none of them guarantee World Championship spots. Each split is roughly the same structure, with a single round robin stage, followed by a two-group GSL stage. The final four teams play in a Page-McIntyre bracket, a system that gives an advantage to the higher-qualifying team.

The six teams with the highest points total at the end of the Summer Split go through to the finals, although any team finishing 7th to 10th in Summer risks losing all earned points until then, so there are no guarantees after the first two splits. The top three finals teams get World Championship spots, while 4th place goes instead to the World Qualifying Series.

LVP

One of the smaller regional events in the LoL world, classified as a B-Tier event, the Liga de Videojuegos Profesional is a Spain-only event featuring 10 teams across two Spring and Summer splits. The top prize is around the $8,500 mark.

Each follows a standard structure of a round robin group stage followed by a six-team playoff round, with the winner of each stage getting spots for the EU Masters Summer, where qualifications for the top-level tournaments are up for grabs.

League of Legends World Championship

The League of Legends World Championship is the crown jewel in the LoL year, featuring the top representative teams from regions across the world all competing for the massive top prize from a prize pool of over $2,000,000. In total, 22 teams qualify from the various professional leagues, however, only some of those teams from China, South Korea, North America and Europe regions immediately qualify for the Swiss-stage of the tournament.

The remaining eight teams must win their spots through two stages of play-ins. Four teams get through the first double-elimination play-in stage. Then, those four are cut down to two to make 16 teams in the Swiss-stage. Those 16 teams who win three games in the Swiss then move into the final playoff stage for a straight single-elimination bracket to decide the overall winner.

The whole event takes place over a month and a half between September and November and features the very best in gameplay that can be found throughout the year.

League of Legends Sports Betting Markets

Moneyline

A moneyline bet is the most basic kind of bet on who wins and loses the entire match. It's represented by a number with a plus or minus symbol which is just a way of showing the odds. A plus shows positive odds and a minus shows negative odds.

For instance, if Dignitas have moneyline odds of +200, then it means that they are likely not the favourite for the match and a bet of $10 on them could pay out $20. On the other hand, if they had moneyline odds of -200, then that $10 bet would pay out $5 instead. Note that just because one team has a moneyline of +200, it doesn't mean that the opposite team will have -200, as multiple factors come into play when these are calculated.

Outrights

Outright bets, also known as long-term bets, are not bets on single matches or games in the same way as moneyline, but instead are bets on specific outcomes of entire seasons or competitions. This would mean, for example, picking the winner of the LEC finals or perhaps the winner of the entire World Championships.

They are typically only available for the largest events and these odds will naturally be adjusted based on team progression and performance throughout the tournament. The odds before a tournament may be better or worse than those at mid-tournament depending on whether the team is doing well or struggling, so timing is key.

Map Betting

Unlike other Esports titles which cycle through a range of maps, such as CSGO or CoD, League of Legends only uses a singular map, Summoner's Rift, when it comes to competitive play. For that reason, there are no betting markets available based on maps.

League of Legends Betting Tips

The thing that makes LoL betting interesting is that there are simply thousands of combinations available in any given match. To bet on League of Legends using statistics and match data would require looking into a massive list of factors even without the complication of extra maps.

Aside from team form and past match results, the team compositions of characters plus each player's usage and familiarity with each of the dozens of available characters also comes into play. Each character can also have different statistics when used in combination with other specific characters and even used at different times during a match, for example in game three of a BO5 series. Small moves and adjustments mid-game can have massive consequences so the outcomes are not even clear while watching for a lot of the time.

While this helps to make League of Legends extremely popular with those who love to study statistics heavily before they bet, it can look a little daunting to those who just want a more casual bet. In reality, a bet on League of Legends is still always a bet; a heavily researched bet may be a little more accurate, although having pages of data doesn't guarantee a result of any kind. Esports can be as random as any other sport and that applies to LoL where there are so many variables to deal with.

League of Legends Live Betting

With many of the larger events, live betting mid-game is available with generally only standard win and loss odds available. On LeoVegas Sports Betting the matches are streamed live from the official channels generally with a minimal delay so the action is available immediately.

Odds are updated based on game progression, although once a bet is locked in at specific odds, any win will pay out on those odds no matter what they may change to later. A +400 bet on Cloud9 at the start of a BO5 will always pay at +400, no matter if they go 2-0 in the series later and the odds drop to -200.

LoL Betting FAQ

How to check betting odds for League of Legends games?

All odds on professional LoL matches can be found in the Esports section under sports on LeoVegas. Fixed odds are available for a period of time before the match starts and then live odds can always be checked as they change from the main page or on the specific match page.

How long are the matches in League of Legends?

LoL is not a very quick game, with a single game at the professional level often reaching 30 minutes or longer, although a complete blowout for one team can finish in around 15. A complete match length, therefore, depends on the exact format of the competition. The round robin stages often use single-game (BO1) matches, so the entire thing is over relatively quickly.

At the top levels of playoffs, however, matches are usually BO5 formats, meaning that matches can be anywhere from 3 to 5 games. This makes the average playoff match clock in at between 1.5 and 2 hours long, making it longer than most other Esports and longer than most regular sports as well. The only longer Esports discipline per game is Dota 2, which averages around 45 minutes per match.

As a note, some Esports titles, for instance, Rocket League, do use BO7 or first-to-4 formats. These are not entirely unheard of within LoL, however, due to the length of the average game, these often prove to be too long to watch and professional formats usually stick to BO5 at most.

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