Overwatch is a relatively new PC game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Despite the fact that the game is only five years old, it has managed to gather many fans around the world. It has numerous eSports tournaments and championships. Its world fame attracted to the game not only players but also bettors.
Overwatch is a shooter in which two teams of players fight. The main goal of the battle is to occupy a certain place on the map, prevent the enemy from delivering the object to the final destination, and so on.
The action takes place in the future, where the war between humans and robots, who rebelled against humans, recently ended. Overwatch special forces managed to suppress the uprising. But now they are facing a new problem – a crime in the fictionalized Earth, which players will have to deal with.
The battle involves different heroes, which the player chooses before the battle. They have different characteristics and features without which you cannot cope in a fight. There are heroes who inflict damage on the enemy, their main task is to fulfill the goal of the duel. There are also those who cover the allies in battle and are the first to enter the battle. Their main characteristic is a strong survival rate.
In battle, you cannot do without heroes who heal the wounded and add extra strength to the allies. The team of heroes complements each other, so only by working together can you come to victory.
Competition System
Since 2017, the Overwatch League has been responsible for running eSports tournaments of this game. This is the biggest league for the best players. It is not easy to get into it. To do this, you must successfully pass three qualifying phases in different divisions:
Open Division – Amateur teams compete against each other. Those that qualify at the end of the structured season are seeded into a post-season tournament consisting of intra-regional matches. The Open Division is played across seven different regions: Australia, China, Europe, Korea, North America, Pacific, and South America.
Overwatch Contenders – Overwatch League’s minor league. It was launched in 2018 to merge existing regional tournaments into a structure to support the Overwatch League. Global divisions with a number of teams within each (both professional and amateur players) form Contenders.
Overwatch League – An elite division in which only the best players and teams compete. Teams play scheduled games against other teams to vie for position in the playoffs.
Basically, e-Sports markets offer and accept bets on battles in the Contenders and Overwatch League on whose official website you can find the schedule of the latest matches.
Types of Overwatch Betting
With the growing popularity of the game, more and more bookmakers are offering betting on Overwatch. Betting is limited to standard tournament outcomes, from which you can choose the winner of the game or the map. If you want to find more betting variations, check out the list of the most prominent online bookmakers for eSports betting, listed here.
It is also not uncommon for a bookmaker to offer only a few tournaments. However, such a narrow market is quite understandable: game developer Blizzard does not officially allow third parties to hold the competition. That is, only Blizzard is entitled to it. Therefore, organizations that want to make money on behalf of Overwatch have to ‘tighten the screws’. As a result, bettors and bookmakers suffer greatly, having a small selection of outcomes and matches in their offers.
As a rule, the main line of Overwatch betting has the following outcomes:
- winning maps. You can guess which team will draw 3 of the 4 maps in the round.
- winner of the entire tournament or the League
- promotion of a team to the playoffs
- duel leader
- handicap
It is worth dwelling in more detail on the types of bets in Overwatch because each of them has its own characteristics.
Betting on the Outcome of the Match
This is the standard type of bet on who will win the battle and it is the simplest and most common bet in any sport or eSports discipline. The bettor is invited to bet on the team that, in his opinion, will be the first to win three victories in four fights.
The tournament game in the elite division consists of four battles on different maps. If the teams are tied, an additional round is played. Compared to other eSports competitions, it is quite easy to predict the winner of an Overwatch tournament. This is because, in this game, a beginner can rarely win out of the blue. Therefore, usually, everyone relies on an experienced favorite.
Exact Number of Maps
This type of bet is similar to the first one. You need to guess not who will win but the exact result in the competition. For example, 4-0 or 3-1. Therefore, if a tournament consists of four rounds, the bettor must predict its final outcome. It is worth noting that there is no option for teams to finish games early and do not pass four maps. Even if one team beats the other by a sweep. Because the final result depends on whether the team will qualify for the playoffs.
It seems that in order to guess the exact outcome of a duel, you must be a prophet. But if you know the players well, their experience, and follow the statistics, then everything will not be so difficult. In addition, draws are rare in tournaments, so they can be ruled out immediately. The advantage of betting on the correct result is in higher odds compared to other types of bets.
Total by Maps
The bet for the Overwatch of total maps offers the bettor to predict how many maps will be played in the tournament. At the same time, it is important to understand that there can be no fewer than four maps because, according to the rules, you need to pass all. But, additional maps are quite possible in case of a draw.
Therefore, to bet, you must bet on whether the total amount will be greater than 4.5 or less.
Handicap on the Maps
This type of bet can be found in any sport. Handicap adds or subtracts points from the final score. For example, if a bettor decides to place a bet with a handicap (-1.5) on the winning team, then this bet will be successful if this team wins 3-0 or 3-1.
Choosing your handicap also changes the odds and level of risk. If you bet with a handicap of -1.5, the risk will be less and the odds will also be reduced. To raise the potential earning, you can bet with a handicap of -3.5, that is, if you are willing to take big risks.
Map Winner
Bookmakers often offer this type of live bet. The real-time mode will help the bettor monitor the progress of the game and guess the winner of the next map. For your bet to work, it is enough for a player to win in one round rather than the entire tournament.
A characteristic feature of this type of bet is that previous wins, statistics, and analysis are not relevant here. It is all in the fact how resourceful the team is on one particular map.
Player Performance/MVP of the Match
In this type of bet, the player who has brought the greatest benefit to the team is in the main focus of the bettor. This bet is quite rare and it is not available on many bookmakers. But, if you are lucky enough to find it and decide to take the opportunity and bet on the MVP, then you should consider the peculiarities of this type of bet.
The most valuable player (MVP) is chosen after each game. It is the player who took the most active part in the battle and without whom it would not have been possible to win. Logically, that player must have a lot of experience and skills, which will allow him to pull his team forward.
Predicting the MVP is not that easy, at least not before the start of the competition. However, if the bettor follows the statistics, knows each team member, studies the player rating, then he will be able to bet on the player who is recognized as the best. Also, be aware that the title of MVP generally does not go to those who play support or tank positions.
Long-Term bets
Long-term bets are preferred by bettors who engage in statistical analysis and carefully build a strategy for future bets. Especially for such bettors, the bookmaker offers betting on winners long before the start of the tournament. Usually, long-term bets are only open for big tournaments, such as the ongoing OWL 2021 or similar.
Approaching such bets must be quite serious, which is not convenient for many bettors. It is necessary to carefully study statistics, analytics, and calculate possible outcomes in advance.
Live Betting
In addition to the most popular types of bets, the bookmaker has the possibility of betting in real-time. In this case, the bettor can watch the match live.
Live betting is only good when the bettor knows all the intricacies of the game and if he can make a decision quickly and deliberately. In Overwatch, things move very fast. You need attention to follow them because, in a second, the fight can turn around and not go in your favor anymore.
Conclusion
Blizzard has always been innovative in its games. Therefore, this game requires a special approach to betting: you will not be able to apply strategies from other games.
If you have been following Overwatch tournaments for a long time, you know how important the way you play is. Game modes are as just as important as the place of the battle. Each team plays differently in different locations. Someone knows one map better, someone knows the other better. The same goes for game modes. The outcome of the tournament depends on such subtleties. And yes, statistics of previous fights will help reveal which features the team is doing better in.
