Esports data company Abios has released a report reviewing the state of the esports betting industry, detailing the most important developments of 2022 and sharing the trends that might shape 2023.
For Abios, key trends in the esports betting sector include the dominance of CS:GO and the Intel Extreme Masters tournament in betting, as well as a large number of bets on League of Legends in China and South Korea.
Owned by B2B sports betting service provider Kambi, Abios is a data and analytics company that offers esports data widgets, odds feeds and data APIs for clients that range from esports organisations such as NAVI to betting companies like Pinnacle.
Its new report highlights esports betting trends in 2022. Based on the betting turnover in 2022 on the Kambi network, CS:GO is the most popular game to bet on. The report notes that Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) events, which are organised by ESL Gaming, bring in the most betting revenue.
The IEM series is followed by the ESL Pro League and BLAST Premier — all CS:GO events. The LPL is the only League of Legends competition entering the top five (based on Kambi’s betting turnover), followed by the PGL Major Antwerp.
The report also shared insight into the most popular esports teams going into 2023. According to the report, FaZe Clan, NAVI, and G2 Esports are the top three teams bettors have put their money on in 2022, followed by Team Vitality and Team Liquid. Interestingly, Finnish esports organisation ENCE is also a popular choice, making the cut at the eighth place out of ten.
Abios’ report additionally noted that 60% of Kambis’ users preferred to bet on live events, with pre-match betting making up only 40% of betting volume in esports.
It added that, following League of Legends World Championship wins by LPL (Chinese) and LCK (Korean) teams in recent years, Chinese and Korean leagues were unsurprisingly the most popular amongst bettors in 2022.
Kristina Skogvard, Marketing Manager at Abios, said that while CS:GO is still the top game for most users of betting services, VALORANT is growing fast and it could be the next contender for the top esports title.
The report comes after esports betting company Rivalry released its 2022 esports report in December last year. That report revealed that Rivalry had seen large growth in betting volume in VALORANT, mobile gaming, and the Brazilian market.
