The 15 Biggest Esports for Betting in 2026

If you are building or scaling an esports betting product, the first question is always which titles to cover. The Esports Odds API serves 15 titles under a single esports sport slug, so adding a game is a filter change rather than a new integration. Here they are, grouped by how much betting volume they actually carry, with the tournaments and markets that matter for each.

The Big Four

CS2 is the deepest betting market in esports. BLAST Premier, ESL Pro League, IEM and the PGL Majors run close to year round, and the market list goes well past match winner: map handicaps, total maps, correct map score, round handicaps, pistol round winner and first blood.

Dota 2 is driven by The International and the Majors. Series handicaps, first blood, first Roshan and total kills are the core markets.

League of Legends has the most consistent calendar of any title, anchored by the LCK, LPL, LEC and Worlds. Game handicaps, first blood, first tower, first Baron and correct series score lead the book.

Valorant became a top tier betting title quickly on the back of VCT Masters and Champions. Its map and round markets mirror CS2, so if you have already built CS2 settlement you get Valorant almost for free.

The Established Circuits

Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, Overwatch and Call of Duty all have mature circuits behind them in the Six Invitational, RLCS, OWCS and the CDL. Map and game handicaps carry most of the volume, plus title specific markets such as Rocket League total goals.

Asian Mobile MOBAs and Classic 1v1

Mobile Legends, King of Glory and Wild Rift cover the enormous Asian mobile scene through the M-Series, KPL and the Wild Rift circuits. Match volume is high and liquidity keeps growing. StarCraft 2 sits alongside them as the classic 1v1 format, where map handicaps and race to X map markets do the work.

The Long Tail That Still Prices Up

PUBG brings battle royale placement and kill markets, EA Sports FC brings football style markets to a title that runs almost continuously, and StarCraft: Brood War still supports a steady Korean scene. None of these will be your headline title, but they fill gaps in the calendar cheaply.

Pulling Any of Them

All 15 titles live under the same esports sport slug, so listing matches is one call. Narrow to a specific title or event with the league parameter:

curl "https://api.odds-api.io/v3/events?sport=esports&apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY"

Each event returns an id, the two competitors, the league and the status. Take the id and fetch prices. The bookmakers parameter is required on /odds, and it accepts up to 30 books per call:

curl "https://api.odds-api.io/v3/odds?eventId=58231904&bookmakers=Bet365,GG.BET,Thunderpick&apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY"

For live coverage, subscribe over WebSocket. The markets parameter is required on the odds channel, and channels is an allowlist, so you only receive what you name:

const ws = new WebSocket(
  "wss://api.odds-api.io/v3/ws?apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY" +
    "&markets=ML&sport=esports&channels=odds,scores,status"
);

ws.onmessage = (event) => {
  const msg = JSON.parse(event.data);
  console.log(msg.channel, msg.data);
};

Read Map Scores Correctly

Esports scores are reported per map inside the periods object. The keys are map1, map2 and so on for each map played, and ft for the full result in maps, so a best of three won 2-1 gives ft as 2-1. The top level home and away fields mirror that final map count. Settle per map markets from the map keys and match winner from ft. Which keys appear depends on the title and the series format, so read the object rather than assuming a fixed shape.

If you want the full build, from listing events through to settlement and backtesting against /historical/events and /historical/odds, we walked through it in the guide on building an esports betting app.

Why Breadth Beats Depth Here

Bettors follow titles, not sportsbooks. A product that only covers CS2 goes quiet during a slow CS week even when Valorant, LoL or Dota are deep in playoffs. Because all 15 titles come through one API with the same event, odds and score shapes, covering the whole calendar costs you a filter rather than another integration.

Getting Started

Odds come from 265+ bookmakers across 34 sports and 12,000+ leagues, and the free tier gives you 100 requests per hour with no credit card. Grab a key on the Esports Odds API page and start with the events call above.