State of Esports Betting in 2025: Who’s Playing, What’s Changing, and Where It’s Headed

But that stat isn’t just impressive, it’s telling. It shows us that esports betting is exploding in the moments that matter most. And while the industry is hitting new highs, it’s still figuring itself out.

In 2024 alone, competitive video game betting brought in $2.5 billion in revenue, with projections pushing that number to $3.5 billion by 2029. The user base? Up from 21.9 million in 2017 to 74 million in 2024. It’s safe to say we’re well past the early adopter phase.

Let’s take a look at how the esports betting market is looking today.

While esports is a 24/7 ecosystem, its betting economy isn’t. In fact, the vast majority of the action is focused on a surprisingly small number of tournaments.

If we take a look at Q4 of 2024, the top five events accounted for over 60% of total esports betting volume during that period. The Shanghai Major alone captured 28% of all wagers, followed by the League of Legends World Championship at 19%.

That event also broke viewership records, pulling in 6.94 million peak viewers – the highest in the tournament’s history.

Even the smaller Counter-Strike events like IEM Rio pulled in a considerable chunk.

This trend points to a reality that esports operators and betting platforms alike need to reckon with: the majority of bettors are event-driven. They aren’t placing daily or even weekly wagers. Instead, they’re showing up in droves when a marquee matchup is on the line, while the event is live, the stakes are high, and the chatter is nonstop.

This is similar to traditional sports in some ways. Look at Super Bowl prop bets, or the spikes in betting during March Madness, but the concentration in esports is even more pronounced.

Part of that comes down to the structure of the esports calendar. Unlike football or baseball, most games don’t offer a steady diet of high-profile fixtures. The scene revolves around seasonal peaks, not weekly routines.

That creates a sharp contrast with the always-on fantasy and sportsbook model that many platforms are built on. In competitive video games, the betting window isn’t merely short-lived — it’s often tied directly to spikes in viewership and social engagement, rather than consistent scheduling. And that sort of volatility rewards those who can anticipate when and where the next surge of interest happens.

For now, the event-driven behavior is a strength. It brings massive engagement and revenue in short bursts, but it also has a fragility to it. If major tournaments underperform or if a top title sees its competitive scene abandoned, the downstream impact on betting could be immediate.

If Generation Z’s place in the future of esports were a market, it would be considered “heavily favored.”

According to sources, bettors aged 18 to 27 made up 44% of all esports gambling activity in 2024, a significant jump from the 36% in the year before. Add in Millennials up to age 43, and that total climbs to 87% of the entire audience. 

This isn’t a multi-generational market. It has been shaped almost entirely by people who grew up on Twitch, Discord, and highlight clips instead of cable broadcasts.

But this isn’t just a statistic about age. It’s about expectations and how those expectations are already shaping the product.

These bettors are placing fewer wagers overall, but with a higher average stake. The typical esports bet is €29 compared to just €5 in football, according to IGB. That difference isn’t just numerical; it speaks to intent. Younger bettors are placing fewer, but more targeted wagers. Often, tying them to games they know intimately.

That suggests they’re not just throwing coins at random outcomes; they’re here, betting with purpose. Typically, on games they already play or follow closely. And they’re more willing to engage during high-impact moments, like a LoL World’s knockout or a CS overtime round, than across an entire season.

This also explains why sportsbook features like live betting, proposition bets, and mobile-first UX design are being viewed as essentials rather than nice-to-haves. These users expect a seamless experience that measures how they already engage with esports content: fast, personalized, and responsive.

It’s also worth noting that this demographic is less patient with friction. According to data published in the esports Betting Report by iGaming Business, a significant portion of non-bettors, around one in three, cite a lack of understanding as their main barrier to entry. 

That’s not a call for more tutorials so much as it is a call for better design. A simple UI and smart onboarding can do more to convert newer users than an FAQ buried in the footer.

Gen Z isn’t just a target market, they’re a blueprint for the path forward. And any operator designing for the average sports bettor may find themselves behind as the old guard ages out.

In 2024, nearly half of all Counter-Strike bets were placed while the match was still unfolding. That stat alone might make it sound like live betting is the “next big thing” in esports gambling. But let’s be clear, this isn’t the future, it’s already the norm.

Not only did Counter-Strike make up 57% of all esports bets made in 2024, but it also made up 46% of all live, in-play wagers as well. Interestingly enough, while Valorant bets were only a small fraction of the total esports bets made, it was the second most popular option for live betting, capturing 28% of all in-play wagers made that year.

But real-time engagement is only one facet of what the newer bettors are looking for. The other is control, and that’s where personalization comes in.

In the same Q4 data set, 13% of Counter-Strike bets were prop bets, focused on things like first bloods, round kills, or map-specific outcomes. These aren’t just novelty wagers, either; they’re a clear signal that esports fans want to use their own knowledge of the games to bet on the gritty details, not just the outcome.

That behavior will shape the next generation of betting tools. You’re already seeing bet builders, which let users stack custom wagers, and “flash markets,” which open and close in real time and are being tested and rolled out by some of the industry’s top platforms.

These aren’t fringe experiments. They’re a response to an audience that expects betting to feel as interactive for them as they do for the players in-game.

This also loops back to Gen Z’s influence. Traditional sports bettors might tolerate static odds and delayed settlements, but esports bettors? They’re used to Twitch chat, instant replays, and live community commentary. It’s not just about speed. They expect responsiveness in their platforms. They want to be engaged, not treated as passive bystanders.

And with this need comes a whole new challenge: these platforms need to keep up. Real-time odds adjustments, lower latency, automated bet resolution, all of it needs to scale if operators want to keep pace with the way esports fans actually engage their tools.

The direction is clear. Any platform that wants to capture these new bettors is going to have to meet them where they’re at. Faster, more flexible betting options are not going to be considered a feature for much longer, but a baseline expectation.

The most bet-on esports games in 2024 were the ones you’d most expect. Counter-Strike sat at the top of the list, followed by League of Legends. But the most interesting part of the puzzle isn’t what’s on top, it’s the games sitting in the middle.

While CS and LoL remained dominant, there was a quiet shift taking place below. Valorant’s share of total esports bets nearly doubled year-over-year, growing from 3% of 2023’s total bets to 5% in 2024. In contrast, DOTA 2 dropped from 14% to 10%, and its flagship tournament. The International accounted for only 3% of total bets in Q4.

What we’re seeing isn’t just a shift in preference, it’s a fragmentation of the market. Bettors are becoming increasingly selective, and they’re gravitating towards games that offer:

Counter-Strike has all three. So does League. Valorant is getting there, but still has a ways to go. DOTA 2, however, despite its long legacy and prize pools, is struggling to check those boxes and stay relevant.

This fragmentation matters because betting behaviour is possibly the most honest indicator of a game’s competitive relevance. Stream numbers can be inflated. Social buzz can be manufactured. But people don’t put money down unless they’re invested, literally and emotionally.

So while developers often look at current player counts or esports prize pools to gauge a title’s success, betting data tells a different story. It shows what fans are willing to act on, not just what they’ll passively consume.

There’s also a platform angle here. Sportsbooks need to decide which titles to feature, promote, and build around. As interest concentrates around fewer games, operators may have to choose between supporting long-tail titles out of obligation or doubling down on the games that actually move the needle.

esports betting has clearly outgrown its “niche” label. With $2.5 billion in revenue and 74 million users in 2024, it's evolving fast.

But this isn’t just about bigger numbers. It’s about how people are actually engaging. Today’s bettors are younger, more informed, and more selective. They’re showing up for the games they care about, placing bets in real time, and expecting platforms to keep up.

That puts a lot of pressure on everyone involved, from game developers and tournament organizers to sportsbooks and tech teams. If the industry wants to keep this momentum going, it can’t just rely on hype or tradition. It needs to adapt to how this new generation bets.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not just about offering more games or bonuses, it’s about building something that actually fits the way people interact with esports today.