Betfair CSGO

In this article we discuss the Betfair esports betting site review that we have conducted for our readers. Keep on reading to find out all you need to know about Betfair to decide if this is the right place for you to place your bets on your favourite Counter Strike: Global Offensive events.

Betfair Overview and Esports Betting Markets

Founded in the year 2000 by successful entrepreneur and ex professional gambler Andrew Black, Betfair started as the first sports betting bookmaker that offered a new type of betting named ‘betting exchange’. Instead of bookmakers determining the odds, with ‘betting exchange’, players place bets against the odds determined by other players. This results in much higher odds than what other bookmakers could offer. Betfair quickly gained popularity due to this. Besides sport betting, Betfair offers the complete spectrum of gambling entertainment such as slots and live casino games.

With Betfair being an innovator in the sports betting business, they are quite late in jumping on the esports betting bandwagon. When browsing through all the sports, either under the ‘exchange’ or ‘sportsbook’ tab, there are hardly any esports, specifically CSGO, events to be found. At the moment of writing there are no Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) games. When surfing to esports under the sportsbook tab, there was only one event to be found, namely CS:GO ESEA, Athletico Bh VS Avant Garde Cs. And this is not even a high rating game as the teams currently rank 108 and 166 on the CSGO world ranking list. Besides the limited offering, the odds offered for this bet are good, compared to other CSGO betting sites, namely 1.72 vs 2.1

The CSGO betting market is highly competitive with hundreds of teams and many tournaments being played worldwide that offer big prize money. Millions of fans will watch the live streams of big events such as ESL One Cologne, Intel Extreme Masters in Sydney or DreamHack Masters 2017 in Malmo, Sweden. On Reddit there are many threads that discuss the scene, the games, the best teams and players and more importantly, who to bet on. That Betfair only offers such a limited offer of esports to bet on shows that they haven’t caught on to this very popular betting market.

Betfair Website Functionality and Betting

The Betfair website has a contemporary design and layout that allows for easy navigation. Even though they offer many different forms of gambling entertainment (such as sports booking, betting exchange, casino games, arcade, slots and live dealers) the different kind of games and sport bets are easily found due to the intuitive design. Players looking for Counter Strike Global Offensive matches are easily found under the tab ‘exchange’ and ‘sportsbook’. When clicking either of those, esports always shows up in the overview list.

Esports betting fans can bet via the regular website or the website optimized for mobile devices. But Betfair also offers an app, available for Apple and Android devices, that allows for the easiest betting and gambling while not sitting behind a computer. Betfair offers two different apps for both platforms. The Sportbook app allows for conventional sports betting while the Exchange app allows players to determine their own odds and go head to head against other players.

Betting cannot get more exciting than betting on live events. Both the website as well as Betfair mobile device apps offer live betting on a wide range of sport events including CSGO. This can be found under the tab ‘in play’.

Betfair Live Streaming, Bonuses and Extra Features

When placing bets on live CSGO events, players obviously want to have the thrill of seeing the event live. Betfair offers live streams to many events both on their regular website and in their apps. This way players can follow the game whilst browsing, looking for the latest ranking of Astralis, Immortals or Godsent, or watch the latest headshot compilation of superstar ScreaM from team EnVyUs. Since not all esports are steamed live on the Betfair website, players best surf to Twitch.tv to see how the game is developing.

Betfair offers a wide range of bonuses but at the moment of our review no special bonuses for CSGO or esports. Some bonuses are ongoing whilst others change with the seasons. Bonuses can also differ based on the platform used, as the mobile website and the apps have special offers. Players should always take care to check out the terms and conditions as sometimes a bonus is not eligible to players from certain countries, or the offer is limited to betting on certain events.

Betfair offers a comprehensive gaming experience to its players. It is unique in offering the betting exchange option where players get to be the bookmaker themselves and determine the odds for their CSGO match of choice. This allows for much more attractive odds than other websites can offer and makes Betfair extra interesting for CSGO fans. Too bad that there are so few CSGO matches being offered at the moment.

Betfair Customer Service, License and Security

Betfair clearly goes the length to offering the best gaming experience. Therefore, when the rules, or terms and conditions are not clear to the player, they can always reach out to Betfair’s customer services which is available 24/7 via telephone, email, chat, Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes this is not necessary as the websites contains an extensive frequently asked questions repository where most answers can be found. There is also a site feedback form where players can drop ideas. Maybe CSGO fans should massively start posting requests for more CSGO exchange betting matches.

Betfair operates under two different licenses for different markets. Customers in the United Kingdom fall under the branch of TSE (Gibraltar) LP license form the UK Gambling Commission, and all other international players fall under Betfair International Plc that operates under license of the Maltese Gaming Authority. This guarantees that all players are partaking in 100% legal operations.

Betfair also guarantees safe betting via their website and mobile app as they comply with the ISO27001 standard which means that all their security measures are conform the latest standards.

To conclude this Betfair esports betting site review we can say that Betfair offers a great user experience when it comes to sports betting and playing casino games but currently their CSGO betting options are very limited to only a few CSGO competitions. Their betting exchange format offers unique odds for players to bet on, and they can do so on the road making use of Betfair’s mobile apps and website.