Betting on CS:GO can be great fun, but if you want to step up your game and cash in on the profits, you’re going to need a solid strategy. Just like a professional CSGO team needs next-level strategies to defeat their opponents, you will need an equally good strategy to beat the bookies. If you’re familiar with CS:GO, and have played yourself, you’ll have a much easier time of developing your own profitable strategy. You should have a good idea of when teams are playing their best and spotting betting opportunities during a live stream.
The world’s best CSGO betting strategy would be useless without a sensible staking method. Take a read of the Staking Methods section before you get started on developing your own strategy or using one of our examples.
Staking Methods
A stake is the amount you are wagering on any given bet. For example, if you’re betting in the United Kingdom, you will generally be betting in pound (£). You might, for example, stake £10 at odds of 5/1 for potential returns of £60. A staking method or staking system is a way of deciding how much you should bet at any one time. You can do all the research in the world and place what seems like the perfect set of bets but if your stakes are poorly managed, you’re going to be a loser overall. These methods are used frequently on traditional sports betting but apply just the same to CS:GO betting. What do we mean by this?
There are multiple ways to manage your staking, some of them are sensible and others are suicidal. We’ll cover some of the most popular methods below so you can decide what is best for you. Regardless of the methods we’re about to mention you should never bet more than you can afford to lose.
Fixed Stakes
This is one of the most common, and a good starting point for those looking to keep it simple. For every bet you place, you would wager exactly the same amount each time. For example, if you place five bets in a day, each one would be a bet of £10. Fixed stakes are a great way of quickly taking some emotion out of your betting decisions. We’re always looking to remove emotion from the equation as emotional betting is rarely profitable, certainly not in the long run. You should always consider how frequently you typically make a bet when deciding your fixed stake amount. Otherwise, if your amount is too high, you will spend too much, too quickly if you usually place a large number of bets.
The main benefit of fixed staking is its ease of use. Recording your results and overall profit is much easier to calculate when you have used a fixed stake throughout.
Proportional Staking
Proportional staking assumes that you have a dedicated betting balance, separate from your personal or business finances. Keeping funds separate is always a good idea. It’s much easier to manage as you can check your profit or loss by simply checking if your balance is higher or lower than the original deposit amount. The proportional aspect to this method is that you should always stake a proportion of your bank. For instance, if you have a bank of £100, you might choose to bet 5% of your bank each time. On your first bet, this would be £5. Proportional staking is often preferred because it helps to expand your winnings and reduce your losses. As an example, if you lost £90 and just had £10 left, your next bet would only be £0.50. Essentially, it makes it very hard to blow your whole bank as stakes are decreased as your balance is reduced.
It works in a similar fashion when you are winning a lot of bets. If you manage to increase your betting bank to £500, your next bet would be £25 (5% of £500). The exact % that you choose is a personal preference but generally, it is not advised to go above 5%. The lower your stake %, the more stable your profit and loss should be. A larger stake % will result in a more volatile return.
Martingale System
The martingale system is often referred to as a “loss recovery system” but it should be avoided at all costs. We’ve decided to include it in this article so you are aware of the risks and avoid using it for your own CSGO betting. The principle is that you bet a fixed amount at first and if that initial bet loses, you double your next stake amount. This doubling-up is supposed to make up for the previous loss. If you win your bet, you simply revert back to your original stake. In theory, the martingale system would return a small profit over a long period of time. Unfortunately, it does not work like this in practice. Problems arise after long losing runs (which will happen!). As an example, we’ll use a starting bet of £10. If you lose 8 consecutive bets using this amount, your 9th bet (according to the system) would have to be £1,280. Are you willing to risk that amount in a single bet? Most people aren’t!
Pre-Match CS:GO Betting Strategies
The most popular form of CSGO betting is betting pre-match. That is, betting on the outcome of a game before it begins. We’ll discuss live betting a little later! Pre-match betting is great for those that prefer to take their time over their bets.
Most CS:GO betting sites list their odds at least a few days before the event begins, giving you plenty of time to decide what to bet on. You can use this time to look into the recent performance of the teams that will be playing. You’ll find a wide range of betting markets available pre-match as opposed to when the game begins. There are a number of approaches you can take when deciding on your betting strategy pre-match. You should look for a strategy that takes advantage of any edge that you have over the bookmakers. For example, you may have heard over social media that a key player is ill and won’t be performing very well during a game that evening. This would be a great opportunity to bet as the bookmakers are usually slow to respond to news such as this. Most professional CS:GO players have social media channels such as Twitter where they will talk amongst themselves and make announcements which can help with your betting.
Here’s an example of a strategy that you may wish to use when betting on CSGO:
Team Rank Strategy
This is a simple strategy that uses ranking systems from online databases such as HLTV and GosuGamers. These databases rank teams based on a number of factors using a system that is often based around an ELO ranking system. The beauty of using ranking systems like these is that the majority of the hard work is done for us. If we trust that they are accurate, it means we do not have to figure out who is “the better” team. Systems such as these are in use because you cannot simply use the winner of a tournament to decide who is the best performing team. Some teams may be better than others in tournament environments, whereas others may excel in league structures. It may vary depending on the site supplying the information, but generally the lower the number, the higher ranking the team is. The team ranked #1 will (according to the system) be the best performing team at present.
For this strategy we will look to back underdogs who have had a recent increase in ranking. Likewise, we will look for situations where they play against teams who have had a recent drop in ranking. The higher the fall for the favorites ranking, the better. In the same way the higher the underdogs rise, the better. This strategy plays on the confidence loss or gain of confidence by both teams. In order for the underdogs ranking to rise, they will have had to play well against equal or better opponents. We can assume that they are confident at this moment in time and will be able to catch the higher ranked team off-guard. By nature of betting on the underdog, we will be getting higher odds if the bet wins.
Live CSGO Betting Strategies
Betting on live games can be one of the most profitable ways to bet on CSGO. Games can change direction within seconds and the odds can move even faster. Live CSGO betting strategies are limited to the markets that are available when the market is in play. You will notice that a large number of markets (also known as bet types), will be unavailable once the game begins. Some markets might also be temporarily suspended during key moments of the game. For example, if the game is on match-point, the betting sites will suspend markets as it is too risky for them to take bets at this time. There are also a number of betting markets that focus on particular rounds. Once these rounds have been played within the game, these markets will become unavailable.
Some of the most popular betting strategies for live CS:GO revolve around the in-game economy. This is virtual money that players are rewarded for completing certain objectives such as planting a bomb or killing a member of the enemy team. This money can be used to buy more powerful weapons for the following rounds. It, therefore, makes sense that teams with the most money have a stronger chance of winning. Here’s a basic strategy that you can use on live CSGO games:
Economy Advantage Strategy
You don’t need to be a CSGO expert to profit from this strategy. In fact, you barely even need to understand CS:GO to make this work for you. As the name suggests, this strategy will rely solely on the in-game economy of each team in order to create a betting situation. All the information you need will be displayed on the live stream of the CSGO event you are watching. CSGO live streams are almost always free to watch, legally online. In between each round, the stream will usually display the player scoreboard. This scoreboard will show each player’s K/D ratio and their economy, amongst other information. For this strategy, you are looking to bet on a team when they have a significant amount of money on each player compared to their opponents. This should be anything over $7,000 on each player. The maximum amount a player can have at any one time is $16,000. Having this much money will allow them to purchase strong weapons for multiple rounds, should they need to re-buy.
Be careful not to place your bet in the rounds just before halftime as the economy will be reset after the break!