New to CS2 and esports betting? You’re in the right place! Our CS2 gambling beginner’s guide will help you get started. We have seven essential tips for beginners to help you succeed

1. Find the Best CS2 Betting Sites

You need to pick the right betting site before you can put the rest of the tips in our CS2 gambling beginner’s guide to use. The table below showcases our top picks. 

Our dedicated betting site review section has even more info on the top CS2 gambling sites. YOu can read expert reviews, find the best promo codes and much more.

2. Do CS2 Esports Research

First and foremost, the best possible tip for CS2 esports betting beginners is to do research. You can, and should, do research on every aspect before placing a bet.

At HLTV, we’ve got you covered, with dedicated pages for tournaments, team rankings, stats, match histories, results and more. It is, however, important to always check our front page for the latest news on teams. For example, if a team recently swapped out a player, or brought in a new coach. This could affect their chances of winning their next match, even if the betting site odds look great.

These valuable pieces of information go a long way in making some good CS2 esports bets. While armed with all the latest information doesn’t guarantee a win, it does increase your chances, sometimes by a significant margin. For more help on your research efforts, our dedicated CS2 guides section is filled to the brim with advice. We’ve also got a detailed odds comparison section so you always know which bookmaker will give you the best odds on a specific match.

3. Don’t Tilt While CS2 gambling

You will lose, and you might even lose a lot before you start winning some CS2 esports bets. This is one of the first things we mention in our CS2 gambling beginner’s guide, for good reason: Tilting.

Tilting is a slang term that originated in poker, where a player, after taking a few losses, becomes frustrated, confused, or simply angry. When you tilt, you make rash decisions, which you should avoid at all costs when making CS2 esports bets. Even the most accurate CS2 gambling experts can tilt, subsequently going on a losing streak due to poor, unresearched bets as well as emotional decisions.

The best tip we can give you when you feel you are tilting is to stop, take a breather, and come back the next day. Then, you can continue to bet, making rational choices, instead of just throwing your gambling budget down the drain. Winners know when to stop, and when to come back to try again.

4. Watch CS2 Esports Streams

You don’t have to be a CS2 player, or even a fan really, to start your CS2 gambling journey. What you do need, however, is general knowledge of the game. At HLTV, you will never run out of matches to watch, from top tier tournaments to smaller, lesser-known regions and organizers.

If you want to watch some CS2 matches to learn the game, take note of caster comments, and follow specific teams, there’s no better place than our Live CS2 match section. Casters can sometimes provide invaluable information about teams you wouldn’t otherwise know about.

There’s always matches going on but you should probably stick to the big tournaments and teams when starting out, which brings us to the next tip in our CS2 gambling beginner’s guide.

5. Avoid Unknown Variables

It might be tempting to bet on a match featuring two teams you have never heard of before, simply because you might get some tasty odds. However, as a beginner to CS2 gambling, you should steer clear of unknown variables. Instead of betting on random teams, take our previous tip to heart, watching matches for specific teams in a specific tournament.

Learn about the players, the coach, matchup statistics, maps and everything in between. Keep your focus on the top global teams according to our rankings. Betting on teams you know not only makes things more predictable, but you can also cheer on your favourite team while filling your wallet.

Speaking of favourite teams, you don’t always need to go for the top tier teams or tournaments, as the exception is teams or tournaments specific to your country. If you know some teams well in your country or region, you can bet on them in lesser-known tournaments, which should give you a distinct advantage.

6. Understand the CS2 Odds

Starting out in the world of CS2 gambling can be daunting, especially with all the diverse stats, odds, and advanced aspects such as handicap betting. For this beginner’s guide to CS2 gambling, we will focus on the most basic of odds, where you simply bet on which team you think will win a match.

Odds represent the chance of a certain outcome occurring, so the less likely an outcome is, the lower the odds will be. One of the most popular odds used by most betting sites is decimal odds.

Let’s take an easy example: Team A has 1.5 odds, while Team B has 2.5 odds. If you bet 10 on team A, you will get back 15 if they win, effectively earning 5 profit. If you bet on team B, however, you will get back 25, effectively earning 15 in the process.

The simple mathematical equation for decimal odds is: Bet x Odds = Payout. Our odds comparison section has a plethora of information on CS2 gambling odds, so don’t forget to check it out.

7. Balance Risk vs Reward

Risk versus reward in CS2 esports betting requires the user to follow all other tips in this article. It is important for beginners to understand that sometimes, the odds aren’t perfect.

Taking the time to research, and subsequently understand the “real” odds for a match, can be very profitable. For example, the odds for a top tier team winning a match might be 1.2. If you bet 10, this means you will get back 12 if the team wins, only earning you 2 profit. Therefore, you have to bet a large amount, for example, 100, to receive a 20 profit.

If this team has undergone some recent changes, or you’ve seen some cracks in their armour in a previous match, it might be more profitable to bet against them. The risk of betting on a 1.2 or even 1.3 odds is high, while the potential reward is low.

Sometimes, it is best to bet on the underdog. For example, if the odds say a team has only a 20% chance of winning, but after recent matches and maybe a team change, you think it might be 35%, then a bet on the underdog can be much more profitable than betting on the favourite. This is essentially called value betting, where your perceived value of a possible bet is higher than the odds provided by bookmakers.

HLTV CS2 Betting Resources & Tools

Armed with these seven essential tips in our CS2 gambling beginner’s guide, you should be well on your way to winning some bets.

We also have a variety of guides, expert bookmaker reviews, advice, and tips to explore in our CS2 betting section. You can head on over to the bookmakers page to get detailed information on all the best CS2 gambling sites. Then, there’s our analytics section, where you can compare odds. Further, our full guides section will answer each and every question you might have about CS2 gambling, for both beginners and advanced bettors.

Responsible CS2 Gambling

Learn more about practising responsible CS2 gambling and take the Gamalyze is a self-assessment test. Further, you can check out our articles focusing on how gambling addiction can develop, time management and money management.

• Time management and responsible gambling – This guide focuses on time management essentials while practising responsible CS2 esports gambling.
• Money management tips for gambling – In this article, various methods that can be applied to prevent problem gambling will be presented. The methods presented in this article are related to “money management”.
• HLTV supports responsible gambling – Learn about responsible gambling, how gambling addiction could occur, the causes and stages of development.

Always practice responsible gambling. You must be 18+ to play.