In our ultimate guide to CS2 betting we leave no stone unturned, arming you with all the CS2 gambling knowledge you need. Let’s kick things off with finding the CS2 betting site for you. This guide also feature beginner’s tips, betting market info and a ton more insight into the world of CS2 Gambling.

Best CS2 Betting Sites

One of the most important tips we can give those who are just starting their CS2 betting journey is to find the best betting site.The table below features our top picks.

CS2 Betting Tips For Beginners

CS2 gambling can feel intimidating for beginners. Starting off in CS2 gambling can quickly become overwhelming, and players can lose their gambling budget in a flash. We want to share some must-know tips for beginners

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.

Don’t Tilt

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 guide for beginners, 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.

Watch 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.

Reduce 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 tip above to heart, watching matches for specific teams in a specific tournament.

Learn 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.

Master The Basics

Starting out in the world of CS2 esports betting 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. 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.

Balance Rick & 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.

Popular CS2 Special Bets

There are dozens of CS2 special bets to place on the best betting websites out there. In this section, we will focus on the most-used types, and explain how they work.

Handicap Betting

You won’t get the best odds when one team is heavily favoured to win a match. However, fans still want to bet on their favourite teams, which is where CS2 Handicap betting comes in.

CS2 Handicap betting will generally give you much better odds, and subsequent payouts if you win, than standard match-winner betting. Simply put, Handicap betting puts the heavily favoured team at a disadvantage to give you better odds.

For example, the odds are heavily in Team A’s favour on a CS2 betting site, which means when (or if) Team A wins, you won’t get much of a profit from their victory. However, if you choose a Handicap bet of -3.5 on Team A to win, your profit margins will increase, as the betting site will provide much better odds. To win the CS2 Handicap bet, Team A needs to win a map you bet on by at least 4 rounds.

Sometimes, Handicap betting can net you a great profit, especially when a team is dominating in a tournament, crushing everyone in their path. When you put your money on a dominating team to win, with a Handicap of, for example, -6.5, profits can just start rolling in if the odds justify the risk involved.

With Handicap betting, you can continue to support your favourite team by betting on them to win, even if they are one of the best CS2 teams in the world. Handicap betting is one of the best CS2 special bets to use, and comes in a variety of forms.

Pistol Round

Pistol Round betting is very self-explanatory. It is the act of betting on which team will win the first round (the pistol round) in a match, a specific map, or even one half of a map.

CS2 Pistol Round betting can look like a coin-flip, with a 50% chance of each team winning. However, through proper research (which we’ve discussed in our Beginner’s Guide) looking at the previous matches of both teams, and how they perform during the pistol round, you can potentially gain a great advantage.

With CS2 Pistol Round betting, it is important to research a team’s best maps. For example, if Team A ranked lower than Team B, but Team A has an excellent record on Nuke, one might go so far as to give Team A the advantage. Lastly, which side a team is on can also affect their chances of winning. For example, CT might have a slight edge on a certain map, which will drop the T’s odds of winning the first round.

Map Winner Betting

To profit from this CS2 special bet, you need to do your research. Map Winner betting is one of the types of CS2 special bets which benefits largely from team knowledge.

CS2 Map Winner bets normally get placed on BO3 or BO5 matches. This special type of CS2 bet is when you pick a specific map you think a team will win. This should give the player some great odds and potential winnings.

It could just be one of the easiest ways to make some money from CS2 esports betting, as even the top teams in the world have specific maps they are just better on than others. Combine this type of research with the previous match results for both teams, and you’ve got a solid shot of winning the bet.

Using one of these easy CS2 special bets can become even easier by checking out our Odds Comparison section. This section provides you with detailed information on upcoming matches you can bet on and features statistics for both teams, including which maps they win on often.

CS2 Over/Unders

Over/Under betting in CS2 gambling can be used in a number of different ways, but the most popular involves the number of rounds being played. A CS2 bookmaker will give you a set margin to work with. You will need to predict how many rounds will be played on a specific map.

The best way to explain Over/Under betting in CS2 is to use an example. Let’s say the CS2 betting site gives a 20.5 round margin for a specific map in a match. This means you can bet on “under” or “over”.

• To succeed if you bet on Under, the round total should be 20 or less. For example, a 13-7 final score.
• To succeed a bet on Over, the round total should be 20 or more. For example, a 13-8 final score.

Depending on the teams playing, the Over or Under might give you different odds. If one team is heavily favoured to win, the payout for Under might be much less than Over. This is due to the chance of a heavily favoured team going to 24 rounds against an underdog being very slim.

CS2 Match Score Bets

Match Score betting on CS2 gambling sites is arguably one of the most straightforward CS2 special bets. All you need to do is pick the final map score.

However, things get a bit more complicated when you take payout potential into consideration. Check out the scenario below to get an idea of the pitfalls of match score betting. Please note: In this scenario, Team A is heavily favoured over Team B.

1. Betting on Team A for a 2-0 victory, therefore, only gives you 1.2 odds, which means the payout isn’t great at all.
2. Bet on Team B for a 2-0 victory. You get great odds (7.5) but the chances of this happening are slim.
3. If you bet on Team A for a 2-1 victory, the odds will be better (2.8), but the chances of this happening are still quite slim.
4. Betting on Team B for a 2-1 victory, the odds (5.3) aren’t as great option 2, but better than the rest.

Spotting CS2 Betting Opportunities

In this section, we explain how to spot some amazing CS2 esports betting opportunities in your gambling endeavours. Using the HLTV resources at your disposal and following our tips could give you a distinct advantage over others.

Form Vs Ranking

The Odds Comparison page in our CS2 betting section provides you with everything you need to make informed betting decisions. You can check the rank of both teams in a match, and both teams’ current form, alongside other pros and cons for a specific match.

Here’s where the first of our CS2 esports betting opportunities come into play. Let’s use an example to explain this opportunity.

Team A has a higher ranking, which also means bookmakers will likely favour Team A over Team B, giving you better odds for betting on Team B. However, Team B has a higher form rating. Betting on Team B will, therefore, give you a good chance of winning, and more money if you do.

The current team form is an extremely important part of figuring out which team will win. In short, the team with the better form, including recent match performances, could likely win a match against higher-ranked opponents.

Sometimes, bookmakers don’t take team form into account. If you do, you can get ahead of the competition and cash in on some great odds. While this is one of the best CS2 betting opportunities one should always keep in mind, there is no guarantee a team with a higher form rating will win.

Matchup History

CS2 esports betting websites generally go off several statistics when calculating odds, but the most important is team ranking. Not all bookmakers take the matchup history between two teams into consideration, which means you have another one of these fantastic CS2 betting opportunities if you follow teams closely enough.

Some teams are simply the Achilles’ Heel of other teams, no matter how far they are apart in ranking, or even form. By following teams in a specific region, or just doing a tonne of research using their individual team pages on HLTV, as well as the Stats section, you can stumble into a virtual CS2 betting goldmine.

You can go even deeper than simply team matchup history, as there are some players who just have a historic advantage over others. Use this to your advantage to spot excellent CS2 betting opportunities.

CS2 Roster Changes

On the front page of HLTV, you will always find the latest CS2 news, which includes roster changes. There’s another CS2 betting opportunity to take advantage of here.

Generally speaking, a team that recently made some roster changes, is a high-risk bet. It simply doesn’t matter how highly-ranked the team is, a roster change can make a big difference in their chances of winning.

Even if, for example, Team A brings in one of the best players in the world, one has to keep team synergy in mind. When Team A brings in a new player a few days before a major tournament starts, you might have a betting opportunity on the opposing team, despite said opposing team being lower-ranked.

CS2 Updates

Valve releases quite a lot of CS2 updates, and while some of them just fix a few bugs, others make changes to weapons and maps. The latter is where you can find a CS2 betting opportunity.

To take advantage of a CS2 update, team research is of the utmost importance. For example, if Team A has an excellent win/loss ratio and Mirage, and they’ve been first-picking it for the past several months but Valve just made significant changes to the map, there’s a chance Team A might not be as strong as the odds say.

This is arguably the riskiest of the CS2 betting opportunities mentioned so far. Teams could still remain just as good (or better) on a specific map even if Valve has made changes in a CS2 update. Lastly, always keep an eye on the social media of tournament organisers, as some of them might decide to use a previous version of the game, while others jump straight into a new update.

Practice Responsible Gambling

It’s essential to maintain a responsible gambling approach when betting online. Staying in control of the money and time you spend is critical to keeping things fun. If CS2 betting or any form of online gambling is negatively impacting you or those close to you, you should stop immediately. 

We urge all HLTV users who bet on CS2 esports to take the Gamalyze self-assessment test. This brief quiz will provide you with a deeper understanding of your gambling habits and recommend the most appropriate responsible gambling tools for you.

At HLTV, we also offer a selection of additional responsible betting resources for those who require further support. Here’s a sample of our in-depth responsible gambling articles:

• Time Management – Discover the time management tools offered by CS2 betting sites.
• Money Management – Learn more about the money management tools betting sites provide to users.
• HLTV Responsible Gambling Commitment – Read more about our pledge to promote responsible gambling.

Remember, always gamble responsibly! You must be 18+ to play.

CS2 Esports Betting FAQs