Esports betting has always been seen as a high-value but low-recognition piece of the sports betting landscape. Oddin.gg's annual "Esports Betting State Report," which is almost the only industry analysis based on real B2B operational data, released its 2025 edition in March, is also information-dense. iGB extracted five core findings from the report, outlining the evolutionary trajectory of this category: esports players are becoming more confident, more fond of real-time betting during matches, and no longer satisfied with simple win/lose bets. PASA's official website noted that one of the most striking numbers in the report is the average amount of esports players' first bets, which is seven times that of traditional sports players.
All five major esports events are on the rise, with Mobile Legends sprinting out a 62% growth rate
Overall, Oddin.gg's customer data, covering hundreds of sports betting platforms, shows that the median year-over-year growth in esports betting volume for 2025 is 31%. This is not growth from a small base—the 2024 report already recorded a year-over-year explosive growth of 103%, meaning esports betting has continued to increase at a high level for two consecutive years.
Breaking down the five core esports events, none are lagging behind. CS2 betting volume grew by 30%, League of Legends 46%, Dota 2 31%, VALORANT 18%, with the fastest growth seen in the mobile esports representative Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which soared by 62% year-over-year. Oddin.gg is not surprised by this—as one of the fastest-expanding events in mobile esports, Mobile Legends' growth curve highly aligns with its user base. Interestingly, "veteran" esports events like League of Legends and Dota 2 are still contributing double-digit growth, indicating that the category's increment is not just supported by new games, but also by the continued deepening of betting on existing IPs.
€77 per bet: High-rollers at the Global Finals
The amount of a single bet is the most direct measure of player engagement. The data from the League of Legends Global Finals in this regard is quite astonishing: the average bet in 2025 reached €77, a jump of 166% compared to the previous event. In contrast, the average bet at the VALORANT Champions event was €47, and for the Dota 2 International, it was €28. Three tiers of events, three tiers of average bets, reflect not only the difference in event popularity but also the stratification of player demographics—the League of Legends Global Finals attracts an audience that is older and has stronger purchasing power, naturally concentrating betting behavior.
Oddin.gg believes that higher average bet amounts are one of the clearest signals of increased confidence and engagement among esports players. The report also directly links the finding that esports players' first bet amounts are about seven times that of traditional sports players with the demographic profile of the esports audience—"young, highly educated, and with strong purchasing power." In other words, the customer acquisition cost for esports betting might be higher, but the upper limit of individual user value is also higher—for operators, this is a "costly but worthwhile" arithmetic problem.
Live betting dominates the track, complex play is taking off
If the average bet amount reflects "how much money players have in their pockets," then the structure of betting behavior answers "where the money is spent." The most trend-setting indicator in the report comes from the proportion of live betting: among the five major esports events, live betting covered 72% to 86% of betting activities. Dota 2 leads with 86%, followed by League of Legends at 79%, CS2 at 75%, VALORANT at 73%, and Mobile Legends at 72%. Oddin.gg sees a high proportion of live betting as a sign of maturity for the category—esports matches are fast-paced, highly volatile, and almost uninterrupted, naturally fitting the scenario of real-time betting.
Another noteworthy trend is the growth of complex betting markets. The report found that the increase in betting volume in 2025 was not only driven by entry-level markets, but more advanced plays are accelerating penetration. In CS2, markets based on individual player data and in-game item usage grew by a whopping 80% between two major tournaments; Dota 2's combination betting market quadrupled year-over-year; in VALORANT and League of Legends, betting products centered around players continued to expand their share in the overall combination.
PASA's official website believes that the growth of complex betting products solves not just the problem of incremental revenue on the commercial level—more advanced players bet more per game and have stronger stickiness, essentially leveraging retention rates and profit margins. For operators still hesitating whether to layout the esports category, the signal from this Oddin.gg report is already clear: esports betting is no longer just an adjunct to sports betting, but a complete track with an independent user profile, independent behavior patterns, and independent growth curves.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leader," a gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
Original deep gambling channel:https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data reports: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
