photo from Wikimedia.org
Whether you’re new to eSports betting or have had experience with other titles, you may want to hop onto the Valorant bandwagon while it’s new. While relatively young in the first-person shooter category, the game quickly established its official eSports community. In fact, since Valorant’s release in 2020, the game has won Best Esports Game at The Game Awards two years in a row — in 2022 and 2023 — beating out fellow entry League of Legends from developer Riot Games. For reference, Riot Games’ MOBA title League of Legends has been around since 2009 and won Best Esports Game for three years from 2019 to 2021.
For fans and players of Valorant, it’s no surprise that the game is starting to cement its place in eSports history. 2023, especially, was an eventful year in the game’s eSports community. It was the first year that Riot Games introduced its franchise system and established the four official leagues of the game (for now) — VCT Americas, VCT Pacific, VCT EMEA, and VCT China joining in after the season’s conclusion.
As the game continues to establish its eSports presence in the industry, viewers and fans of teams worldwide are contributing not only to viewership but also by placing wagers. If you’re new to the Valorant eSports betting scene, this post will be a brief guide to help get you warmed up and familiar with Riot’s beloved FPS title:
The Valorant Champions Tour
As explained above, Valorant quickly established its eSports scene after its 2020 release. Beginners can familiarize themselves with the game’s different tournaments by checking out this Valorant betting guide. Despite players having to compete remotely due to pandemic restrictions, Riot Games introduced the inaugural First Strike tournament series. The event included teams from multiple regions competing to reach the respective finals of their region.
Soon after, Valorant introduced the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT), the official Riot-sponsored tournament league culminating in international tournaments. The first international VCT tournament in 2021 took place in Reykjavik, with North American team Sentinels making history as the first Valorant team to lift an official international trophy.
With the introduction of the franchise system in 2023, the VCT structure became unofficially divided into Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams, with Tier 1 referring to franchised and partnered teams that compete in official leagues and tournaments year-round. Tier 2 teams, on the other hand, compete in a separate league called the VCT Challengers, where the ultimate champion team at the end of the season “ascends” to join Tier 1 in the next year.
If you’re interested in betting on Valorant teams, the official VCT tournaments are your best bet, as they are easily accessible and livestreamed on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. You can also attend live matches if they take place in or near your city to show support for your favorite teams. However, you can also bet on unofficial tournaments and show matches where Valorant teams from around the world compete for fewer stakes and some friendly competition in between seasons. Below, we’ll be sharing some tips for betting on Valorant:
Avoiding FOMO
As with other forms of betting or gambling, it’s important not to give into the dreaded FOMO. The “fear of missing out” can be toxic and lead you to make bad betting decisions. We discussed this in-depth in our crypto post, highlighting Bitcoin price fluctuations and other cryptocurrencies that tend to make users and investors manage their assets based on what’s popular or trending.
The same applies to Valorant and other eSports betting. It’s important to remember that Valorant is a relatively new eSports game that is constantly undergoing changes, updates, and patches that can impact tournament outcomes. A popular and favored team in 2021 may perform terribly in 2023 and vice versa. As such, it’s important not to go with the flow but to do your research as well.
Understand Valorant betting odds
If you’re familiar with betting odds for other forms of entertainment like the NFL Super Bowl or other eSports titles, you should already know what to expect when betting on Valorant teams. Bookmakers attach odds to Valorant teams based on their recent performances, whether on- or off-season. They also take into account critical roster moves, from players getting dropped to coaches and analysts getting recruited.
For Valorant, bookmakers tend to use the decimal betting odds. For example, if a bookmaker attaches a 1.00 odd to Sentinels and gives 1.75 odds to NRG, the team with lower odds — Sentinels — has a higher chance of winning in the bookmaker’s view. Of course, bookie odds shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all of your betting strategy. Previous VCT tournaments have seen various upsets, with underdogs from all four of the VCT regions beating out clearly favored teams.
Learn which teams are favorites
Finally, while it’s important not to simply go with the popular or the most favored teams when placing your bets, knowing which teams are making their rounds can help you adjust your strategy. For example, a look at all VCT winners since 2020 tells us that no single team has lifted multiple official VCT trophies since the UK’s Fnatic finally did it back-to-back in 2023 — another history-making run in Valorant’s record.
In 2024, North America’s Sentinels continued the tradition by winning their second Masters trophy three years after making history with the first. However, bar superstar teams like Fnatic and Sentinels, many teams that have won in the past, have had trouble repeating history. So, if a Valorant team is currently heavily favored in the eSports scene, you may want to think twice before putting all your eggs in their basket.
