DATA.BET, a trusted sportsbook solution supplier, has published its analysis of wagering activity during the Esports World Cup 2026. The seven-week event ran from 2 July to 23 August at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, the first edition staged outside Saudi Arabia, and carried a prize pool of $75,000,000.
DATA.BET covered 24 titles, making it a unique offering in the market. That included Trackmania, which made its EWC debut this year, and Fortnite, back in the lineup with the Reload mode.
Four titles drove 93% of turnover: Counter-Strike 2 at 41%, Dota 2 at 31.8%, VALORANT at 11.7%, and League of Legends at 8.5%. Bet size told a different story, with the highest average stake in League of Legends, ahead of VALORANT and Dota 2, and Counter-Strike closing the list with the smallest average bet size. Outside that leading group, Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty, and Rocket League produced the most turnover. The pattern is clear enough: turnover, leadership, and stake size don't move together, and a lineup has to serve both the high-frequency CS2 bettor and the higher-stakes League of Legends one.
Across the full slate, 29.1% of bets were placed pre-match and 70.9% live. No discipline was pre-match dominant, but Counter-Strike 2 came closest: 29.1% of its handle landed before the first map, the highest of any title. Dota 2 sat furthest in the other direction at 87.7%
The pattern makes sense for esports, where matches carry far more in-play variables than sports, so live betting dominates, especially in Dota 2 and League of Legends. In these disciplines, draft and hero selection can reshape a game before the map starts, and bettors wait for that information before placing a bet. That's where DATA.BET comes in: mathematical models and a professional trading team watching the lines in real time, with odds auto-correlated across outcomes.
Market preferences followed a similar hierarchy. Player Props drew the strongest share in Counter-Strike 2, accounting for 11.8% of all turnover on the market, compared to 10.2% in VALORANT, 4.9% in League of Legends, and 3.9% in Dota 2.
Part of the esports audience follows players as closely as clubs. These bettors want to wager on a specific player's actions rather than a team's result, and Player Props directly meet that demand.
Ahead of the tournament, anticipating the demand around CS2, the company expanded its line-up with two new markets in Player Props: Player with Most Kills (incl. overtime) and Player with Most Deaths (incl. overtime)
Duration markets, including round and map totals, led in Dota 2 at 4.3%, followed by League of Legends at 4%, Counter-Strike 2 at 3.5%, and VALORANT at the lowest, 3.4%. The pattern holds for Straight Winner and Map Winner selections, which also make up a larger share of betting in Dota 2 (67.4%) and League of Legends (65.4%) than in the two shooters, VALORANT (59%) and Counter-Strike 2 (53.3%).
The reason is the depth of choice, not preference. In CS2 and VALORANT, high uptime and mature mathematical models allow the company to offer a far wider range of markets, so bettors spread across many outcomes rather than concentrating on a single result.
Esports World Cup is not the first event in esports history to bring multiple disciplines together under one banner. However, it is undoubtedly the most ambitious event of its kind, featuring the largest number of titles. We recognize that many of these games do not currently enjoy the same level of popularity, including among bettors. As a leading force in esports, we are constantly evolving, exploring new opportunities, and striving to lead the way into new areas of the industry. For us, this is yet another challenge we have set ourselves and another demonstration that, when it comes to esports, there is virtually no limit to what we can deliver," said Bogdan Holovnov, Head of Esports at DATA.BET.
Three matches stood out by betting volume — FUT Esports vs Team Spirit (CS2), Team Vitality vs Team Spirit (CS2), and FURIA Esports vs FUT Esports (CS2) — and on the club side, Team Spirit, FURIA, and FUT Esports attracted the most support over the seven weeks, leading both by turnover and by number of bets placed. Team Spirit went on to win the EWC CS2 title in 2026, beating Team Vitality in the quarter-final and FUT Esports in the Grand Final. Two of the three biggest betting matches were on the champion's own path to the trophy.
Beyond the core esports titles, DATA.BET covered the calendar's most unusual event from the first round to the final one: the chess tournament of 11–15 August. The expanded 22-player format with a Play-in stage was new to the Esports World Cup. All the games were played online, but with competitors seated on the arena floor before a live crowd. All the world's highest-rated players took part, all of whom were signed to esports clubs, and Magnus Carlsen retained his 2025 title.
Behind the numbers, an event of this scale is as much a technical undertaking as a commercial one. All events were spread over seven weeks, which meant it placed sustained peak load on the solution rather than a single burst. The Esports World Cup 2026 confirmed what the data has been showing across the season: esports betting is live-first and player-led.