American squad Evil Geniuses was listed at 5/2 on the odds to win The International 2015 Dota 2 Championships heading into the event, and they paid off on that wager on Saturday with a victory in the Grand Finals of the tournament over CDEC Gaming.
And that gave Evil Geniuses a $6.6 million first-place prize, while CDEC Gaming - way back at 200/1 heading into the tournament - picked up $2.8 million for their second-place result. CDEC Gaming lost 3-1 in the best-of-five Grand Finals, and the total prize pool for The International 2015 Dota 2 Championships was $18 million.
Team Secret had been a 4/5 favorite on the eSports odds at Sportsbook heading into The International but they lost their first match of the Main Event, falling to the lower bracket where they eventually ended up in the 7th/8th slot for a prize of just over $800,000.
LGD Gaming was third at the tournament, while Vici Gaming was fourth, and Virtus.pro and EHOME held down the 5th/6th slot. Vici Gaming was third on The International odds heading into the tournament at 8/1, while LGD Gaming was fourth at 12/1.
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The Upper Bracket Finals of The International Dota 2 Championships will take place on Friday, and Evil Geniuses is the betting favorite against CDEC Gaming for the best-of-three matchup that sends the Sportsbook to Saturday's Grand Finals.
Evil Geniuses is the -240 favorite for Friday's matchup, after they topped EHOME 2-1 in the previous round. CDEC Gaming is then the +160 underdog at the sportsbook for Friday, and they're coming off a 2-0 upset win over LGD Gaming.
Evil Geniuses entered the Main Event of The International this week as the +350 second-favorite to win the event behind the -110 Team Secret, who were bounced on Thursday. CDEC Gaming had been at +1400 to win the tournament.
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After getting upset on Tuesday pre-tournament favorite Team Secret will be looking to get back on track on Wednesday as they take on Invictus Gaming in a lower-bracket matchup at The International 2015 Dota 2 Championships.
Team Secret fell 2-0 to EHOME on Tuesday despite being a big -1100 favorite on the eSports odds for the matchup, and they're listed as -800 favorites against Invictus Gaming for Wednesday. Invictus Gaming has been set as the +400 underdog.
EHOME, meanwhile, is listed as a +180 underdog on Wednesday against Evil Geniuses (-275). EHOME was pegged at +1600 to win The International 2015 Dota 2 Championships heading into the Main Event this week, while Team Secret was the -110 favorite and Evil Geniuses was second on the list at +350.
Rounding out Wednesday's The International matchups are Virtus.pro (-175) vs. compLexity Gaming (+120) and LGD Gaming (-300) vs. CDEC Gaming (+190). The tournament runs through the best-of-five Grand Finals on Saturday at Seattle's KeyArena.
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The Main Event of The International 2015 Dota 2 Championships continues on Tuesday with the tournament favorite in action, as Team Secret is the betting chalk against EHOME.
Team Secret, which headed into the week as the -110 favorite on the eSports odds to win The International at Sportsbook, is the -1100 favorite in its matchup against EHOME (+500) on Tuesday at KeyArena in Seattle. EHOME entered the week at +1600 to win the event.
Evil Geniuses is then the -900 favorite against compLexity Gaming (+425) in another Dota 2 matchup on Tuesday. Evil Geniuses sat at +350 at Sportsbook on The International odds heading into the week, while compLexity Gaming was back at +3300 on those betting lines.
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The Main Event of The International 2015 Dota 2 Championships gets underway on Monday, with the marquee matchups for the day the best-of-three series between LGD Gaming and Team Empire, and CDEC Gaming and Cloud9 in the upper bracket.
Updated The International eSports betting odds at Sportsbook have LGD Gaming at +350 to win the tournament, with Team Empire at +1600, CDEC Gaming at +1400, and Cloud9 at +1600.
Lower bracket best-of-one matchups on Monday are MVP Phoenix vs. Newbee, Vici Gaming vs. Natus Vincere, Virtus.pro vs. Fnatic, and Invictus Gaming vs. MVP Hot6. Of those eight teams the top tournament odds at Sportsbook are owned by Vici Gaming at +2400, with Invictus Gaming and Virtus.pro at +5000, and the others sitting as longshots.
Sportsbook 4/5 pre-tournament favorite Team Secret then gets going on Tuesday in a best-of-three matchup against EHOME, with Evil Geniuses facing compLexity Gaming in the other game in the upper bracket on the day. Updated eSports odds at the sportsbook have Team Secret at -110 to win The International, with Evil Geniuses at +350, EHOME at +1600, and compLexity Gaming at +3300.
Head-to-head matchup odds for the Dota 2 competition are also available at Sportsbook, including Evil Geniuses sitting as the big -1000 favorite for its matchup against compLexity Gaming (+475) on Tuesday. CDEC Gaming is a slight -125 favorite against Cloud9 (-115).
The International 2015 runs for six days at Seattle's KeyArena, with the Grand Finals a best-of-five series on Saturday. Other than the Grand Finals and the Monday games in the lower bracket every series of the double-elimination event is a best of three.
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Team Secret is pegged as the betting favorite for The International 2015 Dota 2 Championships in August, with the event set to award a prize pool of over $15 million at the KeyArena in Seattle.
Sixteen teams will compete at the August 3-8 tournament, with Sportsbook listing Team Secret as the 4/5 betting favorite for the event. Team Secret is one of 10 teams that received a direct invitation to the competition, with four regional Sportsbooks and two Wild Card teams rounding out the tournament field.
Evil Geniuses, who won the 2015 Dota 2 Asian Championships, are then at 5/2 on the betting lines for The International, with Vici Gaming at 8/1. Vici Gaming lost 3-0 in the finals to Evil Geniuses at the 2015 Asian Championships. LGD Gaming is at 12/1 at the sportsbook, with Cloud9 and Team Empire both at 14/1.
Invictus Gaming, who won the 2012 edition of The International, hold down 16/1 odds for this year's event at Sportsbook. Virtus.Pro (16/1), NewBee (66/1), and Fnatic (80/) round out the 10 invited teams for the tournament.
NewBee was the 2014 champion at The International. Natus Vincere, a regional Sportsbook from Europe for this year's event, won the tournament back in 2011 and sits at 33/1 for this year at Sportsbook along with fellow regional qualifier EHOME from China.