You’ve decided to start watching, and betting, esports. Though esports is one of the fastest-growing spectator sports in the world, it can be difficult to find the biggest and best events if you don’t know where to look. Even experienced esports watchers can have some issues finding certain events or tournaments.
Odds Shark is here to help you navigate and understand the esports space. That includes how to find the event you bet on so you can watch it unfold in real time.
See Odds Shark’s Best Esports Sites
Twitch
Twitch is the behemoth of the streaming world. Averaging 15 million viewers a day, it has become the go-to place for everything from gaming to cooking shows to podcasts to esports. But if you have never been to Twitch before, it may be hard to find which event you are looking for.
When you first open Twitch, you will be taken to the home screen. From here, the easiest way to navigate for something specific is to click “Browse” in the nav bar.
Once you click on “Browse,” you will be taken to a page that lists all the games being streamed – in order of which have the most viewers currently. This is the easiest way to find the specific event you want, as you can simply click the game and find the proper stream among just that game. The game category will always default to most-viewed streams at the top, so you will often find what you are looking for quickly, as big events will always have high viewership numbers.
On the “Browse” page, you can also click “Live Channels” and it will list every stream currently live in order from most viewed to least viewed.
Once you find the stream that you are looking for and you open it, you will be taken to the stream page. Here, you will find the streaming video, the Twitch chat and some basic information for the stream viewership. If you have created a Twitch account, you can also click the “Follow” button – the one with the heart – and it will be added to your followed channels. That way, you can easily find this channel whenever you need it.
Twitch remains the top destination for esports watching for games such as League of Legends, Dota 2, CS:GO and the NBA 2K League.
YouTube Gaming
YouTube has long been the place for video-on-demand content on the internet but has only recently become more aggressive in expanding their streaming offering. For esports fans, YouTube purchased the rights to air both the Call of Duty League and Overwatch League exclusively, as of 2020.
When you come to the YouTube Gaming main channel, you will immediately see a banner of related videos. If you scroll down slightly, you will see “Top Live Games.” If you click that banner, it will take you to a page, very similar to Twitch, that will allow you to select which game you are looking for.
This will then send you to a page that will list all of the streams in that current category from highest view count to lowest.
From here, you will see the YouTube page you are likely familiar with. You will see your streaming video, recommended videos and the chat (which can be disabled by the streamer).
You can find plenty of esports on YouTube. Aside from the exclusive deals with CDL and OWL, ESL – a major CS:GO and Dota tournament organizer – regularly streams its events on YouTube as well.
Facebook Gaming
The social media monolith that is Facebook has been getting into streaming and esports for some time. Though Facebook doesn’t have many exclusive deals with esports organizers, the platform still streams plenty of live action – especially CS:GO – straight to your Facebook. The simple convenience is enough for some.
When you land on the Facebook Gaming home page, you will see exactly what you would expect from Facebook. It has that distinct look and feel that we are all familiar with. On the left side, you will see “Browse Games” and “Browse Streamers.” Once you click on either of those pages, you will be navigated to the top-viewed games or streamers.
The biggest esports brand to strike a deal is ESL. ESL signed a non-exclusive streaming rights deal with Facebook Gaming in 2019, which brings some of the biggest CS:GO and Dota events to the social media platform.
If you are looking to watch and bet on esports, these are the streaming platforms you will need to know. Now that you are familiar with them, be sure to check out our Esports Sportsbook Reviews to find the best online books for you to make your esports bets.
