Dota 2 betting is becoming increasingly popular within the eSports betting market, with Dota's action-cum-RTS style a perfect match for the excitement of online betting. If you want to learn how to bet on Dota 2, keep reading for some expert insight.

• Dota 2 How To Farm Better
• Dota 2 How To Get Free Items
• Dota 2 How To Get Prismatic Gem
• Dota 2 How To Play Better

What is Dota 2?

Defence of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2) is an action/real-time strategy game played competitively between two teams, each with five players. Each player controls one hero varying in abilities, styles and roles. Combat takes place on a range of maps, with various runes available to enhance a player’s character.

One more important step to Dota 2 betting involves securing a bonus. Most esportsbooks offer a welcome bonus consisting of a free bet and/or deposit bonus. A free wager gives you a chance to earn back losses from your first bet. For example, a $20 free bet allows you to earn back $25 in losses. The simple answer to how the FPS in Dota 2 can be increased through the in-game video options is turning all of your graphic settings to low. The lower the graphics, the higher the FPS will be. A more tailor-made answer is, however, to only change specific settings to get the FPS that you’re looking for while also maintaining a good looking.

Characters can be one of three types: Intelligence, Agility and Strength, while each character can carry six of a selection of over 123 items to further enhance their fighter and add even more variety to contests. A team wins the game by being the first to destroy a large structure located in the opposing team’s base called the ‘Ancient’.

A brief history of Dota 2

Dota 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that was developed and published by Valve Corporation. From the outside, the game may appear incredibly similar to that of LoL, but there are fundamental differences in the game that make it feel very different to play; although the very basic concepts are the same.

Characters can be one of three types: Intelligence, Agility and Strength, while each character can carry six of a selection of over 123 items to further enhance their fighter.

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Dota 2 is a stand-alone sequel to Defence of the Ancients, which was a mod created by the community for Warcraft III. Development began in 2009, when IceFrog, one of the lead designers of the original mod was hired by Valve to create a more modern sequel.

The game was originally released on Steam in July 2013 after a beta that had spanned two years. Dota 2 is widely considered to be far harder than that of LoL to pick-up and play, but it is still praised for its rewarding gameplay and production quality.

Dota 2 has been one of the most played games on Steam ever since its release with peaks of over one million players happening regularly. The popularity of the game led to multiple merchandise products being created for it, including clothing and toys.

The game also features the Steam Workshop, which allows members of the public to create pieces for it, and then have them “up voted” for distribution into the game.

Dota 2 betting: Who are the best teams?

OG is currently the best team on the Dota 2 scene. They recently took the Major in Kiev, after beating Virtus.Pro in the final in what was an amazing match - OG re understandably one of the favourites in the biggest Dota 2 event in the eSports calendar.

OG success has gone down in history and they have achieve legend status after becoming the first team to win four Valve sponsored events, as well as being the first team to win back to back Majors.

The two sides right behind OG at the moment are EG and the runners-up from this year’s Major, Virtus.Pro. EG managed to win the International in 2015, winning $6 million, as well as 3rd place finishes in 2014 and 2016.

As well as being the best team around, OG also has one of the best brains in the whole Dota scene in Fly. He has been instrumental in getting OG to where they are today and the way he controls what his side is doing and their approach to the game in different matches is amazing to see. If you want to learn about Dota 2 there is nobody better to watch than Fly.

How to bet on Dota 2: The basics

As explained in our how to bet on eSports guide, there are numerous markets available when it comes to Dota 2 betting - Money Line, Totals and Outright markets.

Dota 2 is played on the same map with two different sides. One is known as the Radiant which is located at the bottom half of the map, and the Dire located at the top half. You can, however, bet on teams to not drop a map or game in a series, which is usually a best of three (Bo3) but can also be a best of five (Bo5), depending on the event.

Once you know how to bet on Dota 2, you can advance to Handicap Dota 2 betting or Total kills betting as a means to find more value - to learn more about Handicap and Totals Dota 2 betting, read our article that explains how to bet on eSports.

Dota 2 How To Get Free Items

How to bet on Dota 2: Other factors to consider

Dota 2 How To Get Prismatic Gem

To succeed in Dota 2, both team coordination and individual player skill are equally important traits. The former is the more volatile of the two, however, team coordination sometimes noticeably improves within just a few weeks. Player skill, on the other hand, fluctuates less wildly.

Just as with LoL, Dota 2 has a vast selection of heroes to pick from, with there currently being 113. Knowing your heroes and the player preferences is really important. If one player is focused on in the pick and ban phase, this can really impact the team’s performance as they may have to play a hero they are not that comfortable with.

OG success has gone down in history and they have achieve legend status after becoming the first team to win four Valve sponsored events and win back to back Majors.

The pick and ban phase works slightly different in LoL. When the draft begins, both teams ban two heroes before each team is allowed to pick. The team that elected to pick first gets to pick one hero before the other team is allowed to then pick two, and then the first team is allowed to pick their second hero.

Dota 2 How To Play Better

After this happens both teams again ban two heroes. The second banning phase is usually impacted by what has happened in the first, with an idea of how the game will play out already a factor. Teams in this phase have a choice between banning heroes who are still strong or banning heroes they know would work well with the heroes already picked by their opponent. This will then disrupt the plans of their enemy greatly.

There is another pick phase at this point, using the same format as the first. Then there is a final ban phase of only one hero. This phase is used often to block surprise picks before the final hero is chosen. With so much occuring in just this phase alone, learning team synergies can really help with your betting.

Dota 2 betting: Tournaments you can bet on

Pinnacle offers betting for all the major leagues and events, including DreamHack, The International, The Defense and SLTV Star series, as well as many others - of course, if you use an eSports betting strategy you will know that you don't have to bet on every available match.

A full list of upcoming Dota 2 and all eSports events can be found using Pinnacle's eSports calendar.