League of Legends is a popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) produced by Riot. League of Legends has steadily grown in popularity since its release in 2009. There is a very active competitive scene with many leagues around the world. The viewership for League of Legends is enormous - with 11 million average concurrent viewers taking in 2018's World Championship. With so much interest in League of Legends, a large betting market has developed - let's take a closer look.
League of Legends Basics
League of Legends is played between two teams of five players. The game starts with a champion select phase, called the draft, where teams pick and ban their champion lineup. With over 140 champions available, each having their own mechanics and interactions, this means no two games of League of Legends will play out the same. Midnite will often allow betting during the draft, even if there will not be in play betting for the map.
Once the draft is decided, the map starts. Team start on opposite sides of the map - one on the Blue side (bottom left) and one on the Red side (top right). The goal of the map is to destroy your opponents' nexus (base structure) while defending your own.
Like most MOBAs, small minions called minions spawn at your base / ancient, and walk across the map, attacking in their path. The map is divided into three lanes (top, middle, bottom), and each team has three towers defending each lane, plus an additional two towers defending their nexus.
There are several neutral monster camps around the map that either team can kill. Slaying a Dragon will grant permanent buffs to the slaying team. Baron Nashor is the strongest monster on the map, slaying it will grant your team a very strong temporary buff that can often be used to close out the game.
Killing minions, monsters, heroes and structures reward the player with gold that he can use to buy items that provide a strategic advantage.
Whichever team destroys the enemy's nexus first wins the map. A series can be anywhere from a single map, to a best of seven, depending on the tournament or league structure.
Betting on League of Legends
There are a huge number of factors that influence who wins a given series of League of Legends. Before betting, you should consider the following to help determine who you think is going to take the victory.
Overall Team Strength
As with any esport, when analyzing how teams will perform, the most important factor to consider is overall team strength. Which team has the stronger roster? Is either team playing with a substitute or stand in? Has any team been hot or cold recently?
Draft Composition and Win Condition
Understanding the draft and each teams' win condition is pivotal when betting in play. Different drafts will have different win conditions - some drafts will feature a lot of heroes whose strengths peak early - such a composition would be looking to end the game quickly. A draft with more late game could put themselves in a comfortable position by simply defending and doing what they can to extend the game. League of Legends is a game about power spikes and understanding how drafts match up can often be more of an art than a science.
Red / Blue Side Bias
In League of Legends, the blue side always gets first pick in the draft. So, picking the side also determines pick order.
The two sides should be roughly balanced, but as the game changes from patch to patch, there will be imbalances. It's important to track recent trends to see if there is any bias between the red and blue side. If so, this bias should be accounted for - especially when betting in play, or betting on multi-map series.
There was a period where blue side had a significant advantage over the red side, but it appears the map is considerably more balanced on the current patch.
Net Worth / Experience
When in play, net worth and net experience leads can give an indication of who is currently winning. Each team's net worth is always shown on the scoreboard. Normally, this is a better indicator of who is winning than the kill score.
LAN vs Online
Larger tournaments will take place in arenas on local area networks (LAN) - other smaller tournaments or qualifiers will be purely online. Some teams play very differently in front of a crowd instead of at their own computer at home. Some can handle the pressure, and others fold. It's important to look at how each team has performed in the past to try to wager how they will match up.
Past Head-to-Head Series
A team's past performance is generally a strong predictor of how they will perform today. If there are past series between the teams that are playing today, evaluate how these previous match ups played out. This is particularly useful if there are map picks in common. The more recent a past match, the more reflective it should be of the current teams' strengths.
Match Importance
Consider the importance of the map or series that you're looking at. Strong teams tend to play their best at big events - underdogs may have a better shot in online events. Occasionally, due to tournament design, there will be series that do not affect the chances of either team advancing - in this case there is much less incentive for teams to try their hardest, and underdogs have a good shot to win.
League of Legends Bets on Midnite
There's quite a variety of events that you can bet on during a League of Legends series - here's what you can find at Midnite:
Match Winner is a bet on the overall winner of the series.
Match Handicap is a standard handicap bet on the number of maps won.
Map Winner is a bet on who will win a specific map in the series. If there is a big red/blue bias on the current patch, then you may see a discrepancy in odds from one map to the next.
Correct Score is a bet on the exact correct final score of the series.
We have Race to 5, 10, 15 and 20 Kills bets that will be offered for certain maps. Whichever team reaches this kill score on the scoreboard first wins the bet. Only kills that show up on the scoreboard count. If neither team reaches the kill count listed, then wagers will be refunded.
The First Blood bet is a bet on which team will score the first kill of the map. This will be graded using the in game scoreboard. A draft with early kill potential would be favourable for this bet.
The First Tower bet is similar, first team to destroy an enemy tower wins the bet. As this is one of the first objectives of the game, teams with Champions that are strong early on will have an advantage here.
The Slay the First Dragon bet is determined based on which team manages to slay the first dragon of the map. This is a mid-game objective that will provide a buff to the slaying team.
The First Inhibitor bet is also similar - first team to destroy an enemy inhibitor wins the bet. Inhibitors are not killed until one team pushes into the enemy's base. The odds for this bet will more closely reflect which team is likely to win the map overall.
The First Inhibitor bet is also similar - first team to destroy an enemy inhibitor wins the bet. Inhibitors are not killed until one team pushes into the enemy's base. The odds for this bet will more closely reflect which team is likely to win the map overall.
The Team to Score the Most Kills bet will settle based on whichever team has most kills at the end of the map, according to the in game scoreboard. Note that there is a Draw option provided - if the kill score is tied at the end of the map, the Draw selection will settle as the winner.
The Both Teams to Destroy an Inhibitor bet requires both teams to have lost an inhibitor for Yes to settle as the winner. This doesn't happen very often, and would require a fairly back-and-forth game.
Similarly, the Both Teams to Slay a Baron bet will require a very back-and-forth game to occur. Yes will settle as the winner only if both teams slay a Baron Nashor on the same map.
The Both Teams to Slay a Dragon bet will settle Yes as the winner only if both teams kill a dragon at some point in the map. This is considerably more likely than the Baron or Inhibitor bets as the dragons are earlier game objectives.
Total Maps Played is a bet on whether the total number of maps played in the series is over or under the specified strike. In a best of 3, this is a bet on whether or not Map 3 gets played - the Under wins when either team wins 2-0, and the Over wins when the third map gets played.
The Team to Score a Quadra Kill bet allows the bettor to wager whether his preferred team will get a Quadra Kill at any point in this series. A Quadra Kill is 4 successive kills by the same hero within a teamfight. The Quadra Kill must be recognized by the game client, which will declare the Quadra Kill in the game chat. If neither team gets a Quadra Kill these bets both settle as losers. If both teams get a Quadra Kill over the series, then both bets will settle as winners.
The Team to Score a Penta Kill market is exactly the same as the Team to Score a Quadra Kill market, except that we are looking for a Penta kill for this bet to settle as a winner.
The Total Kills Odd/Even is simply a bet on whether the total number of kills on the map will be odd or even. This is graded using the in game scoreboard - meaning that hero denies will not count.
Additional Resources
The biggest site for more League of Legends information is the official League of Legends Esports page run by Riot.