Huge in the world of online gaming, World of Warcraft has not only paved the way as a multiplayer role-player, but it’s succeeded as an eSport too. The Arena World Championship celebrates this, bringing the game to a massive audience of players from around the world. With this article we’ll look at the eSports phenomena that is the AWC, and how you can stand to potentially make a profit from it when betting.
The Championship itself is overseen by the developers of Warcraft, Blizzard, with the finals typically taking place offline in real-time at their headquarters. Hosted at their annual event BlizzCon, it sees all the teams come together, as they compete before a live audience of fans. Streaming online too, the teams must overcome a series of regional cups, playing through the qualifying Circuit, to reach the final Arena World Championship. Leading the way in the world of eSports, Blizzard host a number of events featuring their other properties too, such as Starcraft, seeing them as one of the most successful companies in their field.
With such a massive amount of talent on display, it’s easy to get swept up in it all, as you attempt to make sense of who to bet on and when. Don’t worry though, as we’ve got you covered here, breaking down the event, and who to keep an eye on when putting down money.
Where To Bet The Arena World Championship:
America:
Covering North America, you should be able to find most AWC bets through Bovada, with it being a US event.
Canada:
Here you’ll want Bet365 Sportsbook, as it offers comprehensive betting coverage of most, if not all Warcraft tournaments.
Everywhere Else:
Internationally you’ll again want Bet365 Sportsbook, providing bets for the majority of countries across the world.
What is The Arena World Championship?
Running all year round, The Arena World Championship is an annual event, bringing together the best that World of Warcraft has to offer. Competing both online and off, it boasts huge support, with its 3v3 Arenas, as teams of around four players face off against one another. Combining a system of regional cups in Europe, and North America, which includes New Zealand, Australia, and Latin America, they battle their way through the qualifying circuits to the finals.
Over the years the prize-pool has reached a whopping total of $500,000 USD and it continues to grow at an ever increasing rate. This is how the championship is currently formatted across both seasons, in their run-up to the finals at BlizzCon in California:
- Championship Format: After moving up from the regional cups and through the AWC Circuit, they make it to the seasonal finals, competing for a place at BlizzCon at the end of the year.
- Spring Finals: Eight qualifying teams battle it out in May, with four teams going through.
- Summer Finals: Again four teams are seeded from eight, with these taking place in September.
Following this, eight teams in total go through to BlizzCon at the end of the year, where the winners are decided upon in real-time before a live-audience. Who are the winners though, and what signs should you look out for when attempting to place a bet on them?
Common Arena World Championship Questions:
How do I spot the winning teams?:Certain regions typically tend to dominate the finals, which is why it’s always a good idea to pay attention early on. You want to see what tactics are being used in the regional Cups stage, as this can give you some idea of how things are going to progress later down the road. It’s also important to take note of which are the stronger players, and who the weak links are, as these will soon make all the difference. Any teams gaining momentum early on are going to be difficult to stop come the finals, which you will see reflected in the odds.
Where can I see the games online?:
First and foremost it’s usually best to head straight over to the worldofwarcraft.com site, as not only does this have all the rosters and schedules, but it also provides links to the games themselves. Twitch is better for live-streamed games, allowing you to watch them in the moments they happen, with their official ‘World of Warcraft’ channel. There’s also the YouTube channel under the same name, providing replays of games, along with archived matches allowing you to catch up. Both have enough broadcasts from the Arena World Championship between them to keep you updated at all times.
How to Bet Arena World Championship:
First you’ll need to go through ‘Sports’ into ‘Esports’ in the navigation bar beneath, followed by the ‘All Esports’ drop down. Underneath this you want ‘Other eSports’ and then ‘WoW’, as this will give you the ‘All WoW’ section, with all the events and matches to open up down the page. Often this will also be in the ‘Blizzard’ section too, with the ‘Championship’ tag besides the relevant bets, as they’re all appropriately labelled.
Bet365 Sportsbook:
To start with choose ‘Esports’ from the left-hand side of the page, which you can find located beneath ‘Darts’. Moving down the alphabetical list of eSports in the center of the page now, you should find any available ‘WOW’ bets near towards the bottom. Sometimes labelled ‘AWC’, it should be its own thing here, whereby you can open up the relevant bets underneath and create your own betting coupon.
Arena World Championship Betting Strategy:
At this level of the competition you should already have a fairly solid idea as to who is bringing what to the table. Having gone through the regional Cups and Circuit, you’ll have a strong impression of the tactics that have been used by certain players in the past. It can be the case, though, that some players will pull some last minute surprises out the bag, so be prepared for this, as they could aim to catch the opposition off-guard, especially if they know the terrain well.
Checking social-media, you may be able to get a good idea of what they’re thinking, but you should also note that whatever you see, so to do the others. Watching older games is a great start, and this will go some of the way towards helping you place down a bet with far more confidence.