Betting is an unavoidable part of competitive sports and esports. If there are odds, fans will enjoy some gambling from time to time, but some websites have been going overboard in Dota 2, even affecting the quality of ranked matches.
GG Bet allows fans to bet on high-ranked matches, which generally feature professional players and streamers. The website picks the odds for the Radiant and Dire sides while nothing stops the players who are also playing in the featured match from betting, a situation that also has been a hot topic within the League of Legends community.
Considering data from ranked matches is publicly available, and they’re also broadcasted on Dota 2’s main client, nothing stops betting sites from featuring these matches on their websites. Depending on the odds, some matches could feasibly see players grief and lose on purpose after they bet on the enemy team. When this happens, the game experience is naturally ruined for others.
Betting sites have been particularly focused on Chinese servers lately, where they sponsor players to advertise their websites while playing public matches. Players are actively looking for a solution to the matter, but proving that a player is throwing a match is extremely difficult since almost anything that goes on during a match can be categorized as a form of griefing. This means that if players stumble upon a match-fixer, their best option will be to report them, so they get punished in some way.
The situation is still a bit niche in Dota 2, but Valve has a decent example in front of them to see what happens when unregulated betting goes out of control. When a similar situation took over League, most professional players refused to play ranked matches as they’d be filled with game throwers who were trying to make quick money instead of playing the game.
