Call of Duty (COD) is a first person shooter video game franchise which, since its beginnings in 2003, has seen the release of 26 fully separate but related titles, in that time it’s become one of the most play video games on the planet.
There’s a thriving competitive COD scene with millions in prizes each year… naturally there’s betting on all events. This page is dedicated to showing you the best betting sites for Call of Duty along with a quick guide to competitive COD and to betting on it.
COD Betting Sites & Bookmakers
- Widest selection of eSports covered.
- Plenty of markets per event.
- Biggest opening account bonus.
- Highest possible review rating.
- Twitch integration alongside live odds.
- £10 weekly in-play free bet club.
- Uniboost bet boosts (3x daily).
- Solid welcome offer – easy to claim.
- Great bonus for smaller deposits.
- 5/5 Cheeky Punter review rating.
- Wide range of eSports bets.
- See trending & most popular eSports bets.
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- Wide range of esports markets.
- Weekly free bet club (£10).
- Welcome bonus a little small.
- Only option for trading eSports.
- Back & lay bets.
- Decent sized welcome bonus.
- Good range of eSports markets & bets.
- Plenty of eSports markets.
- No eSports specific promotions.
- 300% welcome bonus.
- Better eSports options above.
- eSports betting available.
- Lacking some markets
- Can request odds.
- eSports feels a bit of an after thought.
How Does Competitive Call of Duty Work?
As COD is a video game franchise rather than one single game, competitive gameplay does differ slightly depending upon the particular game being played. Most official and major tournaments focus upon the most recently released title and the competitive game modes available tend to change from one title to the next.
Competitive Game Modes
Whilst the exact game modes utilised for competitive play differ with each Call of Duty game, there are a few which are the most popular and most commonly played. Arguably the three game modes best suited to competitive play and thus most often utilised are Capture the Flag, Search and Destroy and Hardpoint.
Capture the Flag is a fairly simple game concept, whereby two teams compete on a battlefield, with the ultimate aim of locating and stealing the opposing team’s flag whilst defending their own.
Search and Destroy, meanwhile, is a game mode whereby teams are designated as either attackers or defenders. The aim of the game for the attacking team is to kill all members of the defending team or to destroy one of two designated ‘bomb sites’. This game mode is usually played out over a best of seven format with teams alternating their roles in each round.
Hardpoint is also played competitively and is played in a king of the hill style where teams earn points for holding certain locations on the map. Once 250 points is reach, or the time limit is up, the winner is decided.
Teams & Drafts
In most tournaments and major Call of Duty events, competitive paly is limited to a four versus four team format. This is partly for the sake of tradition but also serves to reduce the number of variables which players have to focus on during a game and to increase the impact of each player on their team’s overall performance.
In some Call of Duty titles and for some competitive game modes, players can utilise certain specialists within their team. These are characters with specific skills and abilities, and the use of these specialists is often decided by a draft at the outset of a game.
In a similar vein, some games will also have a so-called ‘Ban and Protect’ phase. This is a phase at the beginning of a game round where each team can choose to ban items from being used during the game or protect them from being banned by the other team. This, therefore, is an opportunity for teams to tilt gameplay in a direction that favours their playing style over that of their opponents.
What Are the Big Events?
Now you know where to bet on Call Of Duty and how competitive gameplay works lets take a look at the biggest events on the yearly schedule…
Competitive COD used to be played much differently from how it is today. There would be a series of live tournaments run by Major League Gaming and then at the end of the season there would be the Call of Duty World Championship.
However since 2020 Activision have franchised out teams to city based locations and now run competitive COD in a league based system with a play-off at the end of the season.
Call of Duty League
Established in January 2020, the Call of Duty League is the premier eSports league for the game franchise and is where all the best professional player do battle.
The league involves a whole host of different permanent city based teams and uses an American play-off style system as opposed to any promotion or relegation. In its 2020 edition the league is set to hand out a total of $6 million worth of prize money. The league adopts a minimum salary of $50,000 per player, with some negotiating much higher wages, and is fiercely competitive.
All the bookmakers listed in our table above offer betting on Call Of Duty League events.
The city based teams are as follows:
- Atlanta Faze
- Chicago Huntsmen
- Dallas Empire
- Florida Mutineers
- London Royal Ravens
- LA Guerrillas
- Optic Gaming LA
- Minnesota ROKKR
- New York Subliners
- Paris Legion
- Seattle Surge
- Toronto Ultra
What Bet Types are Available?
Whilst Call of Duty is undoubtedly one of the most popular video game franchises around and there is a thriving eSports and competitive scene, betting options for the game still remain quite limited. In fact, whilst a handful of bookmakers do now provide betting markets for Call of Duty events, they generally only take one of two main forms.
Match Winner Markets – When a major COD tournament or vent is ongoing, those bookmakers who cover the event will generally run markets on the winner of each match played as part of the tournament. This gives punters the chance to assess the relative strengths, strategies and tactics of two teams going head to head and to decide which to put their money on.
Outright Tournament Winner Markets – Another similarly straightforward betting alternative, outright tournament winner markets let punters back a particular squad to go all the way and win a competition or event. Odds for this market will obviously generally be at their longest at the beginning of an event, before a shot has been fired in anger.
