PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG) is an online multiplayer battle royale style video game which was first launched in early 2017. It was first launched through Steam’s early access platform in March of 2017 and achieved sales of over 18 million within eight months.
There is already a thriving competitive PUBG scene and that means you can bet on the action. Want to know where to bet on PUBG? Check out the best betting sites for PlayerUnKnown’s Battleground below:
Top PUBG Betting Sites & eSportsbooks
- 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.
18+ New customers only. Opt in, bet £10 on any football market at minimum 1/1 odds. No cash out. Get £40 in Free Bets on selected events. Free Bets expire in 7 days. Card payments only. T&Cs Apply, see below. begambleaware.org | Please gamble responsibly
- 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 PUBG Work?
Given that at time of writing (November 2017) PUBG has yet to achieve its full global release, it may be surprising that competitive gameplay has already been established and a handful of major events already held. From the very outset of its development, however, PUBG was always tilted at being a multiplayer game which would be perfect for competitive competition and for watching as an eSport.
Gameplay
It is PUBG’s battle royale format which makes it so good for competitive play, so just what exactly is meant by ‘battle royale’? What that phrase means is that each PUBG match involves far more players than almost any other eSport. In fact, matches are designed to include up to 100 players who are all active and battling at once.
Each PUBG match begins with each and every player parachuting from a plane onto an island with a map area of approximately 8km by 8km. The plane’s flight path across the island is designed to differ with each match, requiring players to first decide when and where is best to eject and begin their battle royale. When they touch down, players have no items or inventory and must explore their surroundings in order to find weapons and other things to help them survive and kill their opponents.
As a match progresses, players must navigate the map, kill their opponents and of course avoid being killed themselves. Every couple of minutes, the size of the map decreases slightly in order to ensure players contact one another regularly and the winning player or team is decided by who is the last man standing.
Competitive Variations
General PUBG gameplay differs little from one match to another and each competitive match is generally played out over three rounds, with cumulative results over those rounds deciding the ultimate winner. There are, however, a few slight variations which can be applied to a match to produce a handful of distinctly different competitive PUBG game modes.
As well as the standard solo player game described above, PUBG can be played in either two or four player teams with those teams required to work together during a battle royale to ensure that at least one of them is left standing at the end. Both solo and team play can also be tweaked slightly to create a game mode where every player is fixed to first-person perspective rather than being able to change their view of the game.
What Are the Big Events?
PUBG doesn’t quite follow the same kind of season based schedule as say Call of Duty but there are several tournaments with big prizepools – the biggest being:
- Asia Pacific Predator League
- PUBG Japan Series
- PUBG Champions League
- Battlegrounds Weekly Series
- PGS
- Global Loot League
- National PUBG League
For a full list check out: https://liquipedia.net/pubg/Major_Tournaments
What Bet Types are Available?
Whilst competitive PUBG events are in their infancy, online bookmakers have already recognised the betting potential of the eSport and started to offer markets attached to the events as they happen. There are currently only a handful of PUBG bet types commonly available, and we’re going to discuss each of them below.
Match Winner – Starting off nice and simply, match winner bets are wagers on which player or team you believe will win a given PUBG match. As there are generally so many competitors in a PUBG contest, especially a solo player match, a match winner bet can be difficult to land but will often offer really generous odds.
Top Three Finish – Similar to a place bet in horse racing, a top three finish PUBG wager is a bet on a player or team to finish in the top three at the conclusion of a match. As you would expect, therefore, odds for this market are shorter across the board than those for match winner bets.
Round Winner – As well as being able to bet on the outright winner of a PUBG match, bookmakers also often allow you to bet on which player or team you think will win each round. That means there are three such markets – one for each round – typically offered for every PUBG match.
Region of Winner – Sure to be a popular market for the bigger, international PUBG events, a region of the winner wager lets a punter bet on where the ultimate winner of a match will come from rather than which specific team or player the winner will be. This market, therefore, gives punters a wider range of outcomes after which their bet will pay out.
