IEM Katowice 2024 is a wrap and the results had many shocked. Team Spirit, a squad full of young rookies, beat fan favorite FaZe Clan in the Grand Finals 3-0. This result made for a lot of mixed reactions from fans and bettors alike.
While we all saw what happened throughout IEM Katowice 2024, we can offer you an interesting look at what went on behind the scenes. Ever wondered what bets people took during a major Counter-Strike 2 tournament? Here are some insights that Abios has compiled and analysed from dozens of operators partnered with its parent company Kambi.
Most Popular Bet Offers at IEM Katowice 2024
The most popular bet offer across the board was match winner. The second one was total kills. This is quite interesting, as it is a bet focused on how many kills a certain team or player got during a round or match. Some fans took it a step further and even bet on total headshots, highlighting the popularity of player props in esports.
The third and fifth-most popular bet offer was match handicap and round handicap. A handicap market weighs the odds and makes a matchup more even in the instance where a side is heavily favoured. This makes it less unfavourable to bet on the underdog, which can be a pretty rewarding bet to make if the team expected to win ends up losing.
Most Bet On Players in IEM Katowice 2024
When it came to betting on specific players, some pros stood out during IEM Katowice 2024. These were the most bet on players during the major:
- jL – NAVI (All time KDA average: 1.11)
- frozen – FaZe Clan (All time KDA average: 1.19)
- w0nderful – NAVI (All time KDA average: 1.34)
- dycha – ENCE (All time KDA average: 1.07)
- SunPayus – Team Falcon (All time KDA average: 1.23)
It’s no surprise to see these names at the top of the betting charts. For example, David “frozen” Čerňanský proved himself against other top teams early on despite being a new addition to FaZe with frag after frag.
Most Bet On Matches
When betting on a CS2 Major, some matches see more betting volume than others. Why? This can happen for several reasons. One can be the direct correlation between the number of viewers and bettors. The closer matches come to the finals of a tournament, the more viewership they generally tend to gain.
Matches featuring big fan favourites also tend to get higher viewership, which can amp up betting volume. Popular teams can be big draws for bettors if they have followed the team’s performance throughout the season and have a good understanding of how the team will do against certain opponents or on particular maps.
Here were the top matches:
- Team Spirit vs. Team Falcon
- FaZe Clan vs. Eternal Fire
- ENCE vs. Team Falcon
- Team Vitality vs. Heroic
- Team Vitality vs. ENCE
The Semifinal match between Team Spirit and Team Falcons was the most bet-on match of the entire Major. What would make that happen? First, Team Spirit was heavily favoured in this matchup. Despite being a team full of young players, they went in as the clear winners from a statistical standpoint. But the match wasn’t totally one-sided and boring — Team Falcon was seen as playing very well, and it wouldn’t have been impossible for them to come out on top.
Most Bet On Teams
In a similar vein to the most bet-on matches, this category is full of the most popular squads in the entire Major. These teams had fun players to watch and a high chance of winning many of their matches, making them interesting for veteran esports fans and bettors alike.
- Team Spirit
- FaZe Clan
- ENCE
- Natus Vincere
- Cloud9
“I love my team,” Danil “donk” Kryshkovets said of Team Spirit after becoming the most-talked-about player at IEM Katowice 2024.
IEM Katowice was an interesting major, with many upsets and exciting gameplay. At Abios, we’re looking forward to the Copenhagen Major in March, which will be the first one in CS2 and might be the largest yet.
Looking for up-to-date and accurate insights for CS2 Majors and beyond for your sportsbook? With more than 10 years of experience in esports, Abios provides a data-driven product suite for popular esports titles, such as CS:GO, League of Legends, VALORANT and Dota 2, to sportsbooks looking to take their esports offering to the next level. Read more here.
