World of Tanks holds the record for the highest recorded amount of players on one server at a given time and has one of the highest number of active players of any eSports game. The game’s increasing popularity means bettors are now turning their attention to World of Tanks betting markets. Read on to find out how to bet on World of Tanks.
What is World of Tanks?
World of Tanks (WoT) is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) game featuring early to mid-20th-century combat vehicles. The game is free to play but does contain a lot of extras that are available to purchase. Each player controls one armoured vehicle, available in five types - light, medium, heavy, tank destroyers and artillery.
The light tanks are more mobile than the others and are predominantly used to scout enemy positions, the medium tanks are used mainly offensively and are the most versatile and heavy tanks deal the most damage but are the slowest.
Tank destroyers wield powerful weapons with low mobility and low armour, while artillery or SPG (self-propelled gun) tanks are used predominantly as point defenders (defending the team’s base).
On 21 January 2013, 190,541 players were recorded to be online at the same time on a single Russian WoT server, breaking their own record for any MMO game.
Tanks are placed on any one of eight potential competitive maps. A game is usually played between teams of three to fifteen players and will last around ten minutes. Teams can win in one of two ways in WoT - destroying all of the other tanks or by capturing the other teams’ base.
The matches are usually quite slow to start off with, with both sides analysing the opposing team’s tank composition strategy, as well as how they are set up. Certain tanks are better suited for specific maps, so finding the right team composition is vital.
A brief history of World of Tanks
WoT was officially announced on 24 April 2009 by Wargaming with claims of having the largest budget ever for a game coming out of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region. Alpha testing on the Russian version of the game began in September 2009, with only six tanks and one map available for people to test.
The closed beta testing began in January 2010, with more tanks and maps added for the public to play. The number of people requesting access to the beta reached 40,000 in just three months. The open Russian beta went live in June 2010 and by this point, seven maps and over 120 vehicles were open to the public.
The Russian version of the game was officially released in August 2010, but due to technical difficulties the servers went offline the following day. According to the official press release from Wargaming, the number of users worldwide reached 700,000, including 500,000 on the Russian servers alone, demonstrating where the game was most popular.
Betting on the handicap in World of Tanks is considered to be more difficult because your estimations have to be more accurate.
On 21 January 2013, 190,541 players were recorded to be online at the same time on a single Russian WoT server, breaking their own record for any MMO game by over 100,000 players.
The game was released in Europe and North America on April 12, 2011 - Wargaming announced six weeks later that the total number of people registered on all the three main servers (EU, NA, RU) had reached three million. Two years later, Wargaming stated that the total number of users registered worldwide had eclipsed 60 million.
How to bet on World of Tanks?
The main markets offered for betting on World of Tanks are the Money Line (the outright winner of a match), series handicaps (teams start the match with a head start they must hold onto or a deficit they need to overcome) and individual map winners (the winner of individual maps in a series).
Analysing the various factors that could influence the result of a match and using that to calculate the probability of either team winning is the foundation of betting on eSports and this basic principle should be applied to World of Tanks betting if your aim is to make consistent profits.
In order to find value in World of Tanks betting, you need to calculate your own percentage chance for each team winning and then compare that figure to the bookmaker’s odds (once they are converted into implied probability). If a bookmaker’s percentage chance is higher than your calculation, there is no value in the bet but if the bookmaker’s percentage is lower then you may have an “edge” (betting advantage).
Think of it like betting on an event which has a 60% chance of occurring (the bookmaker only believes it has a 50% chance) – that 10% difference is the value on the bet. Knowing how to convert odds into a percentage is the first step in comparing implied probability to your own assessment. The equation to do this is simple. To demonstrate, we will use a match between Top Tier vs. Tornado Energy from December 2017.
It takes two simple steps to calculate implied probability from decimal odds.
- Step - 1: Divide the one by the decimal odds (1 / 1.17)
- Step - 2: Multiply step one by 100 (0.854 x 100)
Implied probability for Tornado Energy win vs. Top Tier:
1/1.17 = 0.854 x 100 = 85.4%
This means according to the bookmaker Tornado have an 85.4% chance of winning. If a bettor believes Tornado have a 90% chance of winning (perhaps because they are even stronger on a particular map than the bookmaker is giving them credit for), the 4.6% difference is the value. Once you have been able to find a match where you think the bookmaker is underestimating one team, you can then use a staking method such as Kelly Criterion (the most popular staking method amongst bettors) to ensure optimise any edge you might have.
Although a similar process would be followed for handicap betting in World of Tanks, this market is often favoured by more advanced bettors. The figure set by the bookmaker (shown by a + or a -) is effectively an estimate at evening up both teams chances - the stronger team are given a negative figure they must overcome to win while the weaker team is giving the same figure as a hypothetical headstart.
Betting on the handicap in World of Tanks is considered to be more difficult because your estimations have to be more accurate. However, it gives you more of a chance when betting on the outsider and higher odds if you’re betting on the favourite. Instead of simply betting on who will win or lose the match, you need to know how much they will win or lose by.
World of Tanks betting: Things you should consider
To gauge how strong a team is, it is important to not only look at their recent results but also who their opponents were. Wins against lesser sides can make a team appear stronger than they really are. The quality of the opponent is just as important as the result itself. Bettors should always collect as much information as possible about a team’s results as taking them at face value can be a mistake.
Analysing the game style of teams before a match begins is important to help bettors understand who may win a match. For example, Ding are better on larger maps than eLevate. Therefore, if eLevate were to face Ding on a large map where firepower is more important than manoeuvrability, eLevate would struggle to gain victory. Teams’ strengths and weaknesses can be amplified in different matches and knowing how to account for this is a crucial part of betting on World of Tanks.
World of Tanks is a massively multiplayer online game featuring early to mid-20th-century combat vehicles.
With over 400 vehicles currently in WoT, a specific tank model is less important than the class. Understanding different compositions of the various teams can enable bettors to predict what may happen before a match begins. With teams often making only small changes to their compositions during a match, revisiting previous games can give an indication of what composition may appear prior to the match starting.
Now you’ve read this introduction to World of Tanks betting, why not take a look at the latest WoT odds and see if you can find any value. Alternatively, read more of our articles to help you learn more about eSport betting.