Gambling in esports: Oddin expands, BIG partners with Razed, League of Legends grows at Kalshi

“We are not taking an esports product and placing it in a casino lobby,” Market Suchar, the co-founder and managing director at Oddin.gg says.

Suchar’s comments came as Oddin announced the launch of its new venture, Oddin Casino, which will see the esports specialist branching out into casino gaming. 

“Casino has its own rules, audiences, and creative language,” Suchar added. “We are building for those realities from the ground up — but with the same conviction that technology should give our partners a genuine competitive advantage.”  

Oddin’s homepage, which for now focuses on its esports products, declares: “The more time lines are open, the more time bettors can bet, and the more money you can make.”

The company has reported that esports betting is growing, but the addition of casino games offers a new opportunity to increase revenue for both the company and its partners. 

Suchar promises partners a catalog of games to keep players engaged. 

“Casino operators do not lack games. What even the biggest brands often lack is content that feels truly their own,” Suchar said. 

“Dedicated tables require significant time and investment to build, limiting how quickly operators can create distinctive experiences. We are developing technology that changes those economics and gives operators greater freedom to shape who hosts a game, how that character behaves, how players interact with it, and how the entire experience expresses their brand.”

The launch of Oddin Casino follows the company securing licenses in Kansas and Wyoming to offer its esports products. 

It now holds licenses in eight states, although only New Jersey and West Virginia have legal online casinos where it could launch its new product. 

It has also secured a license in Alberta’s newly regulated gambling market. It expects to launch Oddin Casino in full later this year, but has not yet revealed where the platform will operate. 

In addition to its North American licenses, the company has recently partnered with gambling brands in Brazil and Paraguay. 

As Oddin expands into casino gaming, the CS2 team Berlin International Gaming (BIG) announced crypto casino Razed as its new sponsor. 

“With Razed, we have a partner by our side who is ready to break new ground with us in content and storytelling,” said Daniel Finkler, CEO of BIG. 

“We are very excited that Razed is now expanding its commitment to esports by becoming the main partner of our BIG CS2 team. This is a strong sign of trust in our organization and our vision. Together, we want to leverage our international reach and create formats that truly excite the community.”

The team was less subtle about the reasons for the partnership in a post on X. 

Razed said it is committed to esports and will support the organization’s CS2-Community BIG CLUB. The company also became Heroic’s main sponsor last year and has a dedicated CS2-focused esports X account. 

“We’re excited to continue to highlight to the CS community that Razed is serious about esports and here to stay,” said Ethan Johnson, Head of Esports at Razed.

With CS2 teams embracing gambling sponsors, the game has attracted the highest volume of wagers on prediction markets. 

Last month, CS2 accounted for 57% of all esports trading volume at Kalshi, ahead of League of Legends at just under 18%. LoL caught up this month, however, largely thanks to the MSI. 

The average trading volume over the last 28 days on League of Legends markets now exceeds that of CS2, at $4.15 million vs. $4.02 million. The MSI final between Hanwha Life Esports and T1 alone attracted $1.4 million in volume. 

VALORANT is also seeing higher trading volumes, with its average now pushing over $2 million from around $1 million last month. 

The exponential rise of Kalshi’s esports markets could be threatened as New York ramped up its enforcement action against the company this week. The state’s Attorney General is suing the operator for $36 billion. 

A judge in Utah also ruled the platform’s sports markets illegal, which could see these two states join a growing list of states blocking Kalshi.