Esports Insights: Full-Time Esports Bettor Cappeh

This week in our esports insights series we speak to professional full-time esports bettor Cappeh (@Cappeh); getting an insight into how he got started and what he looks for in a solid betting market.

Could you introduce yourself?

I’m a 22 year old former semi-professional Call of Duty player from Stockholm, Sweden. So I have only ever had 2 jobs, one of them was being a semi-professional esports player and the other a professional esports bettor. Had some minor success as a player such as playing at CoD XP 2016 under the brand “PuLse” and even though we failed to get out of our group every team received $15.000 which is where I got my starting capital for my betting career.

How did you get into esports betting?

After CoD XP 2016 I started to wonder what was next for me and I already had some friends that were into betting, mainly football and icehockey but they were just like your average losing bettor. They first got me into betting then I reached out to a former teammate of mine, Martin who I knew followed the most active esports game for betting, CSGO. He gladly helped me out and started to teach me the game and how to think when betting on esports. So for the first advice for any complete new bettors that wants to bet without using any models, play the actual game yourself. You will understand the game you’re betting on much quicker.

Basically got into it because I was a former player, just felt like a natural transition and turns out I was decent at seeing what is value and what is not value.

Do you play many games yourself?

These days not really, no. I used to spend entire days just grinding video games and since 2011 that was all I did after school so I think I’ve reached the maximum amount of hours a man can play. When I stopped competing the only two games I’ve played is CS and Overwatch and that was only because I wanted to learn how games were played so I knew what I was really betting on. Kinda feels like I am getting to old 😀

What sportbooks do you currently use?

I pretty much only use Pinnacle. By far the best bookie for any bettor out there that’s trying to make a living from esports betting. Since almost every other bookie offering esports either have low max limits or will limit your account after a few wins. Hopefully the industry will change but I highly doubt it.

What titles and markets do you normally look to be on?

CSGO mainly since it is the most active game. Roughly 85-90% of my bets are placed on CSGO in different regions and tournaments. When it comes to CSGO I bet on pretty much any and every league. I tend to avoid tournaments that have no direct prizepool such as tournaments that determine seeding. Then I sometimes bet on Overwatch and Call of Duty when there are matches where I can find what I believe to be value. Which completely varies since sometimes there can be weeks even months without matches and sometimes you find several different matches on the same day.

Are you a member of any esports betting communities?

Yes I am currently one of the co-owners over at EsportsElite which is a discord community where you can discuss both esports but also normal sports and pretty much anything else. I am also somewhat active on twitter at @Cappeh.

If you could super power what would it be, and why?

Definitely the ability to see into the future. Yeah definitely that or some sort of mind reading super power. Imagine you already knew Gambit would win the PGL Krakow major before it even happened 😉