Christmas is always a busy time of the year and then as soon as you have got that out of the way, New Year zooms into view and before you know it, the Christmas decorations are down and 
you are back at work.
However, if you are able to take stock and unwind a little over the festive period, then what better way to do that by enjoying some outstanding eSports betting with Bet365 Sport.
You may think that the eSporting world takes a little hiatus over this time of the year but there are certainly plenty of events available to bet on and enjoy via live streaming services such as Twitch over the festive period and into the New Year.
So with that in mind, outlined below are some of the top eSports events that are taking place in the run up to Christmas, over Christmas and through into the New Year.
Counter Strike Global Offensive Acer Predator Masters rolls on through to January
There’s two things to look forward to from the Acer Predator Masters Season 2 event. The first is that the online qualification competition is still very much in progress and this should present punters with plenty of betting opportunities over the coming weeks.
The event saw 16 of the best CS:GO teams compete initially in a Group Stage Round Robin tournament where each team played the other seven teams in their group to earn a place in the LAN finals event, which starts in January at the TakeTV Studio in Krefeld, Germany.
The sixteen teams were drawn into two groups as follows:
- Group A: HellRaisers, mousesports, Lounge Gaming, KILLERFISH eSport, DenDD, ?, SK Gaming, Team LDLC.com White
- Group B: E-Frag, G2 Esports, Penta ESports, London Conspiracy, Planetkey Dynamics, Vexed Gaming, EZskins.com, Flipsid3 Tactics
Each group is already well under way in qualifying and the final games in each group will be played over the coming days and weeks to decide which of the four teams from each group will make it through to Krefeld.
Once the teams reach the LAN Finals, there will be a quarter finals, semi finals and winners final at the top of the draw, producing one Grand Finalist. Losing teams at each stage of the competition will drop into the Losers Round at various points and the winner of the Losers Final will also earn a Grand Final place to compete in a Best of Five match for a top prize of $20,000 from a $40,000 purse.
Keep an eye out on the eSports tab on Bet365 Sport to catch all the latest match betting on the qualification event and then tune in again in January to enjoy a flutter on the LAN Finals.
Golden Professional League Season 3 pits the cream of China’s SCII players against each other
If there is one event that is sure to offer guaranteed top quality eSports action over the Christmas and New Year period, it is the GPL 2015 Season 3 event, which takes place in China, kicking off on 
the 18th December 2015 and then playing right through over the Christmas period and into the New Year, finishing on 3rd January 2016.
The competition actually started a while back with a major qualifying event that saw 256 players competing for 16 places in the GPL Finals event. These 256 Chinese players have been whittled down to the last 16 who will do battle over the next couple of weeks.
The first two sections of the GPL 2015 Season 3 event are played online in a group format. The first Group Stage sees 16 competitors drawn into four groups. The top two players in each group qualifying for the second Group Stage.
Once the second Group Stage is complete, the four teams qualifying for the Semi Finals (two from each group) will head to the Blizzard eSports Hall in Shanghai to battle it out in person with the winner taking home around 10,000 Chinese Yuan.
Of the 16 finalists, 7 are Protoss players, 4 Terran with the remaining 5 Zerg players.
Check back to Bet365 Sport regularly over the holidays to see what markets are available on this popular StarCraft II themed competition.
Dota 2 Star Ladder Star Series 13 Final Two Qualifier Games to be Played
Just a quick note here for fans of Dota 2 eSports betting in that the final two matches from the European and CIS qualification section of the Star Ladder i-League Star Series 13 tournament will be played in the lead up to Christmas.
The lengthy qualification campaign for this popular Dota 2 event has been going on for a while, with qualification events in the Americas, China and South East Asia joining Europe in seeing a number of teams join the two teams that have already been directly invited into the Group Stage of the event.
This $300,000 event has already seen 14 teams confirmed as qualified for the event from the following paths:
- Invited Teams : Evil Geniuses and one other team to be announced
- European & CIS Qualifiers – Vega Squadron, Alliance, Virtus.pro & Team Spirit & one additional team yet to be decided
- Chinese Qualifiers – LGD Gaming, EHOME and Wings Gaming
- Americas Qualifier – compLexity Gaming
- Southeast Asia Qualifier – Fnatic
The only direct qualification place up for grabs is the winner of the European & CIS section Last Chance bracket, which sees two games remaining.
On the 22nd December, OG will take on Team Liquid in the second semi final in this section, with the chance to earn a place in the Last Chance final to face Team Secret. The date for the final has not been decided but it should take place any time between the result of the first semi final and the start date of the offline tournament section in Minsk on the 13th January 2016.
A Shortened League of Legends Masters Series Taiwan also taking place
In addition to this there’s also the League of Legends Masters Series event in Taiwan taking place between the 19th and 27th December. This event was supposed to be an 8-team event but only three teams qualified alongside the two seeds, so it is now a double round robin event with the top two teams going through to face off against the two seeded teams.
Two of the teams OpenMidPlease and Deft Carry are easily pronounceable for western tongues but 我們來打LMS了is less easy to pronounce.
The top two teams from the Round Robin will take on the two seeded teams Assassin Sniper and Gamania Beras in the Promotion Stage match up.
Remember to check out all the other eSports betting available over Christmas and New Year with Bet365 Sport and see if you can end the year with an eSport betting win!
