You couldn’t have asked a more important question. While the technical answer varies from country to country, the risk from a bettor’s perspective mostly comes from choosing the right esports betting site. Even in highly regulated markets, it’s not often the customers that are targeted by the law – the real consideration is whether your deposit is protected, and if you are guaranteed to get your money back.

If esports betting is legal where you live, our recommendation is that you choose a bookmaker with a valid national license or one of the well-renowned international ones (the gold standards of the business are Malta, Isle of Man and Gibraltar). If the site you want to gamble on has one of those licenses, you should feel pretty safe. If the site’s licenses are legit, chances are, so is the company.

Of course, the rapid growth of esports matches also attracted the attention of the traditional bookmakers. It goes without saying that the well-known, well-established ventures like Bet365, Dafabet, Pinnacle, Betway, William Hill, Coral, Unibet & Ladbrokes and others of a similar ilk are safe to use when it comes to betting on esports – again, as long as you’re eligible to use their services in your country. That being said, we believe that legitimate esports-focused sites like Rivalry can offer something these big names cannot: a wider set of esport titles and events and simply just a better understanding of the gaming scene and our customers’ interests.

So what about those skin betting sites with no licenses? If you deposit your money at such sites and want to cash out at some point, they are not required by law like a regulated site to protect your funds and return it. Should something happen, like the site going out of business, you would have very little recourse to do anything about it.

If sports betting is not legal where you live, proceed at your own risk – that’s not something we can offer legal advice on. If you’re not sure whether betting is legal where you live, hit us up through live chat and we’ll do our best to help you out and find out the specifics about online betting.

We’re proud to tell you that we follow the best industry practices and jump through every regulatory hoop to ensure the best possible betting experience for you. We believe there’s no substitute for being part of the esports industry, providing high-quality content and unique betting opportunities made by gamers for gamers. Rivalry offers 24/7 live support, a $25 risk-free bet, a VIP Rewards Club with up to $350 to earn in bonuses and a wide variety of esport titles and events to bet on.

Best of all, even if our regular services are not yet available in your country – rest assured, we’re working on acquiring the appropriate license, no matter where you live! Regardless of where you live, you can test your esports knowledge in the Thunderdome, our free-to-play prediction game. It’s completely free to play and you can win thousands of dollars if you know your stuff! GL!