ESL Gaming was launched back in 2000. It was established as a successor to Deutsche Clanliga, which had been running for three years. The company is known for organizing numerous esport tournaments and leagues worldwide. In 2015, ESL Gaming was declared the largest esports company globally. It is currently also the oldest operational eSports company. It is based in Cologne, Germany, and has more than ten different offices and many TV studios in several other countries.
ESL Gaming started with a gaming magazine, followed by an online gaming league. It later acquired its servers and began renting them out for various esports competitions. It grew quite rapidly such that the ESL's Intel Extreme Masters Katowice tournament had more than a hundred thousand people in attendance and more than a million viewers on Twitch.
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Published at: 25.09.2025
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Ownership
The Modern Times Group purchased 74% of ESL Gaming from Turtle Entertainment, the parent company, in 2015. Live esports events began being broadcast in more than 1500 movie theaters within the same year. That helped to grow ESL Gaming's popularity quite a lot. As a result, the organization began hosting more eSport online tournaments and gradually increased the range of eSports games they offered.
In 2022, the company announced that Savvy Gaming Group (SGG) would acquire ESL Gaming and another esports platform called FACEIT. The purchase price of ESL Gaming is estimated at 1.05 billion US dollars. The deal will be completed during the year's second quarter. SGG has plans to merge the two companies to form the ESL FaceIt Group.
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Competitions
ESL usually collaborates with other publishers such as Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Gaming, and Valve to host numerous esport leagues and competitions globally each year. Most of the competitions nowadays are held online and attract millions of viewers. A few of the top competitions include ESL Play, ESL National Championships, ESL Pro Tour, ESL One, and Intel Extreme Masters. Some popular games featured in the tournaments and leagues are highlighted below.
FIFA: FIFA video games are a series of association football games developed by EA Sports. It is among the most popular video games, mostly borrowing from the most popular sport in the world, association football. The gameplay involves two teams, each aiming to outscore the other to win the game.
Rainbow Six: Rainbow Six is a tactical shooter game published by Ubisoft. Players can utilize any of the operators available on the Rainbow team. The different operators have different abilities and ratings. The game features two teams, terrorists and counter-terrorists, and various modes, each having varying objectives for each team.
Clash of Clans: Supercell developed and published clash of Clans. The game's theme is based on a fantasy world in which the player assumes the role of a village chief. The game's objective is to develop a village that can withstand attacks and train troops to attack using limited resources.
Mortal Kombat: Mortal Kombat was initially developed by Midway Games. It is a fantasy-themed fighting game with many different characters, each having a different set of skills and abilities. There have been several Mortal Kombat variations, but the basic gameplay idea remains the same.
NBA2K: NBA2K is a video game that simulates basketball sports, developed by Visual Concepts. Each of the NBA 2K games usually emulates a season of the National Basketball Association, the highest basketball league in the world.
Call of Duty: Call of Duty: Warzone is another shooter game published by Activision. The game's theme was based on World War II during its launch. Currently, the series includes games set in the Cold War, outer space, and futuristic worlds.
League of Legends: This is a multiplayer battle arena game published by Riot Games. It was inspired by the map of Defense of Ancients but developed as a stand-alone game. The game is played by two teams, each having five players. Each team has to defend its territory against the other team while also attacking the other team's territory.
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Why are ESL Gaming Tournaments popular?
Game Variety
One of the main reasons ESL Gaming tournaments are popular, especially among punters, is the huge variety of games featured in the many different eSports tournaments. Punters thus have numerous selections of betting markets on which they can place their wagers.
Regulation
The ESL Gaming tournaments are always well-managed and regulated. That ensures fair gameplay and that no one can manipulate game results in any way. The brand's trustworthiness has resulted in players' loyalty, increasing popularity.
Availability
ESL Gaming usually organizes many of the best eSports tournaments and leagues each year. Ideally, there is always an ongoing event at almost all times of the year. Punters can thus rely on the organization to have events on which they can bet throughout the entire year. The events are also usually big enough to be featured in most online casinos.
Ease of Eligibility
ESL Gaming leagues and tournaments are typically created to accommodate nearly all players, ranging from novice to professional players. Some tournaments are designed specifically for the different skill levels, making it easy for anyone to participate in the events. The eligibility requirements are also usually strict but easy.
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ESL Gaming Tournaments' winning teams and biggest moments
Out of the numerous tournaments that ESL Gaming has hosted, several teams and players have displayed exemplary performances. The different esports championships and leagues usually feature different esports games, making it a bit challenging to rank the best overall teams. However, various teams and players have constantly had great results in most leagues and tournaments over the years, and some had some big performances at some point.
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Top ESL Gaming Teams
Fnatic
Fnatic is one of the top teams to play ESL Gaming Pro League. It has won the league several times, including the first-ever and second seasons. The wins helped cement the team's name among the best teams in the league.
Natus Vincere
The Natus Vincere team holds the title of reigning champions of the Pro League. They won season 14 of the league against Team Vitality, another team known for great performance. The team secured 1 million US dollars for the win, the third team in history to ever win such an amount in an ESL Gaming tournament.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid is well known for being one of the oldest esports teams. It takes part in several ESL tournaments to add to more than 2000 tournaments that the team has played, including some of the biggest eSports tournaments. The team has also generated the highest lifetime revenue, amounting to more than 38 million US dollars.
OG
OG is another team worth noting. It is currently ranked the second-best team based on generated revenue. What makes it exceptional is that the revenue generated, more than 35 million US dollars, is from playing only 126 tournaments. That is a good indication of how good their win ratio is.
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses consists of players from more than ten countries and three continents. It was founded in 1999 and has been among the top-performing teams for more than the two decades it has been gaming to create one of the longest-running legacies. The team has played in more than 900 major esport tournaments and earned more than 25 million US dollars. The team's top performances are in Dota 2 and League of Legends.
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Where and how to bet on ESL tournaments
Betting on esport tournaments is relatively easy, especially for punters who have some experience in esports betting. The first step is finding an online esports bookmaker that offers many esports betting markets. For that, you need to ensure the betting site is trustworthy. For convenience, you can consider the payment options provided and choose a betting site that offers the most convenient option for you.
Before betting on an ESL Gaming Tournament, you need to ensure the esports betting account has enough funds for the wager. You can also take advantage of any bonuses or promotional offers you might get.
The next step is selecting an ESL Gaming tournament event that is ongoing and choosing a bet type to place. Online eSport betting sites usually offer different bet types for different games. New punters might have to research the different bet types to make informed betting decisions.
Betting Tips
When betting on an esports tournament, start by creating a list of esports tournaments and then choose the ones on which you can place wagers. Also, ensure you research the teams playing. That can help you determine whether the odds given are worth the gamble. You should also manage your bankroll wisely, especially if you intend to bet on several games in the tournament. Avoiding emotional betting decisions is also essential to successful betting.
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