DemandSage predicts that the global cybersport audience will exceed 640 million by the end of 2025, and Africa will be the region with the fastest growth. In Kenya, the trend is particularly pronounced, with 62 per cent of young people admitting to watching cyber sports tournaments more than three times a week. As a consequence, the demand for betting is also on the rise and more and more people are registering accounts with 1win. But is it worth it for players who focus on cyber sports? Let’s find out in the article below!
Cybersport in Kenya
Hardly anyone in 2015 would have guessed that small CS-LANs in old coffee shops on River Road would be the prologue to broadcasts at 1Win with six-figure online numbers.
That all changed when Safaricom launched unlimited 4G nightly packages: school kids from Kisumu started playing nightly, and Kenya’s first Simba eX organisation made it to the top 8 of the East African Masters 2021. The 2024 Nairobi Comic Convention at Kasarani drew 14,000 spectators offline; the Valorant final between Simba eX and South Africans Bravado was broadcast on a Moi Avenue street screen, and youngsters chanted agent names louder than they once shouted “Chelsea!” during the APL.
Mobile stats shot up: according to CAK, in the city of Nakauru, 73 per cent of internet traffic after 8pm goes to Twitch and YouTube Gaming. Cybersports has replaced football in evening betting chats, and betting is no longer exotic: lines for CS 2 and Dota 2 have appeared even in small betting companies.
Mobile App + M-Pesa
The APK of the 1win app weighs 45MB and takes less than a minute to install, even on the budget Tecno Spark 10. The interface switches immediately to English or Swahili, and the main Live feed loads in 2-3s on a regular Safaricom 3G. Deposits of 100 KES or more are confirmed with a USSD code; the wallet number is substituted automatically, removing the risk of numerical error.
According to OddsSurfer, withdrawals of up to 15,000 KES take 5-15 mins – a prerequisite for live strategies, where the pot is immediately thrown into the next ESL Pro League match.
1win Line Depth
After 1win login, you’ll see around 40 tournaments on the main “Esports” tab at the same time. CS 2, Dota 2 and Valorant give over 70% of the Kenyan segment turnover. At the Astralis – NIP match, 1win’s margin was 4.2 per cent compared to SportPesa’s 6.8 per cent: plus 260 KES on every 10,000 bet.
More than 60 markets are available for CS2: total rounds, kill forfeit, pistol rounds, will ACE. Dota offers bets on first Roshan, time of first blood, total towers destroyed. Valorant complements the “number of rounds to first timeout” and “first agent eliminated” markets. Live quotes are updated every two seconds; Fast Bet takes movement without popping – important when Nigma Galaxy takes out Roshan in 15s and the kill total shifts right before your eyes.
1win’s Bonus Ecosystem
There are a huge number of bonuses on 1win, but here are the most popular ones:
- 500% 1win bet welcome bonus. A newcomer gets up to 110,000 KES on four deposits, with wagering as low as x3 at a ≥1.9 kaffe. Most competitors require x5-x7 and sometimes restrict markets, whereas 1win allows bonus money to be wagered on any cyber sports marquee, including live.
- Loyalty without a wager. Coins are awarded for each bet: they are exchanged for cash with no additional turnover. In May, WanjiruBets converted 27,000 coins into 2,700 KES and invested them in live total rounds on the Mirage card, closing plus 18%.
- Express-Boost. The express boost grows with the number of outcomes: +7% for 3 events, +25% for 6, +60% for 15. Kenyan bettors make a mix “Valorant + CS 2”: they take pistol rounds from different matches – such an express is filled in a couple of minutes and gives 15-20 odds with a boost.
- Power-Hours. Every Tuesday from 18:00 to 22:00 EAT – additional +10% bonus to expresses on Dota 2. A geolocal push in the 1win apk reminds you of the start of the promotion, and Twitch broadcasts on the streets of Nairobi West instantly fill up with viewers with an open 1win coupon.
Betting Strategies
Let’s take a look at a few popular strategies for betting on cybersports in the 1win app.
Pistols Strategy in CS 2
Player NjeriGoals uses a pot of 10,000 KES, dividing it by 2% for each pistol. The selection criteria is the team’s winrate on Pistols + full buy-round after force. For March, it has played 160 pistol rounds with an ROI of +12%. The key is timely Cash Out: if draining force-economic rounds changes the economy, the player locks in a portion of the profit before the end of the map.
Dota 2 and Tower Totals
KimathiX student plays the “total destroyed towers” market at dash-1 tournaments. He analyses the drafts: if both teams take split-push heroes (Nature’s Prophet, Lycan), he bets Over. In the DreamLeague 25 final, a total of 11.5 towers closed in the 29th minute and odds of 1.83 brought 3,300 KES on a bet of 4,000.
Valorant and Forecourt by Rounds
Capper SimbaPro is keeping an eye on the pistol-win conversion: if a team takes away the pistol and the first full buy, take -2.5 on Rounds. At VCT EMEA, Fnatic often close the card 13-8; a bet of 8,000 KES at odds of 2.05 yields 8,400 KES net. Early Cash Out is triggered if the advantage reaches +4 before the change of sides.
