Oddin builds a casino. BIG sells its jersey to a crypto casino. League of Legends overtakes CS2 on Kalshi. The stories are separate. The money moves in one direction.
Oddin Casino
Oddin.gg announced the launch of Oddin Casino this week, adding a full casino product layer to a business that until now focused on esports odds and data. Market Suchar, the company’s co-founder and managing director, described the move as a clean separation: “We are not taking an esports product and placing it in a casino lobby.” The pitch to partners is about brand ownership — Suchar argues that even large operators lack content that feels genuinely theirs, and that Oddin can give them more control over how a casino experience expresses their identity.
The operational situation is narrower. Oddin holds licenses in eight US states, but only New Jersey and West Virginia allow legal online casinos where the new product could actually launch. Alberta’s newly regulated gambling market is also in scope. The company expects a full rollout later this year and has not confirmed where it will operate first. It has recently partnered with gambling brands in Brazil and Paraguay, though no launch details have been disclosed for those markets either.
The expansion into Kansas and Wyoming, announced alongside the casino, applies to esports products specifically. The casino itself is waiting.
BIG, sticker money, and what it means to need a sponsor
Berlin International Gaming announced crypto casino Razed as the new main partner of its CS2 team. CEO Daniel Finkler’s public statement pointed to content, community reach, and a longer-term creative relationship. The post BIG published on X was shorter: “Making Majors without sticker money is f*cking expensive. Save us @RazedEsport.”
CS2 teams that qualify for Valve Majors earn revenue from player sticker sales inside the game. BIG did not qualify for the last Major. The Razed deal closes that gap, at least for this cycle.
Razed already holds the main sponsor position at Heroic, which it secured last year. Adding BIG gives the brand two of the more prominent European CS2 organizations. The company runs a dedicated CS2 account on X and has committed to supporting BIG CLUB, the organization’s community platform — arrangements that point to a sustained presence rather than a single tournament activation. Whether that spending converts to casino user acquisition is harder to measure. That measurability gap is part of what regulators in multiple jurisdictions have flagged about gambling sponsorships in sport.
LoL overtakes CS2 at Kalshi
Last month, CS2 accounted for 57% of all esports trading volume at Kalshi, with League of Legends at just under 18%. Over the past 28 days, LoL has taken the lead: $4.15 million in average volume against CS2’s $4.02 million. The MSI final between Hanwha Life Esports and T1 alone drew $1.4 million. VALORANT has also moved — average volume is now pushing past $2 million, up from around $1 million the month before.
The shift is event-driven. The IEM Cologne Major concentrated CS2 betting into a tight window. MSI did the same for League of Legends in July. Without a comparable event on the calendar, the ratio will likely return to CS2 dominance. The more meaningful data point is the aggregate: all three titles are growing on a platform that is simultaneously fighting its legal existence in several US states.
New York’s Attorney General sued Kalshi on July 31, seeking a minimum of $36 billion — calculated as three times the company’s gains from unlicensed gambling activity, plus $100,000 for each unauthorized offer of sports or mobile sports wagering. A Utah federal judge ruled separately that the state’s anti-gambling laws apply to Kalshi’s sports markets, rejecting the argument that CFTC registration places the platform beyond state jurisdiction. Courts in Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, New York, and Utah have now sided with the states. New Jersey, Tennessee, Arizona, and Minnesota have sided with Kalshi. The CFTC filed to block New York’s enforcement action, asserting exclusive federal authority.
The prediction market volumes growing across esports are real. So is the possibility that Kalshi loses significant US market access before the legal patchwork resolves. Esports betting did not exist on Kalshi two years ago. If the platform contracts, that activity will look for somewhere else to go.
The question is what that somewhere is, and who builds it before the regulators get there.
Lex Northbyte 
Elias Rowe