As one of the longest-running, best-selling video game franchises, Call of Duty continues to be supported by gamers worldwide, with more than 100 million monthly active users across gaming platforms. Pivotal to the franchise’s success are the installments and updates, as evident by versions like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone receiving minor patches in February 2025 to fix bugs and ensure a smooth gaming experience for all players.
Substantial updates like unrestricted modifications on weapons also help players enjoy each installment’s key features and game modes, such as the streamlined competitive experience in Ranked Play. Lastly, Call of Duty’s time-bound seasons keep its player base engaged by bringing new content and quality-of-life features with every launch.
Whether or not you’re new to Call of Duty, you can maximize its gameplay as a competitive first-person shooter game by investing in high-performing equipment. If you play its PC installments, such as Black Ops 6 and Modern Warfare II, a previous post on ‘How to Optimize Your Gaming PC for Competitive FPS Games’ guides you through the critical hardware and software components. These include upgrading your computer’s graphic card and processor to reduce lagging and maintain steady frame rates, as well as adjusting the graphics setting and calibrating the mouse and monitor for faster reaction times and smoother movement.
However, beyond playing the game yourself, you can continue enjoying the Call of Duty series’ unique gameplay, stories, and playing modes through esports leagues and betting. Below, we discuss how Call of Duty betting works and how this player segment is linked to top esports leagues and tournaments.
A look at CoD betting
As previously mentioned, Call of Duty doesn’t just rely on its installments to create communities – it also has a popular betting ecosystem where players bet on the outcomes of games and esports tournaments. Fans can bet on Call of Duty matches through the online platform Thunderpick, which streamlines the betting experience, so making an account is very easy and depositing funds can be done using cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.
Betting on Call of Duty focuses largely on the odds that reflect the likelihood of an event happening in a match or a tournament. On Thunderpick, Call of Duty betting events include the flagship Call of Duty League (CDL), where you can wager on professional esports teams like the Atlanta FaZe and New York Subliners for the highest stakes and prize pools, and the Call of Duty Challengers, which caters to amateurs aspiring to go pro through open tournaments.
Moreover, betting odds can be expressed in fractional odds to indicate the potential winnings and stakes, in decimal format to calculate the total payout, and in American odds (positive and negative numbers) to indicate how much profit will be made or how much must be bet to win a certain payout amount. These odds are applicable across the most popular betting markets, such as Futures, which lets you bet on which team will win a CDL season, or Under/Over, which involves betting on the final count of predetermined criteria like the number of rounds or kills in a match.
Since Call of Duty matches and tournaments are primarily held online, you can utilize platform features like live streams to place bets while matches are ongoing and adjust the odds based on the progress of the tournament or the performance of specific teams and players. In this case, Thunderpick has a “Live” tab next to the available matchups to help you follow the game on a Twitch stream and discover different live in-play betting markets to wager on based on your finances and preferences.
CoD esports leagues to watch out for
Now that you know how betting on Call of Duty works, it helps to know the top esports leagues and tournaments that can influence your betting strategy and the markets you can wager on. Among these is the aforementioned Call of Duty League or CDL, the official franchise esports league organized by Activision. It currently includes teams from US states, including Atlante (FaZe), Carolina (Royal Ravens), and Minnesota (RØKKR), and cities in Canada, such as Vancouver (Surge) and Toronto (Ultra). The Major Qualifiers for the 2025 season are currently ongoing, with the Major Bracket matchups commencing at the end of March 2025.
In addition to the CDL, the legendary Esports World Cup, the largest multi-game esports tournament in the world, has included Call of Duty in its official lineup for 2024. CDL has also signed a three-year deal with Esports World Cup Foundation, which means the 2025 season, which will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from July to August 2025, will again have esports players of Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone compete in tournaments with their respective prize pools of $1.8 million and $1 million. Winning at least one tournament also makes teams eligible to compete for the Club Championship category, which has a $7 million prize.
Lastly, you can tune in to the Challengers League, which focuses on standalone tournaments for amateur players looking to enter the professional esports industry. Also officially organized by Activision, the Challengers Cups include online and offline events with pre-season and regular-season tournaments and a prize pool of over $1 million. By staying updated on the upcoming esports leagues for the Call of Duty franchise, both players and bettors can witness a wide variety of gameplays and techniques to either improve their gaming skills or hone their betting strategies.