ESL Pro League S15 betting predictions – Wednesday, March 16

Group B of ESL Pro League Season 15 commences this Wednesday, and eSportBet’s CS:GO analyst has run through the fixture and picked out the best bets of the day.


Kicking off day one of Group B action we have the third-ranked team in the world, Vitality, taking on the 23rd-ranked team in the world, Sprout. These two teams have played each other only once in the last six months, where Vitality won 16-14 at IEM Fall 2021 Europe.

Vitality have had some big roster changes since the turn of the year, adding Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Emil “Magisk” Reif from Astralis along with their old Astralis coach Danny “zonic” Sorensen. Since the addition of “Magisk” and “dupreeh” and new coach “zonic”, Vitality have had some mixed results seeing them finish ninth-12th in the IEM Katowice 2022 event last month and finishing first-third in the Blast Premier Spring Groups 2022 in January.

Sprout, on the other hand, would say that they have had somewhat of a successful 2022 to date. They have finished third in their PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Europe RMR Qualifier, securing them a spot in the European RMR Qualifier for the Antwerp PGL Major in May 2022. They come into this ESL Pro League Season 15 with some confidence after winning five of their last six BO3 series.

Even though Sprout comes into this tournament with confidence and with wins under their belt, Vitality have been in the some of the biggest tournaments in the world, meaning they are playing much better competition. The +400 odds about Sprout should back-up our thoughts that they are big underdogs in this series. Vitality at the 1.5-map handicap is the way to go for this match-up.

The second match of the day see the IEM Katowice 2022 champions and fourth-ranked team in the world, FaZe Clan, taking on the 15th-ranked team in the world in ENCE. In the last six months these two teams have met once, at PGL Major Stockholm Challengers Stage 2021, where FaZe won the BO1 16-12.

FaZe have added Robin “ropz” Kool since the start of 2022 and he has been paying dividends for his employer who beat many of the big European teams to his signature, transferring him from Mouz to FaZe in early January. The 22-year-old “ropz” is one of the hottest players on the world CS: GO scene and he has an average rating of 1.15 out of 2 since joining FaZe, showing why he was so strongly scouted by many other European teams. FaZe have already enjoyed success this year by winning IEM Katowice and would have to be coming into this as one of the favourites, if not the outright favourite, to take out ESL Pro League Season 15.

ENCE have an up and down record over the past few months with a 13th-16th finish in IEM Katowice 2022 and a second-placing in the Pinnacle Winter Series. This makes them quite large underdogs in this match-up, and it is no surprise to see them price at +300 with BetOnline.

FaZe will be looking to get this group stage off and running with a strong performance. FaZe being -454.55 in the match market is too short to suggest a bet, but they are handsomely priced at -120.48 to cover the line of -1.5 maps.

The opening day of Group B action ends with the sixth-ranked team in the world, Outsiders, taking on the 14th-ranked FURIA. Many people will be seeing ‘Outsiders’ and thinking, “Who are these guys and where did they come from?” They are Virtus.pro, but due to the bans on Russian-owned organisations they cannot play under that name, so they will play in ESL Pro League Season 15 as ‘Outsiders’.

Outsiders have had some pretty solid form in 2022, with a fifth-sixth finish at IEM Katowice 2022 and going undefeated to a first-place victory in ESL Challenger Europe 2022. The team are playing some really solid Counter-Strike throughout 2022, since their new player Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev joined the roster in October 2021.

FURIA come into the new ESL Pro League campaign after losing three of their last five BO3s. They are coming off a ninth-12th finish at IEM Katowice and a second-place finish behind ‘Virtus.pro’ in the ESL Challenger Europe 2022.

Outsiders took the last BO3 2-0, so they should be the favourites in this one. Outsiders at the match line of -1.5 pays a juicy +150 with BetOnline.