Bet on bots: Why OpenAI Five are favourites to beat Dota champions OG

Man will take on machine this weekend when Dota 2 champions OG face OpenAI Five – an artificial intelligence roster – in a live match in front of a small crowd in San Francisco.

It’s the latest attempt to pit sophisticated learning machines against leading Dota 2 players after a similar experiment during The International 2018 in Vancouver last year.

OpenAI Five were beaten in two matches in Vancouver – by paiN Gaming and a Chinese all-star team – but are ready to go again on Saturday against OG.

OpenAI Five are, in fact, favourites to win the match, despite OG being one of the best Dota 2 teams on the planet. A the time of writing, OpenAI are priced at 1.81, narrowly shorter than OG at 1.87.

Metodi Zaburtov, Head of Sportsbook Risk Management at esports betting site Luckbox, said: “As you can imagine, calculating the odds for an event like this is a challenging task.

“Usually, pricing betting markets is a science built on previous statistical evidence, analyzing data from previous performances but, with OpenAI Five vs OG, there is not much to go on.

“OG now have star man ana back in the roster but their form since winning TI8 has been indifferent at best, plus, there is also the fact that the match against OpenAI will be played with rules adjusted to suit the machines, rather than those used in a usual competitive Dota 2 match.

“Despite those factors, the early odds shifting in favour of OpenAI show where the money is and that Dota 2 fans clearly expect the bots to come out on top.”

The OpenAI Five vs OG showmatch is scheduled for 6.30pm BST / 7.30pm CEST on Saturday, April 13th.

About Luckbox:
Luckbox was founded by former PokerStars colleagues Lars Lien and Mike Stevens. Preparing for launch in April 2019, it is being built by a team combining vast experience in the igaming industry and a passion for esports to offer players unique and highly social platform to engage with their favourite games, including CSGO, Dota 2 and League of Legends. Real Time Games Holding Limited – the company behind the Luckbox brand – holds a full licence under the Online Gambling Regulation Act (OGRA), issued by the Gaming Supervision Commission.