What is Map Veto?

A map veto is the phase before a tactical-shooter series in which the two teams alternately remove and select maps from the tournament pool until the maps to be played are fixed. It happens minutes before the first round and it determines the actual content of the match. It matters to a bettor for two separate reasons. The first is that it is information: teams ban what they fear and pick what they practise, so a veto reveals how each side reads the matchup, and a favourite forced onto a map it usually bans is a different proposition from the one the odds were set on. The second is structural, and it is the one that catches people out. In a best-of-three, the third map is only played if the first two are split. A bet on the map three winner, or on a player's performance on map three, is a bet on something that may never take place. What happens then is a rules question rather than a matter of fairness, and it varies. Most sportsbooks void bets on a map that is not played and return the stake; some settle certain markets as losses; and a market opened after the veto is a different object from one opened before it, because the maps are then known. Whether a decider map counts towards a total-maps or a handicap market is set out in the book's own esports rules, which is where the answer lives. The veto order itself is set by the tournament format rather than by the teams, and knowing that order is part of reading which side is choosing under pressure.