Esportbet’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting tips for Thursday focus on two bouts featuring Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG and BIG in the first round of BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021. Here are our best bets for those fixtures, with odds courtesy of GG Bet.

?Astralis and Ninjas in Pyjamas will clash on Thursday in the opening Group A fixture of BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021. It will mark their first meeting since September when Astralis swept their north-eastern neighbours 2-0.

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Astralis enter this match as massive favourites, which doesn’t surprise us. The Danes have won three out of the last five tournaments they have attended and claimed a silver medal in the remaining two, including last year’s BLAST Premier Global Final. NiP have not been nearly as successful of late, having finished only fifth-eighth at cs_summit 7 last week.

Besides the massive quality gap, NiP will also play without Simon “twist” Eliasson, who has been benched and will be replaced with rookie Erik “ztr” Gustafsson. Anything less than a 2-0 sweep for Astralis would be a massive shock.

?Both of these teams have attended one tournament in 2021, with BIG finishing second at ESL Meisterschaft Autumn and OG running fifth-eighth at cs_summit 7. Considering the quality of the opponents these teams had to face in their respective events, we can rank their achievements equally.

OG and BIG last met in December 2020 when BIG won 2-0 with 16-12 on Dust II and 16-4 on Inferno. Only five days prior, however, it was OG who swept the German squad with 16-10 on Inferno and 19-17 on Dust II.

There is not much to separate these two teams, and their head-to-head record – which shows 9-2-8 in favour of BIG – proves that. Hence, we are placing our money on over 2.5 maps.