The esports (or electronic sports) industry has seen a tremendous growth over the last decade, reaching more than a quarter billion people and being expected to continue to grow at a rapid pace over the next one as well. And within this industry, which has become a global phenomenon, a simple element called a skin has led to the creation of a market that was evaluated at 7.4 billion dollars in 2016. This market grew from third-party websites who are not technically affiliated with the gaming developers themselves but still clearly make their mark in the scene. Due to the huge numbers involved in this industry, many skins betting sites have launched as a result. With the popularity of esports and skins betting growing, it has become more difficult to find legit and trusted sites. That is where we come in. This guide offers an introduction to CS:GO skin betting, explaining its most important aspects and giving you an understanding of how it’s done, why it’s done, how to get involved in a safe way, and much more.
Below, you will find valuable information that will get you prepared for the wide world of skin betting!
What CS:GO Skins Are
A skin is a cosmetic element which has no direct impact on gameplay. It simply allows players to customize their in-game visual experience and make it unique. Just as people like to dress in their own unique way in real life, gamers like to do something similar when playing computer games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with their friends. In CS:GO, skins can be bought via cases and can be used for any weapon. Furthermore, some skins are more valuable than others. In some cases, they can get to ridiculous prices of tens of thousands of dollars. In particular, AWP and knife skins tend to get to the highest prices, but other types of skins can get to pretty high values as well. It all depends on how rare they are and how desirable they’re perceived to be by the market. The rarity criterion, which makes skins more or less valuable, can be seen in the skin name’s color. This color can be white (consumer grade), light blue (industrial grade), darker blue (mil-spec), purple (restricted), pinkish purple (classified), red (covert), exceedingly rare (gold). Skin value also depends on another criterion, known as item exterior quality. This quality can be battle-scarred, well-worn, field-tested, minimal wear, or factory new. The closer it is to factory new, the more valuable it is.
Furthermore, skins can become even more valuable by the addition of stickers. These stickers can be applied to any gun (but not to knives) and vary in quality. They can be high grade (normal), remarkable (hologram), or exotic (foil). The rarest and most valuable type is exotic.
How CS:GO Skins Can Be Obtained
CS:GO skins are contained within weapon cases. These cases drop at certain intervals (usually after the end of a match) and can also be bought within the game. However, they require a key to open, and that also costs money. Not all weapon cases are the same, and not all keys are the same. You need the right type of key to open a certain type of case. Keys usually cost around $2.70.
The CS:GO Skin Market
Skins can be traded or used as currency when betting on esports matches and tournaments. And the more valuable they are, the more you’ll want to use third-party services in order to get some money for them. By simply keeping them in your Steam account, the most you can do is to sell them for an imposed maximum value equal to $1800 per item and lower than $2000 in total (including the money you already have in your Steam wallet). Furthermore, once you’ve sold your items on Steam, you cannot get your money out of it. You have to spend it on Steam products and services. When using a CS:GO skin marketplace, you can potentially get a lot more than $1800 for a skin if it really is exceptionally valuable. In addition to this, you can sell your skins and get your money out of the marketplace.
The CS:GO Skin Betting Market
Of course, third parties don’t just offer you the possibility to sell your skins to them; they also allow you to bet your skins on CS:GO matches and tournaments. The way this works is very simple. Using its software tools, the marketplace asks you to offer your Steam trade URL to it and basically transfer your skins from your Steam profile into the marketplace’s database. Afterward, you can bet using these skins at their marketplace value. Of course, this whole process involves the risk of being scammed, so using a reliable service is mandatory. CS:GO skin betting works just like standard betting, except instead of money, you’re betting skins. If you win the bet, you’re also getting skins in return, and their value is relative to the value of those you put in the middle and the odds of the match you betted on.
Other Skin Betting Markets
In addition to CS:GO, another popular esports title that has a large skin betting market is Dota 2. This esports title’s in-game item variety is absolutely huge. In Dota 2, skins are not only items that can customize your chosen character’s appearance, but everything that customizes your gaming experience as a whole. Subsequently, in addition to hero sets and items, you can also buy custom terrains, weather effects, music packs, announcer packs, celebrity autographs, and so on. Like CS:GO items, Dota 2 items can be sold and gambled with on third-party platforms that offer skin betting services.
Pros and Cons of Skin Betting
Skin betting has various advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of as an esports bettor. I’ll start with the advantages:
- It doesn’t take actual money to get involved. If you’re an esports enthusiast and already spend many hours per week playing CS:GO, Dota 2, or other esports titles, you’ve likely amassed a substantial inventory of skins that can be used to place bets on skin betting websites. Instead of spending money and taking actual risks when betting on esports events, you can use skins and do it in a less stressful way.
- Skins can be obtained simply by playing your favorite esports titles, and you don’t necessarily need to pay for them. So if you’re a gamer and are naturally spending plenty of time each week playing CS:GO or Dota 2, you will definitely get some skins for your efforts, and you could make use of these skins.
The disadvantages of skin betting aren’t necessarily connected with the actual practice of betting skins on esports events, but rather with the risks involved in the skin betting market. Here are some of them:
- As we’ll discuss a bit later in this guide, skin betting can be used for money laundering, and multiple large esports betting websites were involved in illegal activities in the past. Some of them got caught and were closed down, but scams and illicit activities are still a major concern in this industry.
- Not all skin betting websites use a thorough approach when accepting a new member on their platform, which makes it possible for people who are underaged to engage in illegal betting activities. The lack of sufficient regulation that characterizes the skin betting market can lead in some cases to undesired outcomes, giving the whole industry a bad reputation.
- In order for you to bet on esports events using skins, you need to transfer these skins into the skin betting operator’s database. Of course, you’re transferring your Steam account skins to your own account on the skin betting website you’re using, but that account is still under the operator’s control. This means that in case of a scam or a sudden closure forced by Valve or some other entity, there’s really not much that you can do to recover your skins. For this reason and others discussed below, it’s very important to pick a skin betting operator that is reliable.
Becoming a Successful CS:GO Bettor Using Skins
Becoming a successful CS:GO skin bettor requires you to know as much as possible about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and its professional scene. Accurately predicting results can only be done if you know a fair amount about the teams and the players involved in the particular match that you are betting on. Overall results throughout the season, head-to-head results, recent form, map statistics, individual player statistics, and so on can give you key insights and greatly improve your level of success. As a general principle, you should always follow a coherent betting strategy and never do crazy moves like going all-in on a single match. The reason is obvious: you might win once or twice or even 10 times doing that, but it’s enough to get it wrong once, and all of your money is gone. A more rational approach, where you bet a certain percentage of your portfolio based on the risk/reward ratio of a particular match (or combination of matches), is the best way to go.
The Most Reliable CS:GO Skin Betting Websites
The skin betting market is absolutely huge – much larger than the esports industry itself. Because of this, and also because of the fact that Valve Corporation (the company behind Steam and CS:GO) doesn’t really get involved in it (although it did at one point), users get no real protection for using skin betting services. As a result, scams are a major concern and have happened many times in the past. For instance, you can upload your skins into a website’s skin “bank” and never get them back. In 2016, such incidents and many others gave rise to a huge scandal that involved websites like CSGODiamonds and CSGOLotto, as well as known gaming personalities like Mohamad “m0E” Assad, Trevor “TmarTn” Martin, and Thomas “ProSyndicate” Cassell. An entire set of schemes was exposed: self-promotion to a huge audience without ever disclosing ownership of the websites being promoted, fixed results, misleading people into believing that the businesses were legit when in fact they were complete scams, and so on. Following the inevitable lawsuits, Valve attempted to distance itself from the problem, saying that any third party which uses Steam’s API (Application Program Interface) for commercial activities and scamming people breaks its rules.
Additional pressure was put on Valve by governmental institutions, and ultimately, the company had to become heavily involved in the purging of skin betting websites. However, the effort didn’t last very long, and as a result, today we still face many of the problems that existed in the past. Some skin betting websites are legit (and we know which), and some aren’t. Which is why it’s an absolute necessity to do your due diligence and pick a highly-reliable skin betting service provider.
We’ve already done careful research in this regard and can provide you with one perfect example of such a website that has a long track record and can be fully trusted.
Loot.bet Review
Loot.bet is without a doubt the best skin betting website on the market. The platform has been around for a long time and has many partnerships with esports organizations. It has sponsored multiple teams and tournaments and is currently held in high regard by both its partners and customers. Loot.bet allows you to use CS:GO and Dota 2 skins for betting purposes, but you can bet on matches from many different esports, including CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, and others. The process of registering on Loot.bet is thorough (personal credentials are required) and intuitive, making it both safe and easy for you to create an account.