How Skin Gambling Is Revolutionizing the Online Betting Industry

Author: Matthew Haynes

Over the last few years, we have seen numerous new trends emerge from what is swiftly becoming one of the fastest-growing and biggest sectors in the world. The gambling industry has evolved significantly through new technology and innovation, which has enabled new ways of gambling, as well as introducing more products.

Online casinos have adopted gamification and it has become a buzzword doing the rounds at the minute, and this has since expanded into multiple micro-niches, especially related to gaming and its amalgamation with online gambling. The term has been coined as e-gaming or e-sports, depending on the genre and includes famous titles such as Counter-Strike where players all around the world can compete against each other in an online community.

Indeed, this has gone beyond just mere participation. It has reached a level of hype now where spectators will tune in to see how others perform in these games, effectively the virtual equivalent of watching a professional sports event. With the e-gaming/e-sports industry having amalgamated with gambling, this has now introduced almost limitless possibilities, while another new innovation has also been brought to the fore - skin gambling.

What Is a Skin?

For those new to the world of e-gaming, a skin is a aesthetic virtual product that can be accumulated inside a game. As a result, it allows players to deck out their characters or customize their weapons. However, these have become considerably popular because no one wants to be left behind with a seemingly boring iteration.

Consequently, a player can earn a skin as a reward when they progress to a new level during a game, or they are able to purchase a skin in-game via loot boxes using real money. Depending on how popular a skin is, some can sell for thousands - especially if they are really rare.

Because of how in-demand these products have become, online skin gambling items are now a very common digital currency, used to trade and purchase other virtual or real money - not unlike cryptocurrency and Blockchain in online casinos.

What Is Skins Gambling?

Due to the hugely increasing popularity of e-sports and the global audience that it has attracted, not only participation rates, but also viewing figures are now at unprecedented levels.

Two decades ago, it was unheard of that you would rather watch people playing a video game than regular television or, indeed, a movie, though this has become almost obsessive among die-hard fans.

The thirst for viewing competition and seeing how what is visually marketed as an enthralling plot will unfold has all the hallmarks of an intense sporting event and, as a result, this has led to an altogether new concept - gambling with in-game skins.

Skins gambling therefore, provides a global audience with the ability to bet on the outcome of a video game contest as they are being played (or pre-event) and, indeed, some people gamble with real money, or use their skins as currency on third party websites.

In addition, such is the hype for skins, there are also those that let you exchange your skins for cash to do this, based on the current value of that particular at that moment in time, indicating the considerable popularity of skins right now. Placing a bet using a virtual skin, could actually be more beneficial than using real money, because the value of these could quickly sky-rocket.

While is still very much in its infancy, there is no doubt that this could very soon explode and become the fintech equivalent of the cryptocurrency boom, despite this being arguably a lot more niche.

CSGO Skin Gambling

This term refers to and was ultimately coined for, arguably, the most popular e-game there currently is - the aforementioned Counter-Strike. Indeed, the acronym stands for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and involves being able to devise a gambling strategy for the first-person shooter game.

In order to start CSGO skin gambling, players are required to create an account at a reputable site, make a deposit and claim any promotions that are on offer. For those new to betting on e-gaming, this is where it will perhaps become mind-boggling. The next stage is to choose which game you want to make your bet for, and you will be presented with all of the necessary player statistics needed in order for you to do so.

There are literally hundreds of CSGO skin gambling sites, and there are many variances in the type of bet that you can make - almost similar to a sporting event. The fact that there is a form of betting related to just one particular game is perhaps a strong indication that e-gaming betting has barely scratched the surface in terms of potential.

Safety and Legalities of Skins Gambling

As with any new form of gambling, there is usually always some form of scrutiny, and this has been no stranger to this from many corners of society. However, with this still very much a new thing, there are some grey areas that many are unaware of.

Skins gambling ultimately, is an acceptable practice under US case law due to the fact that the constant flow between virtual products and currency make skin gambling legal under US law. The fact that all transactions are enabled by marketplaces such as Steam and the technological digital component company, Valve has made this an acceptable practice.

However, recently there have been many concerns surrounding the dangers that it poses to children, with many placing video games among their top hobbies - especially online. The fact that they can now upgrade ‘buy’ products in-game to improve their chances of winning, makes them effectively ignorant to the fact that they are slowly becoming addicted, though in a way that can be costly.

Indeed, creator of the skin marketplace Skin Exchange, Justin Carlson, cited numerous occasions, where he had to call parents to inform them that their child had used their credit card to use their product.

Is Skin Gambling Similar to Loot Boxes?

Effectively, if the skin is the product, then the loot box is the case that it is kept in until it is purchased. Loot boxes are another innovative creation in the world of e-gaming and these essentially get issued as rewards to players for things such as completing a level.

They can contain multiple prizes, such as skins or another form of digital currency and, as a result, they are completely random - there is no way of knowing what is inside. These can be won or purchased. However, the latter option presents more of a risk because you do not know the value of what you are buying.

It is easy to understand why young people can be drawn to these, based on the intrigue of what particular loot boxes contain.

Meteoric Rise and Huge Potential

Over the last year, we have seen e-gaming explode in popularity, and since then, it is clear that many other layers have been added, such as skins and loot boxes, to make this an even bigger niche than many perhaps first thought.

As a result of the growth over the past 12 months, this has led to major investment in the industry from serious entities such as hedge funds, who clearly see this as a highly profitable niche in the future. While millions of people around the world gamble, there is perhaps, an equal (if not bigger) number who play video games and the industry (especially based on the increasing number of competitions) is likely to turn into major business.

Even now, events attract significant audiences (not just digitally), but at physical locations and because of this, it has attracted substantial corporate sponsors. Indeed, the trillion dollar state of Saudi Arabia has even become involved, investing 100s of millions into the industry over the last year in a bid to make the country one of the most notable e-gaming destinations in the world.

It will, though, be interesting to see how this will be regulated over the next few years, especially in different countries and whether there are going to be different forms of legislation that apply, one way or the other. Certainly, with regards to gambling addiction and underage gambling, there could well be something that is done to help avoid this; however, because this is essentially a global trend, there could be a number of logistical issues moving forward.

Furthermore, as more and more skins are developed and hit the marketplaces, it is likely that rarer ones will emerge, perhaps driving the value even higher; these may even become individual currencies in their own right. There could be the option of joint-ownership even, or these could be traded on the open market. The possibilities are effectively endless.

Within just a few years, using a ‘skin’ to gamble with may easily become second nature as the next emerging innovation rolls off the gambling industry’s ever-evolving (digital) production line.