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Valve Bans Skin Gambling Sponsors From All CS2 Events
First reported by Dust.us, Valve has made changes to the guidelines to run the tournament. According to the new amendment, all tournaments featuring Valve IP, i.e. Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2, will not be allowed to onboard skin gambling/trading sites or case opening sites as sponsors.
Furthermore, tournament organizers have to ensure the logos of such sites aren't visible on the official broadcast. While this on the surface is a small negligible change, the repercussion might be lasting.
Valve’s TOR Changes
The TOR (Tournament Operation Requirements) are a set of rules a tournament organizer (TO) must adhere to while organizing a Dota 2 or CS2 tournament.
The latest update to the TOR was two days ago and forces every tournament organizer (small or large) to abide by rule 2.4.e of the Limited Game tournament license.
Rule 2.4.e
Licensee must not distribute or display, including on team jerseys or in any other content that may be visible during the broadcast, any content or material that either violates Valve IP or the terms of the Steam Subscriber Agreement (for example, game case opening sites or skin trading sites). Licensee shall not permit any content that violates Valve IP or the terms of the Steam Subscriber Agreement (e.g., logos on player jerseys) to appear in any broadcasts of the Tournament. Licensee will not accept sponsorships from sponsors that generate revenue through activities that violate applicable Valve agreements or violate local law or rely on Valve's game economies. This includes, but is not limited to, key resellers or companies that interact with players' Valve game inventories.
The restriction also applies for both ranked and unranked VRS tournaments; essentially every CS2 tournament.
This not only limits the sponsors a tournament/tournament organizer can take, but also indirectly demotivates sites like skinclub, bitskins, etc. from sponsoring teams, as the logos won’t be allowed on official tournament streams.
This does affect gambling sites and gambling sponsors that teams/tournament organizers can take.
Understanding Valve’s Decision
Over the past year, Valve has regularly released updates like trade lock to limit the operation of third party sites that use CS skins as an asset. While they cannot outright ban these websites, there have been efforts to limit the market share of these third party sites.
The change to the TOR also seems to be a part of the same effort. This largely limits community exposure to the third party marketplaces, skin trading, and case opening sites. While on the surface this seems Valve keeping scams/fishy business away. It can be said that they want to ensure most transactions go through Steam, maximizing the profit.
Will This Affect the CS Economy?
Yes, but the effects will only be felt largely by smaller teams and smaller TOs. These third party skin sites were a huge part of smaller TOs and teams’ economy models, meaning that the grassroots of CS esports will be affected first.
With the change, the third party sites will be less likely to spend money on smaller teams/TOs with limited reach and instead give it to bigger teams who can still make content around the site offerings.
If this has any long term effect on the esports economy as a whole, it has to be seen, as gambling sponsors aren’t restricted, which means that there are still alternatives.
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Featured Image Credit: Valve
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