eSports skin-betting was a big money spinner

The now largely prohibited skin-wagering potential of eSports games has been illustrated by a new report on the partially-shuttered CS.GO Lounge, claiming that the site handled over $1 billion worth of bets this year before it closed down wagering in the midst of a skin betting scandal (see previous  reports).

The Legal Sports.com report reveals that the site handled over $1 billion worth of bets in 2016 before shutting down its skin betting operation in August.

The Daily Dot picked up on the report and noted that roughly 103 million skins bet on around 2,800 matches throughout the year, averaging almost $10 per skin, and 37,000 virtual items per match.

Some of the more popular games attracted more action than others, the Dot observes, flagging one ESL One Cologne event this summer that saw the exchange of over 320,000 skins, with matches in that tournament attracting well over $1 million worth of bets per game.

After the Valve warnings in the skin-betting issue, CS.GO Lounge ended this lucrative business by banning skin-betting. The site now relies on a coin betting business model in which newbies are offered 100 coins on creating an account, but at present there is no indication of whether other methods of earning or buying more coins will be introduced.

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