Valve bans skin gambling sites from CS2 tournaments

Leonardo Biazzi Published December 11, 2025

Valve has cracked down on skin gambling, case opening websites within the CS2 ecosystem. Valve updated the Tournament Operation Requirement (TOR) rulebook last Monday, December 8th, effectively prohibiting CS2 “case opening sites and skin trading sites” from appearing during tournament broadcasts, even on players’ jerseys.

From now on, both Unranked and Ranked events have to abide by section 2.4e of the Limited Games Tournament License, which protects Valve’s intellectual property. You can read the aforementioned section in full below:

IP Protection. 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.

This will undeniably impact the CS2 ecosystem, as multiple top teams, tier-two teams, and various tournament organizers are currently sponsored by skin gambling sites.

As noted by Jeffrey Moore of Dust2.us, the first site to report this update, some teams that attended the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 attended the Valve-sponsored event without their skin gambling sponsorship appearing on the player jerseys.

It appears that all teams at the Major were given advanced notice to update jerseys. Some examples of the disappearing act: https://t.co/UWjQcrnywY pic.twitter.com/LjWWJ6NxdC

— Mnmzzz – Jeff 🇺🇦 (@MnmzzzCS) December 10, 2025

For now, it’s impossible to measure how much this will affect the CS2 ecosystem. Of course, the bigger tournament organizers and organizations will survive despite dropping their skin gambling sponsorship.

However, the lower echelons of the CS2 competitive scene will likely suffer, as tournament organizers will have less money to run tournaments and teams will have less money to maintain their rosters.

But, it’s not shocking that Valve have targeted skin gambling sites. The developer made the skin market crash in October by adding a Trade-up contract that allows players to get a Knife or a pair of gloves. Though the skin market has rebounded ever since, it was clear that Valve is targeting unregulated gambling within CS2.

It’s important to note that regular CS2 betting sites can still sponsor teams and tournaments, as this TOR update doesn’t corcern them.

Feature image credit: © Valve