Do you think you know who will win this shootout? Even if you do, don’t bet on it…
Valve has taken a hardline stance against “insider” gambling Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), warn those involved in professional tournaments and those who want to get involved in the future against placing bets on the popular e-sport.
As far as Valve is concerned, anyone participating in a CS:GO tournament is believed to have “inside information” that would give them an unfair advantage when placing bets, even on events in which they do not participate directly. “Professional players, teams and everyone involved in the production of CS:GO events, must not gamble under any circumstances CS:GO competitions, associate with high volume CS:GO gamblers, or provide information to others that may affect their CS:GO bets,” Valve writes in a post on the official Counter-Strike blog.
The warning applies to current professional players as well as “anyone who wants to participate in a Valve-sponsored CS:GO event in the future,” Valve says.
While Valve calls its stance against gambling a “recommendation,” the company also says that insider betting “or even the suspicion of it…may lead to disqualification from future Valve-sponsored events.” Indeed, dozens of players involved in a wide range CS:GO last month’s match-fixing scandal has been banned from participating in future Valve-sponsored tournaments (although some of those bans were later lifted). Screenshot text messages obtained by The Daily Dot suggest that members of a number of high-profile teams were paid to pitch games during last summer’s CEVO Professional League season.
Beyond the self-interest of avoiding tournament bans, Valve also asks players to “think about the substantial impact of an individual professional Counterattack player has on the health and stability of the sport. You perform in front of an audience of millions of fans and are ambassadors for your game: the power of professional Counterattack stems from the integrity of its players and teams.”
Valve has made a $250,000 prize pool available for next month’s ESL One CS:GO tournament in Katowice, Poland. Last year’s Katowice event, which includes other popular games, attracted 73,000 live spectators and 643,000 simultaneous streaming viewers.