Understanding Skins Betting

If you’ve never heard the term skins before, then you’ve come to the right place. Skins are referred to as any digital object in a game that changes the visual outlook of the player. The skins can be applied to players themselves or most commonly to their weapons. In this article, we will be focusing on skins used in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

This is one of most popular games for skin collecting. For those of you who have never played or seen Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it is a first-person shooter game from Valve. First-person shooters are taking the players’ perspective, so players are only able to see their weapons and hands. (Shown in Image Below).

The fact that you’re unable to see your player in full view is what makes weapon skins so interesting. In general, these skins do not enhance a player’s abilities, but are strictly there for aesthetic reasons. So, consider skins to be like driving a bright yellow Ferrari meant to draw attention on the player and show how “cool” they are. That’s why the more lavish skins are often the most popular.

What Kind of Skins

In Global Offensive there are hundreds of skins from the realistic military paint to the bright pink with skulls on it. Skins were first created to provide a tactical advantage. This would work like military camouflage, so you’d often see green for a deep forest or traditional black for night level. Now, rather unusual skins are more common.

Valve originally didn’t think players would enjoy the extremely colorful and bold skins, but they seem to be the most popular. The guns have slowly gone from super realistic to more of paintball gun style with bold shiny colors. The use of skins now can be compared to the feathers of a peacock; they are meant to look appealing visually and draw a lot of attention to the player.

The skins come in a number of different grades. This will usually help decipher how rare the skin is, thus increasing its value. This is the list of the grades from most common to rarest.

• Consumer Grade (Common)
• Industrial Grade (Uncommon)
• Mil-Spec Grade (Rare)
• Restricted (Mythical)
• Classified (Legendary)
• Covert (Ancient)
• Gold (Good luck getting one of these)

The skins not only come in different grades, but they come in different quality levels as well. This is the list of quality levels from no damage to most damage.

• Factory New (Fresh Paint Job)
• Minimal Wear (Well ya used it a couple times)
• Field-Tested (Definitely a regularly used weapon)
• Well-Worn (Alright well the paint job needs some work)
• Battle-Scarred (Yeah you might want to repaint it)

The skin quality DOES NOT disappear with usage, which is a common misconception among new collectors. You buy it at a specified quality level and that’s the way it stays. The skin damage or wear usually adds to the beauty of the weapon, depending on the design. It’s a matter of preference, but usually the more warn a weapon is the more valuable it is.

Skins also have a 3rd form of categorization which is Normal. These are the skins that can be rare, but not from specific events.The StatTrak weapon allows for you to track how many enemies have been killed with the weapon. This stat does not transfer over when sold on the market, so don’t think you can lie about your kill count. Souvenirs come from esports tournaments. These ones are usually in high demand and are very valuable. We definitely suggest trying to get a few of these bad boys.

People on these sites value skins like real world positions. So the value of the object will usually differ from player to player, but the price always seems to rise for the favorite skins. Skins for the AK, M4s and AWP are most valuable because they’re shown on high utility weapons. This all contributes to an economy that fluctuates as different players value different qualities within a single item. So the most used weapon with an extremely unique skin are more valuable than a hardly ever used weapon with the same skin.

How to Talk the Talk

We wanted to go over some lingo you may come across when betting for skins. PS or “Play Side” references the side of the knife/skin which can be seen while in use. Essentially, this is the top of the blade or weapon. Another term you might run into is BS. BS or “Back Side” refers to the other side of the knife/skin which can usually be seen when inspecting. This is commonly known as the flip side of the blade.

Another term you will commonly see when selling is “SS,” or Screenshot. This indicates that the player selling the object will provide an in game screen shot of the skin. We don’t recommend purchasing any items without this screen shot.

Another term you might run into when it comes to purchasing is mirrored. This means the knife has the same patterns on the play side and the back side.

How to Get Skins

Skins are like dollars right? They must be earned in the heat of battle with several hours invested into farming the game. Wrong! Players can purchase skins from the Steam website or on websites like CSGOShop or my personal favorite OPSkins. The OPSkins is my favorite due to the generous discounts you can find.

But if you insist on doing it the old fashion way, you can log on to the game and hope you can get a rare drop skin. Your chances of this happening are roughly .5%. Yes, that is a half of a percent. These skins only drop from crates at that percentage, making it easy to see why rare weapons are so pricey.

So, by now I bet your wondering how people make money and gamble with these skins. Skins are realistically worthless by nature, but can be compared to a casino chip. They are value holders, so the opportunity to gamble with skins allows for players to transfer income on esports. Some players do not invest any initial income. They strictly play the game and let their virtual winnings (Skins) ride. This can produce more cash or more skins.

The best skins are near impossible to find as stated earlier. So a lot of players use the gambling ability of skins to get more skins. Popular gambling options for skins include roulette, wagers on professional matches, and stock market investing. I don’t prefer stock market investing since skins prices can be manipulated and do not generate long term value. Prices have been rather stagnant over the years.

Skin Roulette

So when we are talking about wagering with skins, the most common way is roulette. This is extremely similar to what you traditionally see at a casino. You can bet on red, black or green. When betting red/black, each have a 48% chance to be correct. So normally this will pay out 2-1. This is referred to as even money. For example, if you bet $10 and win, you’ll get $20 back in total ($10 from your original bet + $10 in profit. The numbers for red are 1-7 and the numbers for black are 8-14.

The green is the one that pays the most, but has the smallest odds to win. This is the longshot. Green is represented by the number 0. The green will usually pay 14 times your bet. So if you bet $10 you will win $140. The strategies for roulette betting involve pattern watching. If you see several red in a row, then you might bet black assuming it’s due to come up next. This strategy is effective for few, but not many. This is because the roulette wheel is completely random.

The screen shot below shows the average looking CSG:Go Roulette wheel. The “rolling in” at the top is a countdown to place your bets. The balance is the current amount of money you can use to wager with. The increments below allow you to increase the bet by a certain percentage; you also have the option to bet half or double. The stats provided on the right hand side show the amount of games played, how many players are online, and how much money has been won from players. A high percentage of players normally means that the table is very active and giving good predictable wins.

A simple click of the Red/Green/Black square below will place a bet of your selected denomination.

The next strategy people engage in is betting the same color and increasing the bets on a loss. This is referred to in several gambling strategies as a reverse progressive system. This involves doubling the amount you just lost in order to win and make back the losses. So if you were to lose a 3rd time you would then double the 2nd bet. For example, lose a $10 bet then bet $20 then bet$ 40 and so on until you win. This strategy could potentially work, but you’d have to have a large enough bankroll to keep increasing your bet size.

The most common websites to bet on CSG:Go Roulette:

• http://www.csgobetroulette.com/

  This is one of the higher end betting sites. You get $1 dollar in free bets, but you must gamble at $20 minimum.

• https://csgopolygon.com/

  This doesn’t offer a deposit match, but is one of the more popular sites as far as traffic.

There are several different skin wagering opportunities, but roulette is by far the most common.

esports Match Wagering

The less random and more predictable way to wager on CSG:Go is by picking individual matches. This is taking a certain team to win over another team. The reason this is a lot less random is because the odds are not stacked against the player. Some CSG:Roulette websites do charge up to a 5% on any winnings. So when wagering on CSG:Go the best wagering is the individual matches.

Now in a standard match up of any betting there will be a favorite and an underdog. The favorite is the one who will be most likely to win the match. This is usually set by previous stats or skills the team has over another team. The favorites usually do not pay as well as underdogs. Underdogs are the teams that will most likely lose the match. This doesn’t always happen though. Sometimes the underdogs do win and they usually offer much more enticing payouts.

Determining Value

So this leads to our next point which is how to determine value or pick winners in matches. Now before you place any wager you must do your research. The research I tend to lean towards is to examine team results in previous matches. If a team always dominates another team, I am less likely to bet against them unless it’s for a good reason. Let’s say Team A has won every previous match against team B, but team A has not won a single match in the last month. Team B is currently dominating every opponent, having won every match in the last month.

This is a spot where we would gain value in betting on team A. “Yes, team A is struggling, but they have never lost a match against team B.” We noticed that team A usually performs well against team B, so regardless of their cold streak, we are going to back them.

Let’s consider what would happen if we saw a match where the teams are evenly matched. Both teams usually split matches, but one team is clearly playing better going into the match. I will always choose the team in good form in this type of situation.

Best of Matches

One of the best ways to determine a winner and increase your chances of being able to show off your shiny new skins is by betting lengthy matches. When I use the term lengthy matches, I mean Best of Series. This usually involves teams playing several match ups. I favor these series since luck is less likely to play a factor. More times than not, the more talented team wins overall.

That why I always recommend betting on the top team for series bets. To determine the top team, look at overall rankings. Again, talent will have more impact than luck. I personally will always look for matches where the public heavily favors one team. This will create hidden value in the series.

If you notice a ton of wagers coming in on the one team you wanted to wager on, then I highly recommend checking to make sure betting on said team still offers value.

Here are the top sites to find information about upcoming events and wagers:

• HLTV.org

  They are one of the best since it will post team lineups, past results, news, team statistics and many more things. Any serious bettors will probably find themselves here on a daily basis.

• CSGONuts.com

  CSGONuts provides past results of teams, sometimes with more past results then HLTV. I use this site particularly when it comes to double checking stats and previous matchups.

Understanding the Odds

The most common odds that you will see on betting websites are the decimal based odds. So if I lose you, just make sure to grab a calculator. Let’s say Team A has the odds at 2.11 and team B is at 1.81. Betting on team A with a $10 wager will be $10 x 2.11 = $21.10. That will be your return. Betting on team B with a $10 wager will be $10 x 1.81 = $18.10. That will be your return. This includes your $10 initial bet.

So, which team would be the favorite in this situation? The answer is Team B since they’re paying the lower odds at 1.81. If a team is set at 1.81 odds this means they have an implied probability of 55%. In simple terms this means they have a 55% chance of winning. Odds are adjusted according to where bettors are placing the most money, because bookmakers are always trying to balance the amount on each side.

By now you’re probably asking yourself, “How are the probability odds calculated?”

Let me show you:

This is how sites determined the odds on team B in our example.

Most sites offer fixed odds. This means once you place your bet the odds cannot change. For example, let’s say you bet on a team at 5.00 and then word breaks out that the other team’s best player is unable to make the match. This causes the odds to go down to 1.50. You will still have the odds at 5.00 or 5/1, which puts you at a huge advantage. Some websites only offer what is called active odds, which would be the reverse of fixed odds. So if the line moves, your odds move with it. This is less desirable.

You may encounter a 1/2 odds in some individual matches when betting skins. This is where you will be wagering one skin to win two. This is usually a tactic to avoid direct gambling affiliation.

Selling the Skins

Now after some time you might notice your skin collection is getting too large or you win some rare skins that you don’t care to hold on to. You have the option to sell those skins. Get this process started by signing into your steam account and loading your inventory. Once your inventory is uploaded you will select your items and set a price. I recommend searching through the website to see what your skin commonly goes for. Overprice a skin and it will never sell; underprice a skin and you might get ripped off.

Top Buying/Selling Sites:

• https://www.lootmarket.com/csgo

  Loot market is one of my favorites since it will do several giveaways, while also offering fair prices from reputable sellers and buyers. I use this site to do a lot of price comparison and see where the market is currently at for certain skin pricing.

• https://skins.cash/

  This site comes with its fair share of pros and cons. The best part about this site is the 10% bonus on every sale. You only earn 10% after you make several skin sales valuing at $14,000 though. The immediate cash withdrawal is another one of this site’s most appealing features, but the prices on this site tend to be a tad high.

• https://opskins.com/

  OPSkins is one of my favorite sites for browsing since they offer the wear percentage on the immediate page and give solid suggestions on prices. I have been able to find some pretty good deals on this site as a result. They’re also one of the more trustworthy sites, since all sellers must be verified and are subject to consumer reviews. OPSkins does take 10% from every sale though. If you become a premium user the deduction is only 5%, but you must be willing to pay $5.99 a month. I only recommend this if you’re selling a large amount of skins.