eSports and Skin Gambling: The Elephant in the Room

This is a guest contribution by Mark McGuinness, co-founder of esportsbet. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Over the last few months, the intersection between competitive video gaming and eSports with gambling has gone into proverbial overkill. More and more mainstream gambling operators are adding eSports betting services to their 24-hour betting options menu.

However, the evitable has happened. The murky world of Skin Gambling on popular eSports game franchises has blown up just like one of the characters in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO).  Are we witnessing another Daily Fantasy Sports styled backlash from conservative regulators looking to quash a flourishing albeit yet unregulated activity? Industry eSports and digital betting consultant Mark McGuinness explains.

Yes, folks, the elephant in the room, has well and truly stampeded into the world of eSports, and it’s the evil twin in some quarters referred to as skin gambling or skin trading.