As per title , i've been searching for a bookie that offers CSGO in europe (since i live in italy) but i can't find any , the bookies i've found only offer Lol , any fellow euros that know a bookie where i can bet on csgo games?
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EDIT : thank you all guys , i've found a site that works! ArcaneBet , cheers and thanks again!

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Right now there is a serious issue going on with the CDL Call of Duty 4 Million Dollar Championship. In only three matches being played there has been two matches that directly involved host booting players. For those who don't know, you can grab someones IP rather easy if they aren't secure. CSGO once had a big issue with Denial Of Service attacks affecting players in 2014.
In yesterdays match Optic Gaming, Kenny from Optic was hit offline in map one. Causing them to lose. Again in map 4 he was hit offline, causing them to lose. The spread on optic was -1.5 (-150) in a bo5. They ended up having to use a substitute to play map 5 and won.
Today in map 4 of Toronto Ultra vs London Royal Ravens we had Zero lag out and cost them the map 4 loss and the series. Toronto was -110 and before match was seen at -130 when it went live. No lag out issue until the deciding map in the series when it looked like a map 5 is likely.
Due to CDL rules the wins count and the bookies are grading them as CDL grades them. Needless to say, keep your money away from this. Someone is putting big money on the matches and DoS to get the wins.
Having been involved in competitive esports for awhile, especially call of duty. This likely has to be coming from an internal leak somewhere in CDL Staff. Especially since Zer0 stated he changed his IP before the start of the series. The players are all being recorded in separate channels in CDL's discord for listen ins which is where their IP is likely being pulled. (MY THEORY, TAKE WITH SALT)

I’m having like the worst week/month of my life. Like not to be entitled or anything with my millennial problems and such but... I spilt water on my MacBook, confirmed yesterday that it was a goner, got a good deal on an iPad to try and replace my MacBook and that was lost in delivery. Paypal is limiting my account because of activity that don’t fit with their tos, but I don’t do anything that should seem suspicious at least in my opinion. I suppose I’ll go into detail 1 by 1 if any of you are interested.

1. MacBook Just chilling I typically used my MacBook for.. well.. MacBooky things, YouTube, internet things etc. and I had accidentally spilt water like an idiot and it was dead, had a bunch of corrosion, at least that’s what UBreakIFix said, let me tell you; I had a complete break down, crying my eyes out cause I ain’t got that typa monies, ya hear? It’s ruff. I was looking for an iPad as a replacement to my MacBook which brings us to the second very in great thing.
   
2. iPad So my lovely older sister did me a solid and found a really good deal on an iPad Pro, 10.5 inch 64gb baby girl. She won the big and got it for just under 400 and it was expected to come today. The reason I wanted an iPad was because my MacBook was a goner and on an iPad I could do art commissions to hopefully save up money to possibly pay my sister back, etc. so I checked the tracking code and it said it was delivered (little backstory I live in an apartment and the front office stopped taking packages and all packages too big to fit the mailboxes go to the amazon hub and anything too big for the hub goes to the apartment and due to the covid-19 the office is closed in general but you can still call in) anyways, so it said it was delivered to the “front office, reception” etc. which was a red flag already, and that it was signed by a (Name that I've never seen in my life) which was another red flag. I checked for proof and I was emailed a pdf providing information I already knew.
   

Recipient Name: (sisters name)
(And then in gods name someone hold me back from beating someone... was listed...)
Actually Recipient Name: (Name that I've never seen in my life)
(Like.... HuH?? And then I look further down to see doodly signature, you know the type that looks like 5 year olds signature trying to copy their parents signature when they need it because they’ve done something bad and don’t want their parents to know so they sign it in their place and you’re well aware that they did a very not so well job)
Their Signature: (spaghetti noodles) Address: (literally my address)
And it’s said that a signature was supposed to be given due to the contents being expensive, however I had not heard a knock on my door at all and I was frustrated.
I then started calling usps, called like 5 times, got frustrated with their bot, called the apartment front office like 3 times, called amazon with a gleam of hope that something was there, walked around my building looking for my package, asked my neighbors, checked the hub, mailbox and my front door and nothing. I was put on hold from usps for at least 2 hours and finally got greeted with that they’d look into it and they would contact me again no later than Wednesday so all I can do now is wait hopelessly and worry about any type of conclusion I am jumping to.

1. Paypal So after all this worry I play a few games of Csgo to take my mind off of things and then I check my email for any possible messages from usps and I see that my paypal is being limited and obviously this is a heart breaker considering that it’s really my own possible way of getting any sort of income. (I’m 17 without an actual job due to having to take care of my baby sister, no drivers license to drive to work either) and so I’ve turned to art to make some money for when I need it or want something. Apparently my recent transactions were suspicious but I’m not really sure how and obviously I need to give them documentation to basically prove I’m not some drug dealer or whatever exploiting paypal services and as I’ve listed before I’m 17 so my account would basically be closed, etc. it’s a shit storm. I don’t have access to my debit card anymore so I can’t even use that.

Basically I’m just really upset about how my life is going right now and with all this corona and such going around and people struggling with rent and living, I know my problems seem like nothing but I guess I just wanted to let it out my system and get some sympathetic replies cause I’m that extra, anyways if you’ve read this far congratulations for being so patient.

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Looking for more CSGO Related subreddits? Check these out!

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Before I begin I'd like to make a small introduction; I am completely a new viewer of competitive CSGO matches (since this week) and I can 100% attribute this to the existence of CSGL. CSGL gives me the ability to keep up-to-date with upcoming matches, provides me a livestream of the matches, and even allows me to bet which sparks my interest to actually watch the match in the first place. I'm a moderately skilled player who has achieved the rank of Master Guardian Elite in valve matchmaking (currently a bit lower as I am making my return to the game after a few months inactivity), and I believe that watching these competitive matches is starting to positively impact my game as I am able to see effective use of nades and angle holding.
However, my first impressions of this scene seem to be a bit shaky due to the huge amount of DDoSing taking place in the LDLC v VP and NM v PD matches. There is no doubt that the DDoS attacks are occurring due to the matches being posted on CSGL - this is evident due to the fact that NM v PD was an amateur match which typically would go largely unnoticed let alone not attacked.
Should we be mad that CSGL is providing a platform to allow skin betting and show when matches are happening? Absolutely not. CSGL is an amazing service to have for the CSGO competitive scene and I can tell you this in my first-hand experience of never having followed the competitive scene before. It is also brilliant that they are giving exposure to amateur teams, and I'm sure that the amateur teams themselves approve of the exposure to hopefully give them motivation and the drive to become better players (a feeling of importance in their matches played).
From what I can notice, this subreddit is generating a lot of hate towards the admins of CSGL calling them "idiots" for not returning skins on the LDLC v VP match. I think we should all take a step back and think about what the role of CSGL is in regards to the bets. CSGL lets you know beforehand what teams will be playing and when, whether or not it's a 1 match stint or BO3 and show you the betting odds. Once a match is over they report the winning team, winners of the bets make a profit on skins and losers lose out on their betted skins. The key point here is they report the winning team. Yes LDLC won the match and DDoS had a huge impact on it, yet they still won the match...it is up to CSGL to report this win.
I'd like to illustrate something about betting which I'm sure you can all appreciate as I will use real life examples. Nobody owes anything to people who bet, not even if the match is fixed in anyway. Let's look at football (soccer) for example; if a referee gives away a penalty for a seemingly unnecessary cause and this action then goes on to influence the outcome of the match the people who bet cannot simply approach the bookies and say "this is unfair, without this cheating ref I would have won my bet, please either return my bet or give me the win". That simply is not how betting works in the real world guys. If you want eSports to be taken seriously then it should follow the constructs established in sports.
Another real life example of this happening would be the Froch v Groves fight a few months ago. The last round stoppage caused a lot of uproar as it seemed completely unnecessary. No returned bets here either.
At this point I would like to point out that I am not in anyway condoning the use of DDoS attacks, and I also find it completely unfair that matches are being influenced by DDoS - it is ruining my enjoyment of the matches played and not allowing for teams to play competitively under normal conditions.
Now I would like to draw your attention to last night's BO3 between NM and PD. People are now giving some praise to CSGL for postponing the match and returning skins. What you have to realise here is that it was the player's choice to not continue with the match, which then allows for the natural continuation of postponing the match on the website and returning the skins. CSGL provides a platform in which results are being reported, they should not provide a platform which alters the results.
I would now like to talk a bit about the impact of DDoS attacks and moving forward with the CSGO competitive scene. After last night's match of NM v PD it is clear that their is at least some power given to the players in regards to DDoS attacks ie. choosing to postpone a match due to the attacks. I think going forward with the battle against DDoS, power given to the players will be a vital part in making sure that future matches can not be so heavily influenced. I think it is clear to anyone that the choice to postpone the match was a better decision than to continue playing in seemingly unplayable circumstances.
It must now be becoming clear that something has to be done against these DDoS attacks. I would highly doubt it if the CSGO competitive scene would crumble due to DDoS attacks with no attempt to battle it. Increased player security will obviously be very important. It seems that the public can no longer be trusted with player's skype names (for instance) when there is the potential to bet skins on the matches.
This concludes my view, however my take-home message for you all is this: nobody owes you any return on your bet if the outcome of the match is skewed in any way due to cheating.

Whenever someone who is new to CSGO-betting asks for help there are always some users who are nice to post general guidelines/tips for how to think about betting.
Some of it is pretty obviously correct, such as betting when the odds are too high in relation to the probability.
However, there are two different types type of advice that I frequently see both on this subreddt and elsewhere. And while both of them have some merit, you acutally shouldn't be following them if you want to maximize your earnings potential:
Myth 1: Only bet on teams you watched alot of games from/ Only bet on T1/T2 teams
Intuitively it makes sense. If you bet on teams you followed intensively you know them well and you can better asses how they will perform in the future.
However, you know who also follows tier 1/tier 2 teams very well???
EVERYONE ELSE!!! If the bookmakers were terrible at assessing how good Cloud 9, Navi or Astralis are, they would pretty quickly be losing money.
But when it comes to tier 3-tier 4 teams? They are likely to make a ton of errors... In fact they do that all the time. As an example, you think Team X's rise from a tier 3 team to a top-tier 2 team was sudden?
People who followed the tier 3 scene would know better. They would have seen a team that dominated the tier 3 scene and looked to be a top 15-18 (in the world) team going into ESL Pro League. Therefore they would have been betting on Team X/Heroic every single game for the first 2 weeks as they were insanely underrated.
So don't be scared of uncertainty/unknown/small teams. That's where the real money are made.
Myth 2: Spend a lot of time analyzing a few games (quality over quantity)
I also see some people suggesting that you should bet rarely as in max 10 bets a week so you can pick out the best matches.
And while that may also be sound advice to someone struggling with gambling addiction, this is not how you make the most money.
This week I probably made over 200 different bets. I increased my bankroll by 15-20%, and yet never risked losing more than 5% of my entire bankroll in one day. So if every possible bet was lost I would still have 95% of my bankroll from the day before.
And while this week has been good, I've been doing this steadily for the past 1-2 months. Thus I've managed to create a system where I earn profit consistently on a very low risk.
How the quality over quantity-bettor will perform
Since most people lose at betting, you would have to be pretty skilled to actually generate profit. But let's assume you are one of the best and most hardworking betting analysts out there. So you can generate 110% on average for each bet.
Assume you bet 5% of your bankroll each day (to get the same worst case scenario as I have). How much could you then expect to make on a week?
Well you would increase the bankroll by: 0.05 * 7 * 0.1 = 3.5%.
Not really a whole lot, right? And then think about the fact that the chance of losing 35% (as in 7 bets in a row) is a ton higher than me losing 5% everyday since I am making a ton of bets (lower standard deviation)
So both the reward and risk CAN be higher if you for quantity.
How to think about looking for quantity
I remember once reading a discussion between two - both pretty smart - guys on whether there was value on betting on a tier 1 team winning against a tier 2 team. One guy argued strongly in favor of the tier 1 team winning 66% of the time and hence finding a bet of value in odds 1.54. The other guy tried to make the point that there was only 62% and hence you shouldn't be betting.
On the other hand I was like "Who the f... cares". Figuring whether a team has 62% of 66% is often times close to impossible unless you have a ton of high-quality data to rely on. And even in the best-case scenario where the 66%-guy is correct he only makes a small value bet.
The point being is that you really shouldn't be spending time on figuring out whether there is value on those types of bets. Instead look for the bets where the bookies think there is a 15% chance of an upset occuring but you believe there should be 25%.
Or when a favouritite can give you 1.3 times the money back despite the fact that there are 3 tiers between the two teams (which implies around 85% winning chance).
And those opportunities do exist, but alot of people just don't see them because they are too busy with (almost) irrelevant analysis.
General advice on how to look for "quantity"
And how do you look for quantity? I don't really want to go to much in depth here as the current betting market is HOPELESSLY INEFFICIENT and it's only a matter of time before it becomes more efficient. So if I revealed all of the "secrets" publicly I would hurt my own profit as well. (just realized I started to sound like a scam-artist).
But I will give you one piece of advice: Rather than spending the majority of the time "analyzing"/watching games 100%, you should have tabs open from selected bookmakers in order to look for obvious errors (don't just use one bookmaker).
Also don't spend (too) much time looking from advice for other people since there are a lot of people who wants to pretend like they are experts but really aren't smart enough to make a long-term profit. And if you aren't an experienced and profitable bettor yet, chances are you will start trusting the wrong guys.
If anyone is interested
If you are interested in becoming a profitable CS:GO better, you can pm me and I might be able to set 1-3 guys up with a system/a structure on how to think betting on CS:GO. There are quite a few "levels" and a lot more "advanced" tips that I see noone talking about in this subreddit but could earn you some extra bucks.
I don't care if you are an expert/new to the game or have a $100 bankroll of $20000 bankroll. But I do have two requirements (besides being 18+):

1. You are motivated and you don't consider this as an easy way to make a few thousands dollars. While betting isn't exactly rocket science, it does take some practice and knowledge to get into a position where you can earn money. And when you get there, it's really really fun.
   
2. You are good with probabilities/numbers. If you are somone who bets just because you "feel" like a team will win, chances are you have no potential as a winning bettor.
   

Getting really unacceptable man, first thing I put up with was the fact that eSports matches are not graded as instantly as NBA,MLB,soccer,nhl etc, some of these matches usually take 30 minutes and can spike up to an hour and a half.
That's not a huge problem for me but its still a downside, however, after today, I don't think I can put up with their shit anymore. Their was like 10-20 esports matches for CSGO and non, I mean NON of them were on the site to bet on, the stupid "odds maker" that they so heavily rely on took off all of the games 1 hour prior to the event. I mean seriously wtf?
Oh and their live betting has to be among the worst live betting sites among all of the bookies.
Any suggestions for bitcoin bookies that have esports matches?

I honestly think that csgo betting is such a bad idea in its current state. as any kid (csgo undoubtably being used to bet by really young teens, under 18) can spend all their money on a sport that is actually very unregulated compared to other sport betting. The fact that you use skins instead of directly putting $$$ through the site really disassociates the fact that you are spending money and BETTING on something, which I bet will start and lead to gambling addictions in younger kids and teens that might play the game, become interested in the betting side of the community as it is so active, and sercome to all the ways that these sites pull you in. Now older people obviously understand more the risk of gambling and betting and aren't as serseptable to being attracted to esport betting.
The other problem is how the betting actually works, go on csgo lounge and see a list of upcoming matches, how easy it is to bet on a team with a 75% odds on them. The nature of CSGO is that a game can be lost, won so randomly. A team that has a 10-0 lead in the first half can quite easily go and lose the game, disputed the skill and experience of the team, this can and often does happen. This really does make betting so unreliable compared to other sports where, although a team can always lose and lose momentum, stats and facts are more prudent due to decades of people betting on them. Sites and bookies face way more regulation than say csgo lounge will face as it isn't recognised as proper gambling. Because you are gambling using skins with a monitory value, under 18s are easily able to bet where as betting on another sport requires many more hoops to jump through to actually bet.
The nature of how betting works as well also has some issues, when you first start out betting, you may start by simply putting a £0.20 skin up for a team that the site tells you have a much higher chance of winning (say 75% again) you may do this a win quite a lot of times, but it doesn't actually get you anywhere, like betting on say football. So you can start betting on higher odds bets or even putting more expensive skins up for the bet, essentially increasing the risk reward factor a lot. Now all betting sites essentially do the same thing for football, horse racing etc.. But these places and sites both require you to be an adult, responsible for the lose at may ensue, and they take physical money. Csgo betting doesn't do either, a 12 year old can bet large sums on money which is represented as virtual skins without really thinking of the consequences on a game that generally doesn't have a very definitive outcome.
I welcome any thoughts and I'm sure I missed some big points for and against,
TL;DR csgo betting is is accessible to anyone whilst taking away the risk of physical money being spent through sites that aren't as heavily regulated compared to sport betting sites.
And whilst gambling in general is risky and dangerous, esports betting's accessibility to kids and teens compared to regular gambling is a whole other ballgame

I've tried googling this, but I couldn't find anything, so I'll try my luck here on Reddit.
Has anyone researched any statistic showing what side is favorited on the different maps for gun round?
I do a fair bit of betting on CSGO and a bet I find myself making a lot of times is who will win the gun round. The reason is that the odds do very rarely seem to take into account what sides the teams are playing on the gun round, so if a side is heavily favorited this would be a perfect opportunity to beat the bookie.
So far I've been going with what I think is the favored side and doing fairly good, but if I had some real data to go by that would help out a lot.

I don't play Csgo myself but my bookie has bets regarding these teams making roster changes before new years eve. So I wanna know if there are any rumors of any of the teams making roster changes?
Edit: Thanks for the answers guys.

I am not sure whether I am violating any of the subs rules posting something this long winded and opinionated. So if I am show no mercy.
After of spending a few months on this sub and reading through some of the top threads and new threads that don't make it very far. A recurring theme, especially around major tournaments and the like, is that companies like ESEA, Valve, DreamHack, PGL, ESL, etc. shouldn't be associated with gambling sites and betting sites. As well as the issues of gambling problems, underage gambling, match-fixing, etc. Points which directly lead into the reason why I feel a discussion is necessary.
First I would like to preface this entire discussion with the fact that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a M-rated game. Which is not to say that users <17+ do not exist because just like Alcohol and Tobacco, where there is a will there is a way. I would also like to clarify that I do not support the amount of gambling and betting that has spawned from the expansion of CS, but I understand why it exists. In the same way I understand why betting on Horse Racing, or boxing, or Baseball, or football or American Football exits. More on this later though.
Gambling and Betting sites Sponsoring CSGO Events
The first elephant in the room should be the entire sponsorship debate. My take on this entire situation is that although gambling and betting websites may have wormed their way into monetarily “supporting” the professional scene, Valve technically was really the first offender. First off let's not try and act like CS wasn't on the decline before the introduction of skins. Just by looking at the statistics that are publicly available, it is clear that skins brought new life to the franchise and is a major contributor to why CS is growing at such a staggering rate. This is not to say that skins are the only reason, but a compelling argument could be made that without skins CS wouldn't be in the same place it is today. This however is not the point I am after. The point I am trying to make it that, you would have to be naive to not see that the fiscal model supporting CS:GO itself is very similar to that of a Casino. The one stipulation being that the returns Valve gives out are literally valueless on a balance sheet. Cases, keys and items are virtual, they cost Valve nothing to generate, there are no material costs and no development cost (if the skin is community generated). A point which directly leads into the idea that opening cases is no different than going to a casino and using a slot machine. Opening cases is gambling. CS:GO is directly funded by gambling. So how can someone vehemently oppose the support of gambling websites to fund CS events, when the sport/game itself is supported by gambling? While I do not support gambling sites sponsoring these events I understand that a double standard has been set.
Self-Control and Regulation
Next comes the gambling problem users may fall victim to. To me this is simply a problem with self control and regulation. Not a problem with the fact that betting exists, because as I said, betting is a part of everything competitive regardless of what the subject matter may be. From the limited amount of websites I have had the privilege to view, it is clear that the current state of gambling and betting is akin to that of the wild west. Any Joe Schmoe with an understanding of HTML and Steam's Web API can make a site and act as if they are reputable service where you can bet or gamble your money away. Which is a far cry from the state of other sports or online gambling in general. As the amount of regulations on the latter are quite restricted in the US (I've no knowledge on the global policies on online gambling mind you, only the policies in US). With only a few states allowing any online gambling at all. Which brings me to my actual point. In order for any headway to be made to crack down on gambling in general we first must try and regulate it. At this point there is no one saying what you can and cannot do and no one holding anyone accountable. Which of course goes hand in hand with users acquiring gambling problems. How is the current landscape any different from going to your favorite bookie -insert gambling website here- and throwing down a bet on Sports team-insert CS team here- and losing it all? Its the scale, not the act itself. As the act itself is only controllable by the consumer, which goes all the way back to self control. Because of the staggering lack of self-control no one thinks to question CSGOFastBetMoneyShuffleLounge.com. So no, I don't think that there is a fundamental problem with betting, but i do think there is a fundamental problem with the consumers who choose to feed said system. (A problem not so easily fixed) To my own previous point. Regulation can only stifle the problem not remove it. There is no way to avoid gambling and sport, as they have and always will move hand in hand. But by stifling it we may impede the spread and reach it may have.
Underage Gambling
My final statement is in regards to the underage gambling portion. A problem again with regulation. They are clearly not enough regulation on these websites to deter underage patrons from using their services. Which is again something that is hard to do in an environment as such, when anyone can make a website and create a TOS that says "I certify that I am above the age of 18 blah blah blah." Without any real confirmation. Someone may correct me if I am mistaken, but I am certain real gambling, online casino type websites, require some sort of documentation or a SSN to ascertain how old you really are. A step that I would guess, stops many underage users at the door. Something that, if it is to exist alongside CS:GO needs to be taken in order to legitimize the industry, as well as create a barrier to stop those who may not have gambled if it wasn't so very easy. Now I would like to recall my previous statement about the ESRB rating of the game and a pretty simple solution to underage gambling. If the minimum age to gamble is 18 and the minimum age to purchase the game is 17+ then I would wager that if you can own the game then you are old enough to gamble. Again let's not be naive, of course people under 17 play CS and of course they are drawn to betting and the like. My point is this. Some may not like it, others will disagree, but it is clear that this is a parenting issue. Not to say that the parents are solely to blame, as I am sure many do not even know CS exists, let alone the fact that skin gambling is even a thing. But it’s clear as day that the underage individuals who are betting regularly and clinically clearly have insufficient supervision and guidance. If it's possible for an adult to fall prey to a gambling addiction the probability increases 10 fold when you aren't old enough to understand the true value of a dollar. Parents need to get involved, look at what your children are doing and address it accordingly. (To those who say I am very mature for a 12,13,14,15,16,17 even 18 year old. I assure you, you are not. Unless of course you work enough to support yourself financially and physically. ie a job, a house, an apartment, food, clothes, etc)
So my point on the whole is that, as a community, if gambling is to exist, then we must take steps to regulate it. We NEED to condense it, so that its reach not poison the entire community and dictate the direction in which our future as a sport and our youth takes. At this point we are at a crossroads, and it is our responsibility to decide whether CS is known as the a bastion of the e-sports community or a sport corrupted by uncontrolled, unregulated gambling.
I open it to you know. I truly want to know how people really feel about this issue and whether or not I am alone in my thinking.
Tl;dr If you are not going to read and understand my ideas fully then I don’t want to discuss them with you.

In 1919, a scandal shook the world in the largest sports betting scandal in history -- the Black Sox Scandal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sox_Scandal). It was at this point in time that the world was introduced in a large way, to sports betting scandals.
From that point on, the MLB (Major League Baseball for those non Americans) started the trend of becoming "America's Pasttime" and national sport. Sports betting grew pretty rampantly from the Black Sox scandal, and the rise of prohibition (outlawing alcohol!). Since watching baseball with a beer in hand was a tradition well established since the 20s, prohibition brought itself a new underground and with it -- a new set of gambling bookies, organizing, and more. It was big money, and serious business.
Up until the early 1950s, partly due to the end of WWII and more importantly -- to the advent of modern television, the NFL (American Football) started to overtake baseball in popularity. There are a few reasons for this -- first, its format makes anybody watching an "instant expert" -- the game is relatively simple to follow, and relies on the actions of a team playing well together to succeed. Baseball while a team sport, was still individualized in its scoring and defense; a single player could win the entire game, or drop a ball and ruin it. And since it was individualized, corruption and sports betting scandals were more common (see Pete Rose in the 60s). Football was less forgiving, and as a result -- the sports betting on football grew the sport dramatically, in addition to the push of media into people's homes. And one person couldn't throw the game without being pretty blatant.
Now why do I bring this up in /globaloffensive? Because there is a relationship between CSGO's growth trajectory and the influx of marketplace skin sales. Let's first take a look at CSGO's historical growth: http://i.imgur.com/alRpnU9.png
Take a look at the date of the uptick: Late 2013. Coincidentally, what else was released in mid/late 2013? The Arms Deal Update (http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/2013/08/7425/), which brought you what else -- skins, and the Steam Marketplace to start trading them. And what happened the day after that? On 8/14 (the day after this update), CSGOLounge.com was registered as a URL. By the end of the year, that site was up and running.
Looking at the growth of CSGO, it was pretty static until betting came into play. Additionally, having the ability for children to literally bet money within the game has driven a LOT of growth in CSGO, and not to mention -- a lot of money for Valve in terms of a cash cow. I read the article from earlier today where the OP asked Valve to step in and run things a bit, and also read through the discussion around what he proposed. And I think there is something here that the NFL does pretty well -- is to establish a governing body for CSGO. I don't mean that Valve should run tournaments; I enjoy watching ESEA, CEVO, FaceIt, tournies. However, I think given the fact that Valve is enjoying a lot of money being made from a lot of underage gamblers, that there is a responsibility on their end to keep not only a level playing field, but also by fostering a better environment for us all. It is their game after all, and the only folks who can release tools for this game are Valve. So taking this money and using it as seed for investments into the game I think, is not only a great benefit, but also a socially responsible thing given the nature of the monetary revenue into CSGO.
I'm not going to compile a list, but I know on the top of many people's minds are what DOTA2 gets on their client. Given the online nature of this game, a more aggressive anti cheat, if not re-designing the game to be more server-sided would be great. With the power of cloud computing nowadays this is no longer an impossibility but rather -- a question of when, and by whom.
In either case, we should recognize and thank sports betting to having helped grow the CSGO community. But Valve should also recognize that by illicit means that the game has grown that their obligations should be as a governing body to keep the game fair, to ban with prejudice any players who hack (and I'm talking about more than a slap on the wrist as CSGL is not responsible for this stuff), and set guidelines and rulesets for tournament organizers. I'd also like to see dedicated API servers, and more constant one-directional communication (here's what we are thinking about, ala Starcraft 2 admins/developers), and better availability of in depth statistics.
If we get a buffed client, a more resilient cheating solution (ala server siding things), better community tools (/recruitCS isn't always the best), the game itself is pretty good as it is. But this gives the players and viewers some degree of certainty that the sport is clean. Will CSGO's community crumble if this doesn't happen? No, probably not. But you can bet that while Blizzard is making Overwatch to compete with TF2 and steal away the skin market from them with a F2P game (and I can bet it will work well), you'll see Valve RUSH to patch TF2 to be competitive with Overwatch. And the same can happen to CSGO -- one well funded developer seeing an easy cash cow with tools to trade/bet skins/items, and all it takes is a bit of community support, and proper anti cheating mechanisms? No brainer.
But I don't want to play another game. So Valve, don't give others the opportunity, and give yourselves the opportunity to at least post some thoughts around the development of CSGO (NOT a discussion -- just one sided so we are not just getting a patch and "hoping" it's good -- same as you do for DOTA2.) You know... something like this: http://blog.dota2.com/2014/12/future-changes-frostivus/
Anyway, I know this is a wall of text so ...
TLDR: Betting makes CSGO bigger, Valve should make it better.
EDIT: Looks like there is already competition brewing, but I don't know much about it... thanks for the PMs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiDtnePSBdU

[Money] PayPal scam or scam attempt

Accused Scammer:
| steamname: PEG4$ [?] #Kinguin#
| steam3ID: [U:1:89123616]
| steamID32: STEAM_0:0:44561808
| steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198049389344
| customURL: http://steamcommunity.com/id/PEGASUS1337
| steamrep: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198049389344
Scam Reporter:
| steamname: Anonymous
| steam3ID: [U:1:162363915]
| steamID32: STEAM_0:1:81181957
| steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198122629643
| customURL: http://steamcommunity.com/id/darkestkid
| steamrep: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198122629643
Details of Scam:
i saw this dude post on csgolounge saying hes buying skins with irl money so i added we talked i gave him my palpay i sent trade invite then he said can u "PEG4$ [?] #Kinguin#: u can send me offer?
PEG4$ [?] #Kinguin# did not respond to the trade request.
PEG4$ [?] #Kinguin#: with my note booki cna't see items
PEG4$ [?] #Kinguin#: in trade" so i did he took the knife then he was trying to get me to throw my howel and karabit with my huntsmen but i said no then waited then he blocked me and removed me from friends list
ALL I WANT IS MY HUNTSMEN BACK​
Images/Evidence:

• http://i.imgur.com/Jf84xMM.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/CnHN1zB.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/GjtkEBS.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/Anq1VPj.jpg
  
• http://i.imgur.com/c6I6Qfu.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/Kmv3Qid.png
  

Source: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/report-76561198049389344-csgo-counter-strike-global-offensive-items.97771/

[Other] Any other fraudulant behavior

Accused Scammer:
| steamname: Kaisar | Bookie.GG
| steam3ID: [U:1:75127590]
| steamID32: STEAM_0:0:37563795
| steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198035393318
| customURL: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Kaisar
| steamrep: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198035393318
Scam Reporter:
| steamname: PoorAsianBoy QSing > 15 Unusuals
| steam3ID: [U:1:120906444]
| steamID32: STEAM_0:0:60453222
| steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198081172172
| customURL: http://steamcommunity.com/id/poorasianboy
| steamrep: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198081172172
Details of Scam:
The accused user adds me up to Quicksell me some of his items for keys. Nice right?. It was all good at the start when we agreed upon a deal of a Karambit Tiger Tooth FN along with 65% of market price of any smallelower tier knives. This means that if I bought the Tiger Tooth I would be getting 35% off the other lower tier knives instead of his normal 30-20%. I would be saving a bunch as he does have a lot of low tier knives (around 30 or so) in which I could spend the rest of my pure keys on. The main goal in my eyes was to make profit like any other trader does. So we come to a conclusion trading the Karambit for my 178 CSGO Keys while getting granted a discount of 65% of any lower tier knife using market price for the knife. Normally what 65% of market price means in key payment is this : Market Price of Knife x (% Discount in decimal)/ by market price of keys. Now this formula is very commonly used as I have provided proof of other "big" traders that use this formula. However, he replaces the keys in the formula to his own PayPal price AFTER we traded the Karambit and keys. Clearify: He takes the market price of the knife and then his own price of keys on PayPal (Market Price x 0.65(discount)/2(key). 2 things wrong with this in my eyes. 1. Your price cud be like 1 dollar and say that I should pay a lot of more keys using the formula. 2. If we are talking about market price, it's market price for everything. Not market price for 1 key and paypal price for the other key or market price on a knife and keys on paypal price. Everyone knows you can get both knives and keys cheaper using Paypal rather than funding the wallet so it was unfair he raised the price of his knife going by market while lowering the keys to suit his "deal". I was confident I was right in that situation but played it passive as he seemed like a nice guy and didn't wanna start an argument. Stuff happened and we couldn't get to a conclusion. This meant that the deal was not made and therefore I was missing out on his 65% partial add on. At this point I want a trade back as we both misunderstood each other so it's fair. So he deletes me claiming that I'm wrong. I re-add him once again and ask for my keys back because we both didn't go through with the deal. He deletes me again. So I try a third time and it comes out as a no because he says that he doesn't owe me a refund as we traded already, completely ignoring the deal at hand in the start of our conversation. Then he claims that he sold the keys for paypal money. I check his backpack and its private meaning that 1. He probably didn't sell the keys 2. He knows he is in the wrong here as he starts to do things that shouldn't happen. He also admits that he didn't want to give me a "refund" (not really a refund if we didn't go through with the deal). All these proofs lead to the fact that, yes, he did manipulate the % market formula to make a quick buck off me. Since we both misunderstood I gave him a chance to trade back but now it has come to me spending my time on this report.
Conclusion: No he should not be banned. Maybe Cautioned. Doubt he haven't heard of the formula he talked about when he states he is a 6 year trader.​
Images/Evidence:

• http://i.imgur.com/ggx8ZHk.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/P5JcICJ.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/3z19rfT.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/Bvrb5XY.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/Wqxndz4.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/k3AMf8d.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/wr7WC0R.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/VEcV4b9.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/LKnAThE.png
  
• http://i.imgur.com/7mkAI7q.png
  

Source: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/report-76561198035393318-csgo-counter-strike-global-offensive-items.104496/