Transparency is massively important in marketing and although you can bend the truth (Red Bull doesn’t actually give you wings) doing this in the gambling industry to an impressionable fanbase is a bad look.
In 2016, the YouTube scene of CSGO (CounterStrike: Global Offensive) was at a new high, with it becoming one of the biggest things for streamers and YouTubers alike. Like most things on the YouTube screen, it came with great controversy, as the CSGOLotto scandal spread across the YouTube world like wildfire.
For those reading this who are unaware of what CSGO is, it is a first-person shooter game that has 2 teams of 5 players. With one team being the attackers (terrorists) and the other the defenders (anti-terrorists). The premise of the game is to stop the terrorists from planting and detonating a bomb.
Although the game was wildly popular, the introduction of CS gambling and Rust gambling, made an already popular game even more popular. Gambling consisted of many types of betting, the usual betting currency was the skins of players. Playing could often result in big wins and in 2016, YouTubers ProSyndicate and TmarTn decided to try to take advantage of this.
The Story
In 2016 as the rise of CSGO gambling continued, Syndicate, the British-born YouTuber, and TmarTn, the American-born Youtuber, came together to promote a site called CSGO Lotto. This site was one of many sites that offered this service but having the backing from two famous YouTubers proved to be a massive help for the site.
What Was Wrong With Promoting The Site?
The main issue wasn’t the promotion of the site that the YouTubers offered. It was the information they withheld while they promoted it. These two YouTubers had fairly young and impressionable fans and took advantage of this situation.
A multi-video series was uploaded by both YouTubers where they played games the site had available and won large amounts of money. All seemed fine and dandy for the YouTubers and CSGO Lotto until a video released by H3H3, who has had his own controversies, showed that the two YouTubers actually owned the site that was situated in Florida.
Their Responses
This news caused a mass eruption in the CSGO betting world as it was theorized that the duo faked their big wins to get players to sign up and deposit money. In response to this, TmarTn claimed that he had made it clear that he was an owner of CSGO Lotto despite no video or photo evidence suggesting this fact.
Syndicate came out with a series of tweets, that were not well-received, and apologized for misleading his fans and promised that the intention was to never scam or harm players, especially his fans. This is a fair message to portray but then tweeted that he disclosed that the videos he posted were sponsored.
This was the biggest piece to pick out of his tweets, as a video being sponsored and you owning a site are different things. You cannot escape this by saying that you said the video was sponsored and his fans made sure he knew this with constant recipes to his tweets and YouTube videos.
The Fallout
After this controversy, the actual fallout was a tricky one as the laws of gambling fluctuated across countries and CSGO was a gray area in the gambling world. Some countries are unsure of whether CSGO skin betting is actually gambling or not and this is still a topic nearly a decade later.
Was This As Bad As It Seemed?
When I spoke about this recently, someone used the argument that the YouTubers didn’t do anything wrong as they didn’t scam anyone and if the site is fair, the players could have won big. This is true and because skin betting is luck-based, we cannot condemn them for getting wins.
However, if they posted the videos and made it clear that they owned the site before they got their big wins, players would have had eased expectations when they signed up. Transparency is massively important in marketing and although you can bend the truth (Red Bull doesn’t actually give you wings) doing this in the gambling industry to an impressionable fanbase is a bad look.
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