In eSports, there is a curious story, a case of “insider trading” in the shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) on Steam. The players of the team “Copenhagen Flames” apparently knew before anyone else that their team would go bankrupt on May 2, and they took advantage of this.
What was traded?
- When a professional team participates in a major tournament in CS:GO, cosmetic items with the team emblem are put into circulation, the so-called stickers.
- These stickers can be affixed to weapons, which hopefully increases their value. The stickers can be freely traded on Steam.
- In the history of CS:GO, stickers increase in value when the team they belong to is disbanded. Similar to an artist whose works become more valuable once they pass away. The logic is: There will be no more supply, so the supply remains the same, while demand surely increases over time.
“They secured their own severance package”
This is what the players are said to have done: According to a skin trader on Twitter, players of the team “Copenhagen Flames” bought their own team’s stickers from a tournament in Stockholm before their team officially filed for bankruptcy on May 2.
The trader says: “They secured their own severance package.”
The trader from whom the purchases were made had already noted on April 29 that the players were buying heavily from him and acquiring the “halos” (via twitter).
What is the reaction? The site Dexerto quotes some other skin traders who speak of “insider trading.” The behavior is described as “sus” – suspicious.
Is this illegal? Well, in “real life” on a stock exchange, that would be insider trading, as it involves using information that one possesses exclusively to make business decisions based on that information. This is against stock exchange rules and can be punishable in Germany with prison sentences of up to 5 years or fines.
In the world of CS:GO skins, however, there are no such rules.
Price rises from 10 cents to about 40 cents after bankruptcy announcement
Whether this “crime” will actually pay off for the players is something we will have to wait and see. Significant increases in value will likely take a few years. The truly valuable skins of “bankrupt” teams in CS:GO are 9 years old.
At the moment, the price of the skins of the sticker “Copenhagen Flames Stockholm 2021” has quadrupled, but it only went from 10 cents to 40 cents.
