Valve is cracking down further on association with case opening, skin trading, and skin gambling services, with new rules restricting professional Counter-Strike 2 teams from leveraging them as sponsors.

Beyond its round-based gameplay, Counter-Strike has long been known for its in-game economy. Various weapon skins have been valued at tens of thousands of dollars, with one even topping the seven-figure mark.

As such, we’ve seen plenty of gambling platforms grow in prominence, alongside skin trading sites to boot. However, Valve has been pushing to minimize this side of the experience of late, and they’ve not been alone. YouTube has also made efforts to prevent promotion of CS2 skin gambling on its platform.

Now, a new rule update from Valve is forcing further restrictions. CS2 esports teams will no longer be able to promote certain sponsors like before.

As first reported by Dust2.us, Valve updated its Tournament Operation Requirements and Limited Game Tournament License on December 9, 2025.

As part of the new language, more stringent broadcast restrictions are now in place. In effect, it means case opening sites, along with skin trading or gambling sites, can not be advertised in any capacity – yes, this includes on team jerseys.

Tournament organizers are required to “not distribute or display, including on team jerseys or in any other content that may be visible during the broadcast, any content or material that either violates Valve IP or the terms of the Steam Subscriber Agreement.”

Skin.Club

Skin trading and gambling services are prominent sponsors of pro CS2 teams and star players.

Given just how prominent such services and platforms have become over the years, a wide range of pro CS2 teams are sponsored by them. In fact, three out of the top five ranked teams in the world today are implicated by this rule change.

Vitality is sponsored by Skin.Club, MOUZ is sponsored by G4Skins, and The MongolZ is sponsored by CSGOSKINS, all of which feature on the respective team jerseys.

As HLTV further reported, however, some teams got an early heads up on the rule change, and have swapped for non-sponsored jerseys ahead of the Starladder Budapest Major 2025.