How RiskySkins makes money, how that affects what you read on this site, and what it does not affect.
Last updated: 2026-05-10
Short version
RiskySkins earns commission when you sign up to a CS2 platform via one of our links. The price you pay (and the bonus you receive) is identical whether you click our link or visit the site directly.
We do not sell scores. Editorial ratings, rankings, and warnings are decided before any commercial discussion takes place. Several platforms that pay the highest commissions are publicly rated below 3 out of 5 on this site, and several of our top-rated platforms have no affiliate deal at all.
If a piece of content is sponsored or paid placement (rare on this site), it is labelled clearly with [Sponsored] or [Ad] in the page title.
RiskySkins is an independent review platform for Counter-Strike 2 skin gambling, trading, and marketplace sites. The site is owned and operated by Ryxens (founder and chief editor) and is based in the Netherlands.
We are not a gambling operator. We do not host games, hold deposits, process bets, or facilitate trades. Every platform reviewed on this site is a separate, third-party business that we have no ownership stake in.
Our role is to test those platforms with our own money, score them against published criteria (see our review methodology), and publish the results.
RiskySkins is funded by three revenue streams. In order of size:
When you click certain links on this site and sign up at a partner platform, that platform pays us a commission. The commission is paid by the platform out of its own marketing budget. It is not added to anything you deposit, wager, or pay.
Commission structures vary per partner. Common models on this site:
We do not disclose individual commission rates because they are protected by our partner agreements, but we do disclose which platforms we have a partnership with (see section 6).
Some platforms give RiskySkins readers an exclusive bonus code (extra free cases, a bigger deposit match, or a higher rakeback tier). Activating that code usually triggers a one-off attribution to RiskySkins as well, even if the user signs up without clicking our affiliate link.
The bonus a reader gets through our code is always equal to or greater than the standard signup bonus. We never publish a code that gives the user less.
Very occasionally, a platform may pay for a sponsored review or feature placement. When this happens:
[Sponsored] or [Ad].If you do not see the [Sponsored] label in the title, the article is editorial and not paid for.
Nothing extra, ever. Affiliate links do not change the price, deposit, fee, payout, or bonus value on the destination platform. Your account is identical whether you arrive via our link, a Google search, or a friend's referral.
The only "cost" to you is that the partner platform marks your account as referred by RiskySkins for tracking purposes. That marker has no consumer impact: it does not give the platform extra rights, restrict your withdrawals, or change KYC.
The line between commercial and editorial work on RiskySkins is enforced by four rules:
Every review is tested and scored against our public methodology before any commercial conversation with the platform. The score in the article is the score that came out of testing. Negotiating a partnership cannot change it.
Several platforms in our archive are rated 2.5 / 5 or lower. Those reviews remain published and indexed exactly as they were written. We have turned down "review removal" offers in 100% of cases.
Once per year we publish the full list of platforms that approached us for a partnership and were rejected on quality, licensing, or community-trust grounds. The most recent list is at the bottom of our methodology page.
The footer of every review states whether RiskySkins has an affiliate relationship with the reviewed platform, and whether the reviewer holds an active account there.
Affiliate links on RiskySkins behave like any other outbound link, but they carry one or more of the following technical markers:
riskyskins.com/go/ before redirecting to the partner.rel="nofollow sponsored" in line with Google's webmaster guidelines.Any in-text reference to a platform that simply names the platform without a CTA may or may not be an affiliate link. If you are unsure, hover over the link to see the URL: any riskyskins.com/go/ prefix is an affiliate link, anything else is a regular reference.
RiskySkins refuses partnership offers from platforms that:
The full list of declined partnerships, with the reason, is published once a year on the methodology page.
Affiliate revenue does not change the fact that gambling is risky. Skin gambling is real gambling. You must be 18 or older. Never deposit more than you can afford to lose.
If gambling is becoming a problem, please contact one of these confidential, free services:
If you are looking for tools to set deposit limits, self-exclusion, or session reminders, our responsible gambling guide covers each platform's options.
RiskySkins is not the merchant in any transaction made on a partner platform. We cannot:
For account, payment, or KYC issues you must contact the platform's support team directly. If you have already done that and feel ignored or treated unfairly, send the case to contact@riskyskins.com with subject [FEEDBACK]. We can sometimes escalate via our affiliate manager, and if the platform refuses to engage we will reflect that in the review.
For factual errors in any RiskySkins article, email the same address with subject [FEEDBACK] and we will correct or update within 24 hours of receipt.
This disclosure is published in line with the following frameworks RiskySkins voluntarily complies with:
rel="sponsored" on commercial outbound links.This page does not constitute legal advice. The rules above govern our editorial process, not your activities as a reader.
We answer every email about our editorial process and partnerships within 48 hours.
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