How we make money

CS2.IO compares services that handle real money. This page states how we fund the site and which commercial terms we reject.

This site earns nothing from the links it shows

  • No affiliate links. Every "View deal" and "Sell" control opens the venue’s own listing. We encode the destination in the page markup to limit automated scraping, but attach no referral or tracking parameters of ours. We receive nothing when you buy or sell through them.
  • No display ads, no sponsored posts, no paid reviews, no paid placements in any table or directory.
  • No sale of user data. See the privacy policy for what little we process.

The project is currently funded by its own team as a long-term product investment.

Independence from the venues we compare

  • We operate no marketplace. CS2.IO does not own or run any trading venue and is not affiliated with any venue we compare. Upcoming venues are tracked pre-launch in "on the radar" mode, with no rating until live data exists.

What may change, and the rules that will apply

Price tables rank by the effective buyer price or the net seller payout. A venue cannot pay to move up, receive a better verdict, or remove a verified fact. If our funding model changes, these rules still apply:

  • No pay-for-placement. Commissions, data partnerships, and advertising budgets cannot change a row, score, or table order.
  • If an outbound link later carries our tracking parameter, we will disclose its purpose here. It will not change the user price or the venue’s position.
  • A commercial partner will carry a visible "Partner" label and be named on this page.
  • A monetization change is disclosed here in the same release that activates it.

If we later charge for access to our own data products or research features, the charge will be for that product, never for placement in comparison results. Partnership inquiries go to partnerships@cs2.io.

What we never take money for

  • Positions in price tables, rankings or the markets directory.
  • Trust scores, review verdicts or the facts in a market dossier.
  • Removing or softening negative facts about any venue.
  • Anything from gambling: case-opening, jackpot, coinflip, roulette and betting sites will never be listed, reviewed, advertised or linked, at any price.

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