How PERA Became The Bookies Most Blacklisted Counter-Strike Team

PERA recently announced they were ceasing operations for unspecified reasons. According to oddsmakers they were blacklisted from most major betting platforms after a series of investigations.

On August 6^th Turkish Esports Organisation PERA announced that it would be ceasing operations and releasing their CS2 roster from their contracts. The official announcement was bare bones stating “Pera Esports is unfortunately finished. Everyone who was part of us, now is free to explore new opportunities. We want to thanks to everyone who was participating and fight for us.” They also included the phrase “end of an era” which seems exceedingly generous for an organisation that was only founded at the end of 2023.

No-one would bat an eyelid at a smaller esports organisation deciding to close during this particular time period. Heading into the end of 2023 a huge market correction began to occur in esports, colloquially known as the “esports winter” where organisations have laid off staff, released teams and massively downscaled their operations in order to survive. Many smaller entities don’t have enough income to ensure survival even while taking those measures so many will have simply believed this to be the fate of PERA.

However behind the scenes it also turns out PERA had become one of the most controversial names in Counter-Strike betting having been blacklisted on multiple betting platforms for suspected match-fixing. Indeed a report from an oddsmaker this publication was able to review stated that they were being monitored from their inception and quickly triggered alarms with suspicious betting patterns occurring during their matches across multiple line-ups.

Regular readers will recall that in May this publication was sent a “recommended blacklist” that was created by an organisation responsible for generating the odds for betting platforms. Since then another company that provides the same service also shared a blacklist of teams and players who they advise against sportsbooks offering odds for. The reason a player or a team would find themselves on this blacklist is repeated suspicious betting activity and suspected matchfixing during their games. The recommendation not to offer odds on their games is a safeguard for those who would place bets as the outcomes are likely being manipulated. PERA were listed in the highest risk category on both blacklists that were created independently of each other

It’s worth noting that many betting platforms that offer odds on esports matches still don’t have a particularly great understanding of just how easy it is to get around the traditional preventative measures they use. For example while teams are often blacklisted many betting sites only make a note of the team name and don’t track individual players. Many teams that engage in match-fixing simply change their name to something else to get around this very surface level protection. Equally individual players can move on and create other teams or brands themselves without that being tracked either. Only the very obvious habitual offenders are tracked by the websites with the resources to invest in such an endeavour.

The players first ended up on the oddsmaker’s radar back when two of the team – Jurus "Kamion" Zsolt and Norbert "msn" Török – were playing under the name ONYX in the third season of CCT’s Central European league. Moments before their match against Dynamo Eclot several large bets were placed from accounts with no prior betting history. The betting platform on which they were placed were able to confirm that both accounts were controlled by the same individual.

The match itself was a total disaster for the Hungarians. Unable to win their game and deliver victory for their new devout fan they then forfeited the match due to “internet outages” that conveniently affected three of their players. In such circumstances most sportsbooks will cancel bets thus meaning that even those who would lose their money find themselves refunded. It’s quite common among fixed matches to see players claiming power or internet outages either for the purposes of cancelling matches or to bring in stand-ins that then justify an underperformance in matches they were favourites to win. This suspicious behaviour, unbeknownst to them, placed them on the radar of several esports bookies and oddsmakers.

The two players then went on to “join” PERA Esports which was promoted as being a Turkish organisation sponsored by that country’s betting site Perabet. Almost overnight social media accounts, a YouTube channel and a website were created for the new brand. The website contained very little information except short biographies of the players and a link to their HLTV matches page. It might be a little known fact to people outside of esports betting but the importance having your team and matches listed on the HLTV website largely dictates whether or not a sportsbook will offer odds on your matches. If you’re not recognised as “official” by that website and/or Liquipedia then only the most dubious of betting platforms will offer action for those games. It’s quite telling then that the website featured the link to the HLTV page quite prominently because PERA were created with the betting aspect very much at the forefront.

The oddsmaker’s investigation into PERA found lots of information that raised concerns. First was that there was no official connection between the team and the betting platform sponsor to be found anywhere. Perabet as a platform itself holds a Curacao gambling license but is considered to be a “low safety” platform by most consumer websites. It is also not regarded as a particularly large operation and has only been in existence for over a decade. It is theoretically possible the sponsorship is legitimate but given that there’s no press release or cross pollination between the esports team brand and the social media accounts of the betting platform it seems unlikely. The oddsmakers investigation theorised that the players wanted to increase the illusion of legitimacy by inventing a sponsorship that seemed plausible but was also unlikely to ever be challenged. After all, why would a small betting platform and online casino care about what little free advertising a small Counter-Strike team would provide?

The second cause for concern was that the esports organisation wasn’t registered anywhere the investigators could find, again making it unlikely that it was an official branch of a betting platform. There has also been no public facing management or owner that has spoken about being associated with the project and all official communications have come from social media channels that are seemingly controlled by the players and coach.

During the first few months of the team’s existence there were multiple causes for concern. Several sportsbooks reported strange betting patterns around their matches similar to those seen in 2022. These included single large bets placed by VIP accounts that had upper limits that had never bet on esports before or since, their sole interest in esports revolving around a single PERA match that they happened to win. However in addition to the suspected matchfixing there were also suspicions of cheating being investigated.

Publicly many fans of Counterstrike will know this due to the public allegations made by then Guild Eagles player Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimi. After losing a 2-0 final in the ESL Pro League Qualifier Halimi didn’t hold back and publicly stated that the team wasn’t even attempting to hide their cheats. Given the anticheat protections around ESL events if any cheating occurred the most likely form would be via obtaining a live stream from a betting or data collection partner commonly known as “using radar.” In such cases the live stream access is either sold by a rogue employee or commentator or sometimes even provided directly by the business with access for the explicit purposes of matchfixing. While no evidence of cheating was found in PERA’s case a number of matches were flagged as highly suspicious by both the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) with both entities having open ended investigations for the team’s matches from January this year. These include the controversial match that Halimi complained about.

Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimi publicly voiced his suspicions on X.com

These allegations were given more credibility when the team competed at the inaugural CS2 Major in Copenhagen’s regional qualifiers. The community and many professional players were quietly confident that the team would not be able to win a single match at a LAN event without their online enhancements and sure enough the team went 0-3 much to everyone’s amusement. Serbian organisation Aurora were so confident in their impending failure that they even promised to giveaway $322 worth of in-game cosmetics for every round PERA were able to achieve. That amount isn’t coincidental. “322” is a common term used to denote matchfixing in esports that has its origins in Russian Dota player Alexey “Solo” Berezin being banned after agreeing to throw a competitive match in exchange for just $322.

Following the disaster Áron "⁠Aaron⁠" Homoki gave a defiant interview with HLTV but it did little to alter anyone’s perceptions around the team. Of greater concern than the “haters” was the reality that all the attention had given impetus to the many ongoing investigations behind the scene. Shortly after the CS2 Major qualifier one oddsmaker recommended to their partners that the players be blacklisted for life from ever being allowed in a team that was given odds. A second one also placed them in their highest tier of risk which states not to give moneylines on the team or any player listed on the roster should they play elsewhere. Given the almost ubiquitous agreement that there was something “off” about this group of players it seems that most of the betting platforms heeded this advice.

“To be honest, betting companies fed up with match fixing,” one source that provided a copy of the blacklist stated.  “It's really bad for business. Imagine, you found fraud and match-fixing and you cancel the results and give the money back. People, that won on this match accidentally, that knew nothing about the matchfixing… These people are extremely upset, and they think that bookie want to take their money.”

By March the suspected founders of PERA were dropped from the starting roster. The investigators suspect that this was due to the team being unable to generate moneylines while they were associated with them. It’s not clear what involvement, if any, they maintained with the organisation after that but the team did compete in a number of tournaments without them. It was noted that even an event that they won, the online YGames Pro Series in June, had close to no sportsbooks offering odds on any of their games. Not even a roster change seems to have done much to change the assumptions about the roster.

Through that lens perhaps it’s easy to understand why they decided to cease operations. They had reached a point of no return reputationally speaking and any player associated with the brand was going to be associated with the allegations that important stakeholders behind the scenes absolutely believe. While there are no penalties that can be issued by ESIC or tournament operators at this time sportsbooks can certainly ensure that their ability to profit from any wrongdoing is simply removed. For many players in the lower tiers of Counter-Strike this is a much more terrifying prospect than being banned from tournaments they might never participate in anyway. The PERA project shows how even smaller teams can go to present a façade of legitimacy and be treated like something they’re not by players, fans and bettors alike.