Spectrum 2 Case: 52% payout, 15% chance of profit. Is opening it with $100 fair
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Spectrum 2 Case

Is it fair to open Spectrum 2 Case

In-game case, Valve odds Opening price $5.24
E Grade
52% Payout
−$2.52 Average loss per opening

Top prize ★ Butterfly Knife | Doppler · $2016.05 · 0.0043% chance per opening

What happens to $100

Scenario: open the case 19 times with the whole $100 budget and sell every drop at market prices. Here is what you get:

Openings it buys 19
Left after 19 openings $19.65 8 times out of 10: between $8.67 and $118.46
Chance to end ahead 15%
Chance to double 2.8%
Chance at the top prize 0.08%
Openings until zero 23

Everything is worked out at today’s market prices and the odds we could read. It is arithmetic, not a forecast or advice: someone gets a knife on the first try, but on average this is how it goes.

Ranked 17 of 42 CS2 cases by payout

Cases with a similar payout

Questions

Why is the Spectrum 2 Case payout below 100%?

The case and key cost $5.24, and almost everything that drops is a cheap skin: 79.92% for the lowest tier, 0.26% for a knife or gloves. Multiply the odds by market prices and you get 52% — that much of every 100 comes back on average.

Where do the prices come from?

The best market offers at the time of the calculation: Skinport, CSFloat, Market.CSGO, DMarket, Waxpeer and White.Market. That is what a drop actually sells for, not a display price.

What does “openings until zero” mean?

The way cases are really opened: sell the drop, open again while you can afford a case. For Spectrum 2 Case that is 23 openings on average — then the balance is below the opening price. Everyone gets there: a payout below 100% works like gravity.

What if I get lucky?

Over 19 openings the chance to pull ★ Butterfly Knife | Doppler is 0.1%, the chance to double the budget is 2.8%. Both numbers are honest, and both are small.