ESPORTS SECURE
eSports: a safe bet for operators?
Alex Igelma, Managing Director, Gaming Research Partners, examines some key questions related to the integrity of eSports wagering.
leaps and bounds. Fifteen years ago, prize pools for eSports
e
tournaments were measured in the thousands of dollars. Today it is not uncommon for individual team members to walk away with seven figures for winning a major tournament. Like all great spectator sports with large followings,
wagering on online and offline eSports tournaments is now commonplace. Many of the world’s leading bookmakers regularly take bets on numerous eSports matches and although in its infancy, the betting volume already exceeds that of Golf, Tennis and Rugby and is rapidly growing. Whenever money, wagering and professional sports mix, there is always the potential of issues related to the integrity of the games and the spectre of cheating and match fixing. This article will examine some key questions
related to the integrity of eSports wagering and will get the opinion of a number of the leading minds in the eSports industry as to their view on some of these issues
Rahul Sood, CEO, Unikrn
Previous to Unikrn, Sood created the first incubation fund for startups at Microsoft, and eventually Microsoft consolidated their global start- up activities under Sood’s leadership. In June 2013, he launched Microsoft Ventures. Since November 2014, Unikrn has raised a total
of 10 million dollars with investors such as Ashton Kutcher, Mark Cuban, Liz Murdoch, Shari Redstone, Binary Capital and many others. Unikrn signed an exclusive global partnership with one of the largest wagering companies in the world, and has opened their doors to multiple international markets.
74 MAY 2016
Sports - or competitive video gaming as we know it today - has been on the global scene for close to fifteen years now. In the past three years, eSports has exploded onto the world stage and it continues to grow in
In the past few years we have seen a number of
eSports scandals involving match fixing by players, brokers and even league officials. Should this issue be a concern to sports betting operators and bettors alike? Sood: “Every sport has their share of scandals. What should be of concern to people is that eSports has not been regulated up until very recently. There are sites out there, even today, that allow anyone, including minors, to bet on eSports using items that have intrinsic value (eg: skins) and no one is overseeing these sites. That’s why it is important to have the wagering regulated in a safe and fun environment.” Do you think the issue of cheating and integrity in eSports is as prevalent or rare as it is in traditional sports, or is it more common or less common?
Sood: “It is no different. The good thing about structured betting companies is that you can spot cheating and other funny business ahead of time. We can work with the tournament provider to ensure that there is player integrity.”
What can be done to ensure the integrity of
eSports matches and the corresponding impact on wagering? Sood: “With eSports, like any other sport, you can do things to ensure the integrity of the game play. Everything from ensuring that the LAN environment is safe and free of any external threats using proper firewalls for example to prevent DDOS attacks, testing players to ensure that they are not using any performance enhancing drugs and monitoring suspicious betting activity.”
Some people say that the fact that the “game” is
played in an electronic/virtual environment, the game lends itself more to cheating. Is this true in your opinion? Sood: “No, it’s not true; first in major tournaments all the equipment and the software is setup in
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