ESPORTS SECURE
James Watson, eSports Product Owner, Betradar
James Watson is the eSports Product Owner,
Betradar. He joined the company in Summer 2012 at an entry level, before quickly progressing upwards into a senior level position within the company’s Security Services division. Having closely followed the various breaking eSports integrity issues, particularly those developing around Winter 2014, James successfully designed, created and managed the eSports integrity arm of Sportradar. Indeed, currently the Security Services monitor all eSports events hosted by leading tournament organiser ESL (Electronic Sports League) – widely renowned as the world’s largest eSports company. James’s passion for eSports extends beyond simply
playing video games recreationally. Being a keen follower of all of the major eSports titles, he has developed an intuition for spotting current and future trends, as well as key risks facing what is still a young and vulnerable industry. Always on top of new developments in the eSports-betting environment, James keeps a close eye on both regulated betting outlets and non-regulated sectors dealing with the exchange of in-game items.
In the past few years we have seen a number of
eSport scandals involving match fixing by players, brokers and even league officials. Should this issue be a concern to sports betting operators and bettors alike? Watson: “One important point I would make is that this is an issue that affects all sports not just eSports. You can’t be complacent in this space. In traditional sports we have seen the rate of match fixing growing quite rapidly recently. Unfortunately, wherever there is betting there is always a risk of this. With eSports there is a sizeable business opportunity on the
wagering side but there are also the challenges associated with match-fixing. Fortunately, key stakeholders like ESL are taking this seriously and they are working with companies like Sportradar to utilize their fraud detection systems that are targeted towards the eSports environment and that have dedicated eSport analysts that monitor the game play in real time. We also look at the real time odds from the dedicated eSports betting operators as well as the 450 other betting companies from around the world to detect any anomalies in the wagering patterns. “Tournament organizers are also taking advantage of educational workshops where players are educated on matters related to cheating and match-fixing and learn how to prevent themselves from getting into dangerous situations that their colleagues may have previously been involved in.”
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? Watson: “There are two different types of cheating; cheating to win and cheating to lose. We are more focused on cheating to lose. There is nothing that makes eSports really unique in this aspect. It functions as a normal sport and the betting market is also very similar to traditional sports wagering. What is unique to eSports however, is the unregulated “skin” betting sites which focus primarily on CSGO and DOTA. Anyone, of any age, can bet on these sites and it is very difficult to track and locate those placing wagers (due to a lack of “know-your- customer”). Reassuringly, Sportradar’s FDS does successfully detect match-fixing in these markets. Towards the end of 2014 we actually saw a series of pro level matches where players threw games in order to win skins.”
MAY 2016 77
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