Emergence of the competitive gaming ecosystem has brought with it, demand for a wide variety of video game contests. Gaimerz is an eSports platform enabling users to participate in video game challenges against evenly matched opponents, for “bragging rights” or real money. Having launched in select markets across the world, Gaimerz.com offers the option to flexibly participate in video game wagers of skill — without the hassle of fixed leagues or tournaments. Co-founder, Martyn Denney, provided some insight on his company and the market for eSports wagering, in an interview:
Up to now, wagering in eSports hasn’t been done well. What are some of the main reasons for that and how does Gaimerz address them?
Gaimerz.com is a match making platform which aims to facilitate contests between gamers of similar skill for prizes or cash. For the avoidance of all doubt we’d like to make clear that Gaimerz.com is not concerned with fantasy eSports wagering – a concept which is likely to suffer from the same issues which face established DFS operators.
During the Gaimerz.com development process we focused on “user experience”, “simplicity” and “keeping the gamer in control”. In our view earlier incarnations of P2P wagering sites suffer from trust issues in the gaming community because of their rather primitive match making methods. In the absence of partnerships with games developers in which game results can be taken directly from servers, sites in this particular niche require their members to instigate and self report results when required.
There is nothing to say that a self reporting system can’t work if designed properly to punish negative behaviour. Indeed, while Gaimerz.com continues to develop working relationships with major developers our site will rely on what we think is the most advanced self reporting system on the market. We believe that by providing our users with a host of statistics on their opposition, combined with an ability to confirm their willingness to play after having assessed those stats, generates enough trust for quality matches to take place.
Rather than elaborating on our current match making process, we’d encourage your readers to watch our video at: https://gaimerz.com/watch-video.
Ultimately Gaimerz.com will be moving away from the self reporting model and towards a results verification process which involves working directly with games developers in order to obtain results data directly. Talks are underway with a number of developers and we’d like to take this opportunity to encourage developers to get in touch with us if they’d be interested in exploring possible entry into this space.
What separates Gaimerz from eSports gambling platforms like Unikrn or Vulcun?
As alluded to above, Gaimerz.com is a peer to peer wagering platform in which members compete directly against other members in order to win prizes or cash. Gaimerz.com provides no functionality for members to “bet” on the outcome of a video game contest involving others nor does it cater to the fantasy eSports market. The latter two concepts both suffer from a much higher degree of regulatory and legal uncertainty than the model deployed by Gaimerz because the concept of “chance” comes into play.
Which game titles does Gaimerz currently support?
We’ve listed up on the site titles which we think are best suited to the platform. We’ve tried to stick to games which cater for fast and intense game play so we’re sure it’ll come as no surprise that titles such Rocket League, FIFA, MADDEN, COD and Forza are all available to our users.
We’re always happy to listen to our growing community of players and we’re able to quickly add further titles to our lobby if we get plenty of requests.
Is the payment function available everywhere or only in specific geographic regions?
We’re sure your readers have heard and read plenty about the current battles the DFS industry is facing so we’ll try and keep this part as jargon free as possible.
At Gaimerz.com our members can win prizes or cash based solely on their own gaming skills. Members are effectively wagering on their own gaming abilities in terms of winning prizes. DFS concepts or traditional eSports betting stray into choppy waters in large part due to the fact that the distribution of prizes is based largely on the performance of third party athletes over which no control can be exerted.
With the above in mind, Gaimerz.com is able to operate across a number of key territories across the globe including (initially) a select few U.S states:
Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, California, Ohio, New York, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
If your readers are able to visit the site successfully (we have IP blocking in place for markets where we won’t be operating) and they are over the age of 18 then they’ll be able to make full use of the site. Payment functionality for the above listed U.S states will go live later in January.
What is Gaimerz outlook for 2016?
Gaimerz.com went live in December 2015 and our aim for the first half of 2016 is to build our user base in key markets across the globe while we continue to work behind the scenes on furthering and finalising our relationships with game developers.
The niche Gaimerz.com operates in means that we’re able to target a variety of locations across the globe and we’ll be working hard to localise the site effectively so as to optimise user experiences regardless of player locations.
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Alex Fletcher is founder & president at eSports Group, where he helps customers meet their eSports advisory & consulting needs. When Alex isn’t glued to a screen, he spends time with his wife, their two dogs, and pretends to learn Polish. Feel free to stalk him on Twitter – @FletchUnleashed