eSports betting company Unikrn are about to get ahead of the game by creating a new Code of Conduct designed to reduce instances of match fixing and other cheating scandals in the industry.
Money.
Pieces of paper that can make your emotions and values feel like trousers tumbling around the washing machine.
History proves where there is money; there will be crime.
It’s interesting watching the growth of the eSports industry through my laptop. The similarities with the growth of poker are quite striking. One of the parallels is the growth of governance – or most of the time, a lack of it.
Poker’s problem is the omission of a unified governing body. It breeds competition between the main tour operators, different rules and regulations and a lack of player protection, as each company strives to pinch a degree of advantage over their competitors.
The eSports industry faces the same problem. They too are a fractured community with leagues and tournaments rising in both the East and the West. There are numerous puppet masters. The kids grab their joysticks sniff it up and follow the scent of money.
Fractured communities that involve the handling of cash transactions are more open to corruption. There is nothing stopping someone from cheating in a European Poker Tour (EPT) event, and then playing in a World Poker Tour (WPT) event except for the thickness of one’s skin.
It’s all very Wild West, but over time baby steps will be taken to shore up these cracks to ensure the ecosystem is given the best chance to survive. After all, this is how everyone will eventually start licking a more lucrative lolly.
eSports betting company Unikrn are getting ahead of this curve ball by creating a Code of Conduct designed to address the issues of match fixing and other cheating scandals in the eSports industry.
Earlier this month, 12 South Koreans were arrested in connection with match-fixing allegations in StarCraft 2 games. In the beginning, when wages aren’t that high, the temptation to intentionally lose games, while those passing you the brown envelopes as they benefit through betting, is too much to handle. In March, a South Korean gamer tried to commit suicide after getting embroiled in another scandal.
Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood understands the importance of mainstream acceptance. Cheating doesn’t bode well in that forum. With analysts expecting the industry to become a billion dollar baby sooner rather than later, Sood knows the need to act is now.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban and movie star Ashton Kutcher are two of the people who have ploughed money into Unikrn, to give you a little taster of how serious people are taking the growth of eSports and the lucrative inclusion of a betting process.
Sood will be ensuring that the betting process doesn’t have any cracks in it and hopes his ‘competitive integrity certification’ program will provide the cement that stocks that sturdy foundation.
Unikrn is currently in dialogue with several league and tournament representatives to back their new initiative.
