While the top flight of esports has a cash flow of millions of dollars, coming directly from tournament organisers, online competitive platforms used by amateur and semi-professional players can occasionally leave something to be desired.
Whether it’s unfair administrative decisions or slow (sometimes, even no) payments for winning players, there’s an element of unreliability and unfairness that oftentimes plagues the underbelly of esports. Bitspawn was created in an effort to remedy and rectify such problems, as we delved into through a conversation with its CEO, Eric Godwin.
Esports Insider: How did the premise of Bitspawn come about?
Eric Godwin: As a video game player for over 20 years and an amateur competitive gamer, I have used the platforms that are out there and have been disappointed with the user experience and see a lot of room for improvement in esports software solutions. I have personally experienced being ripped off by event organizers, had to deal with the tedious game result submission process, and slow payouts. I created Bitspawn to help the millions of players out there competing in esports that are getting burned by the platforms that they use.
ESI: How do you ensure that money is distributed equally, and how you decide what equal is?
EG: We use blockchain technology and our in-house proprietary backend that creates a smart contract for the tournament and distributes funds held in escrow to the winning party. No single individual controls tournament payout, it is all automated and trustless. Players receive their winnings in their wallets within minutes of finishing a competition. The fact that players can receive their winnings almost instantly, securely, and withdraw real money from the platform gives us a competitive advantage.
In terms of the distribution, we have a hardcoded system that ensures participants and organizers are properly and proportionally rewarded. For teams that manage their organizations on our platform, we have the features that prevent managers and team owners from hoarding winnings after tournaments, and give players their deserved payouts.
ESI: What’s wrong with the current esports talent pipeline and how are you proposing to fix it?
EG: The majority of the money and revenues flowing into esports are going to the professional scene and only 3% of players are receiving any meaningful compensation from competing in esports. Amateur players and rising talent are an afterthought in the current ecosystem. Players have to stream and broadcast themselves across social media platforms just to get any exposure.
The problem is multifaceted: content creation and streaming is a job in itself; players don’t want to have to stream their scrims and competitions all the time; and a lot of players are more introverted and don’t want to stream or become an influencer, they just want to play games at a very high level. The lack of player support for amateur competitors looking to level up their gaming careers means that undiscovered talent slips through the cracks and never gets to see the light of day.
We are making Bitspawn friendly to those who have never participated in esports, while still being enjoyable for pros to use. We are able to connect players on our platform directly with brands, sponsors, and organizations; creating a positive feedback loop that encourages player participation and corporate engagement.
“We are building the digital infrastructure needed to reinforce the esports ecosystem and make it more sustainable.”
ESI: How do you see Bitspawn growing in the coming years?
EG: Bitspawn aims to be a leader in esports tournament curation as well as player analytics and data. We are an esports software solutions company and aim to be a leader in the industry. Bitspawn strives to be the leader in player curation and brand engagement. Our vision is to provide amateur and professional esports teams with a multitude of tools that will help sustain growth and talent development pools.
ESI: How is Bitspawn different from the competition?
EG: There are a lot of online tournament platforms out there, but most are not designed to benefit the end-user, amateur or pro players. They are designed with organizers and sponsors in mind. Bitspawn caters towards its users and community. Our competitors are more or less simple web apps that have not innovated in the past 5 years or so. We are building the digital infrastructure needed to reinforce the esports ecosystem and make it more sustainable while providing players with more opportunities to make a living, have better competitive experiences, and grow their personal brands.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored piece by Bitspawn
