Esports integrity chief raises concerns
The executive said that he is concerned about gambling, as some games could be vulnerable to cheating.
US.- Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) Commissioner Ian Smith has raised concerns around skill-based betting on games like Fortnite, as he believes that they could be vulnerable to cheating.
The commissioner talked about the games after eSports gambling website Unikrn announced its plans to bring legal skill-based betting to the US, which would allow players to wager on themselves. He said that such type of wagering is likely to be popular in the country, but he is concerned that the industry is not prepared to regulate it.
Smith said that he doubts some operators have the ability to ensure that the skill ratings of the bettor match the abilities of the person with the controls. “I’m not certain that the tools exist yet that would properly identify the person playing the game is the same person who normally ran that account,” Smith told The Associated Press.
Unikrn said that it currently has tools that can prevent fraudulent betting: “We have thousands of players playing thousands of matches which we use to understand the competitive ecosystem of a game and the players themselves,” Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood said in a statement. “Just like we’re able to flag suspicious activity from an esportsbook customer, we get a deep understanding of our players by the data in their games,” Unikrn chief product officer Karl Flores added “Basic elements, such as checking for suspicious IP address changes, and more complex game information are together used to build player models and create gamer fingerprints.”
Smith believes that if operators can create such platform to stop fake bettors, the industry will be enormously profitable: “Because there’s so many people playing this game, and having something at stake beyond your pride is always attractive, whatever game you look at. From guys playing snooker or golf or any game, putting a bit of money on a handshake generally adds something to that situation, and I see no reason why that wouldn’t be true of Fortnite.”
