A new platform for eSports
eSports events are increasingly popular, with competitions attracting large audiences and generating billions of euros in revenue. Researchers in the COPA EUROPE Project are developing a distribution platform designed to help companies produce more engaging content and broaden the audience for sports and eSports events, as George Margetis explains.
The demand to watch traditional sports remains strong, while at the same time, the eSports market is growing rapidly, with competitions attracting large audiences and generating billions of euros in revenue. The COPA EUROPE project aims to help broadcasters and companies meet this demand for high-quality eSports content by developing a new distribution platform, designed to meet the needs of the creative industries. “We are developing Over The Top (OTT) media services. So producers, companies and broadcasters can broadcast sports and eSports content through
COPA EUROPE
COllaborative Platform for trAnsmedia storytelling and cross channel distribution of EUROPEan sport events
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 957059.
George Margetis,
Ph.D
Postdoctoral Researcher
Foundation for Research & TechnologyHellas (FORTH)
Institute of Computer Science (ICS)
Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory
N. Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton
GR - 70013 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
T: +30 2810 391707
: g.margetis
W: https://www.ics.forth.gr/hci
George Margetis is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the HCI Laboratory of ICS–FORTH. His research interests include HumanCentered AI, X-Reality, natural interaction, intelligent user interfaces, and digital accessibility. He is a scientific and technical manager in numerous European, National and industry-funded R&D projects and has coauthored more than 80 scientific publications.
the platform,” outlines George Margetis, the Technical Manager of the COPA EUROPE project. The COPA EUROPE platform has far wider possibilities beyond this, with Margetis and his colleagues working towards two main objectives. “We aim to provide the means to create a vibrant community around sports and eSports, so that fans can exchange ideas and opinions. We want to give people – not just professionals – the opportunity to create content and earn money,” he says.
This is part of a general shift in the way that many people watch eSports, with a lot of viewers keen to learn more about the players, as well as comment on the events unfolding before them. This is something that Margetis and his colleagues aim to foster and encourage. “We aim to create more holistic transmedia experiences,” he says. The platform helps democratise production, giving more people the opportunity to get involved. “For example, we have developed a tool that allows people to draw graphics
Transmedia experience
A second major objective of the platform is to provide tools to create a transmedia experience, enabling users to create narratives using a variety of means, such as social media and company websites. The idea is to keep the audience engaged before, during and after the event. “We have built tools to acquire statistics about a game, which can be combined to provide deeper insights, using machine learning and AI. These insights can be sent out on social media, while these statistics are also very important for producers,” says Margetis. This part of the COPA EUROPE platform is designed primarily for the eSports industry, where producers may need to choose which of the players to highlight on a main screen, so it’s important to identify where the main point of interest is. “We have an application that highlights what each player is doing and what they have achieved, while we can also provide real-time statistics,” continues Margetis. “We also provide broadcasters with some historical statistics, helping them create a story.”
collaboratively. People can login to the platform and create a common space to start creating graphics, which can then be sold to professional companies. We use blockchain to deal with these transactions and to provide the appropriate safeguards,” explains Margetis. “We have also created a personalised recommender system. The novel point here is that we use the so-called federated learning approach, a technology which trains this recommender system in a distributed way, while at the same time safeguarding each individual’s personal data.”
The project has been primarily focused on research, yet at the same Margetis and the team are also considering the possible future exploitation of these technologies. Part of this involves partners in the project consortium – which includes several major companies – applying the different tools, while the COPA EUROPE consortium is also exploring the possibility of establishing a spin-off company to build on the project’s work. “The eSports market is developing rapidly, and our technology can be used to fill gaps in content provision,” Margetis says.
We aim to provide the means to create a vibrant community around sports and esports. We want to give people – not just professionals –the opportunity to create content and earn money.