TRADANTS

World Series Of Trading

LARS GOTTWIK

Founder & CEO of TRADANTS

In an industry full of gimmicks, it was great to meet with Lars Gottwik to discuss his company’s new project, the World Series of Trading - an online platform that merges financial trading with esports and skill-gaming to create a global epic game. It allows everyone to earn real money without risking their own by participating in paper trading tournaments.

Although the industry has been riddled with demo trading competitions as a way to harvest data, in many ways, the WSOT is drastically different...GC finds out why.

Q How did the idea for WSOT come about?

Since my early days as an entrepreneur, I have always been looking for the next big thing in the industry I had been working for or in other words - for that disruptive innovation that will change how things are done for good and the better. It was the case back then with JFD when we pioneered full post-trade transparency setting new standards in the retail trading services. So, it came up naturally that about a year ago, I started thinking about a new way to impact the capital markets sector positively. I had heard a lot about investment firms claiming to democratise the financial industry simply by reducing their commissions for retail investors, thus, allowing them to trade stocks or other assets for free or at a significantly lower cost. Although that sounds good and promising, the truth is that what these companies are doing by removing their commissions still affects the same number of people who have the initial (and sometimes quite significant) capital allowing them to trade successfully in the markets. Thus, there is no impact on the broader society and no democratisation, as those who do not have enough funds remain outside the financial world. That’s how the idea about WSOT came up. I thought it would be great to build a platform where everyone on the planet by having just a stable Internet connection can learn and trade in financial markets virtually, i.e. without risking any money, competing against others for the chance to win real cash prizes given out of an announced prize pool.

Moreover, it is not only about earning money but also building a community of like-minded people around the topic of financial trading. Like in sports, where there is a strong network of clubs and scouts looking for the next big star, I want WSOT to become a playground for firms to find the top trading talent. So it’s not only for the best professional or part-time traders out there to get into the spotlight and become famous for their skills but also for those who live remotely, outside the largest financial hubs to get recognition and why not build a career in the financial sector. In other words, for many people, WSOT can make the slumdog millionaire story a reality.

I think I found the next significant disruptive innovation that will create a new industry combining financial trading and gaming, in other words, by gamifying trading. Now everyone has a chance to earn their living from risk-free paper trading. Everyone can access the capital markets and become entrepreneurs on their terms and pace to reach financial independence, get public recognition and last but not least, have lots of fun doing so. How cool is that?

Q Gamification has become a buzzword recently. So how does WSOT look to provide the gamification experience?

We run complete gamification of trading within our holistic Compete-Learn-Watch approach to the extent that no one has done it before. We cover the main principles of gamification such as epic meaning, accomplishment, empowerment, ownership, social influence, scarcity and avoidance. It’s important to understand that we don’t simply operate contests but a platform covering education, a social experience, and a public arena where trading is redefined. Overall we see WSOT.com developing into an industry called “playtrading”, which creates a form of esport.

Keeping in mind this ultimate goal, we are still in the early stage. You can now only see the tip of the iceberg. We are already running numerous active tournaments covering a wide variety of asset classes. A global ranking system classifies the so-called playtraders based on their earned money from the prize pool and shows multiple performance criteria. At the end of each year, we will announce the Global ranking winner, but also the winners of individual tournaments are qualified for an annual Main event to compete in a final battle for a share of a big prize pool.

But that’s not all in our product development pipeline. We plan to release much more features and functionalities merged into a single native app:

• Multiplayer (clan) and 1-on-1 (headhunt) tournaments, • A proprietary NFT platform, including a minting engine, • A TikTok snipping tool (patent is underway) • Our in-house-built trading platform.

At some point, individuals and clans (groups of traders that compete against other groups in a separate championship) can even organise private tournaments themselves on the platform, like friendly matches between football clubs.

But playtrading is not the only activity that takes place on WSOT.com. We will also have plenty of cool features for our spectators, i.e. the playtrading fans who do not feel confident enough to join the competition but are eager to follow and watch the results in real-time. With commentary studios, game analysis by experts, interviews with top players, pro insight videos etc., we would pretty much resemble any major sports league or cup tournament.

Q Is there a specific type of trader you are looking to enter into WSOT? Have you found that it is region-specific with the people who take part?

The most obvious early adopters would be those with at least basic knowledge of how to trade, but that does not mean that newbies cannot join. We have plenty of educational videos to help everyone play the game. In addition, we have a practice arena where those still learning how to trade can get enough confidence before entering a tournament. Ideally, we see a

balance between novice and experienced traders competing, watching and learning on WSOT.com. Other than that, there is no specific trader profile that we are looking to attract as our competitions cater to multiple styles and involve numerous asset classes. Although first users came mainly from Africa and South-East Asia, with Europe and the USA quickly catching up, currently, we have playtraders from more than 60 countries. We are open to everyone willing to participate, and there is no geographic restriction at all. Our platform is not subject to specific national or regional financial regulations, so we can accommodate users globally. We treat user rights and personal data privacy in an equally strict manner, though. Hence, it’s no wonder that our user base is growing at the pace of 400 new registrations a day, and we have already more than 16,000 registered users in total since inception at the beginning of December 2021.

Q Is there a specific platform being used, or is it agnostic?

Currently, we have MetaTrader 5 as our trading platform and support both the WebTrader and the Desktop version and the Mobile App available on AppStore and Google Play. For the traders who are not used to MT5, we have educational videos about the platform in our Learn section. In the mid-term future, though, we plan to develop our proprietary trading app tailored for our gamified trading solution. As mentioned earlier, we plan to build our platform and have MT5 only left as a platform of choice.

Q How do people sign up? Can traders connect their brokerage account to WSOT?

People sign up in less than a minute on WSOT.com either by email and password or by their Google or

Facebook profile. Once someone signs up, we automatically create the first playtrading account on our edition of MT5. Our platform is broker-agnostic, with price feeds from renowned providers such as Cboe Global Markets and dxFeed.

Q One of the most significant ways to attract eyes to a contest is the money won. How much is the total prize pot so far?

We have announced a total annual prize pool of 1,045,400 USD that will be allocated among all tournaments in 2022, including the Main final event that alone has a prize pool of 200,000 USD. We project an exponential increase in the annual prize pool over the next few years.

Q As a product where you are not the brokerage, and there is no actual market execution but only virtual trading while people can get real money out of it, what are the monetisation channels for your business model?

We apply a hybrid model combining subscriptionbased Software as a Service on one side, where we have paid service plans for the users that want to unlock extra features on the platform, and on the other side classic online media publishing, where we monetise existing ad inventory through programmatic and direct buy channels as well as offering custom brand exposure opportunities through sponsorship packages.

Q Is it similar to sponsoring an offline event like an expo, for example, where sponsors are looking to get eyes on their brand name?

Yes, sort of, but at a larger scale and covering multiple exposure channels and communication means. We look at it from the perspective of product positioning as we want our sponsors to be part of the game, integrated in one way or another into the content so that there is a smooth and subtle transition between advertisement and added value contribution by the brands among our community.

Q Is there a specific type of brand you are looking to sponsor WSOT? Such as one who understands your long term vision?

Having a sense of a shared mission with our sponsors is undoubtedly important for the success of our long-term relationship. We look for proactive and innovative brands across multiple sectors, not only the brokerage industry, that are open to embracing the change and the upcoming transformations willing to associate with our tech-savvy GenZ and Millennial users. We serve people that consume different goods and services in their daily lives. Hence, any consumer-oriented brand can benefit from showing up on WSOT.com. As we are still in the early stage of our development in terms of scale and reach, we attract sponsors that can look long-term into the future when evaluating a potential marketing opportunity.

Q There is a lot of competition to draw the attention of a CMO for their marketing budget. Do you think they are open-minded enough to consider such a type of online platform?

Esport sponsoring has been snowballing in recent years and is forecasted to do so further. One of the reasons is that it attracts plenty of GenZ users, the future largest and wealthiest segment in our society. Thus, my answer is yes. We strongly believe that any forward-thinking CMO sees how paramount for a retail brand is to be able to reach and engage at scale with relevant members of the GenZ generation. Nowadays, to achieve exceptional results, CMOs across a wide range of industry verticals should have the capacity to evaluate breakthrough opportunities and embark on new campaigns expanding their well-known mix of marketing channels. Otherwise, they are exposed to the risk of developing business myopia.

Q With big international football teams entering e-sports, do you think this is the next step for FX brands?

Yes, having a clan on WSOT.com would be a key priority for any forward-thinking FX brand in the mid-to-long term. It will allow the brokers to compete on a completely different level, promoting their competencies among potential clients. Our prize pool projections would also mean a solid extra revenue generator for the winners in the clan competitions. That could also lead to change in how institutional relationships are formed and maintained.

Q There is vast scope on a content marketing basis for brokerages to have their own sponsored teams in the future. Would you accept them in the WSOT? Can they sponsor individual traders?

Yes, we certainly would accept sponsored teams and individual traders’ sponsorship. That will be the point where WSOT will transform into a global marketplace connecting playtraders, clans and sponsors. That’s the worldwide scouting and networking infrastructure we aim to build and the next level we aim to reach in our long-term vision. We need to complete stages to get there, though, so first things first, but once it becomes a reality, you will learn about it for sure.

Q Does the sponsorship have to be limited to only FX brokerages? Can others in the ecosystem be part of this?

We do not impose any limitations on who can sponsor

WSOT. As long as we can provide good value for the sponsors through our services, we can accommodate any company within or outside the FX brokerage world.

Q Some brands are totally focused on lead generation for their online marketing. Is this a good fit for them to sponsor WSOT?

Sure, lead generation can have multiple forms. For example, those that focus their campaigns on getting in front of a highly-engaged trading and gaming audience offering exceptional products on their websites can benefit from sponsoring WSOT. However, we won’t be a good fit for companies that expect to get the contact details of our registered users as their direct leads because we do not share personal data with third parties, nor do affiliate marketing deals. Instead, we give access to our user base via multiple channels to those who have something meaningful to share with our community.

Q As with any such sponsorship, there are different tiers. What do the sponsors receive?

Yes, we have three sponsorship tiers - gold, silver and bronze, priced adequately to the level of brand exposure included in their packages. In a nutshell, the sponsors receive a share of our premium website ad space, the possibility to communicate with our users directly (via newsletters and SEO-friendly content published on our website) and indirectly by integrating their logo and messaging in our materials. Moreover, we offer different engagement opportunities through videos and live streams.

We have a separate media kit and a standard rate card for companies that prefer a-la-carte individual advertisement options. We are happy to provide full details to everyone interested in sponsoring WSOT.