7 minute read
Outwit, Outplay, Outlast
Aaron Speach, CEO, Esports Technologies (EBET), chats to Sports Betting Operator
n recent years there has been
Isignificant interest in, and high growth in esports, wagering and cryptocurrencies. In this issue, we connect with Aaron Speach, CEO of Esports Technologies, a young and dynamic firm expanding rapidly into international esports online wagering.
ABOVE: Aaron Speach CEO Esports Technologies Give us a background on Esports Technologies / Gogawi. How it got its start and how it got to where it is today. Esports Technologies was founded with a vision to meet what I saw, as the future demand for online wagering. As a championship gamer myself, I
understood that a massive audience, primarily of Millennials and the upcoming members of Gen Z, would embrace this technology. At Esports Technologies, we have assembled a team of esports gaming enthusiasts and industry veterans who are passionate about the evolution in this sector. Our focus is the gap between the traditional sports wagering experience and the new generation of sports betting — an opportunity to deliver a much better betting interface with the best odds. Our focus on the digital natives creates bigger expectations for how we deliver our content and incorporate it into a larger media ecosystem. We are focused on creating this experience and building a business and a technology platform around this opportunity with the goal to become leaders in esports wagering.
What is your background? How did you get into esports betting? It all started with Starcraft. My mom bought the game for me on sale and right after I started the first match I was hooked. I would come home and play for four hours a day after school. Ultimately, I was ranking higher on the leaderboards and when I saw the first KESPA event I realized that Starcraft was even bigger in Asia, particularly in Korea. Over time it became clear to me that this would appeal to a large global audience.
Early in my business career, I had an opportunity to work with some mentors in the online sports betting space and realized these two industries were inevitably going to collide in a huge way.
You have been described by some as a visionary in the industry. What advances do you see for Gogawi in the coming years? We see a substantial opportunity to differentiate ourselves in the esports gaming industry by expanding our offering in the following areas – esports predictive gaming and content, predictive consolidated data and data feeds, and bet matching engines.
These are expected to offer users expanded overall odds, expanded esports cash-out offerings, and expanded live-betting.
Esports Technologies is expected to go public in the coming weeks. Could you provide some further information on this? Esports Technologies Inc. completed its initial public offering under the Nasdaq ticker symbol EBET.
The esports market is growing and evolving growing quickly. We believe there is a real need for betting platforms that can serve the public with favorable value and a wagering experience tailored to Esports that this new generation demands.
An IPO offers many advantages that we anticipate will increase our brand visibility and credibility in the
esports industry as it continues to grow. The IPO allows us to accelerate our marketing and customer acquisition plans, innovate and expand geographically as well.
What challenges have you run into with Gogawi, and how did you overcome them? The Esports community is in the early days of formation. We have spent the last 5 years trying to understand what the community wants and needs so we can build effective meaningful engagement. Secondly, as esports is in its early days, we have had licensing and regulation roadblocks to overcome. For example in the US, we are not currently licensed, but our goal is to partner with licensed operators and we intend to introduce a “free to play” online esports experience so we can build a community with deep engagement that will continue when we are free to operate in the US. Our “free to play” experience will allow users to predict esports match winners and outcomes without wagering real money. This allows us to showcase our technology to the esports community and offer a fun experience to competitive esports fans. Meanwhile, we believe there is still a strong demand for our new product offerings in Asia and Latin America with relatively fewer competitors, so we remain focused on growth in those regions.
It seems to be a rapidly expanding industry. What growth and innovations do you see in the igaming and esports betting industry in the near future? It certainly is. Compared to traditional sporting events, the esports audience size is close to 500 million. By comparison, the NFL has an audience size roughly of 160 million globally, so you can see the massive potential in this category. We believe wagering in this sector may surpass that of the NFL in the medium term. Licensing and regulation of the esports betting market is at an early stage in Europe and North America and people are clearly excited about the potential legalization of U.S. gaming and the growth of esports globally. Once established, we believe the market for our innovative platform and technologies will increase.
In the short-term, we anticipate esports wagering sites will start accepting cryptocurrency as a betting currency, especially now that crypto has gone mainstream. Esports Technologies is already ahead of this curve. Gogawi.com now accepts more than 40 different cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin and Bitcoin. We want our customers to have the best experience possible and facilitating cryptocurrency payments makes Gogawi versatile and easy to use.
What are the strongest markets for Gogawi Sports Betting around the world? Right now, we are operating primarily in Asia and Latin America where our license allows us to operate and where there is strong demand for esports
wagering. As the esports industry continues to evolve and if legalization expands into Europe and North America, we will look to expand our operations globally.
I notice your website offers Simplified and Traditional Chinese options. Are there games offered by Gogawi that focus specifically on the Chinese market? Are there plans for additional languages? Our Esports Technologies vision is that we are building product to support the esports industry worldwide, including China. As we already have a SE Asia footprint with Gogawi.com, we are exploring operation and partnership opportunities in the region, including China. We do have plans for additional languages in our current roadmap for 2021.
Is Gogawi Sports Betting available in the USA? If not, when will it be? Currently, Gogawi is not available in the U.S. due to licensing and regulation restrictions. As we discussed above, we plan on offering a free to play experience to begin developing a community of competitive esports fans. ecosystem, how is Gogawi different from the others in the market? We believe esports fans consume media differently than traditional sports fans. As such, our experiences need to be different. The esports market is growing but is an unconsolidated market with a lot of small players right now. We view our largest competitors as the sports betting operators who are focused on the more established 45 and older demographic. Esports Technologies, however, is focused on capturing the emerging 18- to 45-year-old customer, and our goal is to give this demographic the wagering experience and favorable value that they expect and deserve.
Is Gogawi tied into a cryptocurrency? Crypto currencies are very important to gaming in general. We have historically accepted deposits via bitcoin and we will continue to allow customers to deposit bitcoin in their respective accounts. However, we also have arrangements with several established third-party merchant and payment providers to accept all forms of customer payments and deposits, including Mastercard and Visa, in more than 25 currencies.
Are you a frequent gamer? If so, do you have favorites? I don’t game as much as I used to, but when I do I love playing Civilizations 6 or the odd game of Overwatch, although I will be the first to admit that I am trash.
Sports Betting Operator would like to thank Aaron Speach for sharing his in-depth insights into esports online wagering.
