Project done by Anna Chiara Di Marco, Enrico Reitano, Francesca Bianchessi, Giovanni Meggiolaro, Marco Vincenzi e Riccardo Gironi
E-sports have moved from being just a nerdy hobby to becoming a lucrative popular form of entertainment. Gaming streaming platforms are expanding at an increasingly high rate, enhancing community involvement, and enjoying a growingly high willingness to pay from users. The number of viewers donating money to gamers soared, such as their interest in betting on their favourite players.
In the intersection of the betting and gaming industries several companies are already born, offering gamblers the possibility to place wagers on online video games. Their services are popular yet still affected by large limits. Indeed, the status-quo method by which odds-bet are set, lacks transparency and places high trust in bookmakers. Moreover, transactions are relatively slow and characterized by high commissions. These limits and the high attractiveness of the gaming-betting sector result in a market opportunity, far from being fully exploited so far.
GoodGame is the business idea that aims at bridging this market gap. It is a blockchain-based peer-to-peer betting platform, that acts as a market maker matching compatible bids from different users. What is innovative is that gamblers’ agreements are completely handled through Ethereum smart contracts, reducing the level of intermediation. Given recent market trends, GoodGame would be implemented with a specific core target: Twitch viewers of Fortnite live streams. Twitch is the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers and Fortnite is one of the most popular streamed game on it. This web platform allows gamers to challenge themselves in Fortnite matches and streams them live for viewers’ audience.
The purpose of GoodGame is to increase involvement in the gaming community by letting Twitch viewers betting on Fortnite live streams and cutting out existing bookmakers. Twitch viewers would have the chance to decide which event to bet on in each Fortnite match and set themselves the bet amount. GoodGame would pair compatible betting and initialize a smart contract to ensure both parties the execution and transparency of the transaction. This architecture would lower the commission costs charged for the service. Moreover, some of the traditional betting issues, such as users’ coordination, would be tackled thanks to two features of Fortnite: randomness and multiplayer structure. As a result, the fairness of bets would be guaranteed.