Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Unikrn Launches Certification Program For eSports Tournaments

Seattle-based Unikrn, the venture-backed, e-sports and legal wagering startup started by former Microsoft Ventures' GM Rahul Sood, said today that it has launched a new, certification program to ensure that e-sports competitions are on the up-and-up. The company--which is developing a legal system for users to wager on the outcome of video games--said it has partnered with online game platform FACEIT on the new effort, which specifically will cover Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) tournaments. Unikrn said its certification rules cover a player code of conduct, standards for investigating possible violations and specific rules tailored to both LAN and online-based events. Unikrn is venture backed by Binary Capital, Mark Cuban, Advancit Capital, Freelands Group, 500 Startups, Indicator Ventures and Tabcorp. The question of fairness in e-sports comes as a closely related area--fantasy sports--has seen a huge scandal over possible cheating by employees of fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel.