Update Sept. 27 – Having failed to reach its fundraising target, the BestMeta project is likely to be stopped, industry insiders told East-West Digital News.
Still little known outside the gaming industry, eSports – these video gaming competitions usually involving professional players – is among the fastest-growing types of digital entertainment. In 2017, this activity generated some $1.5 billion in revenues, and might grow up to $2.3 billion by 2020, according to Superdata.
This nascent industry is on the radars of big players – as witnessed in January by spectacular moves involving Russia’s Mail.Ru Group and MTS. In March 2018, Mangrove, a leading Western European venture fund, took part in the ICO of DreamTeam, a Ukraine-based eSports project. A few weeks earlier, Russian project Play2live claimed to have raised the equivalent of $30 million in its ICO.
Millennials under 35 with full-time jobs and relatively high income are at the core of the eSports audience – which currently reaches some 200 million people across the world and might exceed the 300 million mark in a mere three years.
eSports talents and fans, however, do not have the opportunity to interact directly since major streaming platforms – such as Twitch, a subsidiary of Amazon – currently tend to control content distribution and the related revenues in an opaque way.
BestMeta a startup founded last year by eSports professionals from the UK, the US, Asia and Russia, aims to unlock the potential of this new industry using the blockchain technology.
“Thanks to the blockchain, we can develop a reliable and transparent set of tools allowing users to directly engage with projects and talents and fund them – in contrast with the current system where direct donations aren’t possible,” explains BestMeta CEO Michele Pes.
Thus the BestMeta platform will also allow talents to grow more creatively and independently, while fans will receive full accountability and transparency regarding their contributions,” Pes adds.
Pes is a long-time player in the gaming industry with such projects as CARS, Red Bull Airrace and World of Speed on his resume.
Two major e-sports talents were also brought onboard, Dota 2 caster Toby “TobiWan” Dawson, who became BestMeta’s esports director, and Vincent “Deathsie” Chu, the star of Ginx Esports TV’s The Bridge.
BestMeta aims to gather eSports talents – including content creators, streamers and popular players – their fans, subscribers and followers as well as sponsors in a massive community.
For all transactions within the community, BestMeta Tokens (BMT) will be used. A public presale of BMT is underway this month, and will be followed by a token sale until June 15.
A tokenized ecosystem for eSports
Once the platform is up and running, BMT holders will be able to use them to support talent and content creators, including direct funding for projects pitched by creators. The completion of funded projects will be guaranteed by smart contracts, and all costs for those projects will be made public.
“BestMeta breaks down the barrier between talents and their supporters, with the tokens working almost like credit for talents to create content,” says Pes. “As a talent gets more exposed, famous and popular over time, the return on investment for his or her fans may be considerable,” he adds.
Under plans, the platform will also include crowdfunding and tokens exchange, creation of individual closed ecosystems for talents and their engaged audiences, access to exclusive content and events, purchase talents’ branded merchandise, participation in community events and exclusive talents’ projects and peer-to-peer interaction between members.
BestMeta will also develop AI tools to analyze and predict the achievements of players or teams, as well as the outcome of tournaments, both physical and virtual.
Overcoming challenges of the new economy
Still, challenges lie ahead, Pes admits.
“Tokenization via ICO might be affected by regulations at any point in the future,” he says. “To mitigate risks, BMT is being developed under strict supervision of expert lawyers, following forecasted regulations and existing security protocols.”
Another major task for BestMeta will be to integrate with other platforms, including social network accounts and streaming platforms through applications and APIs.
BestMeta’s success will also depend on the pace of development of the eSports industry. “We are still situated outside the mainstream entertainment industry,” Pes concedes.
“But with the increasing digitization of the world, faster broadband, constantly improving technological infrastructure and a steady shift of younger users from mainstream media to alternative online sources, eSports will one day become a truly mass market,” Michele believes.
This is a sponsored article, which means it was written by the EWDN team in an independent spirit but financially supported by the company.
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