The Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) has announced the addition of five new members to its organization. By expanding its member list, ESIC looks to further solidify its global presence and more effectively combat corruption in the industry.
Building standards and preventing corruption
The ESIC was established in 2015 to address crucial issues like match manipulation, betting fraud, and other integrity challenges in the industry. According to a threat assessment carried out by the organization that same year, the most significant hazards in esports included software cheats, online attacks to slow or disable an opponent, match-fixing, and doping.
By continuously welcoming new members, the organization aims to install industry standards to address those issues.
“We are delighted to welcome all our new members to the Esports Integrity Coalition,” said Esports Integrity Commissioner Ian Smith. “Each one is doing something remarkable in their country or with exciting new technologies, and we can’t wait to work with them to continue keeping the world of esports free from corruption, match manipulation, betting fraud and doping.”
The organizations joining ESIC are:
- Esports Middle East (ESME) – a dedicated non-profit esports organization in the Middle East and North Africa. ESME translated the ESIC Code into Arabic with plans to host integrity seminars in the region.
- NODWIN Gaming – a company offering complete solutions for interested parties that want to join the gaming and esports sector in India. The tournament organizer is turning into a big player on the sub-continent with licenses from Valve, ESL, ESWC, and others. The company runs events like ESL India Premiership, The Mountain Dew – Dew Arena, the ESWC with Red Bull, and others.
- MettleState – an esports organization in charge of business in South Africa and first organizer of the area’s largest esports tournaments.
- ESP (esportspools.com) – a leading esports fantasy site. The company has a betting site launch scheduled for the near future.
- FirstBlood – an esports platform that allows players to challenge each other and win rewards utilizing incorruptible blockchain technology (technology used by cryptocurrencies).
Securing the industry’s fair, clean future
“We are proud to be a part of a cleaner, more organized future of esports,” said ESME CEO Saeed Sharaf. “Being a leading organizations for esports in the region, it’s our duty for the players to have the best anti-cheating systems and rules to ensure everyone has an equal chance of winning provided they have the required skills to make it.”
MettleState CEO Barry “Anthrax” Louzada said the ESIC “has been nothing but helpful” in assisting his company in the area of player protection.
“As a new organisation the one thing we wanted to do was align ourselves with likeminded people and organizations with the same goal of trying to make esports better and safer for everyone,” Louzada said.
FirstBlood co-founder Marco Cuesta highlighted how crucial ESIC’s mission is for ensuring “healthy and sustainable growth” within the esports world.
“Standards must be established and maintained to ensure fair competitions and swift justice,” Cuesta said. “This coalition is already facilitating communication amongst experienced organizations, regulators, and innovative start-ups to form sensible industry standards.”
