Even before “The Wizard” enchanted and inspired the gaming generation, gamers have sought that final prize: making a living playing video games. Unfortunately, dreams of professional-gamerism have been shown to be as elusive as dreams of being a professional gambler. Luckily, startup BringIt is attempting to make both those dreams a little more attainable. BringIt made the connection between the huge online gambling market and the exploding online gaming community, and has created a site where gamers can challenge one another with cash on the barrelhead.
The guts for this system have been in place for a long time: ranking systems already set up gamers for matches based on skill; half the sites on the net already have an evaluation system for users, comments, or what have you; gambling sites already have systems in place for handling accounts and paying out securely. Someone just needed to stitch these services together and give it a name. Thus, BringIt.
Once registered for the site (free) you pay up a little into the account (they’ll match up to $20 for the beta) and go get your wager on, assuming you’re 18 or older. BringIt supports every major console out there along with PCs, although it seems it only works with one on one matches at the moment. That actually leaves out quite a lot of the gaming community — Counter-Strike, for instance, is a huge segment and very team-based. But there’s a healthy 1v1 community out there as well, and at any rate it makes the betting considerably simpler. You challenge someone, put up an agreed amount into escrow (anywhere from $1 to $100,000) and at the end the total is given over to the winner, minus the 10% fee you knew had to be in there somewhere. These being games of skill (and thus impervious to the legal restrictions on games of chance), some matches may be close or contested; a record of the events of each game is emailed to each player, however, and I can only assume that when things get hairy, a BringIt “ref” will be brought in to make the call.
Although it will add yet another facet to modern net-dwellers’ already too-fragmented online presences, BringIt is hoping to bring in metadata from other sources: your gamercard and Live! profile, for instance. Although there will be a shaky period as the information is tapped to make skill stratifications among the users, the sheer amount of data generated by the online gaming community — wins, losses, time played, maps played, heads shot, etc — should guarantee some degree of accuracy, assuming BringIt’s tools for analysis are up to the task.
As for the dangers of being sharked or cheated, they seem about the same as any pool hall — that is, if every pool hall had a comprehensive list of games won and lost and eBay-esque feedback about every player. Cheating is another issue; money brings out the best in the worst of us and vice versa, and doubtless there will be violations along the lines of modded controllers or consoles, computer-aided input and that sort of reprehensible but ingenious thing.
Whether it will catch on or not is difficult to predict, so fickle are the whims of suburban Halo prodigies. But I do imagine that the interface they’ve created will not be long-lived or well-used. A very simple in-game option to put a little money on a game, or one built into a meta-interface like Games for Windows Live or Steam, will certainly be preferred by any player. The framework of payment, rating, and so on will still be used, but it will be integrated into the games better. After all, who needs yet another online community to worry about?
BringIt has opened its doors to open beta and will be launching later this winter.
Making a living from gaming is not that elusive as it may appear… I can name many people who successfully make a living out of Second Life and even Entropia Universe (yeah I know!). It takes a business mindset though, which many gamers lack, hence their inability to make the most out of their gaming passion. Just my $.02.
Speaking of BringIt, I appreciate the novelty but I don’t think it will take off big time, as I believe professional gamblers will not be too drawn to it.
good input… I believe you about people making a living, but I would make the distinction that they are making a living OFF video games and not making a living PLAYING video games. I could be wrong but that’s how say gold farming or selling objects in games appears to me.
And as for bringit, it’s not that I think gamblers will be drawn to it, but that people will be drawn to the idea of simply puttin money on a match. Like I said, though, it’ll only survive for a little while as a distinct community before the whole service gets absorbed as a direct option within games.
GAMER SALOON is still better.
Isn’t betting like that illegal?
I thought that betting is only illegal in games of chance, this would be a game of skill. That’s the whole sticking point behind whether or not poker should be legalized.
This existed before … wish I could remember the name of the site. But it failed for a couple reasons … but mainly that cheating in video games is way too easy. If real organizations such as the WCG can’t stop it, what makes Bringit think they can get around it?
From what I understand it, the matches are actually played on live (not a system link). I’d imagine that would cut down the cheating quite a bit.
I think this is a great idea (even though I stopped playing video games quite a few years back). If this was around back then, I would already be retired.
Pretty cool idea and plenty of demand to go with it.
If you like this concept, check out my company at http://www.ProjectPointSpread.com
We’re not a gambling site either, but a peer-to-peer marketplace for buying and selling sports knowledge. The site is modeled after your typical Football Pick’em league. Fans can make predictions, get ranked against the community, access consensus picks and also buy and sell predictions with other fans.
JW
Great idea but it won’t take off. Yes, it’s far too easy for cheaters to use modded controllers or hacks to win so the site would have to provide a pure game environment.. and there’s no way it can do that. Seen the video of the robotic Guitar Hero controller that could do that Dragonforce song on Expert and get 100% notes hit? A lot more of that kinda thing would pop up.
And, for the record, most video games have an element of chance to them nowadays. Sure, most of them require more skill than the amount of chance that is interlaced but the “chance factor” is still there. For example, in Madden, all the AI players build the “chance factor”. In Burnout Paradise, all the AI cars in the game build the “chance factor”. The only games that don’t have any sort of chance to them are games that are based around a pattern such as the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. These games are patterned and can be learned and they don’t change. Hell, even Tetris is a game of chance AND skill.
As far as making a living off of gambling on video games.. no. And people who make a living off of Second Life, Entropia Universe, World of Warcraft.. well they’re not exactly enjoying what they’re doing, now are they? I don’t think so. It’s not like that Fatal1ty guy going across the country owning people all over the place in game competitions.. it’s not like in Korea where you can be a huge celebrity if you are good enough at playing StarCraft..
Anyway. Great idea but it simply can’t work. I’d rather have friends over and bet on games in person anyway. Half the fun of gambling is the social aspect.
interesting ,
cool
i never play games .smart idea though
thanks
http://hubpages.com/hub/AustralianSchoolofMeditationandYoga
I love the idea, but I agree – it would be better as something in-game, not an outside web service.
“Someone just needed to stitch these services together and give it a name.”
Wow. When you make a statement like this you elude your readers that it is novel. Thresh tried to do this with UltimateArena.com, Kwari tried to do this, Tournament.com tried to do this, gamelio.com tried to do this, gamersaloon.com is trying to do this and many many more. Furthermore, these sites have (or had) a better product offering than BringIt.com
All these sites have something in common – they sink. The video game market is not ready to bet cash on each video game.
I remember tournament.com… however I think BringIt is in a position to make their service part of the game. I think site is going to die like you say… but not before people sign up and do a little business. The rise of the meta-game infrastructure in Games for Windows Live, Steam, and stuff like Xfire or whatever means that there’s a system in place to integrate something extra like wagering into games. The others may have had a better product in your opinion, but the right product at the wrong time isn’t worth a penny. Fair points, though.
Devin,
You’re right about timing and products. But do you honestly think a AAA publisher is going to put these wagering tools in-game and deal/manage with the liability of having underage kids wagering or cheating the system? The upside is big if it catches on but it’s not going to happen in AAA video games anytime soon. The meta-game infrastructure doesn’t hold, I do not think that Microsoft, Steam and Xfire want to be associated with gambling. I’ve consulted with the past chair of International Association of Gaming Attorneys, I know it’s legal but it is still gambling. I don’t think the companies you mention would be okay with gambling occurring through their framework. It is more a matter of brand purity than legal frameworks and market timing.
But as you said who knows, anything can happen. That being said, I honestly wish the best of luck to BringIt.
I have loved video games ever since I was young, if I had a chance I would play all day! This is a neat concept, but I agree money brings out the worst in people. If it weren’t for that, and it was all gentlemenly, then it would be perfect. But we are not in a perfect world.
What is to stop someone playing for someone else?
Great discussion. WTF? Am I really on the crunch network?
Anyway, I quit video games a long time ago, but I am a gambler. All of the guys I’ve played with over the years, I’d say 70% play wow or warhammer (~100). I think this could work if done correctly with minimal capex, decent funding, and slow growth. Nice to have reasonable arguments expressed with substantiation.
They may wish to minimize the barrier to entry, however, with virtual currency and/ or taking less of a fee (eg. it could be a function of winning percentage or skill level). Hard to believe they are a destination website by choice…
RE: Cheating
If they develop the system to have enough intelligence to detect odd patterns from the same IP (think of click fraud), it is workable. Risk Management is battle to be fought in many industries, and this is where they might focus significant resources and provide real value.
Virtual currency doesn’t have the oomph real dollars/euros/etc have, though… people wouldn’t compete for lindens or Zune points. But yeah, they won’t be a destination for long… their service will survive or be cannibalized, but the actual community won’t.
They also need to look at things like pools for multiplayer – imagine 30v30 arenas in WoW where everyone puts up five bucks and maybe your winning amount is halved if you die. See, how easy is that?
Devin,
Part of this is incorrect. People were gambling for lindens and they had to shut down the casinos in Q1-Q2 of 2007. I think this validates that there is still oomph to lindens.
Your second point is a good one but I would say the model needs to go one step further and be structured massive tournaments. It’s a better engagement. We saw the popularity of this with the WoW tournaments. Some disclosure: I’m so adamant about this space because I’m a gamer and I’ve been building the platform for these massive tournaments.
I would be happy to give you a 5 minute demo to get your thoughts. Thanks.
[Devin here. edited your email out of the comment... wouldn't want you getting spam now would we?] :)
i’m on the fence with this, not a big fan of virtual worlds.
Oh btw
Check out http://www.jobstaxi.com
New Jobs. CauseForce. Strands. Carbine Studios. NCsoft.
Not a fan of virtual worlds
funny,
i remember thinking recently that this would be a great idea, and lo and behold it arrives… I have to get faster with execution of ideas…
i’m sure this will be a roaring success
It is basically a total knock off of sharkwaters.net that was written about in the Wall Street journal 4 months back. Nothing knew here, just the original site is better.