A new gaming organisation called Esports Integrity Coalition has been formed in order to combat an illegal marketplace worth $200 billion in the competitive gaming scene.
The ESIC’s primary focus is stated as being to combat doping and cheating in the growing industry of professional gaming. The coalition will also take full responsibility for “drawing up rules, investigating breaches and prosecuting those who flout them, while also working to prevent such instances arising in the first place.”
ESIC will be also working alongside key stakeholders in the Esports industry as well as developers, publishers, league owners and players to make sure all rules are abided by and are implemented correctly.
Current supporters of the new initiative include gambling companies to Esports organisers such as Intel, ESL, DreamHack, Rainbow6, Sportradar, Unikrn, Betway, Plantronics and Sheridans and ESIC is currently in talks with big developers and publishers such as 343 Industries, Blizzard and EA to bring fair competitive gaming to the UK Esports scene. Companies wanting to be a part of this new endeavour will have to get in touch with Ian Smith who is the newly formed companies integrity commissioner and a lawyer based in the UK. Although Ian Smith is quite new to the competitive gaming scene he has over 20 years experience in traditional sport and sat on the Athletes Committee of UK Anti-Doping for five years.
With Esports growing every year the need for a governing body has been gaining more and more traction and ESIC looks to be answering those calls. With recent allegations involving popular YouTubers betting on their own CS:GO Lotto site and promoting themselves winning to their millions of fans, the need for this sort of organisation is as glaring as ever. There are other Esports regulatory bodies out there but they have been criticised in the past for flawed practices. Hopefully Esports will be taken more seriously going forward and with the right direction and regulations, it’ll flourish into a thriving sport and market.
