Integrity chief concerned about Fortnite gambling
The commissioner of the Esports Integrity Coalition says skill- based betting on battle royale games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground could be vulnerable to cheating.
Esports gambling website Unikrn announced plans last month to bring legal skill-based betting to the U. S., allowing players to wager on themselves. Users would link their game to the Unikrn platform, and Unikrn will generate odds for the player based on his or her profile within the game.
ESIC Commissioner Ian Smith says such wagering is likely to be popular, but he’s concerned the industry is not yet prepared to govern it. In particular, he’s skeptical operators like Unikrn have the ability to ensure the skill ratings of the bettor match the abilities of the person manning the controls.
For instance, what would stop a
player from placing a Fortnite bet using his or her account, then handing the controller over to a more talented friend? Or, what would prevent talented players from hustling the system by nuking their game profile before placing a series of big bets? “I’m not certain that the tools exist yet that would properly identify the person playing the game is the same person who normally ran that account,” Smith told The Associated Press. Unikrn, a betting partner of the ESIC, believes its Connekt platform can prevent such fraudulent betting. “We have thousands of players playing thousands of matches which we use to understand the competitive ecosystem of a game and the players themselves,” Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood said in a statement to the AP. “We pride ourselves on giving users the best experience, which we can only do with a personal knowledge of how they enjoy gaming. That same personal knowledge is key to ensuring integrity in all wagering elements of our platform.”
The risk that cheating may go unnoticed is higher in battle royales than in other competitive video games. Battle royales are last-man- standing clashes between many competitors — Fortnite and PUBG host up to 100 players per game — and have more volatile outcomes than multiplayer games like League of Legends or Overwatch.
Publishers and operators can use algorithms to flag unusual performances in games like League of Legends because those games are complex and luck is not a factor.
“Just like we’re able to f lag suspicious activity from an esportsbook customer, we get a deep understanding of our players by the data in their games,” Unikrn chief product officer Karl Flores said in a statement to the AP. “Basic elements, such as checking for suspicious IP address changes, and more complex game information are together used to build player models and create gamer fingerprints.”
Data from games like Fortnite or PUBG may be less reliable, though, because battle royales have less predictable outcomes. It’s not unusual for a talented player to be eliminated in the early moments of a Fortnite match, or for less experienced players to luck into a high finish.
“The battle royale games pose particular problems because they don’t actually lend themselves to traditional esports formats, and therefore to traditional betting formats,” Smith said.
The volatility is also an issue for odds-based betting on Fortnite or PUBG. Traditional sports books have successfully featured odds for major events in games like League of Legends, DOTA and CounterStrike for years in Asia and Europe. Unikrn hopes to widen the breadth of wagers available, capitalizing on the fact that most esports lend themselves well to prop bets and in-game wagering.