The video game beer leagues
Trevor Nichols - Dec 11, 2017 - Biz Profiles

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Kelowna’s RewardMob thinks its software has the potential to change the mobile gaming industry.

An up-and-coming Kelowna startup believes its new mobile gaming software has the potential to churn out a whole new generation of casual video game athletes.

If you’re not a big gamer, the words “casual video game athlete” might fill you with confusion, or even disgust. But, if the team at RewardMob has its way, that will soon change.

That’s because RewardMob has created some clever software that allows mobile phone developers to add a system of tournaments and leaderboards to their mobile phone games.

Even if you’re not a gamer, you’ve probably spent at least a few minutes plunking away at Candy Crush or Angry Birds between meetings. RewardMob’s software helps take those ubiquitous phone games you probably don’t think a ton about, and imbue them with a new competitive edge.

RewardMob CEO and co-founder of Todd Koch asks you to imagine competing against everyone else playing those games, not just for fictional, in-game currencies, but for actual, real-world prizes.

Over the course of a RewardMob tournament, players earn points simply by playing the games. The more points they earn, the higher they rise on the RewardMob leaderboard. At the end of the tournament, the top competitors win real-world prizes, like cash, gift certificates, or swag.

Koch says that, if the handful of games already using the software are any indication, this system of incentives dramatically increases the amount of time players spend on the games, and turns them into a kind of casual eSport that anyone with a phone can take part in.

Most non-gamers are only vaguely aware of the concept of eSports, but for a large and ever-growing segment of the population, they are a pretty big deal.

Essentially, eSports are video games played at a professional level. Much like traditional professional athletes, eSports athletes earn salaries, undergo strict training regimes, and take part in competitive tournaments.

The phenomenon has grown significantly over the past five-to-ten years, and the biggest eSports tournaments attract hundreds of thousands of viewers, and award hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes. In some places, eSports events are broadcast on national television. In South Korea, the most famous eSports athletes are even given special exemptions to their mandatory military service.

Only the very best gamers can make it as eSports athletes, but many still aspire to reach that level.

However, while fans of traditional sports can always join up with their local beer league, there’s very few opportunities for gamers who want a taste of eSport competition

Koch says RewardMob can give them that, for free.

He says RewardMob’s prize-driven tournaments can turn those games into a kind of casual eSport, like the video game equivalent of your beer league hockey team.

Koch claims RewardMob is good for both gamers and game developers: gamers get the potential to win prizes for playing a game they already play, and game developers get people spending a ton more time inside their games.

The company is still in the midst of its soft launch, but Koch says they have a fairly big-name developer coming on board, and will likely launch fully sometime in January.

More information on RewardMob is available online.


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