I was fairly late to the Gamer Wager party; by the time I started consulting on the design and build of the product in August 2018, Mark (Founder & MD) was already two years into Gamer Wager.
Mark had been handling all the businessy bits, like patents and marketing strategy, various partnerships, and of course all the legal and compliance issues that are associated with operating a gambling business.
While Mark was busy doing all this, the development of the apps had been entrusted to a software development house who, based on their credentials, everyone believed were capable of delivering the product.
As it turned out, this was not the case.
At first, I was skeptical that there would be any *real* issues with the software development, because there are some universal truths about building software.
It will be late
It will be over budget
It will not do *exactly* what was specified.
All of these were true in this case, so nothing unusual there. I tried and tried to turn the development around and bring some order and scrutiny to the project, but the more I dealt with the agency who were building it, the more it became apparent that they did not know how to handle the development of a Gambling Product.
I also had legitimate concerns about the compliance functionality, architecture and the scalability of what they had. The reality was that the project was massively late, the product was only half cooked, and throwing good money after bad was not a palatable options for Mark and the other investors.
It was a year into the project before they were even aware that a remote gambling product needs to comply with the Remote Technical Standards laid out by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, which a one second googling would have confirmed.
The two Project Managers, were trying to consult on a topic they had no real understanding of and every change that I requested was challenged or ‘creatively’ implemented. It was frustrating and obstructive.
So, my first act was to find a new partner. I quickly identified the amazing Two Up Digital and Mark & I headed down to London to meet with the guys and get the Gamer Wager show back on the road!
Now, These guys are licensed by UKGC to develop remote gambling software, they have worked for a number of major licensed operators and they really know what they are doing.
This leaves me free to focus on the product development.
Gamer Wager 1.0
We all know that esports is taking off in massive ways, and in that respect gaming is likely to be the biggest participation sport in the world! But, we can’t all be hot-shot streamers, or cup winning FIFA players, so Gamer Wager wanted to up-the-ante for passionate gamers and give them a new way to compete from the comfort of the sofa. The answer was simple…
Head-to-Head betting with strangers and friends, with zero rake.
Once you've downloaded and subscribed, Gamer Wager offers head-to-head betting on loads of top video games, Like FIFA, Fortnite, Rocket League and tons more. All you need to do is select the game from the lobby, set the maximum you are willing to bet and then you will see a list of other players ready to bet with you.
You’ll be able to see how good they are by clicking on their profile and reviewing their performance history. Once you’ve sent a challenge out to the users, they can accept it and you can start playing the game for real cash.
If you don’t fancy playing against people you don’t know, no problem; you can send an invitation to a friend directly from your contacts list, so you can spice up those FIFA or COD game with your mates, and put your money where your mouth is!
Best value betting platform for gamers
For the first release of Gamer Wager, we’ve kept it simple, social, fair and amazing value.
Value was really important to the proposition and we’re committed to the idea that a subscription model is the best value for our customers as most peer-to-peer gambling sites will take a rake from your bet, with some of these guys taking up to 20% of your winnings. In real terms that means, if you won £50.00 in a head-to-head bet you’d pay £10.00 to the company. So you would have to risk £25 to win £40!?
That’s the same as only getting odds of 8/13 - Terrible Value.
It seems like madness to us, because we’re not exposed to any risk so why should we rake your bets?
Instead we just charge a small monthly fee of £5.00 a month, or £40 for a whole year. That will give you access to thousands of players who you can bet against as much as you want, for that flat fee. Absolute bargain if you ask us!
Gamer Wager 2.0
I’m absolutely dying to write about this as we have a ton of amazing features, that I can’t wait to build, deploy and test with users. Unfortunately, it’s still commercially sensitive and we don’t want to upset our partners, but WATCH THIS SPACE, because 2.0 is going to be bigger, better, more engaging and more fun than ever.