It’s often been said that where there’s sports, there’s spectators — and where there’s spectators, there’s cash. That old adage appears to apply to eSports, as well.
AlphaDraft, a new eSports-based provider of fantasy leagues launched today, aims to do for League of Legends competitors what sites like DraftKings and FanDuel did for baseball, basketball, and football. Users “draft” superstar League competitors for a day or weekend’s worth of matches, with a combination of virtual points and money at stake after a point-based soft launch.
AlphaDraft operates within a tournament-based format, with users selecting League players from a small pool. A different value applies to each player; users work within the limitations of a $50,000 “salary cap”.
League of Legends is seen as a natural fit for fantasy sports, with a regular season, playoffs, and easy-to-follow positions not unlike football or baseball.
“Each player’s value is determined by a custom algorithm we come up with,” said AlphaDraft founder Todd Peterson to VentureBeat. “Every week, these numbers change. What you do as a player is, it’s your ability to recognize the performance, the price-performance ratio of each player.”
For Peterson’s part, the ambitious AlphaDraft founder is hoping he can replicate DraftKings’ success by sticking closely to their model. “I saw how big the audience was, and I said, well, we can apply the same fantasy model to eSports and start with League of Legends. ESports has changed the way that people enjoy video games. The onset of Twitch and being able to watch all the games has made it into a real sport.”
ESports is blossoming into a global phenomenon, with competitions attracting long-coveted corporate sponsors and record-smashing numbers of viewers. AlphaDraft’s success could pave the way for true growth in the eSports betting industry, adding another layer to the lucrative world of sports gambling.
