ESports bookmaker company Unikrn hopes to expand the world of eSports with its investment in an all-female Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) team. Team Unikrn is comprised of Melania “Gina” Mylioti (Greece), Julia “Julie” Strunkowski (Germany), Perrine “Lalit ” Allesiardo (France), Sophia “Kim” Benfakir (France) and Camilla “Parmaviolet” (UK). The newly formed team is currently training and has been fully funded by Unikrn, in conjunction with Luxbet.
Rahul Sood, CEO of Unikrn, explains why it’s important for companies to invest in female pro gamers today, and discusses the opportunities these pros open up to growing the eSports fan base and marketing opportunities, in this exclusive interview.
Unikrn is the first eSports Betting Company to fully own and support a professional women’s CS:GO Team. We’re partnering with Luxbet, one of our key partners, to make this happen. What this industry needs is more companies supporting a competitive environment that invites both men and women to compete with and against each other in these games. That’s ultimately what makes the future and potential of eSports so cool. Oxent has been supporting female CS:GO eSports for 13 years through stand-alone events. How do you see your support opening up more opportunities for female pros
How big is the female pro gaming scene for CS:GO
It’s a growing space, there are a number of really great teams – it’s nowhere near as big as the male teams, but I think with more support it’ll only get bigger. As I tell people, I remember when Dana White was quoted as saying, “There will never be a woman in the UFC,” and now their most watched and talked about fighter is a woman. The ladies we hired are amazing at CS:GO, they’re very competitive and they pretty much play all games. CS:GO is their career, so they primarily focus on developing those skills.
How did you go about choosing who to sponsor in this new initiative
One of Unikrn’s staff was the co-founder of MouseSports, a professional CS:GO team based in Germany. He knows a bunch of people in the industry and we had him spend some time scouting for a team so we could make the investment.
Why did you form a new team versus sponsoring an existing one
We currently sponsor MouseSports and we love those guys. We have also sponsored other teams in the past. While we have no problems sponsoring teams, we were actively looking for a way to support women in eSports. Unikrn has the means to create an environment where an all-female team could compete together using the best equipment and the best support. My business partner, Karl, and I are pretty excited about owning a team.
What impact do you feel this first sponsored team will open up to the CS:GO community as a whole
First, I want to say I’m really glad the community has been super supportive of Team Unikrn so far. We’ve been involved in a couple of tournaments to get things going and the reception has been awesome. I hope our initiative gets other large team owners to take on more women and create an even higher level competition. I hope it inspires more girls to get into gaming and technology.
Oxent had dozens of female teams interested in the ESWC League of Legends event during Paris Games Week. What opportunities do you see for sponsoring women pros in other games
I can only hope the opportunities increase. We’re making a big investment here, but it’s totally the right thing to do.
What challenges remain in this post GamerGate environment for female pro gamers
I’ve played a ton of online games with my daughter. I’ve seen how some people behave in the community and it can be horrendous. With that said, most gamers are really cool, and the more anti-bullying sentiment that gets out there, the better the community gets. Toxic communities are the absolute worst – but that usually happens when left unchecked and unregulated. I’m confident things will only get better for female pro gamers.
Given that all eSports tournaments are open to men and women, why are there so few women pro gamers represented today
There is a lot of debate on this. People in the community will tell you that we spent months looking at this space. Some people say there aren’t enough women games because of a “lack of skill,” but I simply don’t buy it. Unikrn and Luxbet decided to create a professional CS:GO team with the same level of investment, coaching and support that male teams have today. This is a big deal, and it’s just a matter of time before more women pro gamers are represented.
How do you see this evolving in the coming years
Ideally, gaming communities will continue to be accepting of all kinds of people, online bullying will wane away as the industry matures, and we’ll see both men and women competing with and against each other in the highest levels of competitions. I would *love* to see big publishers open their doors to this and maybe create undercard events. Team Unikrn will be the first to sign up!
What do female pro gamers open up for sponsors and marketers interested in eSports
If marketers are looking to get in front of Millennials, we’ve got the answer. There are ample opportunities to reach males and females between the ages of 12-34 (and expanding both ways) through all the activities we put together.
How do you see female pro gamers impacting the growth of female (and male) fans
Well, first of all, there are a lot of female fans of eSports out there. Unfortunately, there are just not enough female professional gamers. I see what we’re doing as an opportunity to open it up. Right now, the total fan base for eSports is about the same size as the fan base for NHL hockey. It’s primarily male, but there are a growing number of females in the audience. By 2017, the fan base will be about as big as the NFL, and I can only imagine a great number of them will be female.