Interactive

Germany – EiG selects start-ups to pitch at LaunchPad

By Phil - 8 October 2015

Trends in eSports, VR, anti-fraud, sports trading technology and casual gaming are exploited by start-ups shortlisted for the 8th EiG Start-Up LaunchPad competition to take place on 22 October at Arena Berlin.

The LaunchPad, that takes place twice a year at Clarion’s flagship events, EiG in Berlin and GiGse in San Francisco, boasts amongst its winners and participants successful companies such as NumberFire (acquired recently by FanDuel), Imperus Technologies (buyer of Diwip and Akamon), Element Wave (now an established mobile solutions provider) and BlueBat Games (acquired by Novomatic).

Organised in partnership with GamCrowd, the competition features well known investors in the iGaming sectors on the judging panel, including Mark Blandford from Burlywood Capital, Ian Hogg from GamCrowd and Evan Hoff from Velo Partners. Additionally, investors from Partech Ventures, Found Fair Ventures and Revenue Engineers will join to quiz the start-ups in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style competition.

The start-ups vying for the judges’ and the audience’s vote, and for the hope to benefit from the exposure to the industry’s finest and replicate the success of the previous finalists, are:
DupZapper is a complete solution for detecting online fraud by players with multiple accounts or false identities.

Stratagem Technologies is financial technology to unlock the value of sports trading as an alternative asset class targeted to professional traders and investors looking for an ‘edge’.

eSportsPools.com (ESP) was founded by the creator of tedbets.com and is riding the eSports momentum and provides fantasy league games and analytics solutions in this rapidly growing industry.

Skillzzgaming is a brand new gaming platform that blends casual with real-money and enables customers to play the games they’ve grown to love with the added benefit and kick of gambling.

Casino VR is a multiplayer casino platform for virtual reality with multiple games and experiences, and the flagship first multiplayer poker product.

The finalists were selected after a close examination of the submissions received from start-ups from around the world between April and August. This difficult decision was made by selection committee members: Melissa Blau from iGaming Capital, also the chair of the session, Chris North from GamCrowd, and Clarion’s Ewa Bakun, who commented: ‘The quality of applications we receive just gets better and better every year, so it is also harder and harder for us to select the finalists. I am confident that this year’s Launchpad will finish with a winner with a great future.’

EiG Start-Up LaunchPad is part of the Excellence in iGaming in Berlin, taking place on October 20 to 22 2015.