Esports betting has come a long way from its unregulated, wild-west days, but for GRID CEO Moritz Maurer, its next evolution hinges on official data and integrity-driven practices to bring fairness, transparency, and trust to the entire ecosystem.
“Integrity is a core pillar for us,” Moritz Maurer, GRID CEO, said in an interview with SiGMA News. “Esports presents challenges that are different from traditional sports, like the handling of time-sensitive information, preventing leaks, and dealing with new forms of exploitation,” he explained.
He also referred to the 2016 Bloomberg report on unregulated esports gambling, where everything from match fixing to skin gambling happened. At the time, GRID developed a tool to scan unregulated betting sites and convert skin values into their equivalent sales prices on the Steam marketplace to combat the issues.
The company has also maintained an in-house integrity team, working closely with partners and organizations like the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) to share information and keep matches clean. Through its official data partnerships, they can monitor and respond to incidents quickly and effectively.
Headquartered in Berlin, GRID has offices in Poland, China, and Sweden and more than 100 employees worldwide. As the official data platform for major esports titles, GRID provides bookmakers with clean, reliable data to help them operate efficiently and responsibly.
Moritz says official data is central to GRID’s operations, stressing that they never “scrape or use unofficial sources,” relying instead on exclusive partnerships with rights holders.
One of the leading esports developers, Riot Games, has partnered with GRID to establish guidelines for esports betting sponsorships. Together, League of Legends and VALORANT, along with Counter-Strike and Dota 2, account for 85 percent of all wagers in the esports betting market, according to Maurer.
By focusing on integrity and official data, GRID aims to clean up esports betting and help the entire industry thrive responsibly and sustainably. As esports wagering approaches the $3 billion mark, clean, reliable data will be key to making the industry better for everyone involved.
