Rollbit reveals RuneScape-inspired casino game
Sharpr is a weekly newsletter covering the intersection of esports, betting, and Gen Z
Hey everyone, Cody here.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers in the United States that celebrate it.
It’s been a few weeks since you last heard from me and there’s quite a bit of ground to make up — from Nevada’s esports betting regulation to a new product that blends video game nostalgia with casino.
Let’s dig in 🦃
In this week’s edition of Sharpr…
Rollbit reveals RuneScape-inspired casino game.
What Nevada’s betting regulations mean for esports.
Ubisoft signs exclusive data partnership with GRID.
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Rollbit reveals RuneScape-inspired casino game
Cryptocurrency operator Rollbit has revealed a new casino game inspired by RuneScape, a classic online role-playing game (also known as an MMORPG).
“Duel Arena,” based on RuneScape’s iconic player-vs-player minigame, is a 0% edge casino game where users stake cryptocurrency and NFTs against other users.
Users play as unique characters in a virtual environment that’s visually akin to RuneScape and fight one another in a luck-based duel lasting around 70 seconds.
Rollbit purchased five CryptoPunks, a blue chip NFT, to “enhance liquidity” for the game and its players.
Rollbit’s co-founder says the company worked diligently to recreate that same experience from the ground up with the product in hopes that it could tap into players’ nostalgia.
“Our primary goal is to attempt to recreate this nostalgic experience and allow players to relive their fondest memories,” they said in a tweet.
“We've been working on the Duel Arena for over one year and have built everything from scratch, polishing every minor detail to ensure we recreate a similar experience to the 2011-2012 staking era.”
RuneScape is one of the oldest running MMORPG games in the world, having originally launched in 2001. Today, the game is estimated to have over 2M daily players, but Game Rant notes that “virtually every gamer has played this old online RPG game at one time or another.”
The game is set to be released on Rollbit this month.
🔎 Between the lines: Saying Duel Arena is “inspired” by RuneScape almost feels like an understatement.
The product looks nearly identical to the original MMORPG game, and anyone that’s played it before would very easily be able to make that connection.
Everything from the arena to the gameplay and interface looks perfected while small, meaningful details like a chatbox to “trash talk” your opponents as players used to do really ties the whole experience together.
Potential copyright infringements aside, recreating that experience is a very powerful motivator for people with nostalgia for the game. I would know because I grew up playing RuneScape with friends, and I admit this caught my eye immediately.
But beyond my own childhood obsession, I think this is more clever than most people may give it credit for. Here’s why:
Betting entertainment: Imagine stripping all the design and creative from this product and only maintaining the functionality. It’s not that interesting at all, right?
When you boil this down, the company is taking an ordinary, run-of-the-mill offering and making it fun and novel for the user well beyond the actual transaction. That’s valuable in a world where there’s very limited differences between most betting products.
Exclusivity: This is an underestimated piece of the online betting value chain.
Variety of games aren’t typically high on a bettor’s list of reasons why they would choose one sportsbook over another. Then again, most casino games aren’t anything special.
On the other hand, an exclusive game that’s engaging and fun to play has the potential to be a real difference maker. If the game can be enough of a unique selling point for customers to register an account on Rollbit, that’s a big win.
What Nevada’s betting regulations mean for esports
The Nevada Gaming Commission has adopted new regulations that will allow sportsbooks to accept wagers on esports without additional regulatory approval.
Esports were previously approved by the board on a per-event basis, which was tedious and costly for operators.
The new guidelines recommended by the Esports Technical Advisory Committee will eliminate that requirement, categorizing esports under sporting events.
The Commission opted to exclude an amendment which would require sportsbooks to verify events had anti-doping measures in place, saying the provision would make esports competitions “functionally ineligible” for wagering.
Brett Abarbanel, executive director at UNLV’s International Gaming Institute and member of ETAC, tells Sharpr that despite making progress with esports wagering in Nevada, there’s still significantly more ground left to cover.
“The changes need to be thoroughly communicated to licensees and processes provided for third-party vendors who may not be familiar with what the changes mean,” Abarbanel said.
“There are many future areas for consideration for state regulators in the games and esports realm, as this regulation particularly focuses on esports in the form of professionalized competitive events. The broader subjects of video games, esports, and gambling need much more clarity and definition on the regulatory front.”
Abarbanel referenced social competitions, player-vs-house products, and the relevance of cryptocurrency to the legalized esports betting space as a few areas that would benefit from increased transparency.
🔎 Between the lines: The amendment is a win for esports betting in Nevada which may also have downstream effects on the segment in the US broadly.
The new guidelines take the friction out of the equation, which should offer operators more incentive to test the waters with esports. The time, energy, and cost investment of adding esports to the board under the previous terms were way above the betting handle sportsbook could generate at this stage. From that standpoint, esports was never really positioned for success in Nevada.
Regulation was a very important piece, but it’s just the first step here.
Sportsbooks will not only need to adopt esports and incorporate it into their offerings, but also figure out how to market the product appropriately and reach the right audience. The latter part I think will be the more challenging piece in the medium- to long-term.
Moreover, there’s a massive gap in consumer awareness here that needs to be solved. Most esports fans in the US either don’t know it's something they can bet on or they don’t know where to do it.
I’ll wrap this up by sharing the outlook I provided Straight To The Point last month:
“Esports betting will be a slow burn in Nevada, but making it accessible was the first step toward sizing up the actual market opportunity in the country and beginning to build a betting culture around it.
“I believe sportsbooks that commit themselves to esports early and are able to market it appropriately will be rewarded later on as they build rapport with the next generation of bettors, which at this stage, is the bigger opportunity in front of us.”
Ubisoft signs exclusive data partnership with GRID
Game publisher Ubisoft has signed an exclusive, multi-year partnership with esports data company GRID.
GRID will exclusively oversee the distribution of official data assets from BLAST R6, the global esports circuit for Rainbow Six Siege.
The pair will collaborate to streamline access to real-time data for enhanced broadcasts, monitoring competitive integrity, and betting with a larger focus of growing the Rainbow Six esports ecosystem broadly.
Francois Tallec, VP of brand & transmedia partnerships at Ubisoft, says the partnership will unlock new avenues for fan engagement and give room for greater innovation.
“At Ubisoft, we recognize the need to innovate in the fast-paced space that esports is, and to keep our community constantly engaged,” Tallec said in a release. “Our partnership with GRID and the shared understanding of our esports data’s potential promises to unlock exciting opportunities to engage fans and innovate across the board.”
The deal will add to GRID’s repository of official game data, which includes Valorant, PUBG: Battlegrounds, the Dota 2 Pro Circuit, and more.
Tactile Communications Founder and former esports journalist Thomas Lace says the agreement will give Rainbow Six the “richness of data” seen in the top three betting titles – Counter-Strike, League of Legends, and Dota 2.
“It’s a vote of confidence from GRID on Rainbow Six as a valuable betting segment in the future,” Lace told Sharpr. “We’re likely to see an uplift in the quality, breadth, and depth of product for Rainbow Six, especially in live betting: more markets and granularity of those markets, higher quality widgets, potential for player props and the like.
“As we know though, ‘build it and they will come’ isn’t a surefire solution. Having data of this quality helps build a product worth marketing. But operators will need to successfully engage and integrate with the passionate Rainbow Six community for it to be a successful betting segment.”
🗞 In the news
NBC News says unregulated, “casino-like” phone apps are separating people from millions of dollars.
Entain maintains the company is still “really excited about esports” after winding down Unikrn.
Rivalry launched a fantasy basketball app that taps into trading card culture, collectibles, and pack openings.*
📈 By the numbers
The League of Legends 2023 World Championship final was the most-watched esports event of all time, recording 6M peak concurrent viewers.
The top ten creators on Twitch generated over 74M hours of watched content.
Catena Media shares slide as Q3 revenue falls 28%.
Contact us
News tips, feedback, and sponsorship inquiries.
Reach me directly at luongomanagement@gmail.com 📩 or on Twitter 🐦
All figures are quoted in US Dollars at the current exchange rate unless otherwise specified.
*Disclaimer: I am a full-time employee of Rivalry
Hey Cody, as always fantastic coverage!
Quick question, do you have any idea how Rollbit went about building this runescape experience? You mention that they built everything from scratch, does this mean that they did all the dev work themselves or did they use a particular game engine? I'm asking as someone that is interested in building unique casino experiences.
Thanks,
Matias