GRID and US Integrity team up for the esports vertical

US Integrity (USI) and GRID have teamed up to provide a new service that will focus on leveraging real-time in-game data from competitive video gaming to safeguard the integrity and fairness of esports events.

The two companies will work together to provide esports monitoring services, which will be tailored to look out for fraud and manipulation in competitive events, much the same way that integrity services do for traditional sports contests.

USI, which is a leading integrity service for traditional sports, will now benefit from GRID’scomprehensive in-game data to ensure that it develops a product that is going to be readily used by regulated operators in the United States to provide esports fans with the best and most worthwhile betting markets.

To do this, USI will keep watch over the regulated esports betting market and ensure that there is no manipulation. Esports betting incidents and match-fixing have already been deemed criminal offenses in several jurisdictions, including Australia, where players were arrested over match-fixing.

USI COO Scott Sadin has welcomed the opportunity to cooperate with GRID and build a fair esports environment where official data is at the core of the offer. Sadin added that GRID has had a string of partnerships with the right holders of late, which allows the company and USI to team up and collaborate in the endeavor of establishing new integrity frameworks in the regulated esports market.

USI’s Esports Integrity Team will be tasked with creating the solutions that esports rights holders need to ensure that the ecosystem is free of manipulation. Meanwhile, USI’s services and solutions are quite comprehensive. The company has put extensive efforts into monitoring the regulated sports betting market, and it’s ready to leverage this knowledge in the esports ecosystem.

The company uses proprietary technology and direct-from-the-source data in order to detect game manipulation, match-fixing, and fraud, and it also runs educational initiatives to help educate players in some of the biggest sports leagues, such as the PGA Tour, MLB, and UFC, to name a few, on how to stay away from suspicious practices.

GRID CEO Moritz Maurer welcomed this partnership as well and said that USI and his company had a shared vision for data-driven integrity in esports. "Combining our expertise, we aim to ensure the integrity of the match, the source, and the best in any esports title and introduce more scalable frameworks for the industry as a whole,"Maurer said.

USI recently joined America Gaming Association’s Have A Game Plan initiative designed to raise awareness for responsible gambling in the United States.

Image credit: US Integrity