Why Arbitrum is bullish on Forkast's esports prediction market

Within the newest episode of the Blockchain Gaming World podcast, editor-in-chief Jon Jordan talks to Forkast CEO Chris Gonsalves and Arbitrum Gaming Enterprise’s Ethen Sy in regards to the rise of prediction markets, and the launch of esports-focused Forkast on the Arbitrum blockchain.

BlockchainGamer.biz: Let’s begin with you, Ethan. Are you able to give us a fast intro?

Ethan Sy: I’m an investor. I spent the previous 4 years at one other early-stage gaming enterprise capital agency known as Play Ventures. It invests throughout each web2 and web3 video games. And I just lately joined the crew at Arbitrum Gaming Ventures. Our sole LP is the Arbitrum DAO, and we’re targeted on backing groups, constructing inside each gaming leisure and gaming-adjacent verticals. One of many first bets that we’ve achieved is in Chris’s firm, Forkast.

I ought to level out that Arbitrum is an Ethereum-based L2 blockchain, and I believe you guys are the one blockchain with a selected gaming fund. Actually, it’s the one one which’s been energetic within the final six months or so.

Okay, Chris. What’s your background?

Chris Gonsalves: I’ve been in crypto over a decade now, since 2014. I used to work on the Bitcoin Heart in New York. That’s the place I met a whole lot of the OGs like Joe Lubin. I used to be an choices dealer again then. I’ve been an enormous gamer my whole life. Throughout the ICO growth, I labored at ConsenSys, doing a whole lot of consulting work, explaining to the primary wave of recreation builders how they might use tokens. After ConsenSys, I went on to create Group Gaming. I used to be operating the most important in-person esports meetup group in New York Metropolis. I noticed it was actually troublesome, not simply within the metropolis, however in every single place around the globe. Paying individuals was an enormous ache level, proper?

For those who’re paying individuals in several components of the world, Latin America, Asia, that’s an enormous ache level that we needed to resolve. So we constructed Group Gaming. It did every little thing from managing the registration, the bracket and crew administration to the automated payouts, for which we use stablecoins. We have been one of many first corporations to deliver stablecoin funds to shoppers in rising markets like Latin America.

A couple of yr and a half in the past, we launched predictions via Group Gaming, and so they actually caught on. I used to be a Polymarket dealer myself, and I noticed that it was evolving past politics, that it was going to proliferate throughout many various leisure verticals.

Folks have been saying, ‘It’s solely going to be good for the US election as soon as each 4 years’. After which they mentioned, ‘OK, nicely, possibly it’s going to disrupt sports activities too, however that’s it’. However I’m right here to say prediction markets are going to take market share from each single sort of buying and selling software.

Not simply sports activities betting, however perps and crypto buying and selling, memecoin buying and selling, and even inventory buying and selling and choices buying and selling. We launched Forkast a little bit beneath a yr in the past [on Ronin], after which in November 2025, we migrated to Arbitrum, the place we’re targeted particularly on gaming and esports verticals.

Why did Arbitrum Gaming Ventures suppose prediction markets typically, and Forkast particularly, was a great funding?

ES: First, I’ll dial again to once I was at Play Ventures. On the web2 aspect, it was about investing in founders who actually perceive gaming from first rules. Whether or not that’s a recreation studio or playable apps. I’ve taken a whole lot of that pondering to Arbitrum, enthusiastic about how gaming is beginning to seep into everybody’s day by day lives.

Equally, within the earlier cycle, we’ve seen individuals investing in blockchain video games as a result of they anticipated tremendous enormous outcomes, however this was aligned, as a result of traders have been solely really in search of a fast exit, whereas the builders have been coming to blockchain as a result of it was simpler to boost funding. However now you may actually see whether or not or not these groups are literally constructing for the long run. So the worst time to take a position was when everybody thought blockchain video games have been the long run. Now expectations have crated. However I believe that is the time to be making these bets.

Going again to Forkast, I really labored with Chris once I was at Play Ventures, and from my conversations with Chris, from seeing his journey, we have been capable of determine that Chris was early to this prediction market phenomenon, and he was constructing in a market the place he may probably win. He has the fitting foundations and the fitting infrastructure to construct on.

Are you able to clarify what Forkast is?

CG: It’s a peer-to-peer alternate the place you may predict on real-world occasions. Forkast is for esports followers, sports activities followers, crypto merchants, and it’s the place they converge and so they can commerce on every little thing from an esports match to an NBA recreation to an financial or inventory consequence. That’s my definition.

There are already some very massive incumbents, multi-billion-dollar corporations, so how do you place Forkast in competitors with them?

CG: For one, we’re targeted exterior the US in rising markets, so locations reminiscent of Latin America specifically. Sports activities betting is ingrained within the tradition there. Sometimes, if you’re utilizing a standard sports activities betting web site, you're betting in opposition to the home, proper? So there are a whole lot of disadvantages. For those who’re actually good, they will throttle you. They will ban you. You’re additionally most likely solely buying and selling or betting on a slender vertical of a soccer match or soccer match.

Whereas with prediction markets, you're betting peer to look. You’re not getting throttled. Everybody’s welcome. There’s no black field of odds. And it's possible you'll come for a soccer match, however then uncover that you simply wish to commerce on one thing to do with the Fed or with Tesla. That’s one benefit.

You may present higher odds and higher options which can be extra user-centric than conventional sports activities betting. And since we're in rising markets, they are usually decrease ticket sizes. You don’t want as a lot liquidity to fulfill a whole lot of retail merchants. So we're positioning ourselves as a prediction marketplace for avid gamers and esports followers in rising markets the place they have an inclination to have smaller common commerce measurement. As well as, we offer liquidity rewards. We've got a day by day USDC rewards pool in featured markets each 24 hours.

Why do you suppose esports is such a great market?

CG: Lots of people have been targeted on the US market, US sports activities specifically. You would make a case that’s beginning to get saturated. That’s a aggressive space. However it’s not like individuals around the globe don’t like buying and selling shares, don’t like watching sports activities, don’t like watching esports. There’s an enormous untapped viewers.

We expect esports goes to have an enormous development spurt this yr. Esports remains to be massively watched. There are file viewership numbers. Final week, Cellular Legends grew to become the fourth most-watched esports occasion. After which you've League of Legends getting almost 7 million peak concurrent viewers. Most of this isn’t coming from the US. The info is saying that the viewership is there.

If you take a look at the esports market as an entire, nearly all of what’s thought-about the esports market is coming from conventional betting corporations that provide esports betting. So whereas there’s been a winter for esports groups and esports orgs, viewership has been up and to the fitting. Viewers have proven they wish to guess and so they wish to watch their favourite gamers and their favourite groups.

We’re esports-native. Coming from Group Gaming, we’re targeted on an space that the opposite prediction markets will not be as targeted on. We've got boots on the bottom, crew members in Brazil, Argentina, so I believe we've got an actual benefit, and it’s an untapped space that’s going to develop.

Are USDC quests like a play-to-earn incentive?

CG: That’s a little bit of a unclean phrase lately. However it’s not simply these liquidity rewards. We've got a bunch of gamified options. We've got day by day quests too. You may even begin buying and selling without spending a dime, utilizing a credit score code from a creator you’re following. You redeem it. You get $20 of free buying and selling credit score. Now you’re buying and selling on no matter markets you want greatest, and also you’re getting rebates again from finishing day by day quests. You’re doing day by day quests. You’re competing on leaderboards. You’re incomes badges and achievements in your profile web page. You would hyperlink your Twitch and stream when you’re buying and selling.

There are a whole lot of these components by way of making it extra accessible. Similar to Robinhood. Finally, you wish to summary away the order guide and the complexities of hopping out and in of positions. Taking a web page out of the web3 gaming playbook is smart, particularly in our case, the place we’re going after rising markets the place customers are used to cellular video games. It is a new sort of buying and selling product that they’re not as used to.

How do you take care of UGC? Can customers arrange their very own markets?

CG: We've got a fairly energetic Discord. Folks counsel markets. We're those who will create the market and resolve it. However we do take user-generated markets, and we share the charges that we generate from these specific markets in the event that they’re attributed to a different person. It’s a little bit bit too early for us to only permit customers to create their very own markets from begin to end, as a result of you then get issues like the foundations could not have good integrity. If that occurs, individuals blame the platform.

However we’re additionally beginning to combine with extra automated oracles for decision. Subsequent month, we’ll go stay with Chainlink, so if we've got a market in regards to the hourly Bitcoin value, the markets shall be originated and resolved with out human intervention. It’ll simply verify the worth with Chainlink, after which it’ll restrike the following hour’s value once more. We wish to transfer to extra automated decision over time. We additionally wish to absorb a whole lot of user-generated suggestions, whether or not it’s prop markets or extra fascinating and novel markets. We’re simply going to must have that layer of integrity, checking to verify the foundations are clear for everybody, so there’s no potential for ambiguous outcomes.

One of many vital issues about crypto prediction markets like Forkast is how they fulfil the potential of blockchain by way of permitting international entry to decentralized info, and the flexibility to earn returns should you’re expert.

CG: Sure. The US inventory market is the deepest pool of any capital market on the earth, proper? And so that you need extra individuals to entry that, whether or not it’s via buying and selling tokenized shares, via choices, and now via hedging sure positions via stock-based prediction markets.

And as I discussed, the viewers is completely huge for esports. Most of that viewership is coming from rising markets, coming from even cellular video games like Cellular Legends, which is hitting file viewership numbers. Counter-Strike is the most important recreation for esports betting. We wish to cater to that market. We’re demystifying it, we’re gamifying it, similar to Robinhood did for choices. We’re right here to win the esports market with Forkast.

Lastly, what do the esports groups take into consideration this?

CG: I believe they see it as a fan engagement layer. What you’re speaking about is the esports groups which have did not monetize. They ended up taking in a whole lot of sponsorship cash from manufacturers. They didn’t actually construct a whole lot of tech. They didn’t actually transfer past promoting {dollars}.

With conventional sports activities, the leagues share income with the groups, which creates an enormous foundational layer of income that you simply get it doesn't matter what, even should you’re the worst crew within the league. That’s not the identical case with gaming and esports. It’s at an even bigger drawback. However you're seeing corporations like Riot Video games begin to share a pretty big quantity of pores and skin income. That’s the place a whole lot of groups’ income is coming from now.

I believe prediction markets will create a deeper layer of engagement the place you may have predictions that observe groups throughout the season. It’s about what’s going to occur within the recreation tonight, but additionally what’s going to occur from season to season. And prediction markets are superior to conventional playing platforms in some ways. So I believe the esports groups most likely wish to transfer away from the non-peer-to-peer platforms into these extra peer-to-peer platforms which can be extra user-centric.

Try Forkast at Forkast.gg

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