Video Game Tourneys for Real Money Coming (Very!) Soon

by , Aug 3, 2009 | 3:20 pm

Not sure yet where to begin … and while the concept of playing competitive video-game tournaments online for real money isn’t exactly new (FIFA interactive World Cup, eg) … it’s apparently about to get a whole lot easier.

The site is called BringIt.com, and will be legal in 39 US states. (Like holy fugk, you can even transfer funds via PayPal!)

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/08/03/site-allows-players-wager-video-games-legal-39-states

BringIt plans to make money on a rake — pretty much just like poker — as well as some fund withdrawal processing fees. The Associated Press on the legality of it all here.

Depending on how all this shakes down, game of luck vs. skill definitives will be even more relevant than before … and at a minimum may open a new window for online poker to distinguish itself from online gambling. The online (non-poker) gaming sites that will inevitably spring up should BringIt actually bring it, meanwhile, will have to deal with all the same regulatory stuff that we want to deal with to protect fairness, ensure integrity, disable cheat codes, etc.

Still too early to tell. And BringIt is only supposed to go live in low-stakes Beta this week. But it should be a very interesting site to watch …

(Thanks @MSomm for the tip.)


11 Comments to “Video Game Tourneys for Real Money Coming (Very!) Soon”


  1. BJ Nemeth
    says:

    This is an interesting development that I look forward to following. If they were willing to take the risk, it could be used to force a lawsuit to determine whether poker meets the legal requirements of skill vs. luck.


  2. J
    says:

    I remember hearing about this concept three years ago. Safe to say I don’t think there’s a Wharton or Harvard B-School grad acting as CEO.

    Anyway, might be a good idea if games didn’t have bugs or cheats and didn’t start kids gambling at the age of 12.


  3. Matt S
    says:

    You’re welcome.


  4. DanM
    says:

    oh, yeah, right … oops … duly thanked.


  5. Matt S
    says:

    thanks, sheesh, what do you have to do to get credit for emailing a link to a blog talking about a story these days.

    my question is, what happens when they book bets for one of several poker video games? Is that a loophole?


  6. DanM
    says:

    exactly. would be very interesting. my guess is for the moment they’ll avoid all games that involve cards at least for a little while.


  7. pinkerton
    says:

    This sounds like gescrow.com which has been around a while. I seem to remember lil poison advertising them back in the day or something. Also mlgpro.com has big video game tournaments with large payouts and notable names if you know the industry…


  8. DanM
    says:

    how long have they been doing them for? and is it kinda underground, or heavily promoted?


  9. Kevin Mathers
    says:

    Major League Gaming has been around since 2002, I think they’ve had programming on USA and currently have a presence on ESPN.com:

    http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames/mlg


  10. pinkerton
    says:

    Kevin is correct. I kept up with it back in the Halo 2 days so my information is pretty outdated. Final Boss is/was a Halo team that got signed to a $1 million/ 3year exclusivity contract iirc.

    The Vegas championships last year was $100,000 top prize, but there’s a whole pro circuit leading up to the finals. They have live video streams, gameplay announcers, the whole production. There’s an event in Dallas August 28-30 if you want to go see for yourself ;).


  11. video game blog
    says:

    Thanks for the interesting article, very helpful!