As of yesterday, Esports Tickets has officially launched its new product. Beam is an event platform for gamers looking to find tournaments for their favorite games at all levels of competition. CEO Arwina Mogul joined Inven Global's Nick Geracie to talk about the Beam platform launch and her career experience that led to her founding Esports Tickets. 

Can you tell us a bit about what you do for Beam as CEO of Esports Tickets in the day-to-day?

Esports Tickets is a tech startup making products for the esports and gaming communities. The first of those products is called Beam, a platform where people can find esports and gaming events online in their own cities.


How and when was Esports Tickets founded, and what is the goal of the company?

Esports Tickets was founded in 2017. I had been organizing esports events myself, but I was trying to roll out an Eventbrite for gamers. People really like the community aspect of this scene, and I realized the potential opportunities. Beam is about empowering communities and tournament organizers to ultimately become a full-time esports professional.


What is your previous experience in tech, esports, and gaming?

I've been a techie my whole life. I taught myself how to code starting with extremely basic stuff about 15 or 16 years ago. I was coding for money at some point, but my career took a different route. Thankfully, I'm not the person who built our website, *laughs* that's our CTO Larry Wu. I've always been in touch with local communities.

I've worked with Valve, AMT Games, Redbull, Logitech Gaming, etc. for previous events, so I've had experience leading up to Esports Tickets in this area. It's not out of the blue that I started this type of startup. Right before Esports Tickets, I was working on an esports theme park called Virtuocity in Doha, Qatar.


Was there anything specific in your previous experience that led you to do the idea of founding Esports Tickets? Clearly there's a demand for what you are trying to accomplish.

The pain point was tremendous from both the organizer and consumer sides. From the organizer side, I was organizing events and every year, I would switch from different ticketing platforms because none of them provided me with any value whatsoever towards the event experience, ticket sales, etc. I said, "I'm sure someone will create an Eventbrite for gamers." At the time, I didn't realize it would end up being my team. *laughs*

From the consumer side, not just me, but everyone else I know has missed out on an event because they didn't know about. That may be because the event was buried by facebook's algorithm from being too overly saturated. Consumers are missing out on events and/or not going to events that are reputable.

Unfortunately, some events have a few bad apples when it comes to TOs who organize a complete sham. The event wouldn't even exist, and then they collect money. All of those problems led me to founding Esports Tickets.


Is there a way that your team can vet these TOs or companies through Beam?

Yes. People are able to find organizers on the platform as well as leave feedback, comments, and reviews for them.

How will Beam be able to navigate the multi-faceted, multi-leveled space of competitive gaming? People seek out tournaments in different ways depending on the esport, right?

It's actually pretty simple. If you sign up on Beam and create a user account, you will immediately see why we're different from the other event and ticketing platforms for esports and gaming. We have an algorithmic process that puts together a profile for you, so whatever you see on the website is tailored to your interests.


In what ways will strengthening the competitive gaming scene as a whole have a positive effect at the top level of thriving professional esports?

There is already support from companies and developers for the top-tier tournaments, but if you have been organizing events for a long time at a local level in your city, you suddenly realize you have the same handful of people winning your events all the time. Beam is not just an event and tournament platform, it's also an opportunity for people to connect and network with likeminded individuals in the space.

Beam is not just a competitive-specific platform in the sense of what is happening now, it's also something that can be utilized by gamers looking for more casual events, as well as people interested in starting an esports career for themselves. Workshops, conventions, and other types of educational or social events around esports and gaming will also be on Beam.


Is there anything Esports Tickets will be doing offline with Beam in addition to the online platform?

We just had our launch event for Beam yesterday at our office in Toronto where we showcased plenty of people who have been working with us, as well as utilizing the Beam platform for themselves. Our main goal is provide more exposure for the people that we work with, and through that, raise event awareness and discovery for organizers.

Unfortunately, I can't say too much more, but we're definitely planning another event. It will not be a tournament, it will be something workshop-oriented.