Interviews
Exclusive Q&A with Phil Hubner Chief Business Development Officer at Challengermode
Retired players become media commentators, or selectors, or coaches, or the sports administrators. That is the trend in most sports.
What about esports? What do esports players do once they retire?
We have with us here Phil Hubner, the Chief Business Development Officer at Challengermode, who was a successful esports player too.
He talks about his esports playing days, his struggles to build a career, his company and the career options available of esports players in the industry.
Q. We shall begin with your esports career. How did your attention turn to esports and how it developed?
A. Like a lot of people in the industry, my introduction to gaming and esports began at a very young age. My first memory of gaming was in 1996. I was 4 years old, sitting in my 21 year old uncle’s lap, watching a screen light up with flash rockets, lasers and machine guns in Quake. And then playing my first ever casual match against my brother and my uncle’s best friend.
By 2005 I’d spent almost all of my free time playing video games, with the whole of 2004 spent perfecting my craft in DotA. That meant watching videos of the best players in the game, spending my days on IRC networks chatting with some of the top players and getting tips and tricks from them. I was part of the professional German esports organization “mousesports” which accounted for my first real experience with esports. There I managed the team’s scrimmage and tournament schedule and substituted as a player on the roster; primarily in practice matches.
A short 4 years later, Heroes of Newerth was released – the first real successor and stand-alone version of DotA. I spent my days playing at a top level, there didn’t seem to be much of a chance of making a living from esports in either game. Teams weren’t very supportive, there were no actual salaries being paid out, and the prize money wasn’t enough to sustain competitors unless they won every single tournament that ran. This was the point I decided that playing, whilst an important part of my free time, wasn’t going to be the career choice for me. I wanted to do something bigger, more impactful, and most importantly something that would allow me to pursue a full-time, paying career within this industry.
Q. Could you narrate your transition from an esports player to an industry professional? What are the challenges that you faced?
A. The first step towards making a career outside of being a player involved turning my industry knowledge into a stint in journalism. In 2010 I wrote an email to the up-and-coming esports publication ESFIWorld (now sadly defunct), arguing they should consider reporting on MOBA games like Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends. The CEO welcomed the idea and I joined the team there as a Content Director – an unpaid position – whilst finishing high school.
In 2011 I covered my first industry events – “The International”, and CeBIT, where the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship took place. I threw myself into these events, striking up conversations with the tournament operators, commentators, hosts, players and more. I recorded interviews, wrote articles, and attended after-parties – producing over 130 content pieces in a span of just 5 days. But this still fell short of “making a living” in esports. Like many people who want to turn their passion into their career, the main challenge was finding a role that could support me financially. In 2011 I was still a broke student with hardly enough money to buy food at these events. One night, our hotel room got cancelled, forcing us to go back to the hostel we had stayed the night before, who allowed us to sleep on the floor in their storage room – not the best example of a successful esports career!
But this experience did allow me to make a name for myself within the European esports industry. I wasn’t famous by any means, but I knew people. One of these people was Michal Blicharz (as of my writing this the VP of Pro Gaming at ESL Gaming) who was the man with the plan on the Intel Extreme Masters. I asked whether there were any openings for internships or junior positions within their company. Within a week I got an offer, quit school and in March 2012 – exactly a year after my first ever live esports event – I attended my first event as an intern under Michal, where I would soon become a Junior Product Manager. With a paying role under my belt, the main challenge became embedding myself fully in the rapidly growing and constantly changing industry, an industry at the forefront of digital marketing.
Moving away from the editorial side of the esports industry – In 2015 I started working with Ben Goldhaber at the time Content Director at Twitch, handling content marketing for Twitch in Europe and managing their mighty social media accounts with millions of followers. I moved to London, and shortly after pitched a new role and department to the current VP of Marketing at Twitch: International Marketing. Following this I saw many opportunities in both the rising esports industry, and the newly discovered land of opportunities that was influencer marketing – managing half a dozen streamers and influencers. This led me to my first role in Business Development in helping build up the Italian esports organization QLASH.
Q. Let’s now move to your career at Challengermode. What exactly does Challengermode offer and what’s your role as Chief Business Development Officer?
A. Challengermode is an esports platform with a big focus on the grassroots levels of competitive gaming, and a vision to make esports as accessible as possible. In effect, that means we build technology that makes playing in and offering esports competitions seamless. I joined Challengermode in 2017 as Head of Business Development, where I was largely responsible for onboarding the very first partners at the company, as well as devising the company’s partnerships and business strategy. I came to this after working in a wider variety of positions around esports, from marketing and communications to product management to business development and strategy. In my current role as CBDO I draw on a lot of that experience to translate greater accessibility in esports into greater value for stakeholders all across the esports ecosystem. I also manage two key departments within the company that deal with acquiring and then supporting partners such as game developers, tournament organizers, esports teams and brands.
Q. A number of young people become esports wizards. Could you tell us the career options available to them once they hit the esports peak and start the downhill journey?
A. I wouldn’t call it a downhill journey. I think it’s more of a natural evolution to go from player to industry professional. Hopefully my previous answer goes some way to highlighting the breadth of roles that are available in the industry away from the bright lights of being a competitor!
My experiences may be a few years old now, but if you look at the esports industry today, there are a few obvious steps one can take after putting down the mouse and keyboard (or controller) and wanting to fulfill a role within the industry with the background of being a professional player. There are many living examples of players that have turned to commentary and analysis for example. Using their in-depth knowledge of their game to dissect other players’ performances.
Another route that many have gone is to become a coach. Much like in traditional sports – years and years of playing will have honed your understanding of the game, problems for individual players to overcome and will have given you a keen read on other teams, their strategies, and their weaknesses. Similarly though, this is only the correct path for the few players that in their playing careers tend to be actively engaged in strategy and tactical choices.
For those with a more entrepreneurial nature, a common trend you’ll see is the formation of a new esports team or a company within esports that solves a problem they may have uncovered during their days as a player. You’ll find many, many such examples dating all the way back even to some of the oldest esports organizations such as SK Gaming or Ninjas in Pyjamas, but even more so in newcomers such as TSM, G2 Esports or 100 Thieves.
If none of those are the right way to go, luckily the rise of Twitch and the continued success of YouTube have provided any retiring player with an outlet and opportunity to continue their careers even beyond their competitive days. For many viewers, there’s little more entertaining (and educational) than watching players who play at the top level of their game. What’s better than getting an opportunity to directly engage with, chat, and ask questions to a retired star player?
Q. From a personal point of view, what are the advantages an esports player looking for a career in the gaming industry has, compared to a non-player?
A. Put simply – industry knowledge. Esports is still a very young industry and every year more companies enter the sector than there is talent available to staff them. Professional players, retired or not, will have some of the keenest eyes when it comes to authentically speaking to the esports audience. It’s not just an audience for them after all, it will have been their life for the past few years. This means there will always be in-roads for these individuals when looking to move into the business of esports.
Many of them however will experience a heavy reality check when starting this next step of their journey: while they may have a keen understanding of the audience, they might not have many skills directly applicable to their new roles. Be these in marketing, operations, recruiting or what have you. There’s good news though: their diligence, discipline and ability to become the best at something will easily translate into other fields outside of the games they played for so long. Besides from the industry knowledge, the soft skills are easily transferable.
Q. Again from a personal perspective, is the industry welcoming enough to the esports players? Any comments on that?
A. Whenever a professional player retires, that person should be seen as a top candidate not necessarily to join your executive team and lead the charge, but at the very least someone that will no doubt be a fast learner and someone that can intently focus on whatever is put in front of them. It is up to the universities, colleges and companies in the space to provide these paths for these players; but likewise up to these players to identify and accept where they stand within a professional context, how applicable their skills are, and where they may be lacking.
I have no doubt that anybody capable of being the best out of millions of players in any given game will likewise be capable of being the best at many other jobs and tasks thrown at them; that they will learn them quickly and learn how to excel at them, and if we do a good enough job at telling the stories of former professional players and their careers, we can give hope and inspiration to current and future pro players, whilst reassuring companies that former professional players are likely to be top-tier hires if provided the right guidance and opportunity.
Q. What are the potential roles and positions in the gaming industry that particularly suit esports players?
A. Using some of the roles I mentioned previously as examples, commentators and analyst roles lend themselves well to the kind of esports competitors that are naturally charismatic and have an ability to speak concisely. Players choosing to go down this path are often at the mercy of the audience. When it comes to coach roles oftentimes this is a natural fit for team captains, those who have been on the frontline in leadership positions before have an understanding of what different team members need and how to handle group dynamics.
Many retired players have found ways into game balance and later game design teams either for the very same games that they were once competitive in, or for new games in the same, unexplored genre. After all, who understands MOBAs better than someone who has played one for tens of thousands of hours?
Ultimately what roles in the games industry that suit esports players depends greatly on the player themselves. What skills they have and what interests them. There are myriad roles out there for players with a solid industry knowledge base to get involved across art, design, marketing, communications, business, finance etc. It all comes down to what they want to do.
Q. Finally, as someone who has experienced it from both ends of the spectrum – as a player and then as an industry professional – what are the changes you would like to have in the esports vertical in the future?
A. What may be missing today is a safety net catching and training those players that don’t fall into the categories I’ve mentioned above. Those that aren’t as entrepreneurial or self-driven, and those that maybe want to step one further step away from the game itself than a role as a commentator, analyst, coach or game designer would allow them to. I’d like to see more organisations taking responsibility for the futures of their current talent. Not just for the sake of the competitors themselves, but for the sake of the industry as a whole.
Nik Robinson, CEO at Big Time Gaming, talks about the challenges studios face when it comes to sequel slots such as its just-launched Danger! High Voltage 2.
Congratulations on the launch of Danger! High Voltage 2. Tell us more about the game and what players can expect.
Thanks! We’re absolutely thrilled to launch Danger! High Voltage 2—it’s an electrifying sequel we think fans of the original will love. When we released the first Danger! High Voltage, the response was phenomenal, and players kept asking for even more high-octane action. So, we set out to turn things up to 11 with this release.
The game cranks up the excitement with our Megaways™ engine, giving players up to 117,649 ways to win on each spin. The base game is supercharged with volatility and powered by the MegaDozer, perched right above the reels, ready to drop Scatters, Wilds, Multipliers, and other electrifying surprises into play. Then there are the two fiery free spin bonuses—Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!!—designed to keep players on the edge of their seats.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be Danger! High Voltage without the unforgettable soundtrack by Electric Six! Get ready for some serious foot-tapping and headbanging because this game truly brings the heat.
How does the second instalment differ from the original Danger! High Voltage slot you launched back in 2017?
This time around, players are transported to an electrifying thrilling industrial scene, and introduced the groundbreaking mechanic MegaDozerTM mechanic sitting up top, ready to unleash Scatters, Wilds, Multipliers, and surprises.
It’s amazing to see how much slot game design has evolved since we launched the first game in 2017, and Danger! High Voltage 2 is a testament to that evolution. This time, we’ve built it around our Megaways™ engine, which amps up the gameplay with up to 117,649 ways to win on every spin.
We’ve also kept the player choice element for the Free Spins round, but we didn’t just stop there. Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!! are brand-new bonus features that make every spin a symphony of excitement. It’s a whole new level of Danger! and a thrilling way for players to experience just how far we’ve come in delivering cutting-edge slots.
What made the iconic song from Electric Six the perfect soundtrack for creating a slot game around?
When we set out to create Danger! High Voltage 2, we knew we had to keep the core essence that players loved—the name and that iconic Electric Six soundtrack—but from there, this game is a totally new beast.
It’s insanely catchy and the perfect soundtrack for spinning the reels. For me, it stirs a strong feeling of nostalgia, taking me back to the early 2000s when the song was riding high in the charts. The more I listened to it, the more I became convinced it would be huge fun to create a slot game around the song. The lyrics lend themselves to bonus features (Fire in the Disco! Danger Danger! Or the original High Voltage & Gates of Hell), and the disco theme works really well as an online slot because it is so visual and colourful. With the original, we were able to capture the essence of the song and bring it to life, which is why Danger! High Voltage became a runaway success. Danger! High Voltage 2 turns the volume up to the max and we fully expect it to rise to the top of the charts, just like the original did.
Just how hard is it to launch a follow-up to a hugely successful slot game? What are the main challenges in doing so?
Launching a follow-up to a hit like Danger! High Voltage is no easy feat—it’s a bit like making the sequel to a blockbuster movie. You need to build on the experience offered by the original game, keeping true to the core theme and gameplay while making sure it offers something new and different. Stick too close to the original and it won’t deliver the excitement players are seeking, move too far away from it and you can end up with a significant disconnect from the original. But we reimagined the visuals and mechanics, integrating our Megaways™ engine as it adds massive win potential with up to 117,649 ways to win and to keep the gameplay engaging. We took risks with a completely new mechanic MegaDozer™ and introduced two brand-new free spin features, Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!! which had to be meticulously tested to ensure they deliver the right blend of fun and volatility. It becomes a bit of a balancing act whereby you need to keep core elements the same or similar and then bring in new elements that take the whole package to the next level. It’s easy to see why the second album is often the toughest for musicians.
Big Time Gaming seems to have cracked the code when it comes to sequel slots with the recent launch of Bonanza Falls so you must have been able to overcome these challenges.
We’re fortunate to have such strong original titles like Bonanza and Danger! High Voltage as a foundation for our sequels, but make no mistake—it all starts with the team’s incredible work in crafting these iconic games in the first place. When you have a solid base, it gives us the freedom to innovate boldly. For instance, with sequels like Bonanza Falls and Danger! High Voltage 2, we introduced fresh mechanics like MegaDozer™, Win Exchange™, Bonus Coins, which add entirely new dimensions to gameplay. These features aren’t just updates; they’re true evolutions that deliver exhilarating experiences and keep players coming back.
Our team embraces these challenges head-on, bringing excitement and a touch of fun to every sequel we produce. And while these games build on the legacies of the originals, they’re crafted to stand tall on their own merits. Bonanza Falls and Danger! High Voltage 2 don’t just rely on the reputations of their predecessors—they’re outstanding games in their own right, designed to thrill players new and old alike. It’s about creating something fresh while capturing the magic that made the originals so beloved.
Match Hype has just won two industry competitions. Talk us through your product.
Match Hype brings engagement from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram into the sportsbook. Our technology automatically turns raw sports data into short videos full of sports and betting insights. We have the capacity to create up to a million videos daily in more than 30 languages. We also provide hosting and streaming of the videos, and we track everything in the video thanks to our own player. The high level of video experience and the scale make us unique in the market, and we believe that this innovation is extremely needed in the industry—and the judges in the competitions probably agree with us.
What technologies are you leveraging to deliver such a cutting-edge tool/product?
We have more than six years’ experience in developing dynamic video solutions for clients like Microsoft, HBO, and SAP, and a decade in high-end video production for similarly well-known clients. Match Hype is the essence of this. We have developed our own robust cloud infrastructure that enables us to work on a huge scale. We can also leverage the integration of third-party solutions that help us make the video content rich and engaging. The AI boom came at the right time to help us make the experience for the viewer even better.
Who is Match Hype aimed at?
We focus mostly on sportsbook operators, where we think we can bring the biggest value. But we also have clients on the affiliate and media side. Our “competition” at the moment are creative professionals who are able to create one video at a time. To cover hundreds or thousands of events daily, you need huge manpower. With Match Hype, you don’t need that—it’s all automated. Anybody who appreciates this level of efficiency will benefit.
The end users are any sports fans who enjoy engaging videos. So basically everybody.
Has this industry been slow to embrace video content and unlock the potential it offers? If so, why?
It’s hard for us to talk about the whole industry, as we haven’t been part of it for that long. But iGaming feels like a conservative industry where only truly meaningful innovations make it. Fingers crossed for Match Hype being one of them. We are confident because of our track record in other industries, and mostly thanks to the results of our dynamic videos that are already used by significant igaming industry players.
What makes video content so effective at customer acquisition? How can Match Hype be used in this regard?
People just love video content. In the last review, TikTok said that the average user spends around 90 minutes a day on their platform. Platforms like Spotify used to be music and podcasts only; now they are full of videos. You just can’t ignore that. Video killed the radio star, and a static sportsbook is next to die.
And what about retention? How can it be used to keep players engaged and coming back for more?
Imagine that a 30-second video gives you the exact insights to help you make a betting decision without spending dozens of minutes on different resources to gather all the information. People don’t want to read anymore. This is probably an even bigger strength of Match Hype than user acquisition.
What can we expect from Match Hype in the coming months?
We will establish Match Hype as an industry standard for dynamic video content. We’ll bring many more sports like tennis, basketball horse racing and. We are preparing real-time video use cases—for example, half-time updates in football—and new distribution channels like integration directly into streams. The potential is huge. Stay tuned.
Any final thoughts?
For the last year, we have talked with literally hundreds of iGaming experts, investors, and executives. Almost every one of them sees fan engagement as a huge topic in the upcoming months and years. And video will definitely play a key part in it.
Video says more than a thousand words. Give it a go—watch one of our 30-second videos and see for yourself.
Affiliate Industry
Flying high: How RavenTrack is helping operators unlock the true potential of their affiliate programs
We sit down with Adam Rowley, Managing Director at RavenTrack, to understand why data, tracking and optimisation are key to a successful affiliate program
Your tagline is “win at performance marketing”. Tell us more about how you help operators maximise their partnerships with affiliates.
It is indeed. RavenTrack is a powerful affiliate tracking solution that allows operators to track, optimise and grow through their affiliate programs. Our proprietary solution offers an advanced affiliate tracking platform built by iGaming experts – this ensures it meets the unique demands of the industry, including the need to withstand the pace and complexity of affiliate marketing in the online sports betting and casino space. RavenTrack has also been designed to be flexible and customisable so that it can be adapted to individual client requirements. This combination of qualities has seen us become the go-to affiliate software tracking provider for more than 150 brands across the world, brands that are winning at performance marketing with the support of RavenTrack.
Why is tracking so important to the ultimate success of an affiliate program?
Tracking is the glue that holds marketing and sales together in the online arena. But effective tracking requires a platform that delivers reliability, accuracy and a seamless UX so that users can easily dig into the data and generate valuable insights. Speed and reliability are crucial so that operators don’t miss a single click or conversion. To track data effectively, operators (and their affiliate partners) need tools such as pixel and postback capabilities and geo-targeting. The former allows affiliates to track customer activity in real time which helps them maximise the revenue of the brands they work with. When it comes to intelligent geo-tracking, it allows users to identify and aim to funnel traffic through specific locations.
But tracking is just one part of the process and success of an affiliate program– online sportsbook and casino operators must be able to take the data they have tracked and use it to optimise campaigns, both internally and those being run by their affiliate partners.
What does optimisation look like? How does RavenTrack help its customers do this?
Traffic source provides a lot of spoke for optimisation, especially when it comes to things like which affiliate is performing best, changes to traffic, ROI and conversion rate optimisation. With RavenTrack, operators have the insight they need to do this. They can also give their affiliates access to data via their own internal reporting systems – this is done via our two-way API – to help determine which campaigns and creatives are delivering the best results. Operators also need to optimise the commercial agreements they have in place with their affiliate partners, and this means being able to offer them a range of options including CPA, revenue share, CPL, CPM and hybrid.
As operators – and their affiliates – get more experienced at using data and tracking, they will want to customise reports to a pretty granular level so that they can optimise to a much deeper and greater extent. Customisable reports (we have more than 20 reports available), marketplace and dashboards are just a few of the tools we provide to help operators and affiliates optimise campaigns and work to the commercials that deliver for both parties.
And how does all of this come together to help both operators and affiliates scale at pace?
Our fixed-cost model means operators can create as many campaigns for their brands as they like without the worry of additional costs. This in turn makes growing their program pretty straightforward. With a long list of commission structures available (which can be customised by the client) for their affiliate partners, operators can ensure the growth of the program is reflected in the growth of the wider business, ultimately allowing them to maximise profitability from affiliate marketing activity while at the same time ensuring their partners are fairly compensated for the quality traffic they send.
Migrating to a new affiliate tracking platform can cause major upheaval. How do you help operators through the process?
We know that moving to a new platform can be a big decision and a significant undertaking, but we have plenty of options to make it a seamless process from start to finish. This includes working with the affiliate program team to run their old and new program side by side to ensure there is absolutely no drop-off in traffic or lost data. Our UK-based account and customer support team is always on hand to assist during the migration process, and once operators are up and running with RavenTrack – this includes helping them get the most out of our platform and tools.
RavenTrack has only been around for a handful of years but has already achieved great things. What can we expect in the months ahead?
We hit the market in 2018 and haven’t looked back. Today, we work with 150 brands, processing more than one billion clicks per month and £2billion in deposits to date. The operators using RavenTrack to run their affiliate programs have generated more than £500 million in revenue and counting. Our numbers speak for themselves and no matter the size of brand or affiliate program, our solution is the key to unlocking the true potential of affiliate marketing. As for the months ahead, expect more platform updates, new tools and some big-name partnership announcements.
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