The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) announced this week that betting content and data provider BETER has been awarded a Gold Standard Accreditation. This accreditation comes “following a comprehensive on-site audit of the company’s fast-betting esports and sports betting operations,” according to the organization.
ESIC said in its release that this award is the highest integrity benchmark for betting-related esports products, reserved only for providers that demonstrate “advanced operational protocols, thorough oversight mechanisms, and consistent ethical standards,” adding that only a “handful of organisations worldwide hold this status.”
“The Gold Standard exists to protect competitive integrity across the global esports ecosystem,”said ESIC CEO Stephen Hanna. “Each time an operator meets its requirements, the bar for everyone else rises. BETER’s successful audit proves that best-in-class safeguards against match-fixing and corruption are not aspirational—they’re achievable, and they are now the expectation.”
The ESIC Gold Standard was introduced in 2022 to set requirements and standards for tournament organizers and content providers for competitions that are wagered on in real time. That criteria includes physical security, officiating, player welfare, data integrity, compliance training and transparency reporting, among other things. Certification is valid two years and may be subject to interim spot-checks.
ESIC claims to play a role in combating match fixing, though it does not have a framework for doing this in every esport (it is most prominent in Counter-Strike 2). The company works closely with tournament organizers, publishers, and gambling outfits that track esports match data.