Esports has a new members' association

Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC), a members’ association for the professional eSports industry, has officially launched after being established last year.

Members and supporters of the programme include Sportradar, Betway and eSports operator Unikrn, and the body will aim to guard against issues such as cheating, match manipulation and doping.

These were all issues that surfaced when ESIC carried out a threat assessment in 2015.

All professional stakeholders in eSports are welcome to join ESIC and members will work towards creating policies and new projects.

Sportradar is known for its anti-corruption operations, as its Fraud Detection System has flagged over 2,000 sporting events as likely to have been manipulated since 2009.

Agency Stark eSports estimated that the eSports market generated turnover of $747.5m for 2015 and that live streaming of eSports events attracts 100 million unique viewers per month.

Pinnacle Sports revealed it accepted one million wagers on eSports in 2014 and research company New Zoo has estimated that global eSports awareness will reach 1.2bn gamers by 2017.