In 2015, Steven Salz was one of many entrepreneurs hoping to claim a slice of the esports industry whilst still baking in the proverbial oven. Alongside Ryan White and Kevin Wimer, co-founders of skins marketplace Loot Market, the trio defined the ideal set of benchmarks needed to solicit their investment. The venture was contingent on three important criteria: an asset completely agnostic of game publisher intellectual property, third-party API, and specific game titles.
These set of guidelines pointed Salz to the world of esports bookmaking. Although the esports betting scape looked far different than it does today; once riddled with unregulated sportsbooks and illegal skin markets each posing its own regulatory nightmare.