Oakland, California, USA | Wednesday 07.24.19: MondoBox is announcing the immediate launch of the MondoBox platform, the first gamer-focused, free contest platform where viewers interact with live streams to win cash prizes.
By injecting gameplay predictions directly into streamed content, MondoBox brings spectators, their favorite content and popular streaming personalities together in an exciting and highly engaging way. Spectators compete on daily, weekly and monthly leaderboards, earning points for correctly predicting the streamers next moves and gameplay outcomes. Those spectators with the most correct predictions can win increasingly valuable cash prizes.
Gaming and eSports spectators across the globe spend tens of millions of dollars a year in donations and subscriptions while watching streaming content. Yet, beyond messaging, sending donations, or simply devoting time to passionately following their favorite players — spectators don’t participate in content they’re actively watching.
A study carried out by technology consulting firm Activate predicts that by 2020, 250 million people around the world will be watching live and online eSports content at any one time, amounting to over 11 billion hours a year watched by approximately three billion individuals. MondoBox believes that by offering a meta-game experience relating to the content they watch and rewarding them with prizes, there is an opportunity to create more interaction within the spectator community, to improve the viewership experience, and to increase audience engagement.
Work on the concept began last October, before MondoBox was founded as a Delaware C corp in February of this year. Two entrepreneurs, with over 30 years’ experience in gaming product development, are leading the platform’s development:
Ahern Knox, CEO and co-founder: “I was working with an eSports startup, engaging gamers by spreading in-game missions and quests. I realized there was an entire market of gaming-centric spectators, watching gaming content on a very regular basis — most often, daily — that would love a different way of interacting with that content.
“I thought there was a genuine opportunity to offer these guys a more engaging way of viewing eSports and Mike and I began talking about what that would look like. Based on various projects we’d been involved with over the years, we looked at combining ideas from eSports and iGaming to develop a first-of-its-kind spectator engagement platform.”
Mike Reaves, president and co-founder: “Traditional TV viewing is dead. Most viewers in our target demographic stream their content from the Internet. The goal of MondoBox is to create an additional outlet for spectators to engage with their favorite streamed content — and have the chance to win money while doing so. At the same time, we will drive better retention for streamers without them having to change their behavior at all. We will, effectively, layer in fun competitions and activities which can lead to cash prizes. These are primarily designed to subsidize spectator donations and subscriptions.
“All of this is discretionary and delivered at zero cost to the viewer or the streamer. It’s also important to note that MondoBox is not a streaming service. We layer in our service by re-broadcasting matches offered on Twitch and other streaming platforms in real-time with our proprietary client-server system. The system is cloud-based and ensures scalability to millions of concurrent participants with no lag.”
Targeting an initial North American and Western European launch, MondoBox will eventually expand to audiences worldwide. The company is launching its platform atop Fortnite matches, but will soon expand to League of Legends, Overwatch, Dota 2, Apex Legends, and other popular eSports games. MondoBox launches this week. Players can sign up for the service at https://www.mondobox.com, using their Discord account. To celebrate the launch, for a limited time, in addition to an Invincibility PowerUp, MondoBox will be giving players $1 for each friend that they refer that registers and plays a round. Players can expect to compete for cash prizes totaling nearly $10,000 during July and August.
