Zambrella – BlinkPool – Becoming an Esports Market Maker

29 January 2018

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There’s not many people out there that have the joy of watching Dota 2 and getting paid for it. Usually, the privilege is reserved for a select few – be it analysts, commentators or professional players. However, there’s a few other roles about which give you the luxury too.

With the esports betting space continuing to grow, BlinkPool, an esports focused start-up based in London are looking to continue their rapid expansion. There’s currently a team of around 15 – but as they expand, they continue to look for new members of the team. Currently, one of the roles around Dota 2 is the Esports Market Maker role at BlinkPool. We spoke to Zambrella, an existing market maker to find out exactly what the role entails.

Watching DOTA every day (and getting paid for it) is usually reserved for pro players, casters and analysts. However, there is another option that allows you to watch DOTA every day and that’s by being an Esports Market Maker at BlinkPool. BlinkPool is an esports focused start-up based in London. Currently they’re a team of 15 but as they expand their offering they’re looking to grow the team. To find out what’s involved we got in contact with Zambrella, who is currently an Esports Market Maker at BlinkPool.


ESI: What is BlinkPool?

Zambrella: BlinkPool is an esports trading platform that offers viewers of live DOTA 2 games ‘markets’ (better thought of as questions), about in-game events, to wager on. They are parimutuel markets meaning that users on BlinkPool are playing against each other and not against the house.

What is an Esports Market Maker?

Zambrella: My job is to create interesting and engaging markets (questions) for BlinkPool users to wager on. This is done using a combination of BlinkPool’s state of the art computer vision technology and my knowledge of the game.

ESI: How did you become an Esports Market Maker?

Zambrella:I started by playing in and casting an amateur UK DOTA 2 tournament which was run by Suraj, one of BlinkPool’s co-founders. At that point, BlinkPool was in its infancy but Suraj let me know what he was working on and asked if I wanted to get involved. It sounded interesting so I said yes. One year later and here I am.

ESI: What else do you have to do apart from watching the game?

Zambrella: As mentioned earlier, it is my job to offer different markets to viewers. I have to analyze the live matches using my knowledge of the game as well as use their custom software. The software uses proprietary computer vision technology and artificial intelligence to suggest markets that I could offer to the viewers, but it’s my decision on what specific market we offer. I will be listening to the casters, paying attention to twitch chat and thinking about interesting situations that will probably draw the audience’s attention in the next few minutes.

ESI: Does it ever get boring?

Zambrella: There are times where it can get a little monotonous, especially when teams are idle. At the moment the current DOTA patch favours activity so, for the vast majority of the time, it’s interesting.

ESI: What’s the best thing about being an Esports Market Maker?

Zambrella: Being involved in the esports scene is great. I understand all the memes hitting Reddit and my MMR has increased (watching pros play really does help). On top of that, I get to do it at home.

What’s the worst thing about being an Esports Market Maker?

Zambrella: Market Making can be really intense and a lot of the time I’m focused on the numbers and analyzing the game instead of passively spectating. This means I might miss an epic play (or fail) because I was interpreting the stats provided by BlinkPool’s custom software.

BlinkPool is currently looking for more Esports Market Makers so head on over to blinkpool.com/careers to find out how to apply.