Do The Gaming Awards Matter?
Every big industry has its own rewards, right? Movies have the Oscars, obviously, science fiction has the HUGO Awards, videogames have Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley and sponsored by Doritos and Mountain Dew where “Destiny” can win “Best Soundtrack” over games with masterfully crafted music such as “Transistor” and “Child of Light”, and—I’m getting off track here. My point is that, considering the fact that it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry (no, seriously, the marketshare for iGaming is about $50 billion in 2016, you can look it up), there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have an awards ceremony dedicated solely to iGaming. Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, the good news is that we do have such a ceremony, and it’s really flashy! I watched their awards ceremony when it happened on February 1st, and it was really, really fun! Despite the fact that this was a multi-billion dollar business, everyone was relatable and looked very fun to be around. Special props to Lawrence Ho from Studio City, who had one of the best pre-recorded acceptance messages ever.
But… Do these awards mean anything? Do they matter at all? Let’s look at the finalists a bit more closely, shall we? Here’s a list of all casinos and casino providers who won an award at the ceremony. Let’s examine them closely, right? William Hill won Best Sportsbook Operator, that’s definitely very well-deserved! NetEnt won Slot Provider of the Year, which I absolutely 100% agree with. But… If you take a closer look, you’ll notice that all awards were sponsored by somebody. Now, this is actually fairly uncommon practice, as it creates a conflict of interest, but it’s somehow understandable if there is a very clear divide between “sponsorships” and “awards”. Providers who sponsor the event should be made fully aware that sponsorship does NOT automatically mean an award. But did that happen? Well, it’s hard to decide.
There are 16 different institutions sponsoring the awards, ranging from resorts (Ritz Club London) to casinos (Mr. Green) to casino games providers (IGT). Out of them, 12 win awards. Hmm, that seems a tad suspicious, don’t you think? I mean, imagine if Shia LaBeouf sponsored the Oscars and then all of a sudden won Best Actor over Leonardo DiCaprio. That’d make you go “huh”, wouldn’t it? Now, I’m not saying that there was any foul play actually involved. I know for a fact that many of the sponsors of the show are good, decent folks who’d never try to bribe their way to victory (you’re my bros, NetEnt), but if even one sponsor tried to do something like that it calls the entire legitimacy of the awards into question, and that’s not fun to anyone.
Again – I’m not calling anyone a cheat here. For all I know, maybe all sponsors who won really did deserve their awards! But one has to stay and wonder what’s the difference between “Best Experience on Mobile” and “Best Mobile Operator”, both of which were won by sponsors, and why we didn’t have an award for an individual game. There’s plenty of food for thought here. While the ceremony itself was very fun, I’m hoping that next year we’ll all be able to take it at face value without any sneaking suspicions about it.