ReadyUp on Engaging Audiences on a Global Scale

When 2018 Esports Hall of Fame inductee Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel was playing Quake in his younger days, it wasn’t easy finding out where and when events would be taking place. Eventually, he would end up starting his own circuit of competitions to remedy this, but now, with a little help from his friends, Wendel is solving a similar problem afflicting millions of esports fans across the globe that sees–finding esports events.

Enter ReadyUp Inc.

Wendel who is the co-founder and chief gaming officer of ReadyUp, along with co-founder/CEO Roderick Alemania and senior vice president product, Tim Steudler have come together in creating ReadyUp, a B2B digital retail distribution platform which “enables B2B partners to merchandise and drive event distribution to communities and in turn drive communities to engage and transact with our partner’s events using point of sale call to actions integrated into the platform.”

“Back then I just wanted to practice and play. It was really hard to do that as a young kid,” Wendel told The Esports Observer. “It was really frustrating for me. So whenever I found a tournament, it was like winning the lottery. I went to some convention not knowing there was a Quake 3 tournament upstairs with the winner getting a motorcycle. I went up there with my dad and won it.”

Esports fans for years have been looking for a place where they can find out about where their favorite events will be taking place and what sort of engagements and activations are happening. Splyce.gg, who had an event listing board with times and dates only, folded up that operation in 2015. Currently, Juked.gg is a platform where fans can see a schedule and watch games, but ReadyUp is looking to be the bridge that engages fans with their favorite esport, events, or teams.

“We’re big fans of what Juked is doing, but essentially they’re a TV guide for esports, right? They’re driving fans to a live stream broadcast,”  Steudler explained. “Their technology is really curating, aggregating this from a human perspective. We are a B2B platform. Our customers are the IP rights holders as the event organizers. They are the game publishers, the tournament organizers, the major gaming platforms, like a Twitch or, or a PlayStation. Our success is determined on how well we’re able to scale adoption to our API. But people have to find the event first and that’s what we do.”

As the co-founder of ReadyUp, Alemania saw the aforementioned as a problem that needed to be addressed. He knows, as a former high school volleyball coach, that passion along with availability can drive engagement.

“When you look at events these days, they really bring gamers together. It’s all about sparking shared passions,” Alemania said. “That compels us to join in and it really kind of defines the modern gaming landscape and that these gaming experiences have evolved. And when we say events, you know, we really think of events more metaphorically than just esports events.

ReadyUp’s mission is to create a place where fans and organizers can meet whether on the ReadyUp website or the organization’s–with the use of widgets–to drive online transactions. 

“When we take a look at what’s going on with events, how they’re difficult to find and how they’re digital, we really view ourselves as a gateway to a point of sale. Gaming revenues are driven by digital sales, new releases, new seasons, new in-game content, tournaments, streams, concerts, and a whole lot more. We want to become the gateway to those points of sale,” said Alemania.

How ReadyUp does this is by having a platform that integrates into the partner’s O&O media–such as Collegiate Star League–with the objective of helping organizations manage their events through cloud-based administration and the activities of their community partners. ReadyUp’s event distribution/syndication is executed via an API with widgets and social share–think Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Discord.

On the front end for consumers, the front-facing application “enables our partner’s community to find, follow and join-in with events: gamers can follow their favorite game events, register for tournaments, watch live content, buy tickets and merchandise, share with friends and sync with their personal mobile calendars so they never miss their favorite events.”

ReadyUp has already partnered with multiple organizations including, ESL Gaming, NACE, GEEX.GG, Cyberathlete, Collegiate Star League, and others.

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