The world of work for young twenty-somethings today is one filled with numerous pathways, hurdles to jump and potential pitfalls. If you’ve got your eyes set on an incredibly competitive industry full of passionate people like esports, finding a space you can start to call your own is a mammoth challenge.

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2020 brought many changes to peoples lives, along with COVID-19 throwing a spanner in the works of everyone’s plans and businesses, I kicked the year off trying to get my freelancing business up and running full time back in Australia. I’d secured a copywriting gig in the university sector which paid the bills, and fired back up my work as a journalist with Esports Insider.

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As a business journalist in the esports sector, you get a crash course in navigating the landscape of the industry. Very quickly you come to realise that the teams, organisations and players competing are just a part of the thriving esports ecosystem. Businesses are scaling at rapid rates, seizing the energy and opportunity in one of today’s fastest growing entertainment industries.

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Instead of chatting to people making exciting innovations, I wanted to be a part of it.

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Why PandaScore?

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When I was approached about this marketing role at PandaScore, I’d heard they’d recently secured €5 million in Series A funding and they used AI in esports betting. During the interview process I had a run through of how each component of the team works, and sat down with a data scientist to get a deep dive into how it all works.

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Admittedly I only had an incredibly basic understanding of how machine learning, data science and software engineering work together. As I learned more I could see that PandaScore is building a product that integrates technology across several key spaces.

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The company’s work is in esports — which, after a huge pandemic growth spike, is arguably the newest, fastest growing entertainment medium on the planet. It’s in artificial intelligence — training an AI to make smarter decisions and better predictions using deep learning models. And it’s data — with a team of people (Pandas) providing the esports ecosystem with statistics, and bookmakers with the best esports odds.

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Put simply, it is an opportunity to work for a company that’s innovating in all of these spaces at once, creating a strong foundation for others to build on.

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So a month in, what have been my biggest takeaways from working at PandaScore?

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Understanding esports betting — a key growth factor

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My work at ESI only saw some very top-level analysis of esports betting. PandaScore has been an opportunity to learn more about esports betting, especially in light of 2020.

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Betting is consistently proving to be an important element of the esports economy. Esports betting has seen year-on-year growth, with the pandemic proving a shot in the arm for bookmakers and their suppliers.

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Sceptics believed that the surge in bet volume was a COVID anomaly and we would see a dramatic drop once traditional sport returned. Outside of sports simulations like FIFA and NBA 2K, the rise in betting on esports has been maintained.

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More money circulating in the esports ecosystem garners greater attention from non-endemic businesses and helps attract greater investment in an industry still steeped in startup and venture capital culture.

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Last year proved that esports betting is here to stay. It has sticking power and PandaScore’s is driving the data behind it.

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Refining a unique product

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If you’ve spent any time in a newsroom you know that it runs at a hectic, at times chaotic pace. Jumping between stories, chasing people up for comment, and keeping tabs on social media accounts at seemingly all hours of the day.

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Pivoting from reporting events as they happen to working with a company that ships a product has been a rewarding shift in gears. The chance to learn the ins and outs of how we start with years of historical data and process that through our AI to offer odds to punters in real time has been fascinating.

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The work itself is a return to problem solving. It’s refreshing to run into or anticipate future challenges, and work with a team to make sure we’re putting forward the best version of our product with every iteration. When we have a new breakthrough or success it’s an opportunity to share that with others, including publicly. Being the bearer of great news and spreading that message isn’t too rough of a job.

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I may not be the one getting hands on with the data, but I have the opportunity to help great people, a smart company and the esports ecosystem more broadly. What’s not to like about that?

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Healthy startup culture

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My first white-collar gig out of uni was at a fintech startup. It was fast paced, challenged me to learn new things and gave me a lot of autonomy. You often have a closer relationship with your work and a collegiate environment where everyone is keen to make something cool. Getting back into this environment was a big drawcard for me.

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While some startups may fall into the pitfalls of workaholism and overzealous expectations of its product and people, I can safely say that PandaScore has a culture that’s worth sticking around for. During the interview process and particularly in my culture fit interview with different parts of the team, it’s a very open environment with a bunch of passionate and skilled Pandas.

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A testament to PandaScore’s healthy work culture is their transition to remote working. The company has revamped its online office environment and provide every single Panda with a work from home allowance so they can source quality equipment. While my timezone makes it challenging to be a part of after work and team building activities, mid-week pizza, games nights and drinks have all shifted online so the team can stay connected.

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On a personal level, I’ve had family members with health issues. Having worked in a lot of different spaces, every company says that they’ve got a supportive environment — but the proof is when life throws something unexpected at you. I couldn’t have asked for more support from the executives and entire team. Everyone on the team has been understanding and any time or resources that I’ve needed they have provided so I can care for my family and get back on my feet.

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Whether you’re a developer or data scientist looking for a technical challenge in a new sector, a veteran of the betting industry looking for a change from the large scale corporate environment, or anything in between — I’ve found PandaScore worth joining, you might too.