RankR gives esports a single hub for news, rankings, and tournaments

Competitive gamers have a new tool that can make organizing and following their scene easier.

Esports Access announced today the launch of RankR, a new hub for competitive gaming tournaments, rankings, and news. The new online community will include a calendar of events, global rankings, and a team-builder function that will allow players to group together and play specific games. Market research firm Newzoo says that esports will hit $463 million this year and $1.1 billion by 2019. A tool that can make organizing events easier could help it grow even faster. Millions of U.S. gamers watch esports, and the majority are 18 to 34-year-old males, one of the most lucrative groups for advertisers. This startup is attempting to solve a problem in esports — a unified hub like this is rare for the industry. Despite its popularity, esports are often fragmented, since different companies and organizations run their own tournaments. A hub like this can help fans discover more events, even for games they don’t typically follow.

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The growth of the industry has helped streaming site Twitch, which many esports tournaments use for broadcasting. Amazon bought Twitch for $970 million in 014

“Our mission is to make RankR esports a foundation on which esports can grow, thrive, and become more accessible to players and fans around the world,” said chief operating officer and co-founder of Esports Access Cameron Robinson in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “We’re taking some cues from the traditional world of sports, but also creating a community that is unique to the esports landscape.”

Esports Access started as a class project between Robinson and chief executive officer Jacob Smith, who met at a web-design course at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. You can check out RankR here.