INNOVATORS VS COVID 19

Bet4Fun’s Co-founder, Philippe Lenormand, Tells Us About the New Definition of Mobile Gaming and Competition

Published

3 years ago

01/02/2021

Kokou Adzo

We talked Philippe Lenormand of Bet4Fun and here is what he said about mobile eSports and COVID-19.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Bet4Fun.

Philippe Lenormand: After an experience in audio-visual production, I started playing poker professionally. Due to my contacts and my interest in the gambling market, the idea of creating a solution to make bets on mobile games emerged.

I then presented my idea to Michael Klawiter (Gaming Background) and Alix Andlauer (Finance & Legal Background), two complementary profiles. The idea immediately seduced them, and from there, the three of us started this fantastic adventure.

How does Bet4Fun innovate?

Philippe Lenormand: Bet4Fun is a new mobile gaming competition app that allows players to challenge their friends and other players in 1V1 or Tournaments, for free or in Real Money, on our partner mobile games. Our innovation stems from our ability to provide a free multiplayer mode in less than 15min for our partner games, thanks to seamless and fast integration while granting developers a new revenue stream thanks to our fair revenue share system. We also provide a legal solution to our partners, allowing them to be considered only as a game provider and not as a betting app with the constraints that this imposes, contrary to what our competitors can offer.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Philippe Lenormand: Since the start of the pandemic, Bet4Fun went full-remote for its employees, and we’ve managed to remain productive despite the context and to bring our product to market as of Friday, with Bet4Fun launching on iOS!

The negative aspect of the pandemic for us is that all the gaming events have been cancelled. Despite the digital transformation of those Events, LIVE is always better than ONLINE for the interaction with Industry actors.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Philippe Lenormand: Nothing out of the ordinary, however, we understood that the world would no longer be as it was before and we realized that we had to transform this situation into an opportunity rather than an obstacle. It’s in difficult times that we define ourselves.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Philippe Lenormand: Actually, I’m expecting a baby in March, so between Covid, Bet4Fun’s launch, and that, I’ve built up a strong stress resistance!

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Philippe Lenormand: We have a different approach with our competitors, that follow the Skillz model, an American company with incredible growth in recent years. Indeed, we differentiate ourselves because we have opted for a centralized application that interconnects with our partner games, thanks to our plug-in, in less than 15 minutes with zero additional development. The system we have implemented also allows our partners to keep their games unchanged, to be considered only as a game provider and not as a betting app relieving them from this legal and time-consuming burden. We are convinced Bet4Fun can carve its presence in the industry, even facing such competition.