While most tech startups chase venture capital, XBorg is seemingly pursuing a different vision: building an open infrastructure to benefit the gaming industry.
Founded in 2022, XBorg has built a product that allows esports teams to easily create customised fan applications that provide gamified and immersive fan experiences. Some of the company’s partners already include the likes of Team Liquid, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Team BDS.
In 2024 it was announced that XBorg had raised a total of $9m exclusively from individual investors. As a result, XBorg today has over 25,000 gamers and industry enthusiasts who now collectively own the company and guide its development.
“Traditional companies optimise for shareholder returns. We’re optimising for industry-wide impact by creating a public good for gaming,” explained Louis Regis, XBorg’s Founder and CEO.
“When your stakeholders are the users of your platform, you can focus on long-term value creation rather than quarterly results.”
A Composable Infrastructure for Player Identity
As esports organisations look to develop loyal, lifetime fans, a variety of tools and marketing strategies have been utilised to bolster fan engagement. One of these methods is the development of apps that look to connect fans closer to teams through reward systems and personalised content. However, developing these apps can be a major undertaking.
By working with XBorg, a team can launch personalised content feeds, achievement-based rewards or community challenges in days – all while maintaining their branding and user experience.
“Esports teams shouldn’t need a software development team to launch innovative fan features,” said Louis.
“We’re simplifying the technical heavy lifting so brands can focus on what they do best – engaging with their communities.”
Powering these capabilities is XBorg’s core technical infrastructure, which consolidates fragmented gaming data into unified player profiles. The protocol aggregates achievements, gameplay statistics, social engagement and other metrics across games and platforms, creating digital identities that teams can leverage to create meaningful fan experiences.
“We provide the developer tools, APIs and templates that let teams focus on creating unique experiences rather than building infrastructure from scratch,” Louis explained.
“It’s similar to how Stripe simplified payments – we’re simplifying the technical heavy lifting for better fan experiences.”
A Different Model for Gaming Audiences
XBorg’s community ownership model enables a different kind of long-term thinking.
By steering away from traditional venture capital investment methods, XBorg hopes that it can focus on its mission of becoming a ‘public good’ for the gaming industry as opposed to generating quick returns.
This structure creates unique alignments, allowing developers to suggest features and build new applications on top of the protocol. Meanwhile, casual gamers can influence the direction of the products to enhance their gaming experience.
“When you’re building public infrastructure, having the actual users guide development just makes sense”, noted Louis. “Our community understands gaming’s needs firsthand because they are also esports fans.”
Challenges and Questions Ahead
While XBorg’s decentralised approach is different, it also raises questions. Can a community-governed entity effectively compete with venture-backed competitors?
The company’s bet is that community alignment will prove more valuable than traditional corporate resources. In an industry exploring new business models, XBorg’s experiment in decentralised ownership looks to offer a new template for how gaming infrastructure gets built and governed.
“Our end goal is to open-source as many components of our industry as possible,” stated Louis.
“By making our infrastructure community-owned, we ensure it serves the entire ecosystem rather than any single company’s interests.”
As the esports industry continues to mature, XBorg’s community-first approach could signal a broader shift in how gaming infrastructure evolves – one where the lines between users, developers, and owners become increasingly blurred.
