About Us - A5 Labs

About A5 Labs

Competitive Online Games are Low Tech. Data + AI + Blockchain is Key to the Sustainability of these Ecosystems.

WHO WE ARE

We’re a team of tech entrepreneurs, AI scientists, online game operators, and die-hard fans, committed to shape the future of online competitive games where professionals and fans alike enjoy secure, fair and fun gaming entertainment.

Our Story

We've always been intrigued by competitive games that involve a balanced combination of strategic thinking, rational decision making, risk taking under high uncertainty, emotional control and an element of luck.

We believe games like Fantasy Sports, League of Legends, and especially Poker, offer the perfect environment for young and senior adults alike to sharpen their skills in the various areas of Human Psychology, Mathematics as well as Self-Conditioning & Control. Especially because they resemble real-world settings and decisions, we think these games are very engaging and fun.

Popular cheating scandals show the industry of competitive online games has come a long way: operators are thriving and successful players earn tens of millions of dollars per year. Also, they reveal the industry is low tech, suffering from security and fairness issues including collusions and the non-legitimate use of helpers, real-time assistance softwares and bots.

Also, what really drives the majority of players to these games is entertainment. While there are “pro” players who are motivated by hard competition, the industry thrives and is largely dependent on the recreational audience that wants more even matchups. Especially for games with large rewards, players want to enter a competition where they have a fair chance of winning.

We realize the long-term sustainability of this industry is at risk due to the proliferation of cheating, AI-assisted gameplay, and unfair matching of players.

Our Mission

We’re committed to shaping the future of online competitive games where professionals and fans alike, enjoy secure, fair and fun gaming entertainment.

Using data, machine learning, game theory, and innovative blockchain solutions, we build the kernel (the “A5 Inside”) for the next generation of competitive online games.

The Beginning

We started working on hard problems in game integrity and fairness at a time when there was zero awareness and public interest.

The blueprint for our work dates back to 2005, when our Co-CEO & ex-professor supervised his CS students to build the first solvers and bots for Poker. But it is 10 years later that he resumed his professional interest in poker, and together with passionated poker friends, professional players and large-scale online game operators, embark on the mission of solving what they perceive to be the biggest challenges for the sustainability of these gaming ecosystems: game integrity and fairness.

Recent Progress and Breakthroughs

GTO Solver

We have built GTO solvers that can compute the optimal strategy for the majority of games that are based on rational decision making.

GTO Baselines

Using GTO baselines, we devised robust scoring mechanisms to measure the closeness of a player’s strategy versus the optimal strategy.

Contractual & Gameplay Features

We developed ML-based solutions that can automatically detect collusion, botting and the use of helpers as effectively as the human experts.

Accurately Assess Skill Level

We can accurately infer a player’s skill level using less than 2hrs of gameplay data.

Leadership

Our leadership team comes with the proven experiences of scaling tech startups, operating large-scale platforms, IPO exits, as well as the passion of a fan, committed to ensure gaming is healthy, sustainable and fun.