London Real — "Web3 Meets Esports: Gameness' Blueprint To Dominate Growth & Mass Adoption"

Guest: Burak Çevik (CEO & Founder, Gameness)
Host: Brian Rose
Date: March 3, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Brian Rose explores the explosive intersection of Web3, AI, and esports with Turkish entrepreneur Burak Çevik, CEO and founder of Gameness. Çevik shares Gameness’ vision for driving mass adoption of Web3 applications via esports, building a community-powered platform that bridges gamers, investors, and major brands. The conversation traces Çevik’s unique background, his philosophy on sustainability and community, and Gameness’ ambitious plans to reshape gaming and Web3 on a global scale.

1. The Gameness Vision: Mass Adoption via Esports and Web3

• Gameness as an AI Super App:

  • Gameness is described as an AI-powered, data-infrastructure "super application" that combines esports tournaments, events, education, and a loyalty ecosystem (05:26, 06:16).
  • Focus on bridging the Web2 to Web3 gap through engaging, practical use-cases for everyday gamers.

• Main Strategy:

  • Targeting mass adoption of crypto by leveraging the scale, excitement, and community of esports.
  • Focus on adding real utility (not just speculation/NFT hype) and creating sustainable value for both players and brands.

"We solve the mass adaption problem from web 2 to web 3 with AI and with gaming." (00:00, Burak Çevik)

2. Esports as the On-Ramp to Web3

• Scale of Esports:

  • Esports events organized by Gameness attract 15,000 to 50,000 attendees; prize pools can reach $60 million (06:16, 06:36, 08:42).
  • Unique viewership for titles like League of Legends outpaces major sports leagues (NBA, F1, La Liga), illustrating “a huge pool we need to convert from web2 to web3” (06:36).

• Key Differentiator:

  • Gameness is game-agnostic (not just tied to play-to-earn or a single game), integrates with multiple platforms, and supports gamers and non-gamers alike.
  • Focus on sustainability: Revenue flows in not just from players but also from B2B brand partnerships—ensuring players earn without token dependency (11:12, 13:27, 13:51).

"The players need to issue something. They can earn literally millions of dollars from esports... But if we bring in money from the business to business side from the brands and if we give this money to players... with this ecosystem we create a sustainability." (08:42, Burak Çevik)

3. User Experience & Onboarding

• Three Pathways for Users: (13:12)

  1. Education: Not just about gaming skills, but roles like community manager, esports coach, or trader.
  2. Tournaments: Users can participate and earn, even at entry levels (“every single user earned at least $30 even if they lost from first round”).
  3. Esports Team Investment: Non-gamers can lock Gameness’ token to invest in teams and share prize pool upside.

• Barrier Removal:

  • No mandatory wallet or token buy-in for basics. Focus on earning users’ interest and belief, rather than just airdrop hunting.

4. Community Power and Philosophy

• Honesty and Directness:

  • Çevik is active in the Telegram group, personally addressing scam allegations and confronting airdrop farming.
  • “If you're here for just Airdrop, give me your wallet, I will send you $20. I don't need you.” (17:39–18:44)

• Radical Transparency:

  • Gameness offered presale investors an instant refund option (which “almost nobody did”), showcasing confidence and building trust (20:45, 23:01).

• Proof Over Hype:

  • Focus on cashflow, user value, and adoption rather than VC funding rounds or token price hype.

"If we create an army and give them a reason, it can be sustainable... otherwise yes, we can make 100x but if we’re going down and down and people lose money—that's not it." (23:19, Burak Çevik)
“The purpose of a business is to solve a problem for a customer.” (25:01, Brian Rose)

5. B2B Strategy & Data Advantage

• Brands & Industry Scope:

  • Gameness works with exchanges, banks, food & beverage, clothing and automotive brands (27:07–28:41).
  • Young, hard-to-reach demographic makes partnerships lucrative; custom tournaments can target specific cohorts (insurance companies, car brands, etc.).

• AI and Data:

  • Partnerships like Singularity (Sophia robot) help profile users and offer hyper-targeted marketing services to brands.
  • Data analytics fuels ROI guarantees for B2B clients, a unique selling point over basic ad spend (41:22, 43:13).

"Most companies keep data for themselves... [But] we give the money to users, taking it from brands, using esports as the tool. Yes, we solve mass adoption." (43:17, Burak Çevik)

6. Demographics & Global Expansion

• Geography:

  • Strong users in Asia, MENA, Eastern Europe, and now actively growing in North America (30:13–32:47).
  • Cites partnerships with top US exchanges coming soon.

• User Profile:

  • Primarily 16–35 years old, mostly male (70–75%), but with efforts to include women (“all-women” tournaments, female casters and referees) (39:09).

“If the barbers, taxi drivers, real individuals start to talk about gameness, we made something great.” (31:41, Burak Çevik)

7. Regulatory Approach and Partnerships

• Proactive Regulatory Compliance:
  • Hired HR and three law firms before even scaling the team in Web3, working toward EU MiCA license and other global regulations; emphasizes “no gray area” (33:09–34:56).
  • Example: Turkish President Erdoğan appeared as a commentator at a Gameness tournament (35:07–37:56), showcasing government and institutional buy-in.

8. Turkish Roots, Entrepreneurial Ethos & Personal Story

• Team:

  • Majority Turkish, described as “hustlers” and believers; many willing to sell their cars/homes to keep building (50:20).
  • Knits together former competitors into one team, creating a deeply experienced operation.

• Personal Journey:

  • Raised in an esports household by a pioneering mother, herself a streamer and player, and a professional esports sibling (54:58–55:20).
  • Learned about Bitcoin from his mom a decade ago.
  • Early jobs: commentator as a kid, then stints at ESL, Riot Games, and creating the world’s first esports education company at 18.
  • Ethic of learning from “new mistakes,” not shying from challenges.

“When anyone asks me what is your role at Gameness? I'm saying, I'm Chief Dreamer Officer.” (54:50, Burak Çevik)
“If this stupid guy can do it, I can do it.” (53:56, Turkish proverb Çevik wants to exemplify)

9. Roadmap, Token Launch & The Future

• 2025 Milestones:

  • Major 15,000-person Web3 gaming/esports event planned in Dubai, with major musical acts for the opening (44:15).
  • Super app being released for Telegram, iOS, Android; userbase already strong.
  • Token and exchange partnerships: Launching soon, aiming for “at least one tier-1” exchange but focused on sustainable, not just hyped, launch (46:38, 48:08).

• Future Vision:

  • Gameness as a “unicorn factory”; the “decision maker” on which projects/exchanges/chains succeed due to the massive, loyal user base.
  • Hints at potential for a Gameness exchange, wallet, and more verticals (71:10).
  • Incubation program for new games, community-driven business development.

“We don't want to create just a unicorn, we want to create a unicorn factory.” (14:18, 69:16) "We have proof of work, proof of concept. From 11 different industries, 40 different countries, with 300 different cases." (14:18, 73:02)

10. Sustainability, Product-Led Growth & Tokenomics

• Token Demand Design:
  • B2B: Clients must burn Gameness’ token (GENUS) to access certain features/sponsorship opportunities.
  • B2C: Users can play for free and access features, but deeper engagement (early tournament entry, certificates, investments) comes via staking/locking the token.
  • Earning, not speculation: Focus on value delivered to users and brands rather than pure hype or airdrop-driven adoption.

"If you want to be our sponsor... you have to burn GENUS token, otherwise you can't work with us." (73:15)
"If you're a believer you can buy and you can take too much benefits. Otherwise we don't want to push them because we don't want to buy the community." (76:51)

11. Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Esports Scalability:

  “All Grand Prix races, all F1 races watched by 60 million. Just one final of League of Legends watched by 45 million... There is a huge pool we need to convert from Web2 to Web3.” (06:36, Burak Çevik)

• On Community:

  “I don't need you if you are not a believer of me.” (17:39, Burak Çevik)

  "The community is the most important thing. Without the token, if the token is going to zero, if you are still creating sustainability for your business and your users, you can make your moves easily." (25:35, Burak Çevik)

• On Transparency & Refunds:

  “At the same time that we launched the presale, we opened a refund form so anyone can leave. When they saw this, they said: ‘They have balls.’” (20:45, Burak Çevik)

• On Turkish Hustle:

  “There's a word, ‘Men never cry.’ When you fall down, you need to get up by yourself... In Turkish culture, you have to issue something, you have to earn money. So most are born hustlers.” (62:32, Burak Çevik)

• On Advice to Entrepreneurs:

  “I'm not a 200 IQ guy, I'm just a dreamer. When anyone asks me what is your role on Gameness? I’m saying I'm a chief dreamer officer.” (54:50, Burak Çevik)

12. Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00] — What is Gameness? (Vision & Intro)
• [06:16] — Scale of Esports and Opportunity for Web3
• [08:42] — Sustainability and Move from “Play-to-Earn” to “Issue-to-Earn”
• [11:12] — User Pathways & Education/Tournament/Investment Features
• [17:39] — Community Power: Anti-Airdrop Stand and Direct Communication
• [25:01] — Philosophy: Business Solves for Customer, Not VC Hype
• [27:07] — Industries & Brand Partnerships
• [33:09] — Regulatory Approach & Presidential Endorsement
• [44:15] — Roadmap: Events, Token Rollout, Global Ambition
• [53:56] — Personal Story: Turkish Saying & Entrepreneurial DNA
• [54:50] — Family Background: Esports in the Blood
• [71:10] — The Future: Unicorn Factory and Expansion
• [73:15] — Token Model and B2B/B2C Design

13. Conclusion

Burak Çevik’s Gameness positions itself as more than a Web3 gaming project: it’s a global, AI-powered movement to bridge traditional gaming, esports, and crypto. Through radical transparency, genuine community focus, and a data-driven, utility-first business, Gameness is building the rails for mass crypto adoption—starting not with speculation, but with fun, value, and real-world engagement.

“We’re not here for just making games or organizing tournaments. We are literally trying to create a mass adoption and change the industry hype here.” (81:25, Burak Çevik)

Follow Gameness:

• Twitter/X, Instagram, and [website] — “gamenessapp”
• Telegram & Discord for direct Q&A (“I will personally answer or my teammates will.” 77:00–78:00)