National Video Games Examiner Patrick Hickey Jr. chats with Rahul Sood, Unikrn CEO and Co-Founder, who discusses the eSports Company and their plans for 2016. A former Microsoft employee, Sood has some big plans for his company this year and will have the help of some pretty influential individuals along the way.
 Patrick Hickey Jr.: What is Unikrn?
Rahul Sood: Unikrn is a Seattle-based eSports company. Our mission is to heighten the experience and increase engagement for people who are watching or participating in eSports. Our platform, Unikrn.com, which features the most comprehensive SportsBook for eSports, allows our customers to safely and legally wager (in legal jurisdictions) on professional eSports tournaments from all over the world. In the US, we offer the same SportsBook, however, customers wager through the use of our virtual currency, Unikoins, which can be entered into drawings for great prizes from our key partners (Alienware, Razer, Logitech, etc.)
Hickey Jr.: How was the idea of the platform originally conceived?
Sood: The idea of video games and wagering is something that I’ve been involved with for years. I was a co-founder in PlayAll, a platform that allows for people to bet real-time, in-game. Prior to Unikrn, I was the global head of Microsoft Ventures and ran that for a couple of years. While I was at Microsoft, we invested in a gaming company called Pinion, which allows gaming communities to grow and thrive. When we started Unikrn, we acquired both PlayAll and Pinion and merged the teams together to build an amazing Esports experience.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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