Building the Arena Competitive Gaming Platform

Company: Blitz, TSM
Project: Arena – Competitive Gaming Product & Brand Activation Engine
Role: Product Owner / Monetization Strategy Lead
Timeline: Launch Year + Q1 Commercialization
Focus Areas: Gamified Engagement, User Acquisition, Ad Revenue Diversification, Brand Partnerships

The Product

Arena was built as a competitive layer atop the everyday gaming experience—integrated directly into live gameplay and designed to amplify user engagement, retention, and community loyalty. At its core, Arena is a real-time competition engine that rewards players for in-game performance across multiple titles.

Players earn points automatically for skillful plays—multi-kills, high scores, consecutive wins, etc.—as they happen. Seamless onboarding, minimal friction, and meaningful rewards turned the Arena from a feature into a habit-forming loop.

The Event Format

Arena Events are live, time-boxed competitions. As users play their favorite games, they earn leaderboard points through pre-defined action triggers. At the event’s close, players in the top 100 receive tiered rewards including in-game currency, exclusive cosmetic drops, and real-world prizing.

This format delivered:

• Recurring engagement through scheduled event cycles

• Community momentum as users watched leaderboards in real time

• Social shareability from win moments and rank climbs

The Monetization Model

Instead of relying solely on traditional in-app advertising, Arena was positioned as a brand activation surface—a premium space where marketers could sponsor themed competitions, prize pools, or custom leaderboards.

I architected the business case and go-to-market playbook to target entertainment, gaming, and tech brands. The early adoption by several Tier 1 partners confirmed product-market fit and brought in $5M+ booked revenue in the first quarter post-launch.

Two monetization channels were built:

• Sponsorship-based revenue: brand-backed Arena events

• Premium placement: native in-game competition integration packages

The Outcome

• Increased user engagement + community retention through competitive cycles designed for behavioral reactivation

• Diversified revenue streams with built-in scalability across multiple brand categories

• $5M in booked revenue in Q1 from inaugural monetization packages

• Product roadmap extended to include white-labeled Arena events for third-party publishers

• Gamified growth loops led to spikes in organic acquisition through word-of-mouth and leaderboard visibility

Key Learnings

• Products that feel like gameplay—not just overlays—drive repeat engagement and advocacy.

• Brands prefer participatory marketing; Arena turned passive impressions into moments of emotional investment.

• Monetization tied to joy (winning, progression, bragging rights) converts better than display-based disruption