In the era of smartphones and tablets, mobile gaming is becoming increasingly widespread, and the campus of Case Western Reserve University is no exception. Whether between classes, in line at Grab-It or waiting for a greenie, a large percent of the campus can be found playing games on a mobile device. An increasing number of these games offer competitive modes between players or high score lists, which usually are “just for fun” and provide no reward to players that perform well.

VsMe Gaming, a competitive mobile gaming platform created by CWRU students Sagar Rambhia and Ari Lewis, hopes to change that. VsMe Gaming allows players to compete with friends and other players across the world, wagering money to see who the better player is, with the app taking a small commission on each wager. The app launched on March 1 with a two week competitive tournament of “Snake.”

The tournament was a success, with over 11,000 games played by over 250 users and from 70 countries. The grand prize was one bitcoin, worth approximately $650, which went to a student at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“The idea for the company came last year,” said co-founder Rambhia. “We saw a bunch of people playing games and decided to make something for friends to compete against each other and win big.”

With assistance from past and present CWRU students Kelvin Wong, Ian Liu, admitted prospective student Matthew Bentley and Cleveland State University alum Don Pawlowski, as well as advice from CWRU alum Stan Garber and CWRU professor Scott Shane, Rambhia and Lewis were able to develop their app and have a successful preliminary launch. Moving forward with their success, the team plans to integrate Bitcoin and PayPal wagers into their app.