Martin Dachselt Bids Farewell as Co-CEO of Bayes Esports

After eight years at Bayes Esports, Martin Dachselt has announced his departure as Co-CEO and Co-Managing Director. He will step down from his executive role by the end of November to pursue new endeavors. Martin will remain connected to the company in a strategic advisory capacity. Starting December 1st, he will provide guidance and counsel on Bayes Esports' strategic direction.

Martin has been a driving force not only in Bayes Esports’ success but also as a pioneer in many of the esports industry’s technological advancements. From the early days at DOJO Madness to the founding of Bayes Esports, this marks Martin's next chapter. We couldn’t be more grateful for his leadership and contribution to esports. 

Initially, Martin was a lateral entrant to the esports industry, having over 25 years of experience in tech, most notably as the CTO of public company, Delivery Hero. As an avid esports fan himself, Martin brought numerous concepts to the esports industry that helped it drive for scale and professionalism.

During his time at Bayes Esports, there were countless exciting moments. One of Martin’s favorite memories was ahead of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship in Berlin. He hosted some of the most notable teams in the Bayes Esports offices. The LoL teams included RNG, Invictus Gaming, and FPX, representing past, present, and future World Champions. Along the way, he met some of the game's most iconic players, including Uzi, Doinb, Rookie, and TheShy.

We sat down with Martin to reminisce about his time at Bayes Esports. “When I started at DOJO Madness, which went on to become Bayes Esports, we had so many ideas for the products we wanted to create for the esports industry. I’m so proud to see that Bayes Esports has established itself as a vital player in the esports industry, delivering a complete product suite that empowers businesses throughout the customer lifecycle.”

Shaping the Esports Data Industry

Martin’s time at Bayes Esports is marked by significant milestones that have not only shaped the company but have also redefined how data is leveraged in the esports industry. Almost a decade ago, official game data and data-driven esports products were scarce, and thanks to Martin’s contributions at Bayes Esports, data in esports has become a necessity for any successful business in the industry.

At DOJO Madness he helped build community apps such as LOLSUMO, a League of Legends companion app. When Bayes Esports was formed, they shifted to B2B services, and in 2019 they formed the first data distribution partnership with a game publisher, Riot Games.

Alongside the team of talented engineers and data scientists, he innovated BEDEX, the digital data exchange platform in just 3 months. This allowed Bayes Esports to distribute official esports data, and analytics to a variety of digital use cases. 

Martin spoke on the development of BEDEX saying, "I created the concept for BEDEX after a sleepless night on the train traveling from Berlin to Cologne for a presentation with Ralf Reichert, to secure our data deal with ESL. While the presentation wasn’t very polished, the concept contained all the key elements of our future platform, securing us the deal that formed the base of Bayes Esports' success story.” 

Through the industry-leading joint venture with Sportradar, Martin’s leadership helped pioneer the first major official match data offerings. Bayes Esports formed partnerships with ESL Gaming for Counter-Strike and Dota data, and Riot Games for League of Legends data and distributed it through BEDEX.  

Another one of his most notable achievements in recent years was the launch of the Bayes Odds Marketplace, providing an unprecedented amount of options for operators and sportsbooks building an esports product. 

He also launched Bayes Highlights, the ultimate tool for content creation. What was initially started as a side project in his spare time using existing Bayes technologies, snowballed into a key product with the potential to transform fan engagement in esports.

His vision around the potential of esports data has been key in developing Bayes Esports’ comprehensive product ecosystem which caters to any stage of the customer journey.

Bayes Esports Bright Future Ahead

With Martin stepping back, Bayes Esports will continue to be led by CEO and Managing Director Amir Mirzaee, alongside CFO Christopher Bohlmann, and CTO Dr. Notger Heinz. 

Notger is the latest appointment to Bayes Esports’ C-Level. He was one of the original minds behind DOJO Madness where he built up the data science team. In 2022, he returned to Bayes Esports as Principal Data Scientist, overseeing the development of the industry-leading machine learning match predictions and adjacent data products and services.

Over the past few months, Bayes Esports announced its latest partnership with Genius Sports, a global leader in sports data commercialization, and was also the official data provider for the inaugural Esports World Cup. The company is set on a path of growth and profitability.

“Martin’s accomplishments in developing industry-leading technology have been instrumental in shaping our success and are reflected in the strong network of partnerships and customers we have today,” says Amir Mirzaee. “I am excited to continue expanding on the strong product suite we have built and driving innovation and growth in the esports space.”