The chief operating officer of ’new kids on the block’ e-gaming company Luckbox is full of praise for the island where the business is based.

Quentin Martin told Business News: ’We looked at the entire world before deciding on basing ourselves in the Isle of Man.

’It was the right decision.

’We drew up a shortlist of nearly 20 countries and looked at the advantages ranging from quality of talent to tax and corporate structures to gambling licence to quality of life, all sorts of parameters.

’We narrowed it down and eventually the Isle of Man won.’

Mr Martin, 35, a former professional poker player who went on to be head of social poker at PokerStars, gives full marks to the island where the e-gaming sector has enjoyed tremendous success.

He said: ’It has fantastic gambling licences and the key thing is that it focuses on player protection and that was something that was very important to the founders of this business.

’Our culture is very similar to that of the Stars Group: ’’Do right by the player.’’ ’

He also praised the island’s tax structure and regulatory standards.

’There is also the quality of life here and the access to talent.’

Mr Martin, who is married to Fiona, has embraced island life to the full.

He spoke to Business News at Luckbox’s current home within the Barclays Eagle Lab in Victoria Street, Douglas.

Shortly after our interview he was heading off to the Glastonbury Festival, an event which is firmly on his social calendar.

Luckbox deals in the fast-growing world of e-sports.

It is a new form of sports that is proving very popular with younger people.

Asked about regulation and making sure that under 18s do not get involved in betting he said online gambling was the second most regulated industry in the world after finance.

’As employers and directors we do all the background checks.

’We do not accept underage players on our website, they cannot register with us.

’When people register we do a whole range of automatic background checks.’

There was also enhanced due diligence and strict checking procedures were also in place.

Mr Martin said e-sports are taking off big-style.

Huge tournament events take place in stadiums around the world including America and Asia.

He said: ’There is this bizarre phenomenon about e-sports.

’If you’re older than 33 and you are told about e-sports then the chances are that your reaction will be: ’’What is that?’’

’If you’re under 33 then you will say that is ’’pretty cool.’’

’One of my favourite statistsics is that 18-to-25-year- olds watch more computer games than they do traditional sports on television.’

He claims the way to look at e-sports is that they are not that much different from traditional sports in the sense that there are teams taking part in matches.

’It’s essentially heroes that you can look up to because they are doing things that you love and they are really good at it.

’And they are competing at the top level. There is the build-up the competition just as in the same ways you get goal highlights in football.’

He said teams battle it out between themselves .

And e-sports teams have their own coaches and even physios to ensure they are at peak fitness, just as in traditinal sports such as football.

Luckbox has its own odds compilers and people can bet on matches in e-sports.

Mr Martinbelieves the future will see more and more interest inthe games and he praised the island’s government for supporting the online gaming industry, which accounts for about 20 % of the economy. He also praised the Eagle Lab for promoting entrepreneurs. Luckbox is part of Real Time Games Holdings, a registered licensee with the island’s Gambling Supervision Commission.