The Iris Project is a new initiative set up to ‘eliminate stigma, sexualisation and abuse aimed at women and LGBTQIA+ people within esports’.
But how will it aim to do this? And who are Deal Me Out, the company behind the initiative that have teamed up with Esports Wales? We interview CEO Jordan Lea about the Iris Project.
Please tell us about Iris Project. What is it and why have you set it up?
The Iris Project has been created to eliminate stigma, sexualisation and abuse aimed at women and LGBTQIA+ people within esports, whilst also enhancing participation by creating a safe and inclusive environment for the growth of women’s Esports and eliminating glass ceilings for careers with the industry.
The programme has been in the works for some time, but with a number of incidents occurring over the past few months in which women have been marginalised by prominent members of the esports community, we felt it was about time to take action.
We’ve created a nationwide education programme and campaign delivered by amazing women from the community, alongside a work experience placement scheme for women and girls on esports and gaming further education pathways. Plus, a focus group tasked with bringing change at government level in the UK and Australia.
With the recent news of esports not being included in the next Commonwealth Games, I feel they may be busier than we thought.
Who are Deal Me Out? When were you established and what have you done so far? You’re not for profit based in the UK, is that correct?
Deal Me Out was created in 2019 as a not for profit lived experience organisation aiming to help people with gambling addictions in Wales. In a very short space of time our organisation grew into one of the leading organisations reducing gambling and gaming addictions in the world, winning the St Davids Award for business in Wales this year.
Our team are all massively into gaming and esports, in 2021 we partnered with Esports Wales and are committed to providing services for the esports community in the UK, and very shortly, globally.
As you mentioned, you’re teaming up with Esports Wales for the Iris Project. Why Esports Wales – and are you working with any other third-parties?
Esports Wales are a fantastic organisation that have built very good connections with. It was a no brainer to partner with them for this project.
We do have a long list of partners to come, with some huge, HUGE names from industry to come on board, but i’ll leave that little teaser there.
What will your tangible activities look like, what can we expect to see?
You can expect to see large-scale education programmes visiting schools and universities within the UK and Australia within our first year. We are expecting to have delivered over 500 workshops in year one alone.
We will also be launching a media and social campaign aimed at reducing stigma, sexualisation and abuse aimed at women and LGBTQIA+ people in esports. This is something we are extremely excited about.
There will be opportunities for funded tournaments to highlight the elite athletes and a mentoring system partnering aspiring athletes with prominent women with the community in order to support their growth.
We have a bit of a secret weapon in store that will bring women together to compete, connect and grow. But until the ink is dry on that one, we’ll leave it a secret.
“You can expect to see large-scale education programmes visiting schools and universities within the UK and Australia within our first year. We are expecting to have delivered over 500 workshops in year one alone. We will also have a mentoring system, a media and social campaign aimed at reducing stigma and more.”
Jordan Lea, Deal Me Out
What are your short and long-term goals?
The Iris Project has some very simple short term goals:
- Reduce the amount of abuse received online aimed at women and LGBTQIA+ people through mass education
- Increase participation in esports for women
- Help make esports inclusive and safe for everybody
- Create parity of opportunity for women in esports, whilst also increasing funding allocation designed to increase the framework for adoption
Our long-term goals are to provide our services into Canada, Europe, the US and South American markets.
How can people get involved with the project?
We are currently recruiting full-time programme managers and ambassadors for the UK and Australia. We welcome all applicants that share our values and want to make a significant impact on global esports. If that is one hour or full time, please do have a chat with us.
Our Iris Project website will be live soon, but for now – dealmeout.org/irisproject gives all the information for applicants.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
