Nutraceuticals World: Powering Esports with nooLVL

On June 22, 2022, PricePlow’s very own Ben Kane gave a presentation in Nutraceuticals World titled “Marketing Trends in Gaming and Powering Esports Athletes with Nutrition21’s nooLVL”. The session was hosted by Sean Moloughney, editor of Nutraceuticals World, and Ben co-presented with Katie Emerson, manager of scientific affairs of Nutrition21, the presentation’s sponsor.

On June 22, 2022, PricePlow’s Ben Kane presented on Esports trends in partnership with Nutrition21 for Nutraceuticals World!

nooLVL is a non-stimulant, patented complex of bonded arginine silicate with an additional optimized dose of inositol that was designed to boost cognitive performance in gamers / esports athletes. It’s the first esports ingredient to be studied in a population of gamers, and works fast (in 15 minutes) without caffeine and without negatively affecting cardiometabolic properties.

We’ve covered nooLVL in numerous articles, with our main page kept up-to-date with the latest research in our article titled nooLVL: Next-Gen Focus Ingredient for Gaming Supplements. In this article, we’ll embed Ben and Katie’s presentation, and recap the slides they presented to viewers.

Before getting into the details, sign up for our news alerts on Nutrition21 and nooLVL so that you get notified when new products and studies come out featuring the ingredient:

Powering Esports Athletes with Nutrition21’s nooLVL

The video is embedded above, courtesy Nutraceuticals World and Nutrition21. Below is a list of useful timestamps:

• 

  Nutrition21 is a leader in the sports nutrition industry, making huge strides towards supplement research, safety, transparency, and efficacy

  0:00 – Introductions to Nutraceuticals World, Nutrition21, nooLVL, Ben, and Katie.

• 2:25 – Evolution of the Esports Athlete

  Ben defines that Esports athletes are actually a crossover between athletes and active nutrition users. They’re performance driven and have a will to win, but are simply in a different physical niche. Like athletes, they’re looking to invest in their performance, but in a different way.

• 4:08 – Esports Trends

  Next, we get into the product trends specific to gamers. They generally enjoy fast-acting formulas, and they’re definitely best if studied on real gamers playing modern games. Many formulas are combining cognitive supplements with ingredients that have eye health benefits.

  Stimulant-free products are important, because gamers play at night, and avoiding jitters and crashes. The days of endless soda and energy drinks are coming to an end.

• 6:05 – Benefits Gamers are looking for:

  

  Ghost Gamer uses a clinically-studied dose of Nutrition21’s nooLVL nootropic ingredient for gaming supplements, and has quickly becoming Ghost’s top selling products.

  1. Cognitive Health
  2. Eye Health
  3. Joint Health

• 7:47 – Product Categories for Gamers

  Looking at delivery forms:

  1. Gummies
  2. Shots
  3. Stick Packs and Powder Tubs
  4. RTD Beverages

• 8:57 – How to Market Products in the Esports Space

  Ben first emphasizes backing products with clinically-tested ingredients that are studied in the actual demographic at hand. Influencer campaigns are important, and direct-to-consumer (D2C) is the main sales channel, although more specialty and mass market stores are picking esports supplements and products up.

• 10:40 – Ben’s Summary

  As mainstream interest in Esports grows, there are more investments being made, and more health and wellness companies are attempting to enter the space. Stay authentic!

  There will be many opportunities in this space, but in the dietary supplement space, they’re best utilized by those who understand the demographic and formulate well-dosed, clinically-supported formulas.

• 

  Confused about Nutrition21’s Sports Nutrition Ingredients? This article explains their key characteristics, differences, and how they’ve come to market over time

  12:10 – Katie Emerson takes the stage, introduction to Nutrition21’s ingredient profile

  First, Katie reintroduces Nutrition21, talking about Chromax (chromium picolinate), Velositol (chromium-boosted muscle protein synthesis activator), Nitrosigine (inositol-stabilized arginine silicate that’s similar to nooLVL but for pre-workout supplements), and Zinmax (high-bioavailability zinc picolinate).

  You can read about any of these in the articles linked above, and also read our summary article titled The Evolution of Nutrition21’s Sports Nutrition Ingredients.

• 13:30 – Introduction to nooLVL

  Katie introduces nooLVL, a patented, non-stimulant nootropic ingredient that boosts cognitive performance in gamers. A single dose of nooLVL has been demonstrated to significantly improve:

  • Processing speed
  • Reaction time
  • Executive function
  • Perceived Energy
  • Accuracy
  • Concentration and attention
  

  A new study is here from Texas A&M where nooLVL was shown to improve Short Term Memory and Reaction Time!

• 14:30 – nooLVL Safety and Efficacy: Supported by 30+ Studies

  Thanks to previous research performed on Nitrosigine, which is similar to nooLVL only with a bit less inositol, there is already a lot of existing research on bonded arginine silicate.

  However, Nutrition21 has added new research to nooLVL specifically. All in all, there have been five cognitive-specific studies on bonded arginine silicate in total. The most recent study discussed is the one presented at the 2022 Experimental Biology conference, covered below at the 16:50 mark.

• 15:30 – How does nooLVL work?

  Katie talks about nooLVL similarity to Nitrosigine, but with added inositol, which is a carbohydrate nutrient that’s vital to neurotransmitter function.

• 16:50 – nooLVL’s Clinical Studies

  Katie covers the clinical studies that have been done up to this point on nooLVL:

  1. 2019 – Cognition and Mood

     

     The Stroop test is a neurocognitive test where subjects must read aloud the color of the text that is printed rather than the actual text! It evaluates selective attention, response inhibition, and reaction time. Fewer errors are better!

     60 healthy gamers (men and women, 18-40 years) using nooLVL or placebo for 7 days consecutively. This study showed improved perceived energy in the nooLVL group, improvements in two Trail Making Tests (showing better speed and accuracy), and fewer errors in the Stroop Test.

     This study is covered in our main nooLVL article.

  2. 2021 – Executive Function and Reaction Time

     26 healthy gamers (men and women, college-aged) used nooLVL or placbo on separate days, and were tested 15 minutes post-dose as well as 75 minutes post-dose after an hour of gaming. The study had a crossover design with a 7-14 day washout, so that placebo participants then had nooLVL next (and vice versa).

     In this study, short-term memory, reaction time, and mental reasoning scores were significantly improved in the nooLVL groups. Specifically, the 4-letter absent reaction time Sternberg Test and both the 6-letter absent and present reaction time Sternberg Tests fared better in the nooLVL group.

     This study is covered in our article titled nooLVL Increases Short-term Memory and Reaction Time.

  3. 2022 – Newest Data – Clinical Open-Label Cognitive Gamer Study

     Using the Cambridge Brain Science tests, nooLVL was put against placebo for 7 consecutive days in 9 healthy men and women gamers. They tested at baseline, after 1 dose, and after 7 doses.

     The researchers found significant improvements for nooLVL over placebo in the Stroop Test and Visual Representation on both day 1 and day 7. Additionally, after 7 days, statistically significant improvements were found on day 7 in the Forethought/Sequencing test.

     

     nooLVL helped gamers improve scores on tests for attention and concentration, visual representation, and spatial planning, sometimes after a single use.

     This study is covered in our article titled 2022 nooLVL Nootropic Data Published: More Benefits for Gamers and is now published online.

• 28:15 – nooLVL Claims

  

  Learn more in our NooLVL explainer

  Katie summarizes the claims that supplement companies can legally make based upon the above research. This is useful for brands that want compliant labels that fall in line with the requirements of both the Federal Trade Commission and FDA.

• 30:00 – Q&A

  Several questions were posed from the brand / formulator point of view regarding formulation support, form factors, dosing, and more.

Looking to try a product with nooLVL?

If looking to test a great product with nooLVL inside, take a look at Ghost Gamer, which provides a fully-tested 1.6 gram dose of nooLVL alongside a moderate 150 milligrams of caffeine as well as several nootropic support ingredients, and some incredible flavors.

Once again, you can read our main article titled nooLVL: Next-Gen Focus Ingredient for Gaming Supplements and sign up for our Nutrition21 news alerts below: