What is going on?
Nothing but a scam. You may go away even if you receive 1$ only. What is the security that you will pay for all who deposited excluding the loser? You mentioned transparency. It could be transparent if you can deposit 500$ for 10 people to the escrow. You can see trusted escrow provider lists
here. You may tell that deposit from the player will be direct to the escrow but that will not work too as you may not moderate the service, in this case, transaction fees and time will be wasted for all except you.