The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) announced that VSPO, the largest esports company in Asia, has officially become an ESIC member. Founded in 2016, VSPO has established itself as a key player in the global esports industry after hosting events across Asia, Europe and North America. This membership demonstrates VSPO’s commitment to promoting fairness, transparency and ethical conduct in the global esports ecosystem.

VSPO is renowned for its end-to-end esports offerings, including tournament operations, content production, talent incubation and integrated marketing solutions. The company recently announced the Esports Asian Champions League (ACL), Asia’s new premier international esports tournament featuring multiple titles. It has previously hosted high-profile esports events such as the Honor of Kings Pro League (KPL), PUBG Global Championship (PGC) and the esports series at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, collaborating with major game developers and global brands.

By joining ESIC as a member, VSPO aligns with the industry’s most rigorous and widely accepted integrity standards, ensuring the protection and sustainability of its own tournaments and further supporting the esports industry as it continues to grow on a global scale. This will include enforcing ESIC’s Integrity Program across all tournaments and events, which addresses cheating, match-fixing, doping and other unethical behaviours.

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As an ESIC member, VSPO commits to upholding the integrity of the esports ecosystem by adopting ESIC’s codes of conduct, cooperating with investigations and enforcing any sanctions imposed by ESIC. This ensures a consistent, global approach to maintaining fair play and transparency, safeguarding the credibility of esports for players, teams and fans alike.

VSPO becomes part of a prestigious roster of ESIC members, which includes some of the world’s most prominent tournament organisers such as ESL FACEIT Group, BLAST, LVP (MEDIAPRO Group) and NODWIN Gaming. VSPO membership comes as the company enters an exciting period. Last week it announced that Founder Dino Ying has transitioned to Executive Chairman, with Co-Founder Danny Tang becoming CEO. VSPO is also set to be renamed to Hero Esports, aligning with its domestic brand as part of its ongoing global growth strategy.

Stephen Hanna, Chief Executive Officer of ESIC, said: “VSPO’s commitment to excellence and its global influence makes it an invaluable addition to our growing membership of leading esports stakeholders. VSPO’s membership reinforces the importance of a unified approach to integrity, and we look forward to working together to ensure that the global esports industry continues to grow on a foundation of fairness and trust.”

Danny Tang, CEO and Co-Founder of VSPO, said: “We are proud to join a community that shares our commitment to maintaining the integrity of the esports ecosystem, protecting the credibility of esports for players and fans. A united front is the only way to ensure all participants can thrive, knowing that their efforts and talents are respected and valued.”

Following a highly competitive process, Phygital International announced that Kazakhstan has been chosen as the host of the Games of the Future 2026.

This annual tournament, which is the pinnacle event of the phygital sporting world, received hosting bids from countries across the world, all bidding to follow the UAE in becoming hosts of this prestigious event.

Kazakhstan proved itself the ultimate winner with the Phygital International Expert Committee judges, after showcasing its expertise in hosting international tournaments, its state-of-the-art sports venues – along with the perfect mix of being a nation that embraces sports, culture and tradition as well as its technology and innovation capabilities.

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The Games of the Future is a unique international event, which brings together the next generation of dynamic sporting heroes from all over the world. Phygital International expects the Games of the Future 2025 in UAE and now, 2026 in Kazakhstan to welcome thousands of world-class athletes and esports persons as part of multinational clubs. They will participate in the multi-sport event which comprises of a number of phygital sport challenges.

Nis Hatt, CEO of Phygital International, said: “We’re hugely excited at the prospect of Kazakhstan receiving the phygital flame from next year’s host, the UAE to host the 2026 tournament. It’s so pleasing to see the exponential growth of not only phygital sports, but also the global phygital community.

“In fact, the host nation bidding process for the Games of the Future 2027 is already hotting up but there’s still time for other countries to put their bid in before the deadline in December.”

Yerbol Myrzabossynov, Minister of Tourism and Sports for the Republic of Kazakhstan, said: “It is a privilege for our great nation of Kazakhstan to be awarded the honour of hosting the Games of the Future in 2026. Our country has supported phygital sport from its very inception, and we take pride in being the next in line to host this great event and we’re excited to receive the phygital flame from the UAE, who’s hosting in 2025 we greatly look forward to.”

The Games of the Future places no restrictions on its participants and welcomes everyone, regardless of their age, gender and nationality. The deadline for submitting applications to host the tournament in 2027 is December 31, 2024.

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