Latest News
GRID and WePlay Esports announce the extension of their exclusive data partnership
GRID, the official esports and gaming data platform, and WePlay Esports, the flagship company of WePlay Holding, have extended their exclusive esports data partnership for a third year.
The deal will focus on data assets management, distribution, and monetization for all WePlay Esports broadcasts. Additionally, GRID will provide advanced integrity and data security services.
Charlie Hanley-Nickolls, chief procurement officer of GRID Esports comments, “At GRID we are dedicated to building long-lasting relationships with our partners. Working with WePlay Esports exemplifies what it means to have a mutually rewarding partnership. For the past two years, WePlay Esports has elevated its broadcast and improved the interactive experience of esports content. We are thrilled to continue leveraging WePlay Esports data and providing them with the assets they need to continue to be a leader in broadcast innovation. Their approach to fan engagement is a benchmark for how official esports data can be used as fuel to grow the industry as a whole.”
In 2021 GRID supported WePlay Esports in some of the most viewed esports tournaments of all time. The partnership included all the company’s CS:GO and Dota 2 tournaments and the most notable Russian-speaking broadcasts. The record-breaking PGL Major Stockholm 2021 broadcast by WePlay Esports peaked at over 865,000 concurrent viewers during the final match between NAVI and G2 Esports. WePlay AniMajor, the anime-themed Dota 2 competition, set an additional record with over 37 Million hours watched.
Valentyn Shevchenko, head of business development at WePlay Esports, says
“In 2022, our goal is to continue expanding our portfolio to include more genres and focus on organizing themed events. Across all our initiatives, we aim to continue our innovation and enhancement of WePlay Esports data. Our partnership with GRID allows for the maximum leverage of our data assets, and elevates the WePlay Esports signature broadcast experience”.
The WePlay Esports deal renewal follows the recent GRID announcement regarding GRID’s extension of their BLAST Premier partnership. In 2021 GRID secured over 70 official data partnerships in esports making them the leading platform offering official server data access.
GRID Esports is the leading esports and gaming data platform, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
GRID partners with the rights holders in esports & gaming to leverage the potential of their data IP. This enables sustainable growth of the entire competitive gaming ecosystem and empowers the esports community. The central technology piece of the company – The GRID Data Platform – unlocks additional revenue streams for its partners and capitalizes on the potential of data in digital sports for the purposes of storytelling, fan engagement, and integrity.
In 2021 GRID Esports closed a successful Series A, raising $10m in growth capital backed by Alinea Capital and Dreamcraft Ventures. GRID’s official data partnerships cover over 70 tournament organizers and game publishers including BLAST Premier, PGL, WePlay Esports and Epic Esports Events.
WePlay Holding is an esports corporate group with headquarters in Los Angeles, U.S., and Kyiv, Ukraine, which has offices around the world together with its affiliates. The multi-brand holding company is bridging the gaps between entertainment, esports, and technology through its innovation strategy.
The organization accelerates industry development with interdependent creative solutions in broadcasting, augmented reality, interactive experiences, data mining, and other tools. WePlay Holding empowers businesses with personalized products and services created through merging concepts. This produces quick-impact outcomes required in the competitive world of entertainment.
Since 2006, the WePlay brand is well-known for the high-quality organization and broadcasting of esports tournaments. It grew into WePlay Esports, a world-class tournament organizer and production company with studios, talent crews, and arenas operating across multiple continents.
WePlay Holding puts together its technology ecosystem to create unique results. It aims to bring together brands, investors, nonprofit organizations, industry experts, and other stakeholders into a playful prosumer environment.
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B2B iGaming
Gamblers Connect Strengthens Trust with Launch of Verified Sources Panel
Gamblers Connect, the independent B2B iGaming media platform, has introduced a Verified Sources panel that appears at the bottom of every article, linking each factual claim directly to named primary documents hosted on the original source’s own domain.
The panel lists the specific sources consulted, identifies the issuing authority, and includes editorial notes explaining what has been verified and where the limits of the available evidence exist. Positioned immediately beneath the article body, each source is presented in the order it was consulted and includes the responsible individual or office where applicable.
Each entry also includes relevant disclosure tags drawn from the newsroom’s editorial taxonomy, and a direct hyperlink to the original document on the source’s own domain, allowing readers to verify the reporting in a single click.
The initiative responds to widespread practices in online publishing where sources are hidden, paraphrased or omitted altogether, leaving readers to rely on trust rather than independently verifiable evidence.
Luka Dimitrijevic, Partnerships & Operations Lead at Gamblers Connect, said: “Trust is not something a media outlet can declare. It is something the reader gives, and only once they can see the documents the story was built from. The Verified Sources panel exists so that verification is never more than one click away. If a claim in a story is worth making, the source behind it is worth linking to.”
The post Gamblers Connect Strengthens Trust with Launch of Verified Sources Panel appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Boaster Fnatic
Esports World Cup: Level Up Returns to Prime Video June 26 with Season Two
Esports World Cup: Level Upreturns for its second season on June 26, with all five episodes dropping that day exclusively on Prime Video. Directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler (Martha (Netflix), Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (Apple TV)), the five-part docuseries goes inside the human stories behind the world’s largest esports competition, following players, Clubs and families through the pressure and ambition of the 2025 Esports World Cup.
Set in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the seven-week event, the new season follows the chase for the $70 million prize pool and the EWC Club Championship, while showing the personal journeys at the heart of the competition. The series captures what it takes to compete on a global stage where one match can change a career, a season can define a Club, and a single moment can turn a player into a star.
Produced by This Machine (a part of Sony Pictures Television), with director R.J. Cutler, showrunner John Dorsey and executive producers Jane Cha Cutler, Trevor Smith, Elise Pearlstein and Mark Blatty all returning for the second season, Esports World Cup: Level Up takes a vérité-style approach to esports, capturing the sacrifice, stakes, and rising fame of the world’s top competitive gamers.
Featured players include Jake “Boaster” Howlett (Fnatic; VALORANT), Vivi “Vivian” Indrawaty (Team Vitality; MLBB), Kasimili “Soka” Tongamoa (Team Falcons; Call of Duty: Warzone), Xiao Hai (KuaiShou Gaming; Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves) and Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren (Mongolz; Counter-Strike). To bring the players’ personal stories to the forefront, the film’s crew was on set in Riyadh for seven weeks and also traveled to locations across the U.K., U.S. and Indonesia for rare at-home visits.
Standout storylines woven throughout the series include:
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Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid, Chess) – Widely considered the greatest chess player ever, Carlsen faces the isolation of dominance, with no traditional peaks left to conquer. His story follows his shift into esports, where a new generation of challengers awaits.
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Boaster (Fnatic, Valorant) – As Valorant debuts at the event, the British competitor’s journey from aspiring actor to title contender shows there’s no single path to success, shaped by resilience through personal and professional setbacks.
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Xiao Hai (KSG, Street Fighter) – A reigning champion shaped by strict discipline, Xiao Hai was competing against adults by age six. Now a father, he balances global competition with family life.
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Vivian (Team Vitality, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang) – Competing for a life-changing prize, Vivian’s story centers on overcoming recent setbacks and confronting childhood trauma.
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The Mongolz & bLitz (Counter-Strike 2) – Led by their star player bLitz, this grassroots Mongolian team has risen from obscurity to national prominence, becoming symbols of pride and perseverance.
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Soka (Team Falcons, Call of Duty: Warzone) – The reigning champion faces pressure on multiple fronts, dealing with rivalries from former teammates while navigating a turbulent home life.
- Coach ArSy (Team Liquid, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang) – Offering a rare coaching perspective, ArSy draws on a difficult upbringing to lead and inspire his team’s pursuit of redemption.
“Level Up captures the human side of what we are building with the Esports World Cup,” said Ralf Reichert, CEO, Esports Foundation. “EWC creates the stage: the best games, the best Clubs, the best players, life-changing stakes and moments that bring together a global gaming community of billions. The documentary takes you closer to the people inside those moments: their pressure, their ambition, their families and the stories that make esports meaningful to a new generation.”
“This next chapter deepens our exploration of a global phenomenon that is as much about human ambition and identity as it is about competition,” said Cutler. “Esports is one of the most dynamic cultural movements of our time. In season two, we continue to chronicle not just the competition, but the lives, dreams, and sacrifices of the players at the center of it, revealing a world that is both intensely personal and globally resonant.”
Around those player journeys, the series also captures the wider cultural energy of the Esports World Cup, where sport, music, entertainment and gaming meet. In addition to elite competition, Level Up showcases moments from a star-studded lineup of musical artists and athletes, including opening headliner Post Malone, who shows off his gaming skills backstage; grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, who triumphs in his first chess esports event; and football icon Cristiano Ronaldo, who ushers the Club Championship trophy to the stage in a dramatic closing ceremony.
The magnitude of the Esports World Cup is also seen through the reactions of some of the world’s biggest sports and entertainment figures, including reigning F1 champion Lando Norris; Brazilian football legends Ronaldo Nazario and Kaká, who go one-on-one in an EA FC showmatch; professional footballer Alisha Lehmann; skateboarder Tony Hawk; and tennis star Nick Kyrgios, who stated: “The crowd, the atmosphere, is literally better than Wimbledon or any Grand Slam.”
The Esports World Cup 2025 marked a defining moment in competitive gaming. In its second year, EWC reached 750 million viewers worldwide and generated 350 million hours watched, with peak concurrent viewership of nearly 8 million during the League of Legends at EWC ’25 tournament. Coverage was delivered across 28 platforms through 97 broadcast partners and more than 800 channels in 35 languages. Twenty-five tournaments spanning 24 games featured more than 2,000 players representing approximately 200 Clubs from over 100 countries.
The 2026 edition of the Esports World Cup will be held in Paris, France from July 6 through August 23, as the top Clubs in the world compete for $75 million and the 2026 EWC Club Championship trophy.
The post Esports World Cup: Level Up Returns to Prime Video June 26 with Season Two appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
AGLC license
Tonybet Secures Alberta iGaming License as Regulated Market Opens
Tonybet, an international iGaming operator already licensed in Ontario and Kahnawake, today announced that it has received an iGaming license from the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC), clearing the company to operate in Alberta’s regulated online gaming market.
The license allows Tonybet to enter Alberta, Canada’s second province to introduce a competitive, multi-operator iGaming market following Ontario’s launch in 2022. It also extends Tonybet’s Canadian footprint, reinforcing the company’s position as one of the most broadly licensed operators in the country.
Alberta’s regulated market represents a significant opportunity. The province has an estimated population of nearly 5 million, a strong sports culture, and a regulatory framework designed to channel existing online gaming activity into a licensed, player-protected environment. Tonybet intends to bring the same localized approach that has driven its growth in Ontario – combining regionally relevant sports betting markets, responsible gaming tools, and dedicated customer support – to Alberta from day one.
“Alberta is taking the right approach – building a regulated market that puts player protection and operational standards at the center from the start. That’s exactly the kind of environment we want to operate in. We’ve spent years proving in Ontario that you can grow a business and maintain the highest compliance standards at the same time – registrations and gross gaming revenue in the province both grew by 52% in 2025, with responsible gaming embedded in that success rather than working against it. Securing this license means we can bring the same commitment to Alberta, and we plan to be fully operational in the market,” said Dmitry Arabuli, CEO of Tonybet.
Tonybet has already begun preparations for its Alberta launch, including platform localization, integration with the province’s centralized self-exclusion system, and commercial onboarding with the Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC).
The post Tonybet Secures Alberta iGaming License as Regulated Market Opens appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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