Movember and BLAST Premier partner to improve mental health in esports

Movember will become the official mental health partner of BLAST Premier, a global Counter-Strike tournament series, in an exciting initiative to support the mental health of esports players and communities. Global men’s health charity Movember will work with the global esports entertainment company to develop awareness and support for mental health challenges, create psychologically safe spaces, deliver evidence-informed mental health workshops and undertake research to develop Mental Health Guidelines for the wider industry.

The partnership will see Movember and BLAST Premier commit to working together to promote good mental health and prevent ill-health amongst esports players and viewers/spectators alike, encouraging the community to take action and better support themselves and each other, officially launching at the BLAST Premier World Final in Singapore from 30 October – 2 November.

The World Final 2024 will see the biggest and best esports and Counter-Strike teams compete in Singapore across five days of competition for a sizable total prize pool of $1,000,000.

Ahead of the World Final, Movember joined BLAST Premier at September’s Fall Final to spend time talking to fans, players and teams. Movember hosted special mental health workshops in the lead up to the tournament with players and talent to better understand the challenges the wider industry faces with mental health. The iconic Movember barber shop was also made available for fans in the arena to get haircuts, while having an open and honest chat.

As part of these conversations and future focus across the wider esports sector, both organisations will collaborate to establish a set of Mental Health Guidelines, centered around lived and living experiences of players (ranked and non-ranked), designed to level up the impact esports has on people’s mental health with the aim of onboarding other organisations in the future.

Director, Global Innovations at Movember, Dan Cooper said: “This partnership between Movember and BLAST Premier is a significant step in highlighting the health challenges facing those in the esports community. We plan to do that in part by collaboratively building guidelines that will act as a set of foundational principles to protect esports players and support the creation of psychologically safe spaces.”

“The influence of esports is growing, our aim is to help transform how the community engages and prioritises mental health and in doing so takes proactive steps in Levelling Up, not only in performance but also positive health outcomes”

Faye Marlborough, Director of Growth at BLAST, said: “Esports has a huge influence on people all over the world, and through this new partnership we have already started to have industry-led discussions about mental health and deliver interventions in settings where esports players and the community spend their time.”

“We hope this partnership will help leverage Movember’s experience to equip our fans and community with best practices and approaches to dealing with mental health.”

Super Bingo participants can play and stay 5 nights for just $400!

Home to downtown Las Vegas’ only bingo room, the Plaza Hotel & Casino will hold Las Vegas’ first-ever New Year’s Eve Super Bingo event, Tuesday, Dec. 31 and Wednesday, Jan. 1.

For this inaugural New Year’s Eve $160,000 Super Bingo, participants can play and enjoy a 5-night stay from Sunday, Dec. 29 through Thursday, Jan. 2 for just $400, with no resort fees. Super Bingo players also receive as a bonus $20 in free slot play.

Upcoming Super Bingo event dates in 2025 are Feb. 3-5, March 3-5, April 7-9, May 5-7, and June 2-4.

Held in the Plaza’s ballroom, Super Bingo draws nearly 1,000 people from across the country and as far away as Hawaii and Canada for the opportunity to win big playing fun-filled games of bingo over two days, with a $50,000 super coverall both days while socializing with like-minded bingo players.

Rooms for the event are limited. Registration is available online at https://www.plazahotelcasino.com/bingo/super-bingo-registration/ or by phone at 702-386-2318.

All Super Bingo players receive one 6-on paper pack for both days, two daubers, free drinks via an open bar at all sessions, and boxed lunch both days.

The Plaza’s Bingo room offers six daily bingo sessions at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5A group of people sitting at tables Description automatically generated.

The Brazilian Ministry of Finance and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) have signed a sports betting integrity cooperation agreement. It will allow both parties to share information concerning suspicious betting activity connected to Brazilian sport and collaborate on any investigations.

The agreement brings together the governmental body responsible for ensuring that the Brazilian market is legal, safe and reliable, and the largest international betting integrity monitor for private operators in the world. Leading industry data and intelligence company H2 Gambling Capital has forecast that IBIA will cover more than 70% of the Brazilian remote gambling market.

According to ‘The Availability of Sports Betting Products: An Economic and Integrity Analysis’ study published earlier this year, the new sports betting regulatory regime in Brazil is projected to create $34bn in sports betting turnover by 2028. With this increased growth comes a greater responsibility to protect customers, sports and betting operators from match-fixing.

A key element of the new Brazilian regulatory framework is the requirement that operators seeking a licence must join an independent sports integrity monitoring body. This licensing requirement is helping to strengthen IBIA’s capacity to monitor, assess and protect betting transactions in Brazil’s regulated sports betting market and maintain the integrity of Brazilian sporting events.

Regis Dudena, Secretary of Betting and Prizes, said: “Cooperation with IBIA will add to SPA’s work in combating the manipulation of sporting events. And together we will mitigate this problem on a global scale.”

Khalid Ali, IBIA CEO, said: “IBIA is delighted to have reached this agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Finance and welcomes the government’s increased focus on creating a robust sports betting integrity ecosystem to tackle match-fixing. Collaboration and information sharing are key to the success of this ecosystem. Under this agreement IBIA will identify and report suspicious betting on Brazilian sporting events to the Ministry of Finance to support investigatory actions. That will include detailed customer account data that is only available to IBIA and its members.”

Frederico Alves Soares Justo, General Coordinator of Money Laundering at the Brazilian Ministry of Finance, said: “For the Secretary of Prizes and Betting to sign this agreement with IBIA is the certainty that we are on the right path to curb the manipulation of results. We will make the most of the experience that IBIA has in monitoring the betting market to create mechanisms that curb this practice that undermines the credibility of sport and the betting market. It’s a partnership in which everyone wins.”

IBIA is a globally recognised non-profit organization that seeks to safeguard the integrity of the sports and betting sectors by fighting betting related match-fixing and fraud. It provides a free integrity monitoring service to sports governing bodies, regulators and law enforcement agencies that, importantly, is also free from potential conflicts created by the provision of competing commercial services, enabling all parties to efficiently and effectively cooperate in investigating, prosecuting and deterring sports betting related match-fixing.

IBIA monitors over $300bn per annum in betting turnover across more than 125 sports betting brands globally, making IBIA the largest betting integrity monitor of its type for private operators in the world. The association’s unrivalled access to detailed global customer transactional data has, and will continue, to play a pivotal role in protecting the Brazilian sports betting market and sporting events from corrupt activity.