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FILE PHOTO: Esports – ESL One – Dota 2 Major – Arena Birmingham, Birmingham, Britain – May 26, 2018 General view as fans watch on Action Images via Reuters/Ed Sykes
April 24, 2019
By Hilary Russ
NEW YORK (Reuters) – From snack companies to carmakers, a wide range of brands is trying to reach one of the hottest demographic groups around: esports fans.
Those brands are finding their footing with 39 percent of brand exposure in esports’ competitive video game broadcasts coming from non-gaming related companies in 2018, Nielsen said in a report on Wednesday.
“Over all forms of entertainment, their biggest passion is video games,” Nicole Pike, Managing Director of Nielsen Esports, said of enthusiasts of professional video gaming.
Such companies are called “non-endemic” since they are not as naturally aligned with esports as those that manufacture gaming computers, consoles, chairs and other gear, for instance.
The list of non-endemic brands in the sector and already includes State Farm, Disney, Spotify, Toyota, Mastercard, Cheez-It, Hershey, Chipotle, Sephora , Wendy’s and Head & Shoulders, and is getting longer.
Viewership of esports – when fans watch in person or online as professional video game players compete – is expanding.
The bulk of fans are typically between 18 and 35 years old, referred to in the Nielsen report by esports sponsor Doritos as “emerging adults.”
They have more disposable income than other sports fans and many have cut the cord to traditional media.
In fact, 61 percent of esports viewers on Twitch, a main platform for watching esports streams, do not watch television on a weekly basis, according to Nielsen, making traditional forms of marketing a challenge.
Reaching out through esports does seem to work, since 90 percent of Twitch’s esports viewers can name at least one non-endemic sponsor, Nielsen found.
Brands seen as authentically interested in the space fare better than those that just slap their logo on a jersey, advertising and esports experts say.
PepsiCo’s Doritos, for instance, sponsored a “Doritos Bowl” hosted by Twitch for a Call of Duty battle royale tournament between top streamers.
Fans watched nearly 550,000 combined hours of that tournament, Nielsen said.
When 20th Century Fox wanted to promote the digital release of its movie “Deadpool 2 Super Duper Cut,” it turned to the gaming advertising and talent agency Ader.
Ader partnered with top Fortnite influencer DrLupo and also created new custom designed Deadpool “emotes” – essentially emoji characters – that viewers use in Twitch chat windows.
An influx of non-endemic brands also adds credibility to the evolving esports ecoystem, said Chad De Luca, head of gaming and esports at Publicis Sport & Entertainment.
“It is a mark of approval from a blue-chip company,” he said.
(Reporting by Hilary Russ, editing by G Crosse)
Source: OANN
CEO of Russian National Payment Card System (NSPK) Vladimir Komlev attends an interview with Reuters in NSPK office in Moscow, Russia March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
April 19, 2019
By Tatiana Voronova and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
MOSCOW (Reuters) – After Western sanctions gutted Russia’s financial system five years ago, a new bank card began appearing in the wallets of many Russians.
Now the country is hoping to introduce its cards, known as Mir cards, to foreign markets where Russian nationals live and travel, Vladimir Komlev, the head of Russia’s National Card Payment System (NSPK), told Reuters in an interview.
“In the next three years we want Mir cards to be operational in countries where Russians are used to traveling,” Komlev said. “It’s the hardest task in terms of returns on investment.”
Russia created its own card payment system in 2014 because it feared U.S. and European sanctions against some Russian banks and businesspeople over the annexation of Crimea could block transactions made with U.S.-based Mastercard and Visa.
NSPK said Turkey’s Isbank had started accepting Mir cards as of Thursday. Russians made 5.7 million trips to Turkey last year, according to state statistics agency Rosstat.
Komlev projected Mir cards would be operational at some banks in 12 foreign countries by the end of the year. He would not, however, disclose which countries those might be.
NSPK is not subject to Western sanctions, but some foreign companies are wary of doing business with Russian firms in case further restrictions are put in place.
EXPANDING AT HOME
More than 56 million Mir cards have been issued and they currently make up more than 20 percent of Russia’s bank card market, Komlev said.
Mir means “World” or “Peace” in Russian.
NSPK, which was created by the central bank, has received a boost from legislation obliging civil servants to receive their salaries on Mir cards. It aims for Mir cards’ share of the market to reach 30 percent over the next couple of years.
Starting next year, pension payments, as well as child and unemployment benefits, will only be paid on the cards.
These measures have made Mir a rival to Mastercard and Visa in Russia. But its shortcomings – its incompatibility with many international shopping platforms and its limited use outside Russia – have prompted Russian officials to call for more support to help it to take on U.S. competitors.
“At this time, it’s difficult for Mir to compete with Visa and Mastercard,” Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said this month. “We need to develop its functionality, its social orientation.”
Mastercard, which operates a co-branded card with Mir, said it “supported the development of the payment industry and fair competition.” Visa did not reply to a request for comment.
Mir has develop its own “Mir Pay” smartphone application and is available on Samsung Pay. Komlev said NSPK had not reached an agreement with Apple to make Mir cards available on its mobile payment platform.
Komlev said another of NSPK’s priorities was to get major international online booking services for airline tickets and accommodation to accept Mir cards.
“Business and geopolitics have mixed here, so it’s not as easy to implement as we would like,” he said.
(Reporting by Tatiana Voronova and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Additional reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Mark Potter)
Source: OANN
Two days after the Thursday arrest of Julian Assange at Ecuador’s London embassy, several government websites were hacked; including Ecuador’s official website, the Central Bank of Ecuador, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ecuadorian Assembly in the UK, according to Gateway Pundit‘s Cassandra Fairbanks, who was in London last week and documented the run-up to Assange’s arrest.
Looks like at least one Ecuadorian government subdomain has been hijacked. https://t.co/Ivl897ACQF pic.twitter.com/piwFjuRwIJ
— Jacob Riggs (@Riggsbit) April 13, 2019
Concurrent with the breach, a hacking group operating under the name “AL1NE3737” released a database containing the full names and passwords for what appear to be 728 Ecuadorian government employees.
I believe I’ve just found another database dropped with the full names and bcrypt hashed passwords for what appear to be 728 Ecuadorian gov employees alongside 5 admin credentials, one password of which is MD5 hashed (lol). Not sure exactly where these were sourced from yet.
— Jacob Riggs (@Riggsbit) April 13, 2019
Furthermore, Ecuador’s sites were hit with Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. According to DefCon Lab.
Among those involved in these attacks stand out from the groups / hacker DeathLaw , 5UB5, Cyb3r C0nven Security and Al1ne ( Pryzraky ).
DoS actions has consistently been against the Ecuadorian government targets, the country that gave Julian Assange to the UK police.” –DefCon Lab
…
The hacker Al1ne ( Pryzraky ) performed page defacements against and released a list of vulnerable targets related to the government of Ecuador
As noted by Fairbanks, “The cyber attack was reminiscent of 2010’s “Operation Avenge Assange” which was launched by the broader “Operation Payback” effort. The movement lead to hacktivists hitting companies such as PayPal, PostFinance, Mastercard, Visa, and others who had blocked services to WikiLeaks with a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack. This is when a website is flooded with fake traffic until it crashes and goes offline.”
Following Assange’s Thursday arrest, more than 70 MPs and peers signed a letter urging the UK home secretary to ensure that the WikiLeaks founder is extradited to Sweden if Swedish authorities request it.
Sweden is considering whether to open a previously-dropped investigation into allegations of rape and sexual assault against Assange.
The United States, meanwhile, wants to try Assange for the largest-ever leak of government secrets in 2010. On Thursday, the Justice Department hit him with an indictment that claims the WikiLeaks founder helped former US Army intelligence analyst crack DoD password using Linux.
“The indictment alleges that in March 2010, Assange engaged in a conspiracy with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications,” reads a DOJ press release.
Materials Manning released included videos of various US airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the “Iraq War Logs” and “Afghan War Diary.”
Assange faces five years in prison if convicted in the Manning case.
Source: InfoWars
A Syrian man arrested by Hungarian authorities under suspicion of terrorist activities was in possession of a prepaid debit card issued by the E.U., according to a government spokesman.
F. Hassan was recently detained in Budapest by officers of the Hungarian Counterterrorism Centre (TEK), suspected of being a high-ranking ISIS operative who had carried out attacks and executions in his homeland.
Reports now indicate that Hassan was holding one of the many “anonymous” debit cards issued to migrants by the E.U. and U.N. – a scheme that was recently unearthed and confirmed by the European Commission following a public information campaign initiated by the Hungarian government.
“The Hungarian government had warned that these anonymous, prepaid debit cards posed a security risk,” writes Zoltan Kovacs, Secretary of State for International Communication and Relations. “After initial denials, the Commission finally admitted that the United Nations and the European Union have been distributing these cards to migrants who have reached the territory of the E.U. Some 64,000 debit cards were distributed to migrants in January alone.”
“Reports say that he received a monthly payment of 500 EUR on his debit card. That’s well over today’s gross minimum wage in Hungary.”
Hungarian officials are now demanding an “urgent answer” from the E.U. regarding whether it knew if Hassan had been issued one of the debit cards in question and how many other potential terrorists may have received them, according to Hungary Today.
“It is a lie that the 64,000 migrant cards issued so far are not anonymous, cannot be used to withdraw cash or that they can only be used in Greece,” MEP Tamas Deutsch told reporters.
Deutsch warned that “thousands” of jihadists may be pouring into Europe, hidden among the waves of migrants.
“Despite that fact, Brussels is enthusiastically distributing anonymous cards credited with hundreds of euros,” Deutsch said.
In November, 2018, Infowars Europe helped bring to light revelations that migrants were using preloaded MasterCard debit cards bearing insignias of the E.U. and U.N. to pay for goods and services along their journeys.
There is also evidence that the project is traceable to infamous Hungarian billionaire George Soros.
In Infowars’ original report, we detailed Soros’ likely ties to the scheme upon discovery of a 2017 MasterCard press release publicizing the launch of a partnership program with Soros called “Humanity Ventures,” which aimed to “catalyze and accelerate economic and social development for vulnerable communities around the world, especially refugees and migrants.”
Incredibly, the E.U. has claimed the program “does not encourage migration.”
In this exclusive video, border patrol vans are seen pulling up to a Catholic respite center near McAllen, Texas, where a worker then warns that shooting video endangers the illegal aliens in the vans because they could be recognized and extorted by human traffickers or anybody they “borrowed money from.”
(PHOTO: Screenshot)
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: Mar 8, 2019; Orlando, FL, USA; Graeme McDowell hits his driver on the 18th hole during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports/File Photo
March 31, 2019
(Reuters) – Graeme McDowell resurrected his stagnant career with a one-stroke victory at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic on Sunday.
The Northern Irishman took the lead with a five-foot birdie at the 17th hole and despite a bogey at the last edged American Chris Stroud and Canadian Mackenzie Hughes at Puntacana Resort.
“This is big for the people who stood by me the last few years because it’s been a rough few years,” McDowell told Golf Channel.
He reached as high as fourth in the world back in 2011, but arrived in the Dominican Republic ranked a lowly 257th.
McDowell shot a closing 69 to finish at 18-under-par 270 for his fourth victory on the PGA Tour, and his first since 2015.
He was already exempt for June’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he enjoyed the biggest moment of his career by winning the 2010 championship.
One of McDowell’s big goals this year is to get into the British Open at Royal Portrush in his homeland.
Though Sunday’s victory does not on its own earn him an exemption to that tournament, it is a big step toward qualifying by other means.
“It’s been a grind,” said the 39-year-old. “I’m really happy I got this done.”
(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Ken Ferris)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A Worldpay booth is shown on the exhibit hall floor during the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo
March 27, 2019
By Paulina Duran
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Payments group Worldpay said on Wednesday it was expanding its business in Australia and New Zealand, a new heavyweight disruptor vying for the business of the established payment networks and banks servicing most local firms.
The payment technology giant will open two offices in Australia as it seeks to benefit from rapid growth in the country’s almost $30 billion e-commerce industry, Worldpay General Manager of Global eCommerce for Asia Pacific, Phil Pomford, said.
“We see growth opportunities to come into a market where there is rising employment, great population growth, and where the shift into the e-commerce and mobile commerce is significant,” Pomford told Reuters in a telephone interview.
It will first target businesses in the online retail, travel, digital content and online gaming industries.
Worldpay is a major player in card and alternative payments globally, and particularly in Britain.
It was this month acquired by Fidelity National Information Services Inc in the biggest deal to date in the fast-growing electronic payments industry, valuing the company at $43 billion.
In Australia, the Ohio-based company already provides services for a number of digital-centric businesses such as travel websites Lonely Planet and Webjet, and online social gaming company Virtual Gaming World.
“[With the new offices] we will be better able to attract new customers and service them going forward,” Pomford said.
Worldpay competes against established credit card payment providers such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, merchant payment services issued by Australian banks, as well as with Dutch tech competitor Adyen.
It processes over 40 billion transactions annually through more than 300 payment types across 146 countries and 126 currencies, according to its website.
The company has also been granted a new payments license in New Zealand, Pomford said.
(Reporting by Paulina Duran; Editing by David Evans)
Source: OANN
Denmark has announced a fresh cash injection for programs designed to stem the flows of African migration at their sources.
Funding totaling approximately $1.5 million (10 million DKK) will be directed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appeal for the Mediterranean route, according to a statement from Denmark’s Foreign Ministry.
“Efforts are taking place in the countries of origin and transit of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal and Sudan and can help reduce further migration flows,” the Foreign Ministry explains.
“Activities include information campaigns on risks and realistic outcomes of travel, strengthening local authorities’ capacity to handle migration and protection, help with voluntary return of migrants and refugee integration in host communities and resettlement, desert rescue, protection of unaccompanied children, victim assistance for gender-based violence, monitoring of conditions in detention centers in Libya and evacuation from Libya of vulnerable refugees to Niger for further resettlement.”
Top Danish officials recently visited Frontex operations in Sicily, including Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen, Minister of Integration Inger Støjberg, and Minister for Development Cooperation Ulla Tørnæs.
“It is crucial that we strengthen the EU’s external borders if we are to handle the migration pressures against Europe in the future,” Tørnæs said. “At the same time, it is crucial that we strengthen efforts on migration routes in the Sahel region, including with support for local authorities, so that they can better fight human trafficking networks, and that we contribute to information efforts so that young Africans are not tempted – with their lives – into a hopeless journey towards Europe.”
It is interesting to note that Denmark’s latest contribution to the UNHCR’s Mediterranean efforts are lower than in previous years – 35 million DKK in 2018 and 15 DKK in 2017.
In November, 2018, Infowars Europe helped bring to light revelations that migrants were using preloaded MasterCard debit cards bearing insignias of the UNHCR and EU to pay for goods and services along their journeys.
Denmark appears to be moving in a different direction on issues related to immigration than many European countries, recently announcing plans to start sending migrants home instead of integrating them, quarantining certain foreign criminals on an isolated island, and stripping a Moroccan jihadist of his Danish citizenship in a landmark legal ruling.
Europe appears lost as reports emerge that German police are actually covering up migrant crimes to push the narrative that migrants are never violent or break the law and should be welcomed with open arms.
(PHOTO: Jesus Merida/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: A Citibank sign on a bank branch in midtown Manhattan, New York, November 17, 2010. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
March 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Citigroup Inc said on Tuesday it is developing a consumer-payments platform, in a move to enter the rapidly growing digital payments industry.
Citi’s new service will offer merchants a range of consumer payment options to collect money, including from credit cards and e-wallets, the company said. This will expand its product portfolios within its mainstay business-to-business (B2B) payment offerings. [https://reut.rs/2CAEJXO]
The digital payment industry has been growing rapidly as more and more consumers make purchases online and use digital checkout services such as e-wallets or cash on delivery. The ease of transferring money has also made traditional payment methods such as checks redundant, forcing many banks and their merchant customers to quickly shift to digital payment technology or fall behind.
“We want to extend our leadership beyond the B2B payment space by developing capabilities to enable institutions to collect from consumers in a globally consistent and seamless fashion,” Naveed Sultan, global head of Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions, said.
Citi’s move is the latest foray by a major U.S. financial institution after U.S. fintech group Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS) agreed to buy payment processor Worldpay for $34.83 billion, marking the biggest acquisition in the digital payments industry.
Citi said it is working with payment processor Mastercard Inc to facilitate the service as it is already integrated with digital payment providers and e-wallets around the globe.
The bank also said it is collaborating with other digital payment companies to incorporate up to 140 alternative payment methods into its service.
(Reporting by Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)
Source: OANN
A Mastercard logo is seen on a credit card in this picture illustration August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
March 26, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Global payments giant Mastercard has said it will invest 300 million pounds ($396.03 million) as a cornerstone investor in the planned London float of payments processor Network International.
Dubai-based Network International is the largest payments processor in the Middle East and Africa and set to be the first international IPO in London this year.
Network International is targeting a valuation of around $3 billion according to banking sources.
Mastercard said it would invest in shared projects with Network International in the Middle East and Africa as part of the deal.
Network International is currently jointly owned by Dubai bank Emirates NBD and private equity firms Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic
Mastercard said its investment would be based on the same terms as institutional investors participating in the IPO.
The deal is subject to Mastercard’s ownership being limited to 9.99 percent and Network International achieving a free float of at least 25 percent.
(Reporting by Iain Withers; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)
Source: OANN
A man stands outside the Bandes bank headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
March 22, 2019
By Lesley Wroughton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s development bank, Bandes, a day after the Trump administration warned there would be consequences for the arrest by Venezuelan authorities of opposition leader Juan Guaido’s top aide.
The U.S. Treasury said on Friday it was slapping the sanctions on Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social de Venezuela, including its subsidiaries in Uruguay and Bolivia.
Congress head Guaido, who invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency in January, has accused Bandes of being used by President Nicolas Maduro’s government to funnel money outside Venezuela.
The White House said in a statement it was committed to preventing Maduro’s government from stealing Venezuela’s resources and from arresting those pushing for political change.
Venezuela’s information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Guaido’s chief of staff, Roberto Marrero, was detained in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday, sparking vows of reprisals from the United States, which along with most Western countries backs Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader.
“The United States will not tolerate the arrest of peaceful democratic actors, including members of the democratically-elected Venezuelan National Assembly and those Venezuelans working with interim President Juan Guaido,” the White House said in a statement.
The U.S. Treasury said Maduro tried to move $1 billion out of Venezuela through Banco Bandes Uruguay in early 2019 as he came under increasing pressure from the United States and other countries in the region to step down.
Bandes has received billions of dollars over the past decade from the China Development Bank, in exchange for oil, which the Venezuelan government used to fund infrastructure projects.
Uruguay has stayed neutral on Venezuela’s political crisis and has called for dialogue, while China, Russia and regional ally Cuba have backed Maduro.
But the sanctions on Bandes could test Beijing’s ties with Caracas, since it would impede Venezuela from restructuring its $20 billion debt with China, opposition lawmaker Angel Alvarado said on Friday.
“That makes it even less likely that China will step in to save Maduro,” Alvarado wrote on Twitter. Guaido and his allies have repeatedly argued that China and Russia are more likely to collect on their loans to Venezuela with Maduro out of office.
The sanctions freeze assets belonging to the bank and its subsidiaries, and prevent U.S. citizens from any dealings with Bandes. They follow a raft of other sanctions imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump in recent months against Maduro, top government officials, and state oil firm PDVSA.
Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton tweeted: “BANDES bank is to Venezuela’s financial sector what PDVSA is to its oil sector. This action will severely affect any attempted currency movements by Maduro and his cronies moving forward. Do not test the resolve of this Administration.”
Maduro’s government accuses Washington of waging a “economic war” to force them from power and has said that the sanctions only harm regular Venezuelans.
The United States also on Friday imposed sanctions on other state-owned Venezuelan banks, including Banco de Venezuela and Banco Bicentenario. It said that Visa, Mastercard and American Express would be prohibited from facilitating transactions involving those banks, beginning in March 2020.
(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, additional reporting by Angus Berwick and Luc Cohen in Caracas, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
Source: OANN
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