The former Brazil, Real Madrid and Inter Milan striker Ronaldo has become the latest high profile figure to invest in esports. Alongside professional poker player André Akkari and Igor Trafane Federal, CEO of the Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP), the two time Ballon d’Or winner has invested in CNB e-sports Club. The three of them now own 50% of the team which currently boasts a roster in League of Legends.  Founding brothers Cleber ‘Fuzi’ Fonseca and Carlos ‘Fury’ Junior own the remaining 50% of the organisation which was founded back in 2001. Fury commented: “The administration remains the same, with me and my brother, what changes is that we now have two world champions with us, which adds a lot to our image.” This story went live on Brazilian site MyCNB.com, and it states that this deal has been on the discussion table since the summer of 2016. The deal was finally put to paper in the iconic city in which Ronaldo was born; Rio de Janeiro.  Brazilian esports includes teams such as INTZ based in Sao Paulo and interest is high though significant investments have been somewhat lacking to date. Naturally this investment begs the question of who the highest profile investor is in esports, and whether Shaquille O’Neal or Ronaldo is the bigger sporting star? Esports Insider says: We’re going with our (English) gut and stating that Ronaldo is a bigger name than Shaq. With such a prominent backer, this should spell great things for CNB and Brazilian esports more widely.  Source: http://www.esportsinsider.com/2017/01/ronaldo-invested-brazilian-esports-team/

University of Toronto announces creation of new esports scholarship by Daniel Rosen January 19, 2017 10:01pm University of Toronto has founded Canada’s first university-specific esports scholarship Will be funded by alumnus and global equities investor Victor Xin Victor Xin Scholarship in esports will be awarded to one full-time undergraduate student in Applied Science & Engineering with at least a 3.5 GPA, who has a “passion for esports or gaming” Jphillips23 / Wikimedia Commons The University of Toronto has founded Canada’s first university-specific esports scholarship. It will be funded by alumnus and global equities investor Victor Xin.The Victor Xin Scholarship in esports will be awarded to one full-time undergraduate student in Applied Science & Engineering with at least a 3.5 GPA, who has a “passion for esports or gaming” and participates in the UofT esports club. U of T does not specify how much the scholarship is worth, but does note that the first scholarship will not be awarded until fall 2018.“There are trailblazers on campus who are rallying a different set of students to build campus organizations focused on an alternative way of learning to lead and succeed in life,” Xin said in a press release. “Society may not recognize them yet – but we shouldn’t let them fall through the cracks.”According to a press release, Xin played StarCraft while he was in the Engineering program in 2008 and started the U of T esports Club. He now mostly plays Dota 2 when he has the time.U of T joins a growing list of universities and colleges that have begun to offer esports scholarships. In 2016, the University of California at Irvine launched a scholarship program, while Robert Morris University and the University of Pikeville both kicked off esports scholarship programs in 2015. Related Articles The Dallas Cowboys have been considering an entry to esports for over a year Top News 2d ago Indian entrepreneur to invest $12-15 million to start esports league Top News 3d ago CSL to host Madden Championship Series event Top News 4d ago Netherlands football league launches competitive FIFA 17 league

  Members of Robert Morris University eSports teams practiced League of Legends in Chicago in 2014.CreditNathan Weber for The New York Times In a recognition of the popularity of e-sports on college campuses, most Big Ten universities will field teams in the multiplayer online game League of Legends and compete in a style resembling conference play, in a partnership with the Big Ten Network. Besides streaming competitions on the internet, the Big Ten Network will broadcast select games, including the championship in late March, weekly on its cable network, which is available to more than 60 million households nationally. Riot Games, League of Legends’ creator and publisher, and the Big Ten Network — which is owned by Fox and the Big Ten Conference — announced the partnership Thursday morning in a joint statement. The Big Ten does not sponsor e-sports, which are not official N.C.A.A. sports. In the first broadcast, on Jan. 30, teams from the Big Ten’s two newest members, Rutgers and Maryland, will face off, according to a Big Ten Network spokesman.  The Pacific-12 has expressed interest in e-sports, and several individual colleges have gone further, with the University of California, Irvine, constructing a dedicated e-sports space in its tudent union and Robert Morris University Illinois, in Chicago, offering athletic scholarships to players. A number of popular games, including Madden-brand football video games, fall under the e-sports rubric. In League of Legends, two teams of five — composed of a set of stock characters seemingly inspired by fantasy novels — try to destroy a glowing object, called a nexus, on their opponent’s side. In the Big Ten Network’s League of Legends season, teams in the Big Ten’s East and West divisions will play each other in best-of-three, round-robin competitions, and the top four from each division will then enter a single-elimination bracket. (The two Big Ten universities not participating this year, Nebraska and Penn State, are in different divisions. The Big Ten has 14 members.) While lacking the mainstream visibility of traditional college sports, e-sports are wildly popular, even as spectator sports, among young people of the type sought after by both colleges and advertisers. Professional gaming contests frequently sell out major arenas, including Madison Square Garden, and several top European soccer clubs have signed e-sports playersas brand ambassadors. Riot already runs a League of Legends College Championship, and the champion crowned by the Big Ten Network season will compete in the final rounds of that annual event. Source: www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/sports/big-ten-is-entering-a-new-realm-e-sports.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

One cannabis investor called Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing a “huge victory.” Others were more measured.  by Polly Mosendz January 12, 2017, 6:00 AM EST When Donald Trump appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general, the cannabis industry let out a collective groan. This week the industry, which is expected to balloon to $50 billion by 2026, got a hint of reprieve after Sessions was questioned about marijuana policy during his confirmation hearing. One cannabis investor went so far as to call the hearing a "huge victory." Others in the industry expressed cautious optimism.  Sessions has called pot "a danger" and has long opposed legalization. "Good people don't smoke marijuana," he said last year at a Senate hearing. In an infamous quote attributed to Sessions in the 1980s, while he was being considered for a federal district judge position, he said he thought the Ku Klux Klan "were OK until I found out they smoked pot." He later apologized and said he was joking.  But the conservative Republican senator from Alabama is also a proponent of states' rights, and more than half of the states in the U.S. have legalized some form of cannabis, despite federal laws prohibiting its sale and consumption.  In his hearing, Sessions said he wouldn't "commit to never enforcing federal law" but added that "absolutely it's a problem of resources for the federal government." Recently, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration told Bloomberg that, given the growing opioid crisis, agents can't dedicate resources to monitor or curtail the distribution and use of cannabidiol products, which are technically controlled substances.  "It is notable that Sen. Sessions chose not to commit to vigorously enforcing federal prohibition laws in states that have reformed their marijuana laws," Robert Capecchi, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, a cannabis legalization lobbying organization, said in an emailed statement. "He also recognized that enforcing federal marijuana laws would be dependent upon the availability of resources, the scarcity of which poses a problem. He was given the opportunity to take an extreme prohibitionist approach, and he passed on it." Troy Dayton, co-founder of the Arcview Group, an Oakland, Calif.-based cannabis industry investment firm, went further, saying by email that the senator "left the door open but indicated it would be a low priority. That's a huge victory considering [Sessions'] previous inflammatory statements about this topic." Dayton said Sessions "may be against marijuana policy reform, but he is not stupid. He knows that these cannabis laws are hugely popular, not just among Americans in red and blue states, but with his boss who campaigned in favor of these laws."  While his responses, on their face, were hardly a coup for the cannabis industry, Sessions didn't morally condemn pot smokers either.  "The United States Congress has made the possession of marijuana in every state, and distribution of it, an illegal act," he testified. "If that ... is not desired any longer, Congress should pass a law to change the rule."  The Drug Policy Alliance, an organization opposed to the war on drugs, called the testimony "wishy-washy at best." The group's senior director of national affairs, Bill Piper, added: "It is clear that he was too afraid to say the ‘reefer madness’ things he said just a year ago, and that’s progress. But he made it clear throughout the hearing that he will enforce federal law." The National Cannabis Industry Association supported Sessions' deferral to Congress. "It's time for federal lawmakers to represent the clear choices of their constituents," Executive Director Aaron Smith said in an emailed statement. "The responsible cannabis industry has helped countless critically ill patients, contributed billions of dollars to the economy and to tax coffers, taken marijuana out of the criminal market and put it behind a regulated counter, and dealt a significant blow to international cartels and traffickers." Sessions' remarks on pot aren't far off from what Attorney General Loretta Lynch—who hasn't pursued litigation against states that legalized cannabis consumption—said during her confirmation hearing in 2015. "It certainly would be my policy, if confirmed as attorney general, to continue enforcing the marijuana laws, particularly with respect to the money laundering aspect of it," she said when questioned by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "Where we see the evidence that marijuana, as I've noticed in cases in my own district, brings with it not only organized crime activity but great levels of violence." Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-12/pot-industry-exhales-a-little-after-trump-s-attorney-general-pick-testifies