VIE.gg has announced it is partnering up with Epsilon Esports to raise money for charities through P2P esports betting between fans and three Epsilon CS:GO players.
The three Epsilon players participating include Teodor “SPELLAN” Nikolov, Kia “Surreal” Man, and Nils “k1to” Gruhne. Each player has chosen an individual charity to support, with Surreal choosing to donate his winnings to Cancer Research UK and k1to picking Holidays From Cancer.
Elsewhere, SPELLAN has chosen Teach For Bulgaria, “I will donate my winnings from VIE.gg to Teach For Bulgaria because I know that life in Bulgaria is really hard for some children that deserve a better life. I feel very proud and happy that I am able to help them through my esports play.”
Several times per week, each of the Epsilon players will place a bet of their choosing on a team that they think will win. The players will then post notification of the bet to Twitter, along with the hashtag “#VIEcares” and challenge their followers to match the bet. Fans that sign up through this promotion will be given a free bet on VIE for up to 20 euros. At the end of May, all total winnings will be tallied and audited, with final donations being made to each charity.
Vie.gg is a member of the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) and, whilst CS:GO professionals are usually prohibited from betting on CS:GO by the ESIC Anti-Corruption Code, this promotion has been approved by ESIC and the players are cleared to bet on CS:GO only on Vie.gg during this promotion and only for their chosen charities.
“This is a fantastic initiative between VIE.gg and our players, and we are extremely proud to take part in helping to make the world a better place. The trio, K1to, Surreal and SPELLAN have chosen to donate their winnings to worthy charities that have important meaning to each of them and I know they look forward with great excitement to challenging esports fans.” said, Gregory Champagne, Chief Executive Officer at Epsilon Esports.
Brian Cordry, Head of Esports at VIE.gg, added, “It’s a pleasure to get to work directly with players that genuinely want to make a difference using our website. Each of these guys coming up with a charity that they want to support shows that they care about giving back to both the local and online communities. I’m excited to see how much money the guys can raise for their great charitable causes.”
Esports Insider says: A charity initiative is always welcome. Considering the stigma often attached to betting companies, it’s good to see VIE.gg activating in a different way to hopefully contribute some good money to charities close to each respective players’ heart.