*By Jacqueline Corba*
Video games and esports are front and center at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week, and they've caught the eye of entrepreneur and digital advertising exec Gary Vaynerchuk.
"I have been lurking in the grass, as they say," VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk told Cheddar CEO Jon Steinberg in an interview Monday, alluding to the uber-popular game Fortnite.
The title dominated conversation at last week's E3, and the broader video game industry is looking to capitalize off that interest at Cannes Lions.
Interactive entertainment company Activision Blizzard [positioned its tent](https://twitter.com/jonsteinberg/status/1008380696052846592) front and center at the festival, an apparent effort to lure more advertisers to the industry.
And Vaynerchuk sees the appeal. He told Cheddar he plans to have 40 of the top 500 players on Twitch's game streaming platform come to his office in three weeks for a jam session.
"I have an enormous Twitch studio right outside my office. I speak to Ninja once a week, if not four times a week," said Vaynerchuck.
Ninja, whose real name is Tyler Blevins, is one of the biggest celebrities in the gaming world, with 8.5 million Twitch followers. In an interview from E3, the Fortnite champion told Cheddar's Alyssa Julya Smith he thinks the game is ready to take the eSports stage.
"They are just consistently updating and upgrading it," [said Ninja.](https://cheddar.com/videos/ninja-on-fortnites-future-in-esports) "No one really does that."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/gary-vaynerchuk-launches-one37pm-brand).
Mark MacDougall, attorney and former prosecutor with the criminal division of the Department of Justice, joined Cheddar to discuss the fraud conviction of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. MacDougall addressed Holmes' stance that what she did was no different than any other Silicon Valley startup's approach to business and how this will shake out for the industry going forward. "I can't imagine it doesn't have some salutary effect on entrepreneurs and people involved in new ventures going forward," he said. Holmes was found guilty on 4 of 11 counts, with each carrying a maximum of 20 years in prison, but MacDougall explained that the lengthy prison sentences were unlikely.
Sports betting is going mainstream in the United States. Dozens of states have legalized it, California is set to do the same this year. Arizona, which legalized sports betting in September, set new national records for gambling in its first months. Daniel Graetzer, CEO of Maximbet, joins Cheddar News to discuss what's next for the booming industry.
A new report from ProPublica and the Washington Post found that Facebook Groups played a major role in the spread of misinformation linked to the January 6 insurrection with more than 650,000 posts claiming that Joe Biden's election victory was illegitimate.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Dr. Anita Gupta, Adjunct assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, shares her forecast for the healthcare industry in 2022; Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, breaks down the latest progress, trends, and innovations in wearable health tech; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Hacking our Biome.'
Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down the latest progress, trends, and innovations in wearable health tech.
Ford is accelerating production of its highly anticipated electric F-150 Lightning with an expectation to pump out 150,000 vehicles annually to meet surging demand. Kumar Galhotra, Ford president of the Americas and international markets group, joined Cheddar to detail the plan to get more customers behind the wheel and to become the top of the competition in the electric vehicle space. "Within the next 24 months, we will have capacity, globally, to deliver 600,000 battery-electric vehicles per year," he said.
CES, the largest tech convention in the world, kicks off this Wednesday ending on Friday, one day earlier than originally planned. The annual event features more than 2,000 exhibitors showing off their latest tech products in Las Vegas. Richard Lawler, Senior News Editor, The Verge joined Wake Up with Cheddar to preview the large event.
Amazon employees and activists staged a worldwide strike today--calling on the tech giant to raise wages, pay more taxes and reduce its carbon footprint. The 'Make Amazon Pay' protests took place at factories, warehouses, data centers and corporate offices all around the world. Ian Sherr, Editor at Large, The Verge, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
