All posts tagged: MrBeast

MrBeast’s ’Beast Games’ Voluntarily Recognizes IATSE Union

MrBeast’s ’Beast Games’ Voluntarily Recognizes IATSE Union

Published by Daniella Wilson

MrBeast, the YouTube superstar known for his challenge videos, has a new trial on his hands: negotiating a union contract with IATSE. The YouTuber’s Amazon Prime Video competition show Beast Games has voluntarily recognized an IATSE union and is negotiating a labor contract, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Negotiations are taking place after a group of crew members on the set of the show’s third season began organizing with the crew union. Filming is primarily taking place in the hometown of Mr Beast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson: Greenville, North Carolina. Beast Games, a spectacle of over-the-top competition, offers 1,000 contestants the chance to win a $5 million prize with other high-value prizes being doled out in the process. THR has reached out to MrBeast and Prime Video for comment. The unionizing push is a high-visibility one for IATSE, which has sought to adapt to a changing entertainment landscape by targeting YouTube and new media content, video games and visual-effects work for organizing. While Beast Games is in effect a traditional competition show produced …

New Lawsuit Is Not Looking Good for MrBeast

New Lawsuit Is Not Looking Good for MrBeast

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech YouTube personality Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson has continuously made headlines for questionable “Squid Game”-like viral videos, from challenging a stuntman to risk their life inside a burning house to Stanford Prison Experiment-esque challenges. Beyond morally dubious stunts, the allegations against Donaldson and his media empire, Beast Industries, continue to rack up, from claims of philanthropy fraud to allegations of racist remarks and “inappropriate sexual comments to minors.” Most recently, Lorrayne Mavromatis, who worked as a Beast Industries executive between 2022 and 2025, has filed a lawsuit against her former employer, alleging sexual harassment and workplace gender bias. She claims she was fired shortly after filing workplace complaints, within three weeks of returning from maternity leave. “It felt surreal to get the opportunity to work there,” she told the New York Times. “But it didn’t really take long for me to see that things were not exactly how I saw them from the outside.” The details, as laid out in …

MrBeast sued over claims of sexual harassment and firing a new mom

MrBeast sued over claims of sexual harassment and firing a new mom

Published by Sam Flores

A former female staffer who worked for Beast Industries, the media venture behind the popular YouTube channel MrBeast, is suing the company, alleging she was sexually harassed and fired shortly after she returned from maternity leave. The employee, Lorrayne Mavromatis, a Brazilian-born social media professional, alleges in a lawsuit she was subjected to sexual harassment by the company’s management and demoted after she complained about her treatment. She said she was urged to join a conference call while in labor and expected to work during her maternity leave in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act, according to the federal complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. “This clout-chasing complaint is built on deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements, and we have the receipts to prove it. There is extensive evidence — including Slack and WhatsApp messages, company documents, and witness testimony — that unequivocally refutes her claims. We will not submit to opportunistic lawyers looking to manufacture a payday from us,” Gaude Paez, a Beast …

Kalshi accuses MrBeast video editor of insider trading

Kalshi accuses MrBeast video editor of insider trading

Published by Sam Flores

An editor for the popular YouTube creator MrBeast has been fined and suspended by prediction market platform Kalshi over suspected insider trading.  The company’s disciplinary committee found that Artem Kaptur violated its policies when Kaptur placed bets in August and September related to the YouTube channel where he worked.  “Specifically, the Committee found reasonable cause… Source link

MrBeast Editor Accused of Insider Trading on Kalshi

MrBeast Editor Accused of Insider Trading on Kalshi

Published by Daniella Wilson

An editor for MrBeast has been referred to federal regulators for allegedly making insider bets on prediction market Kalshi. The company announced on Wednesday that Artem Kaptur, the MrBeast employee, traded roughly $4,000 on markets related to Jimmy Donaldson’s videos. He had “near-perfect trading success” on bets with low odds by leveraging access to nonpublic information, Kalshi said. The disclosure of the investigation’s results — a first for the company — comes amid prediction markets looking to gain a foothold in Hollywood. It’s largely viewed as an untapped source of monetization to drive engagement, and dealmakers are happy to take the money. The Golden Globes became the first program this year to feature real-time odds for each award when it partnered with Polymarket. “By pairing cultural debate with market-based probabilities, we’re giving fans a new, more interactive way to follow the show as it unfolds,” said Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan in a statement. Wagers on MrBeast are among several obscure bets people can make on the platform. They include what Donaldson will say …

Kalshi accuses MrBeast editor of insider trading : NPR

Kalshi accuses MrBeast editor of insider trading : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

An editor who worked for YouTube creator MrBeast, whose legal name is James Donaldson, has been suspended by Kalshi after the platform says the editor traded on insider information. Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press hide caption toggle caption Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press An editor who works for YouTube’s biggest creator, MrBeast, has been suspended from the prediction market platform Kalshi and reported to federal regulators for insider trading, Kalshi officials said on Wednesday. It’s the first time the company has publicly revealed the results of an investigation into market manipulation on the popular app. The MrBeast employee, who Kalshi identified as Artem Kaptur in regulatory filings, traded around $4,000 on markets related to the streamer, the company said. Kalshi investigators discovered that Kaptur had “near-perfect trading success” on bets about the YouTuber’s videos with low odds, making the wagers appear suspicious, according to company officials. Many people place wagers about MrBeast on Kalshi. People bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on what he will say in his next video. There are markets on the number of subscribers he …

Can the creator economy stay afloat in a flood of AI slop?

Can the creator economy stay afloat in a flood of AI slop?

Published by skeptic

Online creators and their business models were on our mind this week after mega-popular YouTuber MrBeast announced that his company is buying fintech startup Step, followed by Hollywood studios sending a flurry of cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance over the launch of its new video generation model Seedance 2.0. Those seemingly unconnected headlines suggest a media landscape in the midst of transformative change, as popular YouTubers look to diversify their business models, with the threat and promise of increasingly powerful generative AI tools on the horizon. On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan, and I debated what’s next for the creator economy, and whether there will be any room for the next generation of creators to stand out. “What’s the next saturation point?” Kirsten wondered. “Not all of these folks can go out and spin off products. So then does the pool of successful creators just simply get smaller? Or will something else happen, technologically speaking, or a different medium that will allow them to find an audience to make money …

MrBeast Buys Gen Z Bank Just Weeks After BitMine’s 0M Bet

MrBeast Buys Gen Z Bank Just Weeks After BitMine’s $200M Bet

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Brayden Lindrea via CoinTelegraph.com, Beast Industries, the entertainment company founded by YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, is acquiring Step, a mobile banking app focused on teenagers and young adults, marking its most significant push into finance to date. In a post to X on Monday, Donaldson said the motivation behind the acquisition was to equip young people with the tools and guidance needed to navigate personal finance from an early age. Source: MrBeast Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold said, “Financial health is fundamental to overall wellbeing, yet too many people lack access to the tools and knowledge they need to build financial security.” The acquisition cost was not disclosed. The YouTube channel’s expansion into finance comes after it received a $200 million investment from Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies in January and a separate trademark filing for “MrBeast Financial” in October. That trademark filing mentioned “cryptocurrency exchange services,” “cryptocurrency payment processing,” and “cryptocurrency via decentralized exchanges.” However, it isn’t clear whether that trademark filing is related to the Step acquisition. Cointelegraph reached out to Beast Industries for comment, but didn’t receive …

MrBeast’s company buys Gen Z-focused fintech app Step

MrBeast’s company buys Gen Z-focused fintech app Step

Published by skeptic

YouTube megastar MrBeast announced on Monday that his company, Beast Industries, is buying Step, a teen-focused banking app. Step, which raised half a billion in funding and has grown to over 7 million users, offers financial services geared toward Gen Z to help them build credit, save money, and invest. The company has attracted celebrity investors like Charli D’Amelio, Will Smith, The Chainsmokers, and Stephen Curry, in addition to venture firms like General Catalyst, Coatue, and the payments company Stripe. If the company wants to continue getting its fintech product in front of young eyes, then partnering with Gen Z phenom MrBeast is wise. MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is the most-subscribed creator on YouTube, with over 466 million subscribers, but his ambitions stretch beyond his over-the-top videos. “Nobody taught me about investing, building credit, or managing money when I was growing up,” the 27-year-old said. “I want to give millions of young people the financial foundation I never had.” I’m so excited to share that we are acquiring the financial services app, …