eSports Law

Intellectual property is an essential component of eSports. Copyright law protects live broadcasts thus requiring players and other parties to get permission to broadcast games publicly. For licensing rights, it is important to clarify the scope of rights. For example, in a live tournament, there may be multiple parties involved in the event, including the players, teams, commentators, organizers and others. Licensing agreements must be carefully drafted to ensure rights holders are compensated, while licensees are able to maximize revenue potential from games.

Trademark law may also apply. As those involved in eSports become well-known, they are more likely to seek trademark protection to ensure no one else can exploit their name or brand.

Legal advice is necessary to help brands and players protect and leverage their reputation and publicity rights. Video gamers want to benefit from their large following for additional revenue from third parties, but brands want to ensure they will not become associated with objectionable conduct or statements. Endorsement deals, where a brand pays for the right to use a player’s name, image or likeness in advertising, can be lucrative. However, there are many issues that players, teams and advertisers should negotiate.

The rights of players in traditional sports are well-established. In eSports, it is more complicated. Players may be considered “employees” or “independent contractors.” The difference implicates various labor and employment laws so teams must be careful when categorizing players. However, even where players are deemed employees, they have less bargaining power, which may lead to unbalanced employment contracts. Furthermore, they are not unionized and often do not have agents like players in other sports, so they do not have an organization representing their interests. As such, players should consult an attorney prior to signing a contract for advice on getting the best terms.

Betting is a lucrative source of revenue in most sports. However, there are fewer commercial gambling operators in eSports at present. As it expands, it is likely to face the same legal rules and scrutiny that traditional sports betting receives. An added wrinkle is that many eSports teams are based in other countries and tournaments may be conducted around the world, raising issues with international gambling laws.

As with traditional sports, cheating is a problem in eSports and all parties must comply with rules or risk serious consequences, including fines, automatic forfeit, bans and prosecution. Game boosting is one form of cheating which involves a party paying someone else to play incognito on their behalf in order to boost their rank. Typically, the party being paid is a professional player. In some countries, there are stiff legal penalties.