Esports

Our award-winning esports practice has extensive experience in advising major games publishers, governing bodies, sponsors, league/event organisers, teams, and service providers on a wide range of issues. We were one of the first law firms to engage in esports law, built on our unique pedigree in sports, media, gaming and technology, and we are truly passionate about helping the industry to continue to thrive.

We assist our clients in achieving the following key aims and objectives, among others:

• securing maximum value and security in key revenue-generating areas, particularly in sponsorship, broadcasting, and merchandising;
• ensuring that competitions are properly and effectively regulated, including the drafting of constitutional and regulatory documentation, including anti-doping and anti-corruption rules;
• managing esports talent, whether through player contracts or image rights exploitation;
• staging competitions, including everything from event hosting and platform agreements through to assisting in the design of commercial rights programmes;
• identifying and addressing gambling regulatory risks, which is a particular concern for platform operators and rights-holders;
• protecting the brands of rights-holders;
• ensuring the safety and security of participants and fans through appropriate safeguarding measures; and
• engaging with fans and customers, whether through advertising regulatory advice and copy clearance or assisting with e-commerce matters.

Case Studies

Intergalactic Gaming: We’ve been working with this start-up platform on a range of issues - from drafting its rules and regulations, sponsorship and player contracts, and privacy policy, to advising on how they integrate blockchain technology into their platform.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Three of our international offices advised Wolverhampton Wanderers on its player contracts and related issues concerning its landmark expansion into Rocket League.

Riot Games: We’ve been working with Riot Games for a number of years on a wide range of matters. We manage Riot’s intellectual property portfolio across Asia Pacific and on the enforcement of their intellectual property rights. We also acted for Riot on their groundbreaking partnership with Nike in relation to the professional League of Legends league in China, a deal which showcased our ability to apply best in class sports sponsorship, merchandising and licensing experience to esports. 

(Hungarian) National Gaming and Esports Federation: We provide full legal and business advice to the (Hungarian) National Gaming and Esports Federation by preparing regulations of the federation to regulate esports as a sport and industry in Hungary including regulations on the status, registration and transfer of players; the general rules of competitions; the exploitation of sports rights; the organisational requirements of tournaments data protection; disciplinary proceedings; anti-doping regulations; ethics code and child protection, especially rules on integrity issues (gambling, match-fixing and other forms of corruption) and safeguarding of players; as well as specific tournament rules varying game by game. In addition, we have provided advice on the actual organisation of esports tournaments, exploitation of rights, agreements with rights holders and platform service providers, relations with state bodies as well as the admission to an international esports federations. The project is unique since the federation is based on the classic pyramid structure of traditional sports federations but at the same time, the regulations also incorporate the specifics of the esports industry, i.e. making it possible to accommodate different games. To the best of our knowledge there is no other esports entity, based on the classic pyramid structure of traditional sports federation, with such a complex and comprehensive set of regulations in the world. For this project our firm won the Wolters Kluwer Legal Award "Team of the year 2019 in the category of compliance" for the advice provided on the setting up the regulatory framework for and the institutionalization of esports as sport in Hungary.

Key Contacts

Will Deller, Alex Norman, Peter Rippel-Szabo, David Bintliff