It all started with an AMA hosted by an esports attorney by the name of Andre J. Castillo. He’s an esports attorney for a large esports event hosting organization by the name of Matcherino. They’ve helped coordinate over 8,000 events around the esports industry and continue to do more! You can read more about Andre and what he writes about here on the Matcherino blog.
As far as the AMA goes, we asked a question about what the parallels were between the esports industry and traditional sports industry, here’s what an expert like him had to say.
I’ve actually worked with traditional sports teams and leagues and I have to say, in my experience at least, not really. It certainly depends on what angle you are viewing it from and who you are representing. I imagine there is probably a lot of overlap for the owner of the esports arena and the owner of a football stadium.
But outside of that, it’s really quite a different experience. For labor law, traditional sports are collectively bargained and have unions, which isn’t the case in esports. Esports also have a huge tech component that isn’t as pervasive in traditional sports. Streaming (Twitch, YouTube), content creation and how it overlaps with pro players, video game publishers, tech platforms like Matcherino, etc. are a very different animal in esports in my experience.
Some of the same elements are there — ticketing services, merchandise and licensing, streaming rights, brand sponsorship — but in practice it is very different and the actual means by which esports are conducted, which are competitions generally open to the public with prize pools up for grab, couldn’t be more different than traditional sports, where you can’t just walk up and shoot free throws with LeBron James. This opens a lot of other issues, like gambling laws prohibiting certain esports events in certain states and countries, and the issues of random players committing acts of violence like in Jacksonville, which is more of an issue for events that are open to public competition than they would be in say the NFL, where you might see that for an attendee but really never from a player.
That provides for a very different legal environment, though a very interesting one for sure.
EDIT: One thing that working in esports reminds me of, more so than my time working with traditional major sports teams and leagues, is what I’ve read about the early days of the NBA and other leagues when they were new. Things like team/player/brand fluidity, players sometimes not getting paid, working in multiple jobs/leagues, broadcast deals that were all over the place, etc. There’s a lot of that in esports than in the established leagues, which tend to operate more like any large corporation would.
Andre J. Castillo
Tech is a Major Factor
It’s interesting to know that a big emphasis on the difference between esports and traditional sports is the technology behind it. Of course, it makes sense that there needs to be huge efforts in terms of advancing technology not only for the machines used for playing but also for the broadcasting side of things. Andre mentioned streaming with platforms such as Twitch or Youtube and we couldn’t agree more! Without this technology in place, esports probably wouldn’t even be the way it is today, it may just be gaming as a hobby and nothing more, just like how it was a decade ago.
There are a lot More Parallels than You Think
Andre lists many parallels between the esports industry as a business and the traditional sports industry as a business too! It’s quite surprising how similar each industry is, however he does point out that the way it’s handled is very different. Especially the whole prize winnings side of things. These nuances in the esports industry call for different laws and practices as a whole in order to regulate but ultimately keep everyone safe from undesired situations that may arise.
It’s quite interesting as you dive deeper into the law of esports. If you’re interested in learning more about how law is practiced in the esports industry, maybe we should have Andre come on board and write some very in-depth pieces, let us know if that’s what you’d like by commenting down below. We might be able to bring him on board for a few posts for everyone at Esports Mention.
