THE ESPORTS REVOLUTION
As eSports continues its huge commercial growth, the need for legal specialists is sure to grow with it. A clear example of this rapid growth is the inclusion of eSports as a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games. Lawyers working within eSports will need to be familiar with traditional sports law issues, such as player agreements, team sponsorship and good governance systems (growth and commercialisation brings increased risk of match-fixing and doping, for example).
In addition to these traditional areas of work, eSports brings with it some unique legal challenges. For example: the way the young audience consumes the content –predominantly via streaming platforms such as Twitch – and the complex relationships between publishers of the games (who own the IP in the game), eSports event owners and the growing number of professional eSports teams.
With a young growing audience projected to reach 335 million in 2017, we expect a trend for specialised lawyers, in both private practice and in-house within eSports organisations, to rise significantly over the next five years.
SHARING THE SPOILS
Joint bids for major sporting events are not an entirely new trend. Think back to the 2000 Uefa European Championship, hosted by The Netherlands and Belgium, and the 2002 Fifa World Cup, hosted by Japan and South Korea. However, as the cost of hosting major events continues to spiral and public backlash becomes more commonplace, we expect more event owners to embrace this model. Indeed, the multi-host approach has been adopted by Uefa for the 2020 European Championship (13 host cities spread around Europe rather than a single host country) and Fiba has shown it is open to multi-host bids for the next edition of its flagship event.
The model does pose a number of interesting questions for sports lawyers. Rights holders need to think carefully about how to put in place legal protections which operate efficiently across geographical and political borders, enforceable public sector guarantees, registering and protecting intellectual property across multiple jurisdictions and aligning multiple regulatory systems, such as the consumption of alcohol in venues and prohibition of certain categories of sponsorship.
GOVERNANCE, IN NEED OF REVIEW
Integrity and good governance must be a high priority for all sporting organisations. There have been numerous high-profile examples of how poor governance within some of sport’s biggest rights holders has resulted in damaged reputation and an erosion of the public’s trust.
The introduction by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) of a compliance certification system based on control mechanisms, democracy, development, integrity and transparency has underlined the need for all sporting entities to ensure adequate internal procedures are implemented, monitored and regularly updated. Similarly, the UK’s Governance Code has now been adopted, applying to all sports bodies who receive public funding.
Investigations and reviews naturally flow when poor governance has been exposed. This is an area where we see sports lawyers taking a lead role over the next five years, using their skills and industry knowledge to improve the structure of investigations and to ensure that decisions are appropriate and implementable and that recommendations are converted into policy.
BREXIT MEANS…?
Almost every aspect of the law in the UK will be touched by Brexit and sports law is no exception. The true extent of the impact will not be known until the Brexit negotiations are concluded but sports lawyers will be paying especially close attention to the outcome of negotiations concerning the free movement of people.
Any loss of the free movement of people will be of major concern to a number of sporting leagues who wish to recruit the best European talent (without needing a work permit) to satisfy the appetite of fans, sponsors and broadcasters who have become accustomed (particularly after the 1995 Bosman ruling) to English sporting leagues being liberally sprinkled with talent.
Research released by the BBC in relation to England’s Premier League and Championship and the Scottish Premiership has shown that 322 players would not meet the current foreign player criteria if they were to be imposed on EU/EEA players. Some may argue that this will improve the fortunes of the national game but rights holders will be concerned about the knock-on effects to the commercialisation of sport in the UK through broadcast and sponsorship revenue.
BROADCAST SHAKE-UP
One only needs to look at the figures paid by Sky Sports and BT Sport for rights to the EPL to realise that traditional long form broadcasting deals are far from dead. However, the way we are consuming sport is changing and this is exhibited by decreased viewing figures. Many consumers now wish to ‘snack’ on sport rather than sit down for a full 90-minute meal, this trend is sure to increase over the next five years.
Sports lawyers will need to advise on media rights strategies with some new faces and technologies at the table. Social media is starting to take a real interest in sport and rights holders will be need to carefully balance their media rights between social and traditional platforms. Sports lawyers will also need to sit down with their counterparts in the music industry as they attempt to protect their client’s intellectual property from being pirated around the world.
