As an esportsman only with a lawyer?

Last week the Esport-Recht event took place at the University of Augsburg and we discussed a lot of interesting topics, which I will also work on in some articles in the next few days.

Fittingly, a dispute between the player Tfue and the team FaZe is escalating in the USA. More news here.

Even if the legal situation can only be transferred to the German legal situation to a very limited extent, a statement is certainly correct.

This situation with Tfue shows again that players and influencers should ALWAYS have someone on their side when negotiating. There are people who can help. Get informed representation. @Morrison, @esportslaw, @N3RDFUSION, etc. https://t.co/N1DRwiKRrf

— Devin (@DevinNash) 20 May 2019

The colleague from vfL Wolfsburg also writes about this

And just over 72 hours later, the e-sports bomb bursts on the other side of the pond… https://t.co/Bb9tYewPhP Only if anyone had any doubts that it is necessary to deal with e-sports in legal terms #lasttweet

— Thomas Krumrey (@thomkey22) 20 May 2019

While the US jurisdiction regarding the representation of players by teams in the EU is not present, the player Tfue should also consider why he has signed a contract with only 20 participations in the first place. The fact is, however, that many players are often – at least at the beginning – entrepreneurially inexperienced.

Therefore, when it comes to professional esport, you should always have a consultant/lawyer at your side who can read contracts, but also someone who can give valuable business advice and have negotiating skills. In more than 20 years of being an entrepreneur and at 12 years of age as a lawyer, I have worked all three points, and also with rainfall. If you save at the beginning, you will regret it later. There are simply far too many such bad contracts in esport and litigation will increase massively in the next few years. I currently have two cases on the table, still unfinished.

The same applies to esport teams, by the way. As I have written many times before, many esport teams do not know what legal and entrepreneurial risks they can take. This can be helped and I am always ready for conversation, also regarding my fees, when I notice that a team really does seriously and really wants to achieve something in professional esport.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.