Based on my last posts on influencers and social media, as well as the identification of advertising posts and the like, I would like to briefly remind you today that the underlying legal questions and court decisions, almost without exception also esport teams. If an esport team finances itself through one or more sponsors, this must be disclosed if advertising or social media reach has been promised in return or, in the best case, contractually guaranteed.

This applies to news on your own website as well as posts on Twitter, Facebook or videos. It must always be clear that a sponsor has paid money for a publication. So if you tagged the team’s sponsor on Twitter, this post can be identified as a promotional post. The same applies, of course, or even straight and especially, to branding advertisements by sponsors on things like jerseys, on their own homepage, in streams and the like. Unless it is absolutely clear that this is paid advertising, this must be marked separately.

Since sponsorship is the only comprehensive way to finance your own team and esports sponsorship continues to grow,potential competitors and/or consumer protection associations should soon also look at this area. There are currently numerous warnings and legal proceedings, although I am not yet aware of any proceedings with an esport team, which are mainly located in the field of Instagram and YouTube.

It is therefore highly advisable that many situations are particularly examined. These include sponsored tournaments, events, sweepstakes, video streams, mentions in the live streams, tagging in the description texts of YouTube videos, and all those areas where you might not know at first glance whether you’re an organizer or a team benefits financially from a branding or not. The legal issues are complex, very changing and a violation can quickly become expensive due to the possible claims for damages. In addition, however, a professional approach to this matter, in my experience, has a positive effect on sponsors.

I am happy to answer any further questions and can also help regularly or thoroughly check a sponsorship contract.

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.