What’s in a Game?

By Andrew Schauer

Andy is Owner & Principal of Law Office of Andrew Schauer. In addition to gaming and lawyering, Andrew is a baseball fanatic and stat-head who also enjoys golfing, skiing, and bicycling. He shares his life and his hobbies with his wife and their son. You connect with him on his website: http://aschaueresq.com.

As a former competitive player in the gaming community, my goal in this article is to advise attorneys who represent or want to represent competitive gamers or companies in the emerging esports field to elevate those competitors and their platforms to legitimacy and mainstream relevance through great contracts, branding deals, sponsorships, endorsements, and intellectual property law. This article will take the reader through the history of esports, the current status of the industry, and where it is headed to better understand how to best represent the gaming client.¹

It’s a high-stakes world with tens of millions of dollars at stake: Teams compete at the highest level for their shot at winning the world championship, which will be viewed by millions worldwide. An appearance in the championship game also guarantees a healthy seven-figure bonus on top of their seven-figure advertising and endorsement contracts. The individual players have big-ticket endorsement deals of their own, with sponsors giving players their branded training gear and (in some cases) even entire home training setups to use while the cameras are rolling and the audience is watching.