The second season of Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League (OWL) is in its initial stages, with the biggest news being the addition of eight new franchises. With regard to the ties of their parent organizations and investors, two of these new teams carry the potential for conflicts of interest.

Close Business Ties

The potential issue is simple: Blizzard has awarded two additional OWL slots to businesses that it has existing business ties with. The first to be granted such, Netease’s Shanghai Dragons , were selected by Blizzard prior to the first season. Netease is also Blizzard’s main licensing partner for China. The Esports Observer explored the complications of this decision back when the league was first starting up. “Now, two more teams have indirect business ties to the league’s organizer.”

The first is Huya, a Chinese livestreaming company similar to Twitch. Huya streams a number of high-profile events such as the Overwatch League. Earlier this year, the streaming company closed its Series B financing round with a $461.6M, led by Chinese technology giant, Tencent. Though the platform is currently owned by parent company YY, part of the round’s stipulations included future opportunities for Tencent to achieve a 50.1% ownership stake. Huya further tied itself to Tencent with a strategic partnership signed over the summer.

The second company is Bilibili, a video sharing company also operating in China. Shortly after being awarded a spot into the OWL, Bilibili entered into a share purchase agreement with Tencent equaling $317.6M. Notably, Bilibili also operates an active League of Legends team that is currently competing in China’s League of Legends Pro League, which is also owned and operated by Tencent Holdings.

Related Article: Final Chinese Overwatch League Expansion Team Named Hangzhou Spark

Both Huya and Bilibili’s ties to Tencent harbor potential conflicts of interest, as they share a common minority owner and, consequently, a common economic interest that implies the potential of decisions made based on business interests rather than based on competitive interests. Furthermore, Tencent has an active investment in Activision Blizzard, the parent company of the OWL organizer, Blizzard Entertainment. Tencent and Blizzard have been operating together since 2013, when the Chinese company helped Activision Blizzard repurchase shares from then-owner Vivendi. Today, those shares amount to an ownership stake of nearly 5%, worth approximately $2.5 billion.

Conflicts of Interest in Esports and the OWL

To recap, the organizer of the Overwatch League (Blizzard) and two individual franchises within the league (Huya and Bilibili) all share a common stakeholder (Tencent Holdings). Another franchise (Netease) publishes the game in partnership with the game developer (also Blizzard).

Conflicts of interest in this environment can cast doubt on the validity of outcomes or choices made by those in charge, which in turn can cause harm to the league’s stakeholders such as teams, sponsors, and the organizer itself.

For example, Blizzard’s business ties to the companies that run teams in the OWL could be perceived (whether or not that perception is real or imaginary) in a negative way because someone could argue that “teams are being picked to join in based on those financial connections.” In another hypothetical situation, a team competing against one of these Blizzard-aligned teams could lose because of a questionable call that isn’t clear cut. It is in this type of contentious scenario where the team hurt by such a call might claim it was ruled against unfavorably because Blizzard has ties to the other team.

On the other hand, Blizzard may (or could, in the future) have a system in place to keep this from happening, using neutral third-parties to handle things like team selection or officiating matches. The Esports Observer reached out to Blizzard for comment on any such system but received no response by time of publication.