Daniel A. Spitze is a German lawyer and avid gamer. Together with Anna B. Baumann he founded eSyncd UG to promote esports and provide advice on business and legal aspects. He is involved with esports since the early days of CS and you can contact him via Twitter (@esportslegal) or email (daniel.spitze@esyncd.com).

For many people, esports is not a mere hobby anymore. Rather, it is their profession. Players have to work hard to be on top. It requires a lot of discipline, dedication and desire (a fact already known in the early days, not necessarily in this particular order). Players are aware of these requirements of their job but their awareness of corresponding business matters is not as big. They are often young adults with limited experience and interest in such matters. This is understandable but also problematic. As with any other job, it is not only important to be good at it, but taking care of the surroundings—such as having valid agreements, knowing your rights and obligations, having security regarding the future etc.—is just as vital. Sadly, besides the utmost basic issues (like salary), many important details are disregarded. As usual, the devil is in the details, and part of having a job is to take care of those details.

You are your best advocate

As a lawyer, my next advice is obvious: Get professionals involved to help. No matter whether you follow this advice or not, it is even more important that you are involved. Advertisements like “you play, we take care of the business” sound tempting. It is convenient to let somebody else handle the boring part. I strongly recommend not to take this approach. Nobody knows as well as you what you want, what is important for you, how you want to handle things, and what you need. Moreover, ultimately this is your job and when problems occur you will be firstly and most directly affected. “Somebody else handled it” is not a valid excuse. Relying on others in business matters is exactly what got Nicolas Cage and Wesley Snipes into trouble or, to give an esports-related example, Emil “HeatoN” Christensen. Choosing an advisor/business partner that you can really trust is good advice. I bet it also is what the aforementioned three thought they did. Furthermore, in my experience, the most fruitful and most successful client relationships are the ones with actively-involved clients. What the advisor deems most beneficial might neither be ideal nor exactly what the client wants.

In a nutshell, regardless of whether you have an advisor by your side or not, read your contracts and think about them. None of this requires you to be a lawyer or to have deep experience with contract drafting, negotiations or business matters. It, however, requires you to get involved, to pay attention, and to think. Keep in mind:

A good contract is drafted so that it is understandable for non-lawyers. Complicated clauses are rarely unavoidable. As a rule of thumb, if the underlying issue is not complicated, there is no reason for complicated wording. Even if the underlying issue is complicated, normally the clause can be drafted understandably.

Should you come across a clause that you do not understand, ask about it. What does it mean, why is it in the contract and why does it deal with the issue in that way? “Sounds complicated, must be right” is wrong. Don’t be afraid to ask. Yes, there are dumb questions but it is better to ask a dumb question than not to ask an intelligent one. Moreover, you certainly should know the answers to dumb questions in any case. Whoever drafted the contract was doing his job and it also is his job to answer questions. Should that person be able to explain the meaning in simple words, chances are these words can be used in the contract. Legal mumbo-jumbo might sound smart, but it usually is not required.

When you read a clause, think about its meaning and how it would transfer into the “real world”. For example, I came across a clause which stated that if a trip to an event is booked, a player has to cancel with two weeks’ notice or he has to pay the costs. Fair enough, but what happens if the player becomes sick the day before? No chance of a two week notice. Since it is impossible to comply, one could argue that by interpretation the notice period is not applicable and the player only has to gives notice without undue delay. A reasonable outcome, isn’t it? So, thanks to common sense, there is no reason for a more specific clause. Well, let me argue the other way around. The player might not be responsible for becoming sick, but neither is the organization that booked the trip. So, one could ask in whose “sphere” the reason for cancellation lies. Even without being responsible for being sick, the reason for the cancellation comes from the player’s sphere. To clarify who bears the risk for “acts of god” would avoid headaches.

An example for this point is from the teams union’s list of demands. They stated that hotels should have at least four stars. Sounds good enough. Four stars hotels are usually comfortable. Obligation to provide decent accommodation—check. However, the list later on specifies that in case of six players traveling, it should be three rooms with two double-beds in each. Did you think of the possibility that an organizer could book a single room in a four stars hotel for six players?

As you see, the aforementioned points have nothing to do with law. These are practical questions. A good advisor will think of them, but no need to be a lawyer to do so. On the contrary, if the advisor lacks industry knowledge (which is not ideal but in particular with a young industry like ours it is not unlikely), they might even be a detriment. Some mistreatments that have happened (see e.g. Gaming Paradise) might be so outrageous that they are unthinkable unless you’ve experienced them first-hand.

Even clauses which address legal issues are worth your thoughts. For example, a clause determining exclusive jurisdiction of Swedish courts. It is a lawyer’s job to check whether such a clause is valid (e.g. under German law there are limits). But you do not have to be a lawyer to understand that this means that court proceedings would be in Swedish and take place in Sweden. Is that something you are fine with? If the contract does not state which courts are competent, it might be worth agreeing on it. Due to esports’ internationality, agreeing on arbitration instead of state courts might be something to think about.

Finally, if you agree on something or you think something is part of the deal, ensure that it is in the contract. Yes, usually oral agreements are binding as well, but you have the problem of proving what was agreed (and even without bad intentions, people might have differing recollections of what was agreed or a different understanding of it). A gentlemen’s agreement is nice and it is best to do business only with people that you can trust, but you might not always have that luxury. Moreover, there is no reason for a gentleman to deny the request to put something in writing.

So, even if you involve an advisor, don’t lean back and relax. Be active, be involved, think, ask, and comment. If you decide to handle things without one, this is even more important. Keep in mind that ultimately you are the person who is affected the most, so you should care the most. You are your best advocate.

You are your worst advocate

Wait this headline is directly contradicting my last sentence. So which is it? As lawyers like to say: It depends. You are your worst advocate when emotions get involved. When you are angry, feel betrayed, and really want to show who is boss and make a stand, chances are that you will not make the best choices. When something goes wrong, an outside perspective and advice from somebody not directly affected is invaluable. A famous divorce attorney was once confronted with the comment that when he got divorced he presumably acted in the smartest possible way. His reply was that on the contrary, he behaved as stupid as all of his clients. Nobody is above acting rashly when emotional, and people tend to get angry when the other party is breaking a contract.

Final words

Involve professionals from the beginning to prevent things from going wrong. Ultimately, it saves money. It is a big misunderstanding that a lawyer is somebody to call when something already went wrong. But enough advertisement. If you choose not to, at least involve another trustworthy person with more experience (such as your parents). And finally, no matter whether you follow this advice or not, be always actively involved and try to understand as much as possible of the business and legal aspects that come along with your job. It is beneficial for everyone, mostly for you.