Originally this article was scheduled to be published on Friday, Nov. 13. Due to the terrorist attacks that struck Paris on that day, we decided to delay it until now. Our hearts go out to the victims and families of the attacks.

“Esports has a right to get out of juridic clandestinity,” said Axelle Lemaire, Secrétaire d’État (Secretary of State). In a project of law known as “Pour une République numérique,” the French government not only acknowledges the existence of competitions in video games, but also addresses topics like net neutrality, Open Data, rights to delete informations from the Internet, accessibility for the disabled and more. Most important to eSports, this law will differentiate eSports from betting, taking away concerns of future restrictions.

Esports’ mention in this law wasn’t a given from the start. Initially, the French government opened a website in which any citizens could propose new additions to the draft. Those propositions were then voted for or against and commented upon, just like you would do on Reddit. But the guidelines of the law didn’t include anything in terms of eSports at the start.

Last month, the Syndicat des Editeurs de Logiciels de Loisir (SELL), a French organisation that promotes the interests of video game developers, proposed an addition to this “numeric law,” aiming to officially differentiate eSports from betting. This addition received huge support, and had over 4,000 votes on it.



“Today, we enacted a political will. We want to assimilate video game competitions as a discipline of sports. We received the rulings of the prime minister to include this text in the project of law,” explained Aurélien Perol, communication adviser of Lemaire. It is now only a matter of time before the French law officially mentions eSports.

It is time to define what is eSports

Quelle place en France pour le sport électronique, ou #eSports ? Proposition numéro 1 de la consultation #PJLnum pic.twitter.com/XaDpBeluZQ — Axelle Lemaire (@axellelemaire) October 28, 2015

“What place for electronic sports, or #eSports in France? Number 1 proposition of the consultation #PGLnum”



The draft proposition, despite being started more than two years ago, still has a few steps before it becomes a law. It has to go through the “Conseil d’Etat” (Council of State), then gets discussed by the Parliament, and finally the Senate.

To have a chance to succeed, it needs to be written solidly. “A legal work is underway to reach a legally sound writing,” says the government note attached to the respective article. In other words, the French government now has to define what eSports is.

SELL’s proposition to the law doesn’t include a definition itself. “The technical characteristics of video games competitions are to be mentioned in the precedent paragraph,” says the proposition. But the precedent paragraph has yet to be written.

Many important actors of eSports have been in talks with the French government to discuss the law: Webedia (a conglomerate that already bought Millenium, Jeuxvideos.com, Gaming Live…), ESL, Oxent (ESWC), O’gamming… all private organizations.

Big fish, little fish

But eSports also includes many non-profit organizations. Gregory Vidal, manager of the Masters of Video Games, linking the different LANs in France (which all are non-profits), worries about not being part of the process: “I am following this from afar because the SELL only included private organisations to the discussion.”

“As always, it is a battle of influence,” says Olivier Morin, CEO of JK-TV and eSports caster for the past ten years. “The easy way for the minister is to meet with the big fishes of the sector, the private companies creating profit. It is expected that non-profit will have a lesser voice.”

“We could be worried about the neutrality of the discussion with dominant companies, like Webedia in France, buying different media and proclaiming the audience of the gamers,” continues Morin. “It is logical that the government listens to them, but the difficulty will be [for the government] to surround itself with different points of view and have a real finding of what eSports is.”

Unfortunately, the government might only go for what seems the most obvious approach—private companies, that will most likely only serve their own interests. The SELL, who has pushed this proposition, has been exposed last week by giving false numbers of attendees at Paris Games Week. This kind of news leaves a sour taste, but might convince the smaller organisations to not yield the floor to the exclusive circle that sits down at the table with SELL and discusses the future of French eSports behind closed doors.

It is important for all the actors to be heard, but they might have to fight for this right. “It is the association’s job to manifest themselves to the minister, and the minister’s job to listen to them,” says Morin. It may sound harsh, but once the words are written into the law, the time to argue will be gone.