Review of an eventful first half of 2023: The Esports Focus Group in the spotlight

The first half of 2023 was one of the most active times for our Esports focus group since the initiative was founded. In addition to our strategy meeting in Berlin in February, the main focus was on two intensive days of filming for focus group videos and planning a campaign with a first-class cooperation partner.

In addition, we continued our successful series "Esport Lunch Lectures Germany" (15 episodes by now), in which we talked about the following topics:

• January: "Overview of the VCT EMEA ecosystem in 2023" with Graham Ashton (Riot Games).
• February: "The future role of lootboxes in esports" with Carsten Sporrer
• April: "Esports salary caps as an antitrust restriction?" with Fabian Ziermann, LL.M. (WU Vienna)
• May: "Legal challenges with agency commissions or other compensation" with Dr. Nepomuk Nothelfer
• June: "Collective representation of players' interests, labor disputes and unions" with Dr. Nepomuk Nothelfer

In addition to their extensive mandate work in the field of esports, the members of the focus group were also active (internationally) as speakers, lecturers and authors and attended a number of outstanding industry events.

Our esport experts were invited as guests at ...

• the XPERION inauguration event in Berlin,
• the RCADIA and Rocketbeans event Sales an Sales in Hamburg,
• the prestigious tournament IEM Katowice,
• the ESIC Global Esports Summit 2023 in London,
• season matches of the Valorant Champions Tour EMEA in Berlin,
• the CAGGTUS in Leipzig,
• the conference of the Competence Center eSports of the University of Hannover,
• the ISDE Sports Convention in Madrid,
• the OMR in Hamburg,
• the Spobis in Düsseldorf,
• and various events of the university group Gaming & eSports Law of the Bucerius Law School

Speaker activities (excerpt)

• Fireside Chat "Esports Players Walk Out & Will it Happen Again?" in the podcast "BIGR 2023".
• Lecture "Tutorial Mode:Grundlagen des Esport-Rechts“ at a series of events organized by the university group Gaming & eSports Law at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany
• Panel "Digital Challenges in the Sports Sector" at the 4th ISDE Sports Convention in Madrid
• Panel "European Parliament-Report on Esports and Gaming: How bold is it and what's coming next?" at the IEM Katowice - Poland & Europe Esports and Gaming Day in Katowice
• Workshop "How Esports Can Utilize Research to Foster Esports Growth and Sustainability" at the ESIC Global Esports Summit 2023 in London.
• Fireside Chat "A Wicked Problem? Esports governance and its complexities" also at the ESIC Global Esports Summit 2023.
• Interview "Einführung in das E-Sport-Arbeitsrecht" (Ep. 45) in the podcast "Im Spielekeller".

Lecturing activities (excerpt)

• Lecture on esport law at the University of Vienna
• Lectures on esports law at ISDE - Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía

Author activities (excerpt)

• Blog contribution: Der organisierte Sport im eSport – Die Olympic Esports Series, author: Dr. Nepomuk Nothelfer
• Book contribution: Defining and Spelling Esports (completion, to be published in 2023), author: Dr. Nepomuk Nothelfer, co-authors: Dr. Nicolas Besombes and Dr. Seth E. Jenny
• Book contribution: Eine Einführung ins eSport-Recht - Kennzeichen der Branche und rechtliche Implikationen (completion, to be published in 2023), author: Dr. Nepomuk Nothelfer, co-author: Dr. Philipp Schlotthauer

About the Esports Focus Group

We combine outstanding legal expertise in Digital Business, Technology, Data Protection, IP, Work 4.0, and M&A for tech start-ups with our long-standing passion in Media & Entertainment. Many of our young team members grew up with esports and continue to be passionate about it. This makes us the ideal partner for a wide range of stakeholders in the esports sector, irrespective of their specific role in the ecosystem.

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