Global Governance in International Esports Society?

Abstract

The esports industry has recently become an attractive economic market for business enterprises. Many esports players have participated in esports competitions at international, regional, and national levels. In this scenario, international esports governing bodies such as the International Esports Federation (IESF) and Global Esports Federation (GEF) have organized international esports competitions in partnership or sponsorship contracts with business enterprises. However, unlike the governance of international sports governing bodies, international esports governing bodies cannot create regulations and rules to bind all members within the international esports society. This is because they must enter into a licensing contract with esports publishers to use the video games under intellectual property law (i.e., copyright law). As a result, esports publishers have dominant power over their video game community. In this context, international esports governing bodies can organize their esports competitions only when they enter into an event licensing contract with esports publishers to use their video games as official esports events. In this situation, they are competent to govern all esports participants in the competitions under their regulations and rules. However, it is worth noting that esports publishers can also organize worldwide esports competitions under copyright law. Against this background, the purpose of this article is to consider how the international esports society should be understood under international law. Through this research, we aim to identify how the international esports society has been governed by esports publishers and international esports governing bodies and to clarify how it should be understood under international law.