Legal guidelines for e-Sports in Peru
Due to the rise of streaming platforms, the eSports industry has reached leading numbers in the entertainment market. In Peru, the APDEV took on the task of creating the Legal Guide to eSports with the help of Ontier.
By Giselle Estrada Ramírez
The growing e-sports industry is already one of the largest in entertainment, having been boosted by the forced encirclement caused by the covid-19 pandemic, generating $1.084 billion USD in 2021, and whose events compete in audience with traditional sports celebrations such as the Super Bowl, reaching up to 728 million viewers, according to reports from Newzoo.
The gamer market is already making inroads in Latin America, a region that represents 4% of the global market and where 10% of the world’s gamers are located, with a growth of 6.2% each year.
In this context, the Peruvian Association of Electronic Sports and Video Games (APDEV, by its Spanish acronym) held in September the “Peru esports forum 2022”, the second edition of the business forum focused on e-sports in Latin America. The event presented a second market study on the profile of the Peruvian gamer, and analysed the evolution and trends of the new e-sports consumer in front of more than 150 participating business leaders, exhibitors and specialists.
On this occasion, special emphasis was also given to the presentation of the “Legal Guide to esports”, which, with the support of Ontier Peru, lays the foundations for the professionalisation of e-sports. The Latin American Lawyer approached Eduardo Linares, an associate of the aforementioned firm, who actively participated in the creation of this manual.
Eduardo, how would you summarise the most relevant points of the guide?
The growth and consolidation of this new market in Peru, as well as the similarity with traditional sports, generates various contingencies and doubts about the legal treatment in the different situations that gamers, eSports clubs, leagues, publishers, sponsors, among others, related to eSports and that contribute to its professionalisation, may be immersed in.
We seek to legally analyse the main legal situations, such as the employment relationship between gamers and eSports clubs, the taxation of prizes, the intellectual property of video games, the best legal structure for eSports clubs, sports betting, among other relevant situations.
Read the full interview and download the free magazine The Latin American Lawyer here. Available in Spanish >> https://thelatinamericanlawyer.com/mag/the-latin-american-lawyer-%c2%b7-28/
