Egaming market represents one of the fastest growing segments of the gambling industry and lately the mobile gaming is gaining interest in the industry. The industry bring up many risks and challenges that could have an impact on companies that are targeting this marketplace. Even though the legislative action focuses on liberalizing online gaming regulations, all these efforts move slowly. Financial institutions are inclined towards the industry and consider it as a high risk industry. Banks and payment providers are declining transactions connected to egambling, disable using credit cards for this type of transactions, etc. There are also privacy concerns, which include all range of risks from the potential fraud or players using softwares to beat the system, to security issues that may cause players to be concerned for their online information. Last but not least, unlike “land-based” casinos, where players can physically see the way the game operated or cards are dealt, online and digital forms of these games require much greater faith in having a “fair chance to win”. The key players in the industry are Isle of Man, Gibraltar, London, Dublin, whereas gambling still remains illegal in some parts of the world, such as South Korea.

On the other hand, esports industry is a new, but fast evolving one, with a great potential and an exponential growth in the past few years. It is a form of organized sports competition played electronically, which has its set of professional players, playing individually or as a team, and spectators that are physically present to watch the game. We could say it is a new form of LAN party. Esports industry is largely unregulated in bring up legal issues such as:

• • Uneven approach to business.
  • Lack of level playing field.
  • No consistency regarding publisher/league/event rules (if any).
  • Player poaching/walk-outs/strikes.
  • Players are not paid (or not even given contracts).
  • Events quality is uneven.
  • Leagues/publishers don’t cooperate.
  • Consumers are confused, even misled. 
  • Sponsors don’t really want to be involved (but do want professionalism).
  • No dispute resolution/mediation service.
  • No rules for monitoring cheating and result fixing.
  • Use of drugs during esport performance.
  • Differences in jurisdictions. 

If you are a service provider or a player, and need legal help, we are here to help you get on the safe side.