E-sport is the act of playing video games in competition organized by associations or companies. These competitions aren’t new but are becoming increasingly important in terms of cash prize and audience.
All games can’t be part of E-sport, it must be competitive and make people or teams play against each others. Some video games aren’t fast enough  for E-sport. It’s the same if we can’t determine winners of the game.
 

E-Football League present by Florian Gazan
E-Football League present by Florian Gazan

E-sport shows up unscrambled and prime time on french TV !
The french sport newspaper “L’Equipe” just created their own E-sport championship. Every Friday since the 22th of January you can watch “L’Equipe 21” , a TV channel owned by “L’Equipe”.
Each week viewers of l’Equipe 21 will watch the E-Football League. This homemade competition will last for 19 weeks with 20 competitors on Fifa. For each matchday 6 games will be played online and 4 in real time on TV. It’s for the first time, that in France  E-sport will be broadcast in direct and in prime time, and one of the sportscasters will be Bruce Grannec, world champion of Fifa and PES. The 20 competitors are some of the best french gamers. Some of them are invited because of their profession and other had played in qualify tournaments.
“L’Equipe” shows its will to promote E-sport and to be part of the new market, after the creation of an E-sport column in the newspaper.
“L’Equipe” chose a football game, which isn’t the main game for E-sport competition. Sport games are less represented in E-sport competitions. The fact that “L’Equipe” chose a sport game is because it’s a sport newspaper. Also it aims at gathering more people and general audience.
 
Axelle Lemaire digital secretary state
Axelle Lemaire digital secretary state

 
Legislator wants a legal framework
The French legislator adopted a provision “the digital republic law” presented by Axelle Lemaire, the Secretary of State. The article 38 of the law says that the French government is allowed by order to define the new system of E-sport competition. The order have to be written in the six months after the adoption of the law.
Two members of the Parliament were chosen by Manuel Valls, the French Prime minister to make proposition about E-sport regulation. They will present their proposition in June.
The funny fact about this law is that in September it didn’t exist. French government chose an original way to make “the digital republic law”. It decided to submit the law to French internet users for a public consultation. The French union of video game editor proposed an article about e-sport and more than 4, 000 users voted for it. It was enough for the French government to recognize E-sport.
If today, without regulation E-sport competition exists, it’s thanks to the legal framework of gambling. But e-gaming and gambling aren’t the same thing because in e-sport the luck is less important than in gambling. French government wants to secure gaming. The professional gamers think that E-sport is closer to sport that to gambling.
E-sport is getting professional for few years, gamers became professional and win a lot of money. That’s a new market and companies invest in E-sport because it became popular. That’s why the government wants to regulate the market.
 
The probable legal rules for E-sport in the future
Even if the rules aren’t known yet we can imagine what will be the main measure that the government wants.
The Ministry of youth will certainly give an approval for the organisation of E-sport competition. It’s for transparency and fairness of competition and to avoid fraud about cash prize of competition.
The ministry will probably choose a list of video games allowed for E-sport competition. These video games must include mind and cleverness for virtual performances.
The government will probably legislate about gamers legal status, like a minimal age for gamers, the professional status and the taxation of prizes.
 
photo Mehdi BougaultMehdi Bougault
E-business student in Master 2, University of Strasbourg, I’ve studied management, and am passionate about marketing and strategy in the digital world.

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