Esports contract template

Esports is a dynamic industry with complex relationships and high stakes. Clear and structured contracts are needed to manage the relationships between players, teams, sponsors, and other stakeholders effectively. 

Here’s a detailed look into esports contracts, outlining why they’re important, what they should include, and how automating the process can significantly enhance efficiency and compliance.

What is an esports contract?

An esports contract is a legally binding document that outlines the terms of engagement between two or more parties within the esports industry. This could involve players, teams, sponsors, leagues, and organisers. 

The contract is crucial for defining the scope of duties, rights, and rewards for all parties, ensuring that each member's responsibilities and expectations are clear. This, in turn, prevents costly contractual disputes and misunderstandings.

What is the purpose of an esports contract?

The purpose of an esports contract extends beyond mere clarification of terms. It serves to:

• Protect the rights of players and teams, ensuring that players are compensated fairly and teams retain their rights to a player’s services.
• Outline specific deliverables, such as attendance at training sessions, participation in promotional events, and performance expectations.
• Define the payment terms, including salaries, win bonuses, sponsorship revenues, and other compensation-related details.
• Manage expectations on both ends, providing a clear framework for what the team expects from the players and vice versa.
• Ensure legal compliance, by having all terms conform to relevant laws and regulations, which can vary significantly across different regions.

Who manages esports contracts?

Esports contracts are usually managed by a combination of internal and external parties. These may include esports organizations’ legal and HR teams, which draft and revise contracts, and external law firms, who are often consulted to ensure contracts meet legal standards and are enforceable. 

Other parties involved might include agents and managers, who negotiate on behalf of the talent to secure the best possible terms, and team managers, who ensure that the operational aspects of the contracts are fulfilled.

When are esports contracts used?

Esports contracts come into play in several scenarios:

Recruitment of new talent. When teams acquire new players or when players join new leagues.

Sponsorship deals. Outlining the terms under which sponsors will support teams and players, including expectations for player appearances, promotional activities, and logo placements.

Content creation and rights management. Contracts for streamers and content creators in the esports domain, detailing rights to game footage, streaming obligations, and revenue sharing.

Event participation. Specific contracts for tournaments and one-off events, detailing the terms of participation, prize distribution, and conduct.

What should an esports contract template cover?

A comprehensive esports contract template should cover the following things in sufficient detail:

1. Identification of parties: Include full legal names, addresses, contact information, and titles/roles of all parties and signatories.
2. Term and termination: Specify start and end dates, conditions for early termination (including notice periods), renewal procedures, and termination clauses for breach or specific conditions.
3. Roles and responsibilities: Detail player duties (practices, matches, promotional events, media obligations), conduct expectations, and team responsibilities (training facilities, equipment, support staff).
4. Compensation structure: Outline base salary (payment frequency and method), performance bonuses and criteria, prize money distribution, additional benefits (health insurance, travel allowances, accommodation), and reimbursement policies.
5. Conflict resolution: Describe steps for internal dispute resolution (mediation and arbitration), identify mediators or arbitrators, and establish timeframes and escalation procedures for unresolved conflicts.
6. Intellectual property rights: Clarify ownership and usage rights over game footage, player images, team logos, monetization rights for personal content, guidelines for using team branding, and transfer/licensing of intellectual property upon contract termination.
7. Governing law: Specify jurisdiction and venue for legal disputes and applicability of international laws.
8. Confidentiality and non-disclosure: Outline obligations to keep information confidential (team strategies, financial details, personal data), duration of these obligations, and consequences of breaches.
9. Non-compete and exclusivity: Define restrictions on joining competing teams during and after the contract term, duration and scope of non-compete obligations, and conditions for exclusivity waivers.
10. Health and safety: Describe obligations to provide a safe and healthy environment, access to medical and psychological support, and injury prevention and management protocols.
11. Public relations and media: Set expectations for media and public interactions, approval process for media appearances and public statements, and social media conduct guidelines.
12. Equipment and facilities: Detail provision and maintenance of gaming equipment and peripherals, access to training and competition facilities, and responsibilities for returning team-provided equipment.
13. Travel and accommodation: Outline travel arrangements and expense coverage for competitions and events, and conduct expectations during travel.
14. Amendments and modifications: Specify procedures for contract changes, requirements for written consent, and documentation of amendments.

The manual approach to managing esports contract templates

Traditionally, managing esports contracts involves a manual setup with several challenges:

- Time-consuming processes. Drafting, negotiating, and signing contracts can take a considerable amount of time, often requiring back-and-forth communication across different platforms.

- Risk of errors. Manual data entry and document management increase the risk of errors and inconsistencies. In some cases, commercial teams take on unaccounted for legal risk by drafting their own terms.

- Storage and access issues. Physical documents can be difficult to store securely and retrieve easily, especially for teams that operate globally or have large contract volumes.

Automate esports contracts with Juro

Juro's AI-native contract management platform transforms esports contract management by streamlining the entire contract lifecycle. Let's explore how.

1. End-to-end contract management

Firstly, teams can create, execute, and manage contracts in a single, browser-native workspace, ensuring effective real-time collaboration among players, managers, and legal teams.

2. Streamlined contract creation processes

Juro's features speed up drafting and negotiations by automating contract templates and streamlining the contract creation process, enabling teams to finalize contracts faster and more accurately.

The platform also provides insightful analytics to manage contract risks and monitor contract performance at scale, across different accounts.

3. Self-serve capabilities

With Juro's self-serve functionality, non-legal team members can handle simple contract tasks independently, freeing up legal resources for complex issues.

This pace and agility is crucial in esports, where contracts must be updated or renewed quickly due to roster changes or new sponsorships.

4. Secure storage for esports agreements

Finally, Juro's secure, data-rich contract repository stores all contracts in one place, offering unparalleled visibility and control over obligations, deadlines, and performance metrics.

By leveraging a platform like Juro, esports organizations have the opportunity to enhance operational efficiency, maintain compliance, and build stronger relationships with both players and partners.

Juro's AI-native contract automation platform empowers all teams to create, agree, execute and manage contracts up to 10x faster than traditional tools. To find out more, hit the button below to book your personalized demo.