Bigger Than the Final Four? Are You Ready for Some eSports
Forget the Final Four. The biggest action in college sports this week took place when Harrisburg University won the PA Cup, besting 16 other college teams in battles of Overwatch, League of Legends and Hearhstone.
Is this what the Final Four is going to look like someday? Never mind basketball or even football, eSports may be the fastest growing professional sport. A Reuters report says esports revenues will top $1 billion this year, a jump of 27 percent from last year, primarily from advertising, sponsorships, media rights. But there may also be a lucrative slice of the digital pie for law firms. In a post on Legal Executive Institute, consultant Andrew McKenna says eSports is a growing micro-niche for law firms. McKenna says professional leagues, teams, players and venue will increasingly need a host of familiar legal services — labor and employment, contracts, endorsements, sponsorships, gaming, intellectual property, and all the legal challenges that come with those arrangements.
While this could build new books of business for existing firms, Quiles Law in New York is the first firm to set itself up specifically as an eSports law firm.
A few momths back, we posted a podcast with Aaron Swerdlow of Gerard Fox Law exploring the new legal frontier of e-Sports.
