Sports law

Welcome to the Chris Farnell Lawyer blog. While there may not have been as much action on the pitch in 2020, this year has been an eventful one. Esports it’s no longer just a game. The professionalisation of esports continues to accelerate at a blistering pace. 

In 2020, European giants Fnatic secured a $10m investment before going on to successfully close a £2m crowdfunding round. Similarly, fellow UK team Excel Esports continued their professional evolution by securing a groundbreaking partnership with a non-endemic sponsor, BT. As demonstrated by the number of disputes, there’s been a real increase in esports players seeking to protect themselves by appointing their own legal advisors. 

The Premier League TV times. The next auction for domestic broadcast rights to show the Premier League from 2022-23 is set to conclude in 2021. The headline last time around was the entrance of Amazon, which secured 20 Premier League matches a season for its Prime Video platform. 

However, given the rise of other streaming platforms such as DAZN, which splashed onto the scene in 2018 signing the first ever $1bn boxing deal with Matchroom Boxing, having been advised by Mishcon, we could still see a challenge to the dominance of traditional broadcasters Sky and BT. Either way, the legal terms will certainly be pored over. If the Premier League does pursue this route, it could constitute a transformative shift.

Rather than taking a softer approach in light of the pandemic, sports regulators around the world seem to be gearing up for a year of introducing tougher rules and ans of several clubs will be hoping that the regulators take a sensible approach to enforcement, though, ultimately recognising diminution in value of club’s assets and revenues that were completely unforeseen and have impacted even the best run clubs. 

We are also likely to see the imposition of stronger rules, including caps on fees, for agents.  Such measures will be hotly contested, though, and ironically, in light of Brexit, may be stopped in their tracks by legislation that originates from Brussels. 

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