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E-sports; E-sports competition; E-sports tournament; E-sports leagues; broadcaster; video games; player associations; unionization; labor standards; European Union; United Nations; France; Republic of Korea; KeSPA; Italy; International Labor Organization; ILO Core Conventions; ILO Convention ratification; international labor law; antitrust; anticompetitive behavior; developer-owned league; down-market control; vertical integration; FIFA; centralized regulation
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Full-Text Articles in Law and Economics
Level-Up: Towards A More Competitive & Labor-Friendly E-Sports Industry, Andrew Ramstad
Level-Up: Towards A More Competitive & Labor-Friendly E-Sports Industry, Andrew Ramstad
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
Despite humble beginnings, the advent of the modern internet has seen the explosion of e-sports into an industry commanding hundreds of millions of annual viewers and nearly a billion dollars in annual advertising revenue. Facilitating this expansion has been a shift from independently run competitive e-sports leagues to leagues created and operated by the developers of the league’s underlying game. This vertical integration by developers increases e-sports accessibility to viewers, but at the cost of decreased player bargaining power and professional flexibility. The integration further incentivizes ever-increasing working hours and self-destructive or rule-breaking behavior by players to stay competitive. This …