Esports are an industry that has grown rapidly in recent years and has millions of followers around the world.

Given the growth of the sector in general and specifically, in our country, the legal aspects of it draw attention, how they are regulated, whether or not they are considered a sport, among many other issues.

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E-sports in Spain

According to the Spanish Video Game Association (AEVI), esport: «is the name by which video game competitions structured through players, teams, leagues, publishers, organizers, broadcasters, sponsors and spectators are popularly known. It can be played amateur or professionally. Other names are "competitive gaming", "organized play", "egaming" or "pro gaming".

The popularity of esports and its impact worldwide is undeniable with very solid and relevant data.

In fact, taking advantage of this success of electronic sports, various series or documentaries focused on electronic sports have been made in various media and platforms such as the BBC, Netflix or HBO, among others. These approach the industry from different perspectives, such as the birth of the ecosystem and the evolution of the sector, the popularity of certain titles or the figure of professional players and the importance of gaming communities.

There is data that demonstrates the success of esports in our country and of all of them, data such as:

-       Spain has the largest national competition in Europe (LVP).

-       «The only country in Europe in which the three largest telecommunications operators have entered the sector (Orange, Vodafone and Movistar).

-       Celebration of large events that include esports: annual events such as Barcelona Games World, Madrid.

-       Gaming Experience, Tenerife LAN Party or Euskal Encounter or specific events such as the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), or the World All Stars.

-       Presence in the territory of the most important international franchises (ESL, DreamHack).

-       Top-level brands have come to sponsor national competitions or teams (such as Bimbo and El Corte Inglés among others).

-       Several of the largest sports newspapers in the country (Marca, AS, Sport and Mundo Deportivo) have an esports section in their online edition.

It should be noted that the statement that electronic sports are not regulated in Spain is not considered true. This statement is a generality that normally refers to the fact that there is no express regulatory body that succinctly regulates everything related to the esports sector.

This sector has its place in different regulatory texts as it covers different areas of law, such as labor law, commercial law, intellectual property, etc.

It is set out below without any intention of creating a numerus clausus glossary, a regulatory framework that summarizes the main regulations that govern this industry:

-       Royal Decree of July 24, 1889 by which the Civil Code is published.

-       Organic Law 10/1995, of November 23, of the Penal Code.

-       Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5, on the Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rights.

-       Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015, of October 23, which approves the consolidated text of the Workers' Statute Law, for the regulation of employment contracts of professional electronic sports players.

-       Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996, of April 12, which approves the consolidated text of the Intellectual Property Law, in the field of video game creators, publishers, and event organizers.

-       Law 7/2010, of March 31, General Audiovisual Communication, in relation to broadcasting rights that affects, above all, event organizers and streaming channels.

-       Law 34/1988, of November 11, General Advertising, in relation to the sponsorship of events organized for competitions and with the sponsorship of both professional leagues, clubs and professional gamers.

-       Tax laws such as Law 35/2006, of November 28, on Personal Income Tax and partial modification of the laws on Corporate Taxes, on Non-Resident Income and on Wealth for the taxation of work income of professional players, income imputations for transfer of image rights or Law 27/2014, of November 27, on Corporate Tax, among others.

Therefore, a great difficulty is estimated in the conception of a single regulation of the esports sector in our legal system due to this issue, mainly, and which is aggravated, in turn, by the amount of assets in the industry, publishers, event organizers, sponsors, esports clubs or teams, players, etc.

All the assets that make up the are related to electronic sports with a very concise legal bias that exclusively covers their field of activity, for example, a professional esports player must be governed by labor regulations regarding their connection with a club, provided that you are employed as an employee and, therefore, being a worker, you will accrue certain tax and fiscal obligations.

By way of conclusions and pointing out the main challenges facing the industry, it is worth highlighting, first of all, that there is an evident complexity in the construction of a single legal text that addresses all the aspects of the electronic sports complex.

On the one hand, there are authors who are in favor of regulating, specifically, this sector to provide it with greater legal certainty and, on the other hand, there are authors who consider that, the mere fact that this industry has grown to this point, It is sufficient evidence that the system, with its advantages and disadvantages, works and should not be modified precisely because of the complexity that this would entail and because, to do so, it would mean removing freedom of action as the assets of the system have known it until now. sector.

The evidence of the growth of the sector and its numbers is proof that, until now, the existing legislative dispersion is sufficient for this, but it does not necessarily imply that it continues to be effective and efficient since society continues to advance and the sector increasingly faces more obstacles to survive.

Conclusion

Finally, the fact of the existence of countries, both European neighbors, such as Andorra or France, and other continents such as South Korea and the United States, that have legislated on the electronic sports sector or that have not legislated, but have taken the initiative to promote, encourage and, ultimately, develop them, it may represent a turning point for Spain to consider this regulation and promotion and even to make policies based on the data and the social reality in which our country finds itself. country, as Germany has done, including it in government political pacts