At the turn of the millennium electronic sports revolutionised the world of gaming and enabled it to grow into a billion euro industry. Many were convinced that the growth of eSports has already reached its climax, but many events that were organised in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic have proven them wrong, as many records of tournament prize pools and viewerships were broken. Large capital investments and the strong popularity of eSports among young players and spectators have made it clear that the necessity for law and governance regulation of the industry is more important than ever. The thesis explores two closely linked topics. The first one is the classification of eSports as a traditional sport and its potential inclusion in the Olympic games programme. The second part deals with the national and autonomous regulation of eSports and explains why the future of eSports law regulation is held in international standardisation of principles and not national regulations. The sui generis nature of eSports is presented through the analysis of different law areas such as employment law, the integrity of sports, protection of minors, and competition law. Since the video game developer has unlimited control over a certain eSports discipline due to his intellectual property rights over the game, the competition law can offer changes and limitations to the developers arbitrary actions through the institute of the abuse of a dominant position.
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