Developer Riot Games has announced the Dispute Resolution for Esports in EMEA, a program aimed at allowing players, coaches, and teams to solve contractual and financial issues.
Riot will employ European sports lawyers Martens to run the arbitration court. The firm will review claims and decide on penalties independent from Riot Games. Martens’ dispute resolution experience includes establishing the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal on behalf of the International Basketball Federation.
As per a release, claims can be made in relation to ‘unpaid salaries, bonuses, prize money, and transfer disputes’, aiming to facilitate support to ‘bring a whole new level of professionalism, contractual stability and integrity’ to competition in the region.
Arbitration available to most
Those competing in Tiers 1 and 2 of League of Legends or VALORANT in EMEA — estimated to cover around 1,500 players — can utilize the scheme starting from today.
Valérie Horyna, EMEA Esports Rules & Compliance Manager at Riot Games, said:
“Esports continues to evolve and we believe maintaining contractual stability and integrity is becoming more important. Solving contractual disputes has historically been very complex, especially in EMEA, which has different legal processes across many countries. We’re seeking to help solve these issues, providing an easy-to-access platform for our stakeholders.”
The Finer Details of the new Dispute Resolution for Esports
Speaking to a limited number of journalists before last weekend’s World Championship final, Riot revealed additional details on the program, including fees required to cover disputes.
- Amounts differ depending on the scale of the financial dispute in question, starting with an admin fee between €500 and €4,000 to be paid by the claimant. Then, a fee between €1,000 and €5,000 covering the work of the individual arbitrator is paid between the two parties.
- Once a claim is made, each party has one opportunity to provide a written submission and there will be no hearings by default. The responses will be reviewed by a single arbitrator who will have been assigned the case from Martens’ pool of 14 arbitrators.
- The arbitrator will make a decision on the dispute ex aequo et bono (according to the right and good), meaning they will make a judgement on what would constitute a ‘fair’ outcome. Judgements will be made on what is fair rather than what is necessarily the ‘correct’ outcome by national laws.
For example, by law, the resolution in a claim of missed payment may be to pay back exactly what is owed, however an arbitrator may see that the ‘fair’ outcome would be to pay back the amount owed plus interest.
LNG Scout, whose legal battle with EDward Gaming nearly preventated him from attending the 2024 World Championship
Image Credit: Riot Games
The arbitrator’s final decision will be communicated ‘without reason’, meaning they will not provide a summary of the reasoning behind their decision. This, according to Riot and Martens, is in an effort to keep the process as quick and cheap as possible, thus making it as accessible as possible.
Riot will also set up a legal aid fund allowing potential claimants to request help in paying the required fees. Such claims will need certain criteria to be met before Riot will provide support and the fund’s overall amount will be fixed per year. If and when the fund has been emptied in a given year, no further support will be available until the following year.
Riot hopes that the new system will, at the very least, act as a preventative against bad faith actors in the scene as the company felt that it wasn’t always possible to involve themselves in financial disputes in the past. The goal is for this to help to bring contractual stability, trust, and sustainability to the ecosystem.
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