The Research Center for Esports Law of the University of Augsburg (“FeSR”) and the Esports Research Network (“ERN”) concluded a cooperation agreement in February 2020 to advance research in esports. The objective is to conduct valid and relevant fundamental research jointly.
The FeSR is an independent institution of the Faculty of Law of the University of Augsburg under the direction of Prof. Dr. Martin Maties. The aim of the institution is to conduct legal research in the field of esports. Furthermore, the FeSR sees itself as a contact for politics, ministries, associations and companies.
The ERN is an international and interdisciplinary association of esports researchers and was initiated by academics from Jönköping, Tampere and Siegen. The aim is to connect researchers from all over the world and thus enable collaborations so that the research field of esports can be developed in a thorough and interdisciplinary way. In its current form, esports is a novel phenomenon made possible by digitization and thus represents an intriguing and relevant case study for the digitized world. Topics in esports can, therefore, provide a glimpse into the future challenges of a digital society. The research results in esports thus can help to advance society in other areas as well.
“Esports needs fundamental research in all academic disciplines because it already shows how a society could look like in the digital age, especially the professional world is changing more and more in the direction of esports,” says Dr. Tobias Scholz, founder of the Esports Research Network. “In an age in which national borders technically do not exist and everyone can participate, this sounds positive at first, but esports shows that new challenges emerge. These challenges are not only social or cultural but above all legal – a discipline that has been underrepresented in the ERN until now. We are therefore very pleased that the Research Center for Esports Law of the University of Augsburg will support our network in this research”.
“Questions like “is esports sports?” cannot be answered without being put into the context of the relevant science and its interest in knowledge. From a sports science point of view, for example, the presented question may be answered differently than from a legal point of view. This does not mean, however, that the considerations of other sciences are not important for jurisprudence,” says Prof. Dr. Martin Maties, director of the Research Center for Esports Law, “because the conclusions of different sciences are mutually dependent. This is particularly true in a digital and highly connected world. In order to support an international industry as a whole, interdisciplinary collaborations of international researchers are required. The Esports Research Network stands for exactly this. All the more we are delighted to be part of this network now.”