You have played video games your whole life and specifically have focused on Overwatch for the last few years and now you are ready to go to college. You have put just as much time and energy into your game as any other traditional athlete. As you begin applying to colleges and universities your focus is on collegiate esports. What options do you have if you already have accepted brand deals or are hoping to build your brand during college? Luckily, for esports athletes and changes in NCAA rules on name, image, and likeness (NIL), there is much more flexibility in collegiate esports and NIL opportunities.

When thinking about traditional collegiate sports, esports are not usually considered, mostly because the NCAA does not regulate esports like they do college basketball or football. Esports, however, are like traditional sports. They require a team, communication, training, and commitment, so why does the NCAA not govern collegiate esports? As name, image, and likeness (NIL) becomes more present among college athletes, the NCAA is starting to look to collegiate esports to help with the emerging concepts.

One of the foundational steps when starting your esports company is to ensure that your branding is going to be usable long term by securing a federally registered trademark. I consider this to be as important as setting up the proper business entity and utilizing written contracts in each professional relationship that you or your company will be entering into.

Building a strong team is vital to an artist’s success, so we are going to break down the differences of the roles of personal managers, talent agents, and entertainment attorneys and talk about what they each bring to the table.