Careful negotiation of player agreements over compensation, rights, and individual interests, with the additional protections that matter for young and first-time competitors entering binding commitments.
A contract signed by a seventeen-year-old is, in most states, voidable by the seventeen-year-old. A guardian's countersignature binds the guardian rather than the player, and the cure, where state law offers one, is court approval of the kind California and New York give young performers. We check that first, because an organization that believes it holds three years of a prodigy may hold an option the prodigy can exercise.
The rest is arithmetic and exits. Salary is rarely where the money is; prize splits, streaming quotas and the team's share of personal sponsorships are, and a buyout holds only as a fair estimate of loss rather than a penalty. California will not enforce a personal-service contract past seven years, and Illinois voids a non-compete against an employee earning $75,000 a year or less, a floor that rises to $80,000 in 2027.
Name, image and likeness pass in writing or not at all; Illinois requires prior written consent for any commercial use of a person's identity. We act for one side of the table in any negotiation and read the team agreement against the sponsorship and streaming deals it will govern.
Negotiating player and competitor agreements on the client's behalf, so that the first draft put in front of a player is a starting point and the signed terms on compensation, rights, and obligations reflect the deal that was negotiated.
Structuring salary, prize splits, performance bonuses, and other compensation terms, and reviewing how each is earned, calculated, and paid so the economics of the deal are clear before signing.
Negotiating the length of the commitment, renewal and option rights, exclusivity, and transfer or buyout provisions, the terms that determine how long a player is bound and on what conditions they can move.
Defining what a team may use and what a player retains, with name, image, likeness, and content rights set out clearly so personal sponsorships and streaming are not signed away by accident.
Additional protections for young and inexperienced competitors entering binding agreements, with attention to enforceability, fairness, and terms that leave room for a career to develop.
A close review of an offered agreement and ongoing counsel on a player's rights. We surface the provisions that deserve scrutiny and explain what each term means before a competitor commits.
A unilateral option lets the organization extend the term at a pre-set salary while the player stays bound, and some publisher leagues cap total contract length and require every contract to be filed with the league. We read the option against that cap, and against the player's age, before anything is signed.
Transfers in esports run on buyout clauses, and a buyout survives a challenge only as liquidated damages: a reasonable forecast of the organization's loss, fixed because the harm is hard to measure. A number chosen to deter departure is a penalty, and courts in most states will not enforce one.
In most states a minor can disaffirm a contract until a reasonable time after turning eighteen, and a parent's countersignature binds only the parent. California and New York let a court approve a young performer's contract, which ends the disaffirmance right, and California also diverts 15 percent of gross earnings into a blocked trust.
Illinois requires prior written consent before anyone uses a person's identity for a commercial purpose, and most states follow the same rule by statute or common law. The grant should name the platforms, the territory and the duration, and say what happens to the jersey bearing the player's name after the player leaves.
Many organizations paper players as contractors. Under California's ABC test a worker is an employee unless the hiring party proves the work falls outside its usual course of business, which a team cannot say about playing. Classification decides withholding, overtime and which non-compete rules apply, so it is settled before the salary is.
In a single matter we represent one party to the agreement to avoid conflicts, and a single partner stays accountable through the negotiation.
The org's standard form arrives, often days before a roster lock. We map every right it takes, from the term and unilateral options to exclusivity, buyout, and how much of the player's name, likeness, and stream it quietly claims.
Salary is the smallest column. We separate prize splits, performance bonuses, content quotas, and revenue shares, then test how each is earned, calculated, and paid, so a headline number can't hide an empty one.
Where the competitor is a minor or a first-time signer, we work the enforceability layer before anyone initials a page: guardian signatures, disaffirmance risk, and trust set-asides where state law requires them.
After signing, the contract keeps moving: option exercises, mid-term transfers and buyout math, sponsorships read against exclusivity. We stay on file so every later deal fits inside the one already signed.
A player's first signature should never outrank their career.
Because the form the organization sends was drafted by the organization's lawyers, and every clause in it does something. A unilateral option extends the term on the team's say-so, a content quota turns streaming hours into a condition of pay, and a broad likeness grant can hand over the player's personal sponsorships without saying so. A review before signing is the only point at which those terms are negotiable rather than enforceable.
Five decide most disputes. The term and any option to extend it, since a three-year deal with two team options is a five-year deal. The buyout, which is enforceable only as a reasonable estimate of loss. The exclusivity clause, which decides what the player may stream, wear and endorse. The likeness grant and its sunset. And the termination triggers on each side, including what happens to earned but unpaid prize money when a player is benched or released.
Mostly by law the organization did not choose. In most states a minor can disaffirm a contract until a reasonable time after turning eighteen, so an agreement with a sixteen-year-old is firm on one side only. California and New York allow court approval of a young performer's contract, which removes that right, and California requires 15 percent of gross earnings to be held in a blocked trust. For a first-time adult signer the protection is procedural: a shorter term, no unilateral options, and a plain explanation of each clause before anything is initialed.
The player, until a written grant says otherwise. Illinois and most other states require prior written consent for commercial use of a person's identity, so a team's right to sell a jersey or put a player's face in a sponsor's campaign exists only to the extent the contract grants it. We draft the grant by platform, territory and duration, carve out personal sponsorships that pre-date the deal, and set a sunset so a departed player's likeness stops selling the team's merchandise.
Hart David Carson LLP acts for clients across the industry, including players and content creators as well as teams and their organizations. In any single matter we represent one side of the agreement to avoid conflicts, and a single partner stays accountable through the negotiation, so you deal with the same person from first draft to signature.
The team agreement is the senior document. Its exclusivity clause sets the categories a player may not endorse personally, its content quota fixes how many hours go to the team's channels, and its share clause decides what the organization takes from a personal sponsorship. A streaming platform deal signed without reading those three can put the player in breach of both documents at once. We read each new deal against the one already signed, and where the team agreement is silent we say so in writing before the player relies on it.
Sponsorship and endorsement agreements negotiated for players, teams, and leagues, where exclusivity, deliverables, and advertising compliance decide how well the deal holds.
Explore →Content-creation and streaming agreements for creators and platforms, setting licensing, performance rights, and revenue terms so the upside is captured and the obligations are clear.
Explore →Intellectual property and licensing strategy for the assets inside a game, so the music, visual assets, characters, stories, and trademarks are protected and cleared and the rights survive scrutiny.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
One partner is accountable for the whole matter, and you have that partner's direct line. Chicago, London, and Dubai work to the same standard.