01
Sponsorship Agreement Structuring
Structuring sponsorship and endorsement deals so scope, exclusivity, term, and economics reflect the right relationship between a brand and the player, team, or league it backs.
Esports & Gaming
Sponsorship & Endorsements
Legal counsel for esports and gaming sponsorship and endorsement deals. We structure and negotiate agreements that protect the interests of players, teams, and leagues, hold up over the term, and keep advertising and endorsement compliance in view.
The FTC rewrote its Endorsement Guides in 2023, and three changes land on esports. A disclosure in a video has to be in the video, not in the description. A disclosure in a live stream has to be repeated, for the viewer who arrives in hour three. And the brand answers for the streamer's missing disclosure unless it gave guidance and actually monitored.
A sponsorship agreement does two jobs. It is a license of name, image and likeness, bounded by platform, territory and term, and it is an allocation of compliance, deciding who writes the disclosure, who checks it, and who pays when a post misses it. Around both sit the fences: the publisher's banned sponsor categories, the team contract's exclusivities, and a morals clause that now runs in both directions.
Since October 2024 buying fake followers or views has been a federal rule violation carrying civil penalties, and in the United Kingdom the competition regulator has been able to fine undisclosed advertising directly since April 2025. We draft for talent, for teams and leagues, and for the brands across from them, one side per deal.
What we do
Sponsorship and endorsement legal services for players, teams, leagues, and the brands that back them.
02
Contract Negotiation
Negotiating the terms behind sponsorship and endorsement agreements on behalf of players, teams, and leagues, protecting our client's interests across the table.
03
Advertising & Endorsement Compliance
Guidance on the advertising and endorsement regulations that apply to sponsored content, including disclosure of paid relationships in posts and streams, so a deal is structured to comply.
04
Name, Image & Likeness Rights
Defining and bounding the use of a player's or team's name, image, and likeness in marketing by platform, territory, duration, and type of use, so the grant is clear on both sides.
05
Talent & Team Representation
Representing gamers, content creators, teams, and organizations in their sponsorship and endorsement relationships, with particular care for the protection of young and inexperienced players.
06
Sponsorship Dispute Resolution
Resolving disputes over deliverables, exclusivity, payment, or conduct, through negotiation where possible and formal dispute resolution where necessary, with attention to preserving the relationship.
What you should know
The realities that shape a sponsorship and endorsement strategy.
01
A disclosure travels with the content
Under the 2023 Endorsement Guides a disclosure belongs in the video itself, a live stream must repeat it so late arrivals see it, and the FTC has said not to assume a platform's built-in paid-partnership label is enough. The contract should say who places each one and who checks that it stayed there.
02
The brand answers for the streamer
The Guides put the advertiser on the hook for an endorser's missing disclosure, and the FTC expects the brand to give guidance, monitor the posts and act on what it finds. The agreement needs a disclosure protocol, an audit right and a cure period, and the indemnity has to say who carries a regulator's penalty.
03
Three dimensions and a sunset
Platform, territory and duration bound a likeness grant; the sunset decides when it ends. A grant that omits one invites the widest reading, so the post-term wind-down and the right to pull a departed player's face from a sponsor's catalogue are written in rather than assumed. Illinois requires the consent in writing first.
04
The publisher has already picked your sponsors
Publisher league rules commonly bar whole categories, betting operators among them, and the publisher's list prevails over the team's deal and the player's alike. A category the team has sold is also one the player cannot sell again, so the rights audit reads three documents before any term sheet is drafted.
05
Minors change the paperwork
A sponsorship with a player under eighteen is voidable by the player in most states, content aimed at children under thirteen brings COPPA's data limits and the children's advertising rules into the deliverables, and California sets aside 15 percent of a young performer's gross earnings. The brand's standard form rarely contemplates any of it.
06
Fake followers are now a federal matter
The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, in force since October 2024, bars buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence and carries civil penalties for each violation. A brand paying by follower count has a diligence question to ask, and a creator's representation about audience size now belongs in the agreement.
The arc of a deal
How this work runs
From brand handshake to compliant campaign.
- Stage 01
Rights Audit
Before a term sheet exists, we map what the talent can actually sell: existing team-contract exclusivities, org-level sponsor conflicts, league category restrictions, and any prior grants of name, image, and likeness that would collide with the new brand.
- Stage 02
Term Sheet & Category Fencing
We fix the deal's skeleton first, meaning the sponsorship category (peripherals, energy drinks, apparel), exclusivity fences, deliverable counts per platform, term and renewal options, and morals and conduct clauses running in both directions.
- Stage 03
NIL Grant & Disclosure Drafting
The long-form agreement bounds every likeness use by platform, territory, duration, and medium, and hard-wires FTC-style disclosure mechanics into the deliverables themselves: who tags #ad, where, and who bears the risk if a stream misses it.
- Stage 04
Live Campaign & Exit
Once content ships, we monitor deliverable credit, usage that creeps past the granted rights, and payment milestones. When the term ends or conduct triggers fire, we run the wind-down so residual usage rights and final payments close cleanly.
A sponsorship is a license wearing a jersey. Draft the license first.
16 C.F.R. Part 255
the FTC's Endorsement Guides governing disclosure of material connections in sponsored posts and streams
Frequently asked
Common questions on esports sponsorship and endorsement counsel.
What does a sponsorship or endorsement agreement need to cover?
The license and the compliance. The license sets the deliverables, the exclusivity category and the likeness grant by platform, territory and duration, with a sunset after the term. The compliance side names who writes the disclosure, who reviews posts before and after they go live, and who bears a regulator's penalty if a stream misses it. Add a morals clause that runs both ways and a payment schedule tied to accepted deliverables rather than to the calendar.
What compliance rules apply to esports endorsements?
In the United States, the FTC's Endorsement Guides at 16 C.F.R. Part 255, revised in 2023, require a clear and conspicuous disclosure of any material connection, placed in the video or stream itself and repeated during a live broadcast. The 2024 rule on fake reviews adds civil penalties for buying followers or views. In the United Kingdom the CAP Code requires advertising to be obviously identifiable, and since April 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority can fine for breaches without going to court. Streams cross borders, so the stricter rule usually governs the deliverable.
Who do you represent in sponsorship deals?
One side of each deal. In one matter that is the player or creator who has been handed a brand's standard form; in another it is the team or league selling a category; in a third it is the brand itself. The analysis is the same from every seat, because the questions are who holds which rights, who carries the disclosure duty, and what happens when the term ends or a morals clause fires. We do not act for both sides of the same agreement.
How are a player's name, image, and likeness handled in these deals?
As a written license, because Illinois and most other states require prior written consent for any commercial use of identity. The grant names the platforms, the territory and the duration, states whether the brand may edit the player's image or combine it with other talent, and fixes a sunset after which the sponsor's catalogue has to drop the player. Personal sponsorships that pre-date the deal are carved out by name so the new grant cannot be read to override them.
What happens if a sponsorship dispute arises?
Most disputes concern deliverables that were not credited, usage that outran the grant, or a morals clause invoked after a clip went viral. The agreement decides how each is handled: a cure period for missed posts, a takedown mechanism for excess usage, and a defined process for conduct findings before any payment is withheld. Where those were written in advance, the dispute is usually settled by reference to the clause. Where they were not, we negotiate first and arbitrate or litigate only when the economics justify it.
Do sponsorship agreements need special terms for young players?
Yes. A player under eighteen can disaffirm the deal in most states, so the agreement needs a guardian's signature and, where the governing state allows it, court approval. Content directed to children under thirteen brings COPPA's data limits and the children's advertising rules into the deliverables. California requires 15 percent of a young performer's gross earnings to be set aside in a blocked trust. Exclusivity and term should be shorter for a minor than for a veteran, since the career is likelier to change shape before the contract does.
Related
Adjacent esports and gaming practices.
Tournament Rules & Compliance
Tournament rule design that accounts for applicable laws and regulations, including anti-gambling requirements and penalties for cheating across jurisdictions.
Explore →IP & Licensing
Intellectual property protection and licensing for the music, visual content, stories, characters, and trademarks inside a video game, across the gaming industry.
Explore →Player Rights & Contracts
Careful contract negotiation protecting player rights, compensation, and individual interests, with particular attention to young and inexperienced players.
Explore →Creators & Streaming
Legal support for content creators, streamers, and digital entertainment platforms on licensing, performance rights, and revenue agreements.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice