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[Legal] Approved Player Agreements

Introduction

Creating or joining an esports organisation is a major milestone in any esport journey. A successful team requires care, trust and mutual respect. When you are looking to enter into these types of agreements, it’s important that the expectations and ground rules are well laid out and that the agreement is fair for both parties. 

NZ Esports has had a set of standard player agreements drafted by top legal professionals to ensure they act fairly and comprehensively for both the player and the team. These agreements are only templates and will be modified to fit the purpose of your arrangement. We recommend you always review your contract with an independent legal professional before signing.

Amateur Agreement

If you’re starting an esports team with some friends, are entering amateur level events where you aren’t competing for prize money, or playing without a salary, you should use the Amateur Player Agreement.  

Professional Agreement

If you’re competing in paid or international events, especially if your organisation has sponsors or is competing for large prize pools, you should use the Professional Player Agreement.

Contract Guidelines

Seek independent advice

Whenever you are offered a player contract, you are encouraged to seek independent legal advice. This means finding a legal professional who is in no way associated or connected to the other party involved in the agreement. If you can’t afford a lawyer or are unsure where to start, you can get free legal advice from Community Law Centres and Citizens Advice Bureaus.

What to look for

If you see the NZ Esports logo on your player agreement, it should mean that your contract is based on the standard player agreement we provide New Zealand based esport teams. This standard player agreement has been drafted by some of New Zealand’s top legal professionals specifically for NZ Esports. However, we still always encourage you to seek independent legal advice for your specific situation.

To keep our logo on the agreement, parties must not modify or remove specific clauses designed to protect the player, team and legal integrity of the contract. We’ve detailed these clauses below, so you can verify they have not been removed or modified.

Important clauses

The following clauses are included in our standard player agreements and we believe are important elements to a fair contract.
 
If you are presented a contract that contains the NZ Esport logo and one of the clauses below is missing or has been modified, please report this to us immediately
 
The clause numbers may vary depending on your contract, but titles should remain the same

Drug testing and integrity issues

    • You must not use any controlled or banned substance, including but not limited to methamphetamine, steroids, human growth hormone or any similar drugs or blood doping techniques (each a Controlled Substance). You agree that we, a sanctioning body, WADA or any other duly authorised person (Testing Body) may test you for Controlled Substances, and you agree to submit to any pre-Event or post-Event drug test as requested by a Testing Body. You will be deemed to be in breach of this clause if you test positive for any Controlled Substance in any pre-Event or post-Event drug test.
    • If we or any sanctioning body determines that you or any person associated with you have been involved in any unethical, illegal or immoral behaviour that is likely to embarrass or damage the reputation of the Team, an Event, a broadcaster or sponsor of an Event or us or bring esports into disrepute (including any fixing of that Event), we may decide to withhold any amounts payable to you and suspend you from the Team until such time as such issues are resolved.
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