Lisbon, July 2, 2024 (Lusa) — Portugal's Socialist Party is organising a parliamentary conference on Tuesday about esports (electronic sports). The aim is to launch a debate and listen to experts and entities in the sector before moving forward with a legislative initiative to regulate this activity.
Speaking to the Lusa news agency, PS MP Miguel Costa Matos explained the PS's objectives with this meeting, which will take place this afternoon in the Assembly of the Republic, on a sector which, he said, represents "a market that is already worth more than €1.7 billion worldwide and has more than 500,000 spectators".
"It's an opportunity for us to understand with these entities how esports should be regulated and to have, when parliamentary work resumes, a legislative initiative that embodies this dehydration and allows this phenomenon to have more clarity, more security, more rights for those who practice it, for those who watch it, for those who invest in it," he said.
Electronic sports, according to the PS MP, has thousands of athletes in Portugal, and the country was "European champion in electronic football two years ago", a "phenomenon that is filling rooms, that is moving crowds and that has more and more practitioners".
"While the activity is unregulated, we know of cases where, for example, prizes are paid in shopping vouchers instead of in cash, there is no proper protection of the rights of players who are professionals, there are no precautions that need to be taken from a health point of view," he said.
The PS aims to promote a debate with "people with diverse opinions, with profiles in sports, video games, and e-sports."
"Our aim is to listen to the whole community to understand how we can give this activity more security, more regulation so that it can continue to develop, but in a socially just way," he explained.
According to Miguel Costa Matos, there are several different opinions on whether e-sports should have a legislative profile that is more similar to a sport or more similar to a cultural or economic activity.
According to the socialist, the aim is to gather enough contributions in the coming months to present a legislative initiative after this parliamentary conference.
"It's time to launch the debate. We can no longer ignore the fact that there are thousands of people who practise esports, who watch esports, and invest in this sector, so we need to have this debate, and we need to move forward with regulation, and this should happen as soon as possible," he argued.
According to the conference programme, there will be a panel on "Public Policies and Sports Law", with law professor José Manuel Meirim, IPDJ president Vítor Pataco and lawyer Fernando da Veiga Gomes.
This will be followed by a section on "School participation by esports athletes", with the intervention of researcher Tiago Ribeiro and the president of the National Association of Directors of Public Schools, Filinto Lima.
Debating "Prevention and health promotion" will be the Portuguese Federation of Electronic Sports clinical director, Filipe Cymbron, and researcher Joana Cardoso.
There will also be a panel on "Culture, history and economic opportunities" and another on "A fair and competitive tax and labour framework," with tax law professor Carlos Lobo and lawyer João Leitão Figueiredo participating.
Before the closing session, which will be chaired by André Pinotes Batista, the conference's deputy rapporteur, and Miguel Costa Matos, there will be a public hearing for the esports community, which will be attended by two dozen people.
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Lusa
