This Tuesday, the PS is promoting a parliamentary conference on esports (electronic sports) with the aim of launching the debate and listening to experts and entities in the sector before moving forward with a legislative initiative that regulates this activity.
In statements to the Lusa agency, PS deputy Miguel Costa Matos explained the PS’s objectives with this meeting that will take place this afternoon at the Assembly of the Republic on a sector that, according to him, represents “a market that already has a worth more than 1.7 billion euros worldwide and which already has more than 500 thousand spectators”.
“It is an opportunity for us to understand with these entities what is the way in which esports should be regulated and have, when parliamentary work resumes, a legislative initiative that embodies this dehydration and that 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 anticipated.
Electronic sports, according to the PS deputy, have thousands of athletes in Portugal, with the country being “European champion in electronic football two years ago”, a “phenomenon that is filling rooms, which is is moving crowds and has more and more practitioners”.
“While the activity is deregulated, we know of cases in which, for example, prizes instead of being paid in cash are paid in shopping vouchers, there is no due protection of rights Of the players who are professionals, there are no precautions that are necessary from a health point of view”, he said.
The objective of the PS is to promote a debate with “people with diverse opinions, with profiles from both sport, video games, and electronic sport”.
“Our goal is to listen to the entire community in order to understand how we can provide more security, more regulation to this activity so that it can continue to develop, but in a way that is socially fair”, explained.
According to Miguel Costa Matos, there are several different opinions about whether electronic sports should have a legislative profile more similar to a sporting modality or more similar to a cultural activity or an economic activity.
After this parliamentary conference, according to the socialist, the objective is to gather enough contributions in the coming months to present a legislative initiative.
“It’s time to launch the debate. We cannot continue to ignore that there are thousands of people who practice, who watch esports, who invest in this sector and therefore it is necessary to have this debate and it is necessary to move forward with a regulation and this must happen as quickly as possible”, he defended.
According to the conference program, there will be a panel on “Public Policies and Sports Law”, with law professor José Manuel Meirim, the president of IPDJ, VÃtor Pataco and lawyer Fernando da Veiga Gomes.
There follows a space on “School participation of esports athletes” which features the intervention of researcher Tiago Ribeiro and the president of the National Association of Directors of Groups and Public Schools , Filinto Lima.
To debate “Prevention and health promotion” will be the clinical director of the Portuguese Electronic Sports Federation, Filipe Cymbron, and researcher Joana Cardoso.
There will also be a panel on “Culture, history and economic opportunities” and another on “Fair and competitive tax and labor framework”, which will feature the participation of tax law professor Carlos Lobo and lawyer Joã Leitão Figueiredo.
Before the closing, which will be the responsibility of André Pinotes Batista, deputy rapporteur of the conference, and Miguel Costa Matos, time for the public hearing of the esports community, which will feature the participation of two dozens of people.
