Bobby Sharma, Special Adviser, Foley & Lardner LLP, trends in the global Esports industry - E131

Bobby Sharma is a special adviser to the Sports & Entertainment Group at Foley & Lardner LLP. He has nearly 20 years of sports, media, and entertainment industry experience. Bobby is founding partner of Electronic Sports Group (ESG), a market-leading esports advisory firm which helps investment and business leaders navigate and operate in the burgeoning billion-dollar esports industry. He is also a partner at GACP Sports, a sports-related private equity firm, and the chairman of Blue Devil Holdings, LLC, an international sports, media, and entertainment investment company. Previously, Bobby served as a senior vice president of the Global Head of Basketball & Strategic Initiatives at IMG and as a vice president and general counsel at the NBA Development League at the National Basketball Association for almost a decade. Bobby provides services to organizations, teams, leagues, and other stakeholders across all professional and amateur sports on a range of subjects, such as league development and governance, team sales and acquisitions, media, sponsorship, licensing, data use and privacy, and technology. His work includes a focus on the rapidly evolving business and legal issues in esports and its broad and complex range of stakeholders, including leagues and teams, game publishers, technology and software developers, investors, media distributors, sponsors, and merchandisers. To read more about Bobby please click here - https://www.foley.com/en/people/s/sharma-bobby To read more about the Sports & Entertainment Industry Team at Foley & Lardner LLP please click here - https://www.foley.com/en/services/industry-teams/sports Foley & Lardner - Fourth Annual Esports Survey Report - https://www.foley.com/en/insights/publications/2022/01/fourth-annual-esports-survey-report 1:31 - Key highlights from the 4th Esports Annual Survey report 11:21 - Issues that are due to the fast pace of growth of the esports industry 20:05 - How are esports investment deals typically structured? What should investors or the targets be mindful of when closing deals? 27:20 - Esports adopting a franchise legal model 33:24 - Crypto and NFT's in esports 43:16 - Synergies between esports and traditional sports 47:16 - Views on the call by some people in eSports for a single overarching regulatory body We thoroughly enjoyed the interview and took a lot away from it. We hope you do the same. The host is Sean Cottrell (@spcott), founder and CEO of LawInSport. For more sports law news, commentary and analysis go to LawInSport.com Upcoming Events: www.lawinsport.com/sports-law-events LawInSport Recruitment: https://www.lawinsport.com/careers/recruitment-services. LawInSport Academy Mentoring Scheme: www.lawinsport.com/announcements Follow us on Twitter @LawInSport and Sean at @spcott. Listen to podcast on: Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/lawinsport iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lawlnsport-sports-law-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7zNCAlkXxL2XEfypDApye8?si=nViULnknQeSAKSdXKUL2kA