Pro Gamers Now Recognized as Athletes in Turkey

For those who can't access the article for whatever reason;

https://i.imgur.com/8ohHpaf.jpg

Pro Gamers Now Recognized as Athletes in Turkey

The Turkish Esport Federation has passed the Player's License and Transfer Regulation as well as the Referee Regulation, allowing professional esports gamers to be recognized as pro athletes under Turkish law.

Esports continues to be recognized by various governments around the world as official sports, whether fans want to classify it as such or not. This time, Turkey has joined the fray by passing two regulations that give official status to players, as well as regulate transfers and referees in esports within Turkey.

According to Emin Ozkurt, a lawyer who has been helping to lobby for these new regulations: Turkish Esport Federation has enacted the “Player’s Licence and Transfer Regulation” and the “Referee Regulation”. Professional gamers are now officially recognised as athletes under Turkish law.

Our law office is happy to be part of this and exited to see further progress.

These new regulations put Turkey into a growing number of countries to officially recognize esports players as athletes. Germany has long been a leader in this regard, and most recently relaxed travel standards as well as visa processes for non-EU players passing through Germany to compete. Japan recently organized the Japan Esports Union, made up of parts of the Japan Esports Association and various developer partners, to offer pro licenses to players, giving them status as athletes in Japan. The Philippines government is also now offering licensing for pro players, giving them status in that country as well. Finland also took up the charge on this issue, and was one of the first countries to do so in Europe, kicking off the trend in the EU earlier this year.

Pro players receiving these benefits from their home countries usually benefit from tax breaks, the ability to more easily immigrate to a country as an athlete, as well as many other issues. Turkey, in particular, is famous for paying athletes in Track and Field to move to their country to represent them in international competition. While it's still a long way off from that in esports, should movements like adding competitive gaming to the Olympics go through, this status is another possible boon for players.

/r/GlobalOffensive Thread Link - unikrn.com