After the World eSports Association creates the first Arbitration Court in the sport’s short history, Lee Davy wonders if the same system could work in poker.
On Wednesday, the World eSports Association (WESA) created the sports first arbitration court. Named the WESA Arbitration Court, the process will operate independently of the WESA organisation although the genesis of the idea was born within those four walls.
The new court allows eSports athletes, teams, organisers and game publishers to bypass the lengthy and costly litigation process by choosing a panel of three people who will work together to finalise disputes.
According to the reports, both parties in dispute will select one member of the Arbitration Panel, with the two selected then agreeing on an impartial third member. Problems that the WESA hope will be solved include player contract disputes, untimely payouts or withholding of wages, and contractual matters.
Viktor Jendeby, WESA Player Council Chairman, believes the new framework is ‘an important next step in ensuring professional gamers and their careers are guarded.’
Poker players must be looking on with envy.
Poker: The Game of Disputes
Most of the disputes, if not all, that come to the attention of the WESA Arbitration Panel will revolve around greed and the poker table is where ‘greed’ likes to spend most of his time.
The exposure that social media currently affords has allowed people on the periphery of poker’s inner sanctum to see the full scale of disputes that rage between players at the tables.
For some of these players, usually the most intelligent and the most connected within the community, there already exists a backdoor arbitration system whereby two people willing to follow process choose an impartial panel to settle matters. Unfortunately, cases like these are mainly created via a need to retain respect within the community, and often allows the snakes to slither away from the process without recrimination.
Poker could do with a WESA like Arbitration Court, but could it ever be possible?
Could This Work For Poker?
During an interview with Scott Ball, Global Head of Poker Partnerships at Twitch, I asked him for his opinion on poker’s standing within the eSports community, and he told me that poker was an eSport.
A week later and I was chewing the fat with former StarCraft star, Lex ‘RaSZi’ Veldhuis, when I asked him the same question, and he returned the same answer.
So, if poker is an eSport, and these are two people who would know the difference, then it could work, couldn’t it?
David ‘viffer’ Peat and Shaun Deeb recently had a very public spat on 2+2 and social media that would have suited an Arbitration Cout to the ground. It seems highly unlikely that the pair will ever resolve the issue and this isn’t going to be satisfactory for at least one of them.
And what about the little guy who desperately needs the money ripped from their pockets and has no outlet to get it back?
Who protects them?
At present, nobody protects them, and one of the problems that Deeb, Viffer and co face is a lack of central group within poker to resolve matters.
Earlier this year, the Electronic Sports League (ESL) successfully negotiated with some of the top eSports teams in the world to create WESA to act in this central role that is missing from the body mass of poker.
Could the Global Poker League (GPL) or Global Poker Index (GPI) take up the same role that WESA plays in eSports? Or, if poker is an eSports, then will we one day see a time when the GPL teams become a part of WESA in the same way that the likes of Fnatic, Natus Vincere, and Virtus.Pro have done?
It’s complicated.
It’s messy.
It looks impossible.
I get that.
But there was a time when disputes in poker were resolved by the person who had the bigger gun. Times change. Poker will become more professional as time passes. Entities like the GPI & GPL will lead the way, and there will come a time when messy player disputes will affect the branding and image rights of the sport as a whole, and I believe one of the best ways of managing this is to follow WESA’s lead.
