The Importance of Licensing in Football Video Games

It’s a dream of any UFABET เว็บบาคาร่า สดที่ดีที่สุด celebrity athlete to see fans rocking his jersey, share his trading cards or display a Fathead in their bedroom or office. But behind the scenes, there is a lot of hard work to make these things happen. It is important for players and their agents to understand how licensing works.

Whether or not you like EA Sports’ FIFA video game franchise, the company has a lot of money riding on its success. Using the licence from FIFA, the world governing body of football, EA Sports makes a series of video games featuring leagues, clubs and players with names and physical appearances that are very similar to their real-life counterparts.

Behind the Scenes: Unveiling the Critical Role of Licensing in the Success of Football Video Games

That brings us to two of the biggest football players in the world, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale. The pair recently tweeted that they were unhappy with how their image rights are being used in the FIFA franchise. Their discontent has raised questions about the licence agreement between EA Sports and FIFA.

What is the scope of the licence? Does it cover both in-game and out-of-game uses of the IP (e.g. merchandise, packaging, trade dress etc)? Does the licence contain appropriate provisions to ring-fence ownership of each party’s Background IP?

Last week, the LEAD1 Association hosted a virtual panel discussion on one of the hottest topics in college sports: group licensing. The panel featured Feldman, who has written the often-cited white paper on student-athlete name, image and likeness (NIL) rights as well as Gonser and Winston, both of whom have written extensively on the topic of NIL for college sports.