Governance and integrity challenges in esports: A scoping review

The rapid growth and commercial success of esports highlight the urgent need for clear regulations and governing bodies. To inform such processes, this scoping review maps existing knowledge on governance and integrity challenges in esports, distinguishing them from traditional sports governance frameworks. Existing literature is synthesized and organised to identify research gaps, to propose future research avenues and to thus provide guidance for policymaking and regulation. Specifically, it seeks to answer: What are the key governance and integrity challenges in esports, and how can policy and regulatory frameworks address them to ensure sustainable development?

The analysis revealed a constant increase of publications over the past decade, demonstrating the relevance of the topics. Based on both deductive and inductive coding, 19 dimensions of challenges were identified, including 8 related to governance and 11 to integrity. Key governance challenges include structures, regulations, democratic processes, legitimacy, and intellectual property. Prominent integrity challenges involve health issues, illegal sports betting, gender and sexuality, doping, and safeguarding.

The study reveals that traditional sports governance concepts are insufficient for addressing esports-specific issues, necessitating the development of dedicated frameworks. There is a need for future research to investigate player perspectives, assess the prevalence of challenges, and promote harmonized regulations. This review underscores the importance of a holistic perspective on governance and integrity to improve legitimacy and regulatory authority, ensuring the sustainable growth of the esports industry.