If you’ve clicked on this story, I imagine you are already familiar with some of the… conversations around broadcast exclusivity in Dota 2. If you are, skip to the bullet pointed list that is the useful part of this post.
For those who don’t know or happen to find this three years from now because of an SEO hit, here is a BRIEF overview:
Most publishers, companies, entertainers etc hold the copyright to their content and do not allow other people to broadcast it themselves. Valve is different in that they allow anyone to stream Dota 2 professional matches as long as they follow a certain set of guidelines. Those guidelines have changed over the years, if you would like an in depth look at them from before the post was written, this video goes into it all, and the video description links to everything you would need to read to catch yourself up.
The NEW Rules For Community Dota 2 Streamers
After months (and years) of battles between tournament organizers, community casters, and various personalities about whether or not there was a need for broadcast exclusivity in Dota 2, Valve finally updated their guidelines in an effort to protect TOs but still allow for community casting. Their blog post outlined the basic guidelines but left things a little vague.
Here is the the part that outlines streaming rights (beginning September 15th)
The specifics of the requirements, length of delay, and what ‘reasonable’ means are left out. However, today is September 16th, and we have a brand new page on the Dota 2 website with DotaTV licensing spelled out.
The Rules for Streamers & TOs
- Must comply with published requirements from TOs
- Streamers must make a good faith effort to contact TOs if they cannot find requirements listed anywhere (2 weeks prior)
- If TOs do not publish requirements and do not respond to the streamer when asked for a requirement list then streams must continue to be non-commercial
- TOs can require up to a 15 minute delay for community streamers
- TOs can require streamers sign up in a free and public process
- TOs can require streamers run sponsor logos as long as those sponsors are legal in the streamer’s region (Editorial note, this one made me laugh — explanation at the bottom — read for your own legal protection!)
- TOs can require the streams be non-commerical
- Non-commercial is defined by Valve’s video policy, notably “You also can’t sell or license your videos to others for a payment of any kind”
- All casting organization accounts are considered commercial
How to contact some of the big TOs, and their current policies
If any of these TOs want me to change these emails/links, feel free to send a DM on twitter or an email to ReinessaGaming@gmail.com. The list below are studios that have run recent events that I can find a contact for. I will try to keep this updated as I find more.
With Layerth’s AWESOME new feature they recently rolled out, hopefully one day, streamers can ALL just use that to work with TOs and simplify things.
Until then, here are some contacts you might need:
- Valve — dotaprocircuit@valvesoftware.com
- ESL —dota2@eslgaming.com, press@eslone.com
- DreamHack — press@dreamhack.com
- BTS Policies (To be updated) — https://twitter.com/LDeeep/status/1306267809224167425
- BTS Contact — contact@beyondthesummit.tv
- WePlay — press@weplay.tv (or try some of these contacts if needed)
- MarsTV Events — mali@marstv.com (contact from their Facebook page)
- Epicenter — info@epicenter.gg
- DotaPit — tournament@dotapit.com (from their Facebook Page)
- 4D (SA Tournaments) — Contact on their Facebook page
If you found this article useful please consider SHARING it so more people know about it! I also always accept hot cocoa contributions.
Some Personal Thoughts
Broadcast Rights: The first thought is this — WePlay sold exclusive rights for the Chinese broadcast for a reported $200,000. I imagine selling the rights to a Chinese platform is different than Western platforms, which allowed them to actually use Chinese language exclusivity as a revenue point. This Valve update still doesn’t promise exclusivity, for more than 15 minutes, which means TOs will still struggle to monetize broadcast rights as a selling points. This deal does promise more eyeballs to sponsors, so TOs can get a little more money for the possibility of Bulldog/Gorgc/Xboct/Casper/BSJ etc streams. That increase in sponsor payment won’t be as high as what you can make from exclusivity, which I outlined in the video at the start of this post. Those sponsors also won’t have direct viewership numbers or data from third party streams UNLESS the TOs use Layerth’s new system.
TO Requirements: TOs aren’t always known for their great communication, or email response time. I do think it is good on Valve that they have left a clear opening in asking streamers to reach out ahead of time, and if the TOs don’t respond, streamers are free to make use of the old (almost non-existant) broadcast guidelines.
Sponsor Legality: This section may have seemed like the least interesting from the Valve DotaTV guidelines, but it’s probably the most important caveat to note. Valve has repeatedly tried to diminish the role of betting sponsors in Dota 2. Now, which Dota 2 sponsors have different legal regions they are allowed to operate in? Is it hardware sponsors? Nah. Drink sponsorships? Nope. Car manufacturers? No… those can all advertise around the world. But betting companies? Those have licensing requirements around the regions they are allowed to operate in. Bulldog is in Sweden, BSJ is in the US. Both countries have strict regulations around betting, which means both streamers have a good chance of not having to include betting sponsors on their streams. The rules say the streamer’s region, but streamers could probably make a case that if a certain % of their viewers come from regions where that site isn’t licensed, they too are exempt from promoting it. So even though betting sponsors are footing the bill for a lot of tournaments (that same WePlay tournament saw a reported $100K from a betting sponsor) — it looks like they will not be reaping the benefits of additional eyeballs. As long as the streamers are aware of this Valve stipulation. After all, we wouldn’t want them getting in trouble with their local government! Sorry TOs, Valve still doesn’t seem to be on your side. (Mandatory I am not a lawyer statement so this is my guess/interpretation of this ruling, any decisions you make are your own etc)
Added in post publishing as this point was raised as a very valid concern for TOs.
Sponsor/TO Liability: Tournament Organizer’s can control their own broadcasts — they can’t police every single community streamer, especially since they aren’t controlling their paycheck. I have always stated that if a streamer goes on a racist/sexist/homophobic/illegal/against Twitch ToS rant etc, then they can just get banned and protect the sponsor relationship. Yet I have discounted the power of a single twitch clip going viral, something that cannot be taken back. This system requires TOs to police the streamers that are representing these sponsors, and it requires sponsors to trust the nebulous unknown streamers that may or may not be representing them. This may leave TOs unwilling to even require sponsor logo placement.
And just another reminder, if you found this a useful resource, please share it so every streamer knows all the rules and can protect themselves from all legal actions! DMCAs and… anything else.
Thanks for reading!
