An esports organisation in Türkiye signs a nineteen-year-old to play a publisher’s game for a season, streams her matches, sells her jersey and hopes to transfer her to a European team for a fee before the contract ends. Each of those verbs belongs to a different body of law, and the first question, whether she is an employee or an athlete, decides most of the rest. Article 4 of the Labour Law No. 4857 excludes athletes from the Law; the Code of Obligations No. 6098 (TBK) then governs the service contract without the Labour Law’s severance, notice and job-security regime. Whether a professional gamer is an athlete in that sense depends on the federation licence, and the answer has consequences for tax, for termination and for the buyout clause the organisation is counting on. This article sets out the employee-or-athlete test, the TBK rules that apply either way, the structure of a player contract, the transfer and buyout mechanics, image rights and streaming revenue, the tax rate, the minors problem, and the publisher’s position above the whole triangle. It extends the esports section of our gaming law guide and borrows from non-compete clauses under TBK 444.
Employee or athlete: the Article 4 exclusion
Article 4(1)(g) of Law 4857 provides that the Law does not apply to athletes (sporcular). The Law does not define the term; the courts have applied the exclusion to persons who perform a sport professionally under a licence issued through the relevant federation and compete in organised competitions, and have left outside it persons whose work is only related to sport. Esports has had a federation since 2018, the Turkish E-Sports Federation under the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which issues athlete licences and registers clubs and competitions; a player licensed through it and competing for a registered club in federation-recognised competitions has a strong claim to be an athlete for Article 4 purposes, and a Yargıtay line on professional footballers and basketball players points the same way. A player without a licence, a content creator who competes occasionally, a coach, an analyst or a manager is not an athlete and, if working under the organisation’s direction for a wage, is an employee under Law 4857 with everything that entails, including the rules we set out in your first ten employees. Organisations should therefore know, per person, which regime applies, and should not assume that “player” means “athlete” for everyone on the roster.
What the TBK gives and takes
Where the Labour Law does not apply, the service contract is governed by Articles 393 to 447 of the TBK. Article 393 defines the service contract as one in which the worker undertakes to perform work in dependence on the employer for a fixed or indefinite period against wages; the athlete’s season contract is a fixed-term service contract. The TBK provides for wage protection, the employer’s duty to protect the worker’s personality and health (Article 417), holidays, notice periods for indefinite contracts (Article 432), termination for just cause (Article 435) with compensation where the employer terminates without cause, and the non-compete rules of Articles 444 to 447. It does not provide the Labour Law’s severance pay, the thirty-employee job-security regime or the mandatory overtime premiums, and it allows fixed terms without the Labour Law’s “objective reason” requirement, which is why season contracts are the norm. Two TBK rules bite on esports drafting. Article 420(1) invalidates penalty clauses in service contracts that are imposed only on the worker; a buyout or “breach fee” payable by the player alone is void, so any penalty must be mutual or structured differently. And Article 420(2) makes releases of the worker’s claims valid only if in writing, at least one month after termination, specific as to type and amount, and paid in full through a bank, which is how a player’s end-of-season settlement must be documented.
The player contract
A season contract for a licensed player should address, in this order: the term and the competitions covered, with an obligation to obtain and keep the federation licence and to comply with the federation’s and the publisher’s rules; the base salary, the schedule of payment through a bank, and the split of prize money, with the organisation’s share and the timing of pass-through stated; performance and streaming duties, hours of practice and the health and rest provisions Article 417 requires; exclusivity for competitive play and the treatment of the player’s personal streaming channel; image rights, addressed below; equipment, travel and boot camp costs; disciplinary rules aligned with the federation’s disciplinary instructions; termination for cause on both sides with the Article 435 standard, and termination without cause with the compensation formula, mutual and therefore valid under Article 420; the transfer mechanism; a non-compete or non-solicit within the limits of Articles 444 to 447 (written, limited in place, time and subject, and not exceeding two years), which for a player with a genuine competitive edge is often better replaced by the transfer mechanism; and dispute resolution, noting that federation disciplinary and arbitration bodies handle sporting disputes while contract claims go to the ordinary courts.
Transfers and buyouts without a void penalty
Football’s transfer system rests on federation rules; esports in Türkiye has federation licensing but no comparable statutory transfer regime, so a player’s move mid-contract is a matter of contract. The common structure is a three-party arrangement: the player and the current organisation agree a consensual early termination, the new organisation pays the current one a “transfer fee” as consideration for releasing the player, and the player signs a new contract. A clause in the player contract that fixes a release amount payable by any acquiring team, and obliges the organisation to release the player if that amount is offered, is a permissible mechanism because it binds the organisation and third parties, not the player alone; a clause obliging the player personally to pay a fee if she leaves early is an Article 420 penalty and is void. Where the organisation has invested in the player (a signing bonus, training), it may instead structure the bonus as repayable pro rata on early departure at the player’s initiative, which courts treat as a wage arrangement rather than a penalty if reasonable and mutual in effect. All fees and settlements must pass through a bank, and Article 20(9) of the Sports Clubs and Sports Federations Law No. 7405 requires payments and collections by or for registered sports clubs and sports joint-stock companies to pass through banks, financial institutions or the PTT, within the monetary limits set by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, a category into which esports organisations that register with the Ministry fall.
Image rights, streaming and merchandise
A player’s name, likeness, voice and gamer tag are personality rights protected under Articles 24 and 25 of the Civil Code, and her image is further protected by Article 86 of the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works, which prohibits exhibiting or publishing portraits without the subject’s consent even where they are not works. Personality rights cannot be assigned; they can be licensed. The contract should therefore grant the organisation a licence, for the term and a defined sell-off period, to use the player’s image, name and tag for team merchandise, sponsor activations, broadcasts and social media, state whether the licence is exclusive, carve out the player’s personal channels and personal sponsorships subject to conflict rules, and provide a revenue share on merchandise bearing the player’s individual identity. Streaming income from the player’s own channel belongs to the player unless the contract provides otherwise; where the organisation requires streaming hours, those hours are working time and their revenue treatment must be explicit. Sponsorship categories reserved to the organisation (peripherals, energy drinks; promoting unlicensed betting is a criminal offence under Article 5 of Law No. 7258, and league and publisher rules on betting sponsors should be checked) should be listed. Because the gamer tag may be registrable as a trade mark, the contract should say who may register it and what happens on departure; the usual answer is that the tag stays with the player.
Tax, minors and the publisher above the triangle
Provisional Article 72 of the Income Tax Law No. 193 applies, until 31 December 2028, a flat withholding to wages and payments treated as wages paid to athletes: twenty per cent for the top league in league-based sports, ten per cent for the next level, five per cent for other leagues, and five per cent for sports not organised in leagues and for national athletes’ international competition payments, with no further Article 94 withholding and an annual return required only where the total exceeds the fourth bracket of the tariff. Whether an esports player benefits depends on the same athlete characterisation; an organisation that treats a licensed player as an athlete for Article 4 purposes should apply the athlete regime consistently for tax, and one that treats an unlicensed player as an employee should withhold under the ordinary tariff. Minors are common in esports: under Article 16 of the Civil Code a minor with discernment cannot incur obligations without the legal representative’s consent, so a contract with a sixteen-year-old needs the parent’s signature, and the organisation’s duties of care under Article 417 are heightened. Above all of this sits the publisher, which owns the game as a copyright work and licenses its use in competitions; publisher tournament rules govern eligibility, roster locks, streaming rights and conduct, and a player contract that conflicts with them is unenforceable in practice because the publisher, not the court, decides who plays. Every esports contract should incorporate the publisher’s rules by reference and allocate the risk of their change.
Our players are not licensed by the federation. Are they employees?
If they work under your direction for a wage, yes, under Law 4857, with severance, notice and, above thirty staff, job-security consequences. Licensing them changes the analysis; decide deliberately and apply the same treatment for payroll and tax.
Can we put a buyout clause in the player’s contract?
Not as a penalty payable by the player alone; Article 420 of the TBK voids that. Structure it as a release obligation on the organisation triggered by a third-party offer at a fixed amount, or as a pro rata repayable signing bonus, and route all payments through a bank.
Who owns the player’s gamer tag and channel?
The player, as personality rights, unless licensed. Grant the organisation a term-limited licence for team uses, carve out the personal channel with conflict rules, and say expressly that the tag and channel follow the player on departure.
Related: esports · non-compete · withholding tax · gaming law in Türkiye.
Sources. Labour Law No. 4857 (Article 4); Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 (Articles 393, 417, 420, 432, 435, 444–447); Sports Clubs and Sports Federations Law No. 7405 (Articles 14, 20); Income Tax Law No. 193 (Provisional Article 72); Turkish Civil Code No. 4721 (Articles 16, 24–25); Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works No. 5846 (Article 86); Law No. 7258 on the Regulation of Betting and Games of Chance in Football and Other Sports (Article 5). Statute links open the official Turkish texts on mevzuat.gov.tr.
This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Please seek legal support for an assessment of any specific matter.
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