Doping as a barrier in universal acceptance of esports

Abstract

PurposeEsports has been emerging as a multi-billion dollar industry by attracting players, viewers, advertisers and investors across the globe. Even though there are plenty of professional titles present, only a few have been considered mainstream due to lack of formal governance mechanisms, presence of corruption and cheating mechanisms. “Doping” is one such practice where the players try to gain unfair advantage over their competitors, causing major hindrance in esports development. This qualitative study would draw insights from their perceptions about different doping mechanisms and possible recommendations to curb them.Design/methodology/approachThis study has analyzed the semi-structured interviews of selected esports professionals to draw insights from their perceptions about different doping mechanisms and possible recommendations to curb them. This qualitative study would explore the content of their interviews for extracting relevant themes and subthemes.FindingsThe findings of this study have made significant contributions to deeply lacking literature about the esports industry and barriers it faces in order to be considered as a legitimate sport. The study has extracted contemporary and new emerging themes about the rising trends in the industry and their impact on society and the way we see sports as a whole. Moreover, this study dwells upon the rampant drug abuse persisting in this industry and how it offers itself as a barrier to the legitimization of esports as a viable global industry.Originality/valueThis study provides an on-ground reality reports on esports and various malpractices rampant in the industry by conducting interviews with various industry professionals and analyzing them through a thematic analysis method using an inductive approach.

Perceptions of professional esports players on performance-enhancing substances

“…These codes, however, are far from being universally accepted, let alone binding in the esports ecosystem. Gupta, Sharma & Gupta (2021) argue that the inexistence of a central authority regulating and governing the competitive esports industry through proper rules and regulations in particular hamper the development of an efficient and effective anti-doping policy in esports. According to the authors, there are various leagues and tournament holding organisations that have put out their own independent anti-doping guidelines with various levels of implementation.…”

“…Stivers, 2017). Gupta, Sharma & Gupta (2021) explain, for example, that some of the drugs are selectively banned on competition days, while others are banned in general; further, the guidelines are limited only to the tournaments conducted by the ESL. Due to this lack of standardisation, the authors conclude that esports still appears to count on athletes to self-monitor themselves.…”

“…He also explains that the organisations seem to have different notions of integrity, while at the base of the integrity principle he sees the concern that a (perceived) widespread use of performance-enhancing substances among esports players negatively affects esports' popularity and, hence, financial gain. Gupta, Sharma & Gupta (2021) were the first to provide empirical insights and perceptions of esports players on doping in particular. One of the authors' main conclusions is that "[w]ithout a central point unifying the industry to define where the line of ethics is situated, subjects such as doping fall into a grey area which is damaging to the stakeholders in general" (p. 15).…”

“…1 Due to the cognitive requirements in conducting esports, the debate about performanceenhancement here largely revolves around cognition-enhancing drugs, and their use seems to be a widespread phenomenon not only in elite or professional competitions but also among amateur players (Holden, Kaburakis & Wall Tweedie, 2019). Gupta, Sharma & Gupta (2021) state that doping "is a fairly common practice that has traumatized the entire esports industry due to the lack of a formal governance system". Indeed, commentators tend to agree that many of the current challenges faced within the esports ecosystem result from a lack of identifiable governance structures (Peng et al, 2020).…”

“…Doubtless there are some concerns from players and contributions regarding voices outside the esports competitive player scene. Gupta, Sharma & Gupta (2021) conducted interviews with professional esports players in India. Their work attempted to bring about a better understanding of the doping phenomena in the realm.…”