This Monday, January 16, at the Maison de l'Esport, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications, have brought together the actors of the esport ecosystem to establish and carry, with Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, the national esport strategy for the next three years around five major actions.

On June 3, the President of the Republic reaffirmed his desire to accelerate the structuring of the esport sector and strengthen its attractiveness, notably through the hosting of new major international events, while announcing new major competitions in France, the Blast Major » in May 2023 and the « Trackmania games » in 2024.

On the strength of this impulse, the three Ministries have for several weeks carried out concertation work involving almost thirty actors (organisations representative of the esport including France Esports, esportive teams, event organizers, leisure software publishers' union, private partners, media, sports movement, Paris 2024 organising committee, local authorities and State services).

During this morning, as part of the workshop cycle Political Impulse and Strategic Coordination » organized by the Ministry of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games (MSJOP) since September 2022, the actors have returned their work around five objectives:

Structuring the esport ecosystem;

Better support amateur practice and associations of the sector in the territories;

Remove the obstacles to the development of practice in France;

Strengthen the capacity of the French ecosystem to host major international esport events;

Mobilizing the ecosystem to host Olympic Esports Week in France at the end of 2024, following the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

 

The following action plan has been validated with stakeholders

1 - Launch a prefiguration mission for the creation of a national structure to pilot and implement the national esport strategy (development of practice, supervision, training of actors, high level, attractiveness, economic development, etc.) having all the necessary legitimacy and the necessary basis with the public and private actors of the ecosystem. The prefiguration mission will notably aim to determine the legal form that this structure could take, which will have to benefit from innovative financing means. Mission to report findings by summer 2023.

2 - Foster coaching and practice development in the territories in a responsible, collegial and legible way:

Realization of a cartography actors of the esport aiming to make better identifiable the existing territorial structures, to value associations, to facilitate the interactions and synergies between actors (including sports clubs);

Establishment ofregional branches of the esport in two to four pilot regions (including the South region) with the appointment in each of them of a territorial delegate and the signing of a tripartite agreement between the State, France Esports, and the region concerned;

Responsible promotion of the esportive discipline aimed at demonstrating both its virtues (intergenerational links in practice, development of reflexes, sense of effort, creativity, etc.) and prevent risks that a practice that is too addictive, sedentary, isolated or exposed to online violence can cause.

3 - Strengthening dynamism of France, represented by its competitions, its leading or expanding companies, its video games, its teams, and contribute to its attractiveness through the publication of an interdepartmental instruction allowing the use of talent passport “world-class” for high-level esportives.

4- Build the success of the Olympic Esports Week in France at the end of 2024 by launching today a bid committee (co-sponsored by the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, the Interministerial Delegation to major sporting events, Paris&Co - esport and with the participation of the Paris 2024 organizing committee) responsible for preparing and presenting a project to public actors in spring 2023, while the IOC’s specifications and the scope of the event will continue to be refined. Matthieu Péché, manager of the Vitality team on the Counter-Strike game, and bronze medallist in Rio in 2016, will coordinate this committee.

 

Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games, In accordance with the direction given by the President of the Republic, this morning’s workshop will accelerate, in the coming months, the structuring of the sector as well as the development of practice in the territories. And in the wake of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we will try to host the Olympic Esports Week at the end of 2024 with the will to further strengthen the bridges between sport and esport».

Jean-Noël Barrot, Deputy Minister for Digital Transition and Telecommunications,France, to shine, must strengthen its attractiveness in the esport. From 2023, we will show that the country is home to major international esport events. We will make this possible in particular by facilitating the use of the talent passport for high-level esportives. At the same time, we will work to identify the obstacles to the economic development of the sector, in order to remove them, and support the strengthening of the economic model of professional teams while progressing towards a better management of online competitions ».

Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture,With esport, we are helping to develop a whole growing economic and cultural sector. We must also continue to support the creation of major French competitive games and foster innovative connections with other cultural sectors ».