ESport

Electronic Sports

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Following the success of the Gaming sector, Malta lunched its vision for video game development and ESport, hosting also several international ESport events and local competitions. The country offers a number of advantages for the ESport sector, including:

• shared talented people also in gaming, corporate and financial services industry

• beneficial tax regime

• geographically located in the middle of the Mediterranean and also touristic destination, making it attractive also for venues.

Regulations & Tax

Gaming and eSport falls within the Malta Gaming Authority (“MGA”). The Gaming Act defines game of chance as an activity the outcome of which is determined by chance alone or predominantly by chance and also includes activities the outcome of which is determined depending on the occurrence of one or more future events.  

The Skills Games Regulations were issued on 24 January 2017.  Skills games are generally exempt from regulation under the same act unless they are deemed as a skill game amounting to “controlled skill game”, that is a game that requires a stake to enable participation or offers the possibility of winning a prize, and that is deemed to be a licensable game by the MGA.  In this respect, Fantasy Sports are an exception in that they require a license.

Malta tax incentives which allow for an effective corporate tax rate of 5%, and a wide array of double taxation treaties with various countries worldwide, puts Malta in the lead of the game.