What is a MGO?

Learners representing their school with pride.

In South African esports there is a lot of talk about Milti-Gaming Organisations (MGO's).

But what is an MGO?

Currently, the definition for an MGO on Wikipedia is stated as such:

"Multi-Gaming-Organisations (MGO's) are in many ways like clans or clubs except they are focused on the business aspect of eSports and are made up of many competitive teams. While the teams within MGO's are often managed in the same way a normal clan is managed, the organisation's top level management would include marketing, business and public relations personnel. In short, an MGO functions like a business while, in general, clans / clubs do not."

So what we  can gather from the above definition is that an MGO can take the form of various legal entities.

Such entities may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Private companies (owned by one or more shareholders), 
• Clans owned by sole-traders,
• Clans owned by partnerships,
• Associations

Without doubt, in my opinion, the MGO's that take the legal form of being an Association is the type of organisation that best look after the interests of the player as the administrators govern through passion, and not from a profit-making point of view. Any profits made here have to be invested in the club and/or development programmes. It also should be noted that these organisations are not owned by anyone, but, are instead governed by all  the voting members.

Sole-traders, Partnerships, and Private Companies that are all profit making ventures in which the sole-traders, partners and drectors intend to make a profit  out of trading. The trading may take the form of selling apparel, equipment, or earning prize-money through their teams in tournaments that offer prize-money. It should be noted these types of organisations are governed exclusively by the owners.Also read:

• Professional esports athletes must register for tax.
• Sponsorships of athletes.
• Prize Money 
• What is a MGO?