Free Premium Giveaway Allowed?

[BananaHarambe]

Hello, when creating a tournament it's very clear to not make a tournament involving money without contacting them. Does this apply to offering a free month or year of premium to the winner of the tournament?

BGA.com has gift codes for premium that the organizer can send to the winning player. This will of course require the organizer to purchase a gift code and players will need to trust that they can actually win the prize. Is this allowed?

[BananaHarambe]

Since no has said I can’t, I will assume that this allowed. I will make a tournament within the next month or two with the winner receiving 1 month premium membership, paid by myself.

If anyone has references to any tournaments like this please let me know.

[mrdoctor]

Since no has said I can’t, I will assume that this allowed.

BGA staff don't seem to read the forums very often. I'd assume that anyone who could give you a conclusive answer hasn't seen the thread.

[Meeplelowda]

Since no has said I can’t, I will assume that this allowed.

That is a poor assumption. The forum is not customer support, despite there being many helpful non-admins on here that fulfill that role. Nor is it an official channel for communicating with BGA.

And just because there isn't a specific button or menu option to click on the support page for this issue doesn't mean one stops trying. For example, this is language directed at publishers:

Note: of course, please write to us at publishers@boardgamearena.com if you have any question or specific contractual need about licensing!

This is clearly one channel for communicating about legal issues. Even if it's a different issue than yours, whoever is on the other end of that email should be able to get you in touch with the right person. And this is a legal issue because many jurisdictions have regulations concerning what is considered a lottery/sweepstakes and how they have to be administered (which I'm guessing is BGA's reason for this policy). Even if you think giving away a free membership in a tournament with no entry fee is no big deal, just because there is no entry fee does not mean it is without legal risk.

[BananaHarambe]

Pardon my last message, I said that for engagement since my first message got ignored. I’ve gone through the BGA support system to get an official answer.

Hello Everyone, here’s the answer. TLDR = no, not allowed

Dear BananaHarambe,

Thanks for playing on Board Game Arena.

Tournaments held on BGA must not contain any prizes/awards of any sorts, and there should be no mentions about any kind of prizes on BGA.
If you're doing things on your own platform, we take no responsibility, so it will be fine.

Thanks for using BGA !


Thank you,
Emma

BGA Support Team

[cofunguy]

Lol. But i guess the TTR touny is the exception!!

[nik592]

I believe the difference is that the TTR tournament is being run by Days of Wonder who have had discussions with BGA about that. There was another similar tournament for Azul (I think) a while ago too. Those things happen from time to time, they are special cases.

[BananaHarambe]

Official tournaments from the publisher will be allowed by BGA.com assuming the publisher follows all the international legal requirements correctly, which is actually quite a hassle.

For interpreting the reply I got:

Tournaments held on BGA must not contain any prizes/awards of any sorts, and there should be no mentions about any kind of prizes on BGA.
If you're doing things on your own platform, we take no responsibility, so it will be fine.

The first sentence says we cannot host a tournament with any type of prize and says we cannot ever mention prizes on BGA.com. This would very clearly refer to hosting a tournament and listing a prize in the description or discussion, any kind of publicity regarding a prize.

However, the second sentence is interesting. "Doing things on your own platform" seems to refer to handing all communication regarding the tournament and prizes on a separate website. "Doing things" seems to refer to communication and not toward operating an online board game hosting website. I don't think they're saying "make/use a separate online board game to play the games", otherwise the first sentence would have been sufficient, no need for the second sentence.

Saying "we take no responsibility, so it will be fine" seems to be saying that they would not be legally liable for a tournament with communication on a separate website because they would have no way of knowing about it or being found liable for any issues that arise.

[mrdoctor]

Official tournaments from the publisher will be allowed by BGA.com assuming the publisher follows all the international legal requirements correctly, which is actually quite a hassle.

For interpreting the reply I got:

Tournaments held on BGA must not contain any prizes/awards of any sorts, and there should be no mentions about any kind of prizes on BGA.
If you're doing things on your own platform, we take no responsibility, so it will be fine.

The first sentence says we cannot host a tournament with any type of prize and says we cannot ever mention prizes on BGA.com. This would very clearly refer to hosting a tournament and listing a prize in the description or discussion, any kind of publicity regarding a prize.

However, the second sentence is interesting. "Doing things on your own platform" seems to refer to handing all communication regarding the tournament and prizes on a separate website. "Doing things" seems to refer to communication and not toward operating an online board game hosting website. I don't think they're saying "make/use a separate online board game to play the games", otherwise the first sentence would have been sufficient, no need for the second sentence.

Saying "we take no responsibility, so it will be fine" seems to be saying that they would not be legally liable for a tournament with communication on a separate website because they would have no way of knowing about it or being found liable for any issues that arise.

I think it's basically saying that you could offer prizes if you just set up a regular-looking private tournament on BGA, and invited only specific players from a private Facebook-group or whatever. You could then say in posts on that Facebook-group that the tournament they've been invited to has a prize for the winner. You just wouldn't be able to mention anything about prizes on BGA whatsoever - no posts, instant messages, comments, or even references to it anywhere on BGA.

[BananaHarambe]

I think it's basically saying that you could offer prizes if you just set up a regular-looking private tournament on BGA, and invited only specific players from a private Facebook-group or whatever. You could then say in posts on that Facebook-group that the tournament they've been invited to has a prize for the winner. You just wouldn't be able to mention anything about prizes on BGA whatsoever - no posts, instant messages, comments, or even references to it anywhere on BGA.

Thanks for the response mrdoctor. The type of tournament you described seems completely allowed, 100% private communication, private invites, zero mentions of prizes in the tournament posts, comments, direct messages, or any other references on BGA.com.

The grey area would be having an open tournament and having a link to tournament rules on another website in the tournament posts or hosting a private tournament and putting a link to another website, which has a tournament invitation link on it.

The most important "grey area" is whether you can put a simple link to a separate website in the tournament posts, simply referring to it as a "link to tournament rules here"