Information sheet: Nordic Esports
We will conduct a study ‘Nordic Esports’ in 2023–2025, examining different aspects of Nordic esports culture and organisations: how is esports organised and funded in different Nordic countries, what kind of joint esports culture activities are developed in Nordic countries, and what kind of values and goals exist behind them. One of the central perspectives in the study is how equity is being promoted in Nordic esports.
We will examine both individual Nordic countries and their esports activities as well as the Nordic Esports Federation (NEF) and other forms of Nordic esports collaboration, such as Nordic championship tournaments. The aim of the study is to report how esports align within Nordic society, culture, language politics, and sports, and what are the special features of Nordic esports compared to global esports environments.
Research material collected for the study consists of observation notes and materials collected from esports events, documents, media materials, and research interviews.
All results of the study will be published as openly available publications.
Researchers
The study is conducted by Postdoctoral Research Fellows Usva Friman and Matilda Ståhl as a part of the Game Research Lab and the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University.
Other researchers may collaborate in some parts of the project. However, research materials will not be shared with any other researchers than those named above in any other than pseudonymised form, unless agreed otherwise with research participants.
Research Ethics and Data Protection
All research activities are conducted following The Finnish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, the principle of informed consent, and data protection guidelines. Participation in the study is voluntary and participants have the right to withdraw from the study. Information shared by the participants is treated confidentially and following the Tampere University data protection guidelines, Finnish Data Protection Act, and GDPR. Participants can choose if they will participate using their own name or pseudonymously. Participants have the right to allow or deny continuous use and archiving of the material they have offered for the study. Interview material will be archived in The Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) with participants’ consent.
The Privacy Notice of the study is available below.
Contact Information
You can contact the researchers by email:
Usva Friman: usva.friman@tuni.fi
Matilda Ståhl: matilda.stahl@tuni.fi
We are happy to answer all questions regarding the study!
Privacy notice: Nordic Esports
1. Title, description, and duration of research
The ‘Nordic Esports’ research project examines esports in the Nordic countries from various perspectives, creating an overview of how esports is organised and what kind of esports culture is being created in the Nordic countries. The aim of the project is to report how esports align within Nordic society, culture, language politics, and sports, and what are the special features of Nordic esports compared to global esports environments. Three central focus areas of the project are (1) organisation and funding of esports in the Nordic countries; (2) values and politics in Nordic esports; and (3) diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in Nordic esports.
The research activities will be conducted between November 2023 and December 2025. Data processing may continue until December 2026 due to publishing and data archiving schedules.
2. Data controller
Tampere University Foundation sr
33014 Tampere University
Kalevantie 4, 33100 Tampere
Business ID: 2844561-8
3. Contact persons regarding the research registry
Usva Friman
Pinni B, Kanslerinrinne 1, PL 300, 33014 Tampereen yliopisto, Finland
+358 50 4624 795
usva.friman@tuni.fi
Matilda Ståhl
Pinni B, Kanslerinrinne 1, PL 300, 33014 Tampereen yliopisto, Finland
matilda.stahl@tuni.fi
4. Contact information of the Data Protection Officer
Tampere University Data Protection Officer: dpo@tuni.fi
5. Research group
The project is conducted as a part of the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland:
Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies
Pinni B, Kanslerinrinne 1, PL 300, 33014 Tampereen yliopisto, Finland
https://coe-gamecult.org
6. Researchers
Research activities and data processing will be carried out by Postdoctoral Research Fellows Usva Friman and Matilda Ståhl.
7. Content of research records
The following personal data categories will be processed in the project: participant names, contact information (email addresses and Discord handles), photos, video, voice, and organisational positions.
8. Sources of personal data
Personal data will be collected from: research interviews (on Zoom), observation materials (notes, photos, videos), personal communication (through email and Discord), public documents (e.g. esports federations’ press releases) and media materials (e.g. news stories about Nordic esports events).
9. Purpose of processing personal data
The purpose of processing personal data is scientific research. Processing personal data is required to collect the necessary research material from representatives of different organisations and participants in Nordic esports to answer the research questions:
RQ1: How is esports organised and funded in the Nordic countries?
RQ2: What kind of values and politics are driving Nordic esports organisations, events, and practices?
RQ3: How are questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), particularly in terms of gender equality, addressed in Nordic esports events and organisations?
10. Lawful basis for processing personal data
The lawful basis for processing under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Article 6 Paragraph 1, and the Personal Data Act, Section 4: Public interest, scientific research purposes.
11. Sensitive personal data
The researchers will not initiate discussions regarding any sensitive aspects of participants’ personal identities or backgrounds. However, diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly from the perspective of gender equality, are one of the focus areas and research questions of the project, and events discussed in the interviews include women’s esports tournaments. Because of this, it is possible that sensitive personal data related to participants’ gender identity, sexual orientation, or racial or ethnic origin will be processed in the project, if brought up by the research participants about themselves. If participants will disclose any sensitive personal data during the interviews, the information they have provided will be processed with special care, and the participants will be given the opportunity to check how the information will be presented in the study before the manuscript will be submitted for publication.
12. Lawful basis for processing of sensitive personal data
The lawful basis for processing under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Article 9 (special categories of personal data), and the Personal Data Act, Sections 6 and 7: The processing activities are conducted for the purpose of scientific research in the public interest.
13. Data protection principles and practices
Participants can choose if they will participate in the study using their own name (as representatives of their organisations) or pseudonymously. In the case of pseudonymous participation, all directly identifiable data will be removed before the analysis phase.
Research interviews will be conducted, transcribed, and pseudonymised by the two project researchers. Pseudonymised interview transcripts will be translated into English using a professional translator.
Interview recordings will be stored on the project researchers’ password protected personal work computers in locked office rooms for the duration of the transcription process, after which they will be destroyed. Pseudonymised interview transcriptions and other materials that do not contain any sensitive personal data will be also stored on the secure cloud drive (Microsoft OneDrive) provided by Tampere University, protected by usernames, passwords, and multi-factor authentication.
14. Processing of personal data after the research project has been concluded
Participants have the right to allow or deny continuous use and archiving of the material they have offered for the study. After the project has been completed, interview transcriptions will be archived in The Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) with participants’ consent, and otherwise destroyed. If a participant wishes to withdraw from the study at any point, any material they have provided will be destroyed immediately.
15. Data subjects’ rights and possible restriction thereof
Data subjects have the following rights under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
- Right of access
- Data subjects are entitled to find out what information the University holds about them or to receive confirmation that their personal data is not processed by the University.
- Right to rectification
- Data subjects have the right to have any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete personal details held by the University revised or supplemented without undue delay. In addition, data subjects are entitled to have any unnecessary personal data deleted from the University’s systems.
- Right to erasure
- In exceptional circumstances, data subjects have the right to have their personal data erased from the Data Controller’s records (‘right to be forgotten’).
- Right to restrict processing:
- In certain circumstances, data subjects have the right to request the University to restrict processing their personal data until the accuracy of their data, or the basis for processing their data, has been appropriately reviewed and potentially revised or supplemented.
- Right to object
- In certain circumstances, data subjects may at any time object to the processing of their personal data for compelling personal reasons.
- Right to data portability
- Data subjects have the right to obtain a copy of the personal data that they have submitted to the University in a commonly used, machine-readable format and transfer the data to another Data Controller.
- Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority
- Data subjects have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in their permanent place of residence or place of work, if they consider the processing of their personal data to violate the provisions of the GDPR (EU 2016/679). In addition, data subjects may follow other administrative procedures to appeal against a decision made by a supervisory authority or seek a judicial remedy.
Contact information:
Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman
Street address: Ratapihantie 9, 6th floor, 00520 Helsinki, Finland
Postal address: PO Box 800, FI-00521 Helsinki, Finland
Switchboard: tel. +358 29 56 66700
Fax: +358 29 56 66735
Email address: tietosuoja@om.fi
The Data Controller follows a GDPR-compliant procedure for responding to subject access requests.