British Esports launches new esports coaching and safeguarding courses

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For transparency: Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco used to work full-time for British Esports between September 2016 and February 2021, and currently does some freelance work for them, producing their weekly email newsletter

The British Esports Federation has today announced two new online esports coaching and safeguarding courses.

These have been developed in collaboration with UK Coaching, the representative body for coaches in the UK, and its awarding organisation, 1st4sport, as well as the National Crime Agency, UNICEF UK and the NSPCC.

The two initial online learning programmes are on ‘Duty to Care in Esports’ and ‘Introduction to Esports Coaching’.

British Esports says that with the Olympic Esports Games coming in 2027, there’s a ‘need to establish effective talent identification and development pathways at all levels of esports, matching what already happens across traditional sport’.

The news comes after ODEE was recently appointed Great Britain Esports Team Manager.

“While the esports industry has successful coaches linked to specific game titles, unlike traditional sport it does not currently have globally recognised professional standards for esports coaches and leaders,” said Tom Dore, Vice President, British Esports Federation. “Nor does it have suitable expectations around safeguarding and protecting children, young people and vulnerable adults when they are playing esports.

“The esports industry must do all it can to support and protect every member of our community. All stakeholders within the industry must understand their individual and collective responsibilities in achieving this.”

“Esports has always been about pushing limits – whether in gameplay, strategy, or competition,” added Sam Mathews, Founder & CEO of Fnatic. “But if we want to stand alongside traditional sports, we need real infrastructure.

“At Fnatic, we’ve invested heavily in building structured coaching, player development, and wellbeing initiatives because we know talent needs more than just skills to succeed.

To support the global industry and help protect children and young people, British Esports has developed a ‘Coach Development Framework’. It has been ‘designed to identify core knowledge, skills and behaviours which coaches and leaders in esports need, while recognising the variety of esports titles and the specialist skills and knowledge that individual games require’.

British Esports has also created the ‘Coach Development Pathway’, which will ‘support the global community of aspiring and existing esports coaches through a range of professional development and training opportunities, including two initial online learning programmes’.

The programmes are:

Duty to Care in Esports course

This free online learning programme focused on ‘the moral and ethical responsibilities of all stakeholders in the esports industry by developing essential knowledge to build safer, healthier, and more inclusive esports environments’.

Based around seven key pillars of Safeguarding, Child Rights, Online Safety, Cyber Choices, Mental Health, EDI and Health & Wellbeing, it has been written by the likes of UNICEF UK, NSPCC and the National Crime Agency.

“We recognise that significant numbers of children engage with esports everyday so it is really important coaches and leaders in the esports industry understand more about children’s rights,” said Liz Twyford, Sports Programmes Specialist at UNICEF UK. “‘Duty to Care in Esports’ will support coaches and leaders on this learning journey and help them to embed child rights, safeguarding, and other critical focus areas, into their practice”.

Introduction to Esports Coaching course

This esports coaching programme is endorsed and certified by UK Coaching, the independent representative body for coaches in the UK, and its awarding organisation, 1st4sport.

It is designed to provide esports coaches, both new and experienced, ‘with an understanding of effective coaching principles and practices. It will help coaches to identify players’ motivations, their existing skill level, and offer ways in which they can develop them, not only as players, but as people, and focuses on four key areas: Coach, Environment, Player and Game’.

Hayley Khan, UK Coaching Director of Development, said: “Establishing recognised coaching standards is essential for the growth and professionalism of esports, just as it is in any other sport. ‘Introduction to Esports Coaching’ provides esports coaches with an introduction to fundamental skills and knowledge to support their players and teams effectively, setting them on the path to long-term development and success.”

“Just because an individual is, or was, a good player, or just because they have excellent in-game knowledge, doesn’t automatically mean they are a good coach,” added Chester King, President, British Esports.

“Effective esports coaching incorporates much more than simply game-based skills and strategies. It involves empowering the holistic development of individuals and teams in safe, healthy, positive, inclusive environments. With these new courses, we’re helping to develop knowledge and best practice to improve standards in esports with the long term goal of developing Olympic champions.”

Duty to Care in Esports and Introduction to Esports Coaching are available now through British Esports Learning, a new online learning hub. There’s more info on the British Esports Coaching website.

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.