If anything, they are too afraid of litigation in any way. I know protecting your IP is important for running your business and controlling your brand, and I respect Nintendo's hands-off stance on any sort of outside issues and not wanting to be associated with anything that could damage it, but Nintendo's IP attorneys really need to learn to chill a bit. You have to get permission to stream the tournament for spectators and can't even use the game's name or logo in tournament publications? Really? You can hold a tournament but can't even tell other people what game it's for without permission?

That said, I would guess that the scandals/fiascos that hit the Smash Bros tournament scene a few years ago were the big impetus for this (on top of wanting $). As mentioned above, Nintendo is notorious for guarding its image and avoiding any sort of outside controversy whatsoever, to the point that they're even willing to kill off any kind of grassroots tourney scene to avoid it. Many of their execs still see Nintendo as a kids' toy company and run it as such.