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Today media and sports are indivisible, having a kind of inseparable, mutually influential relationship. Media attracts audiences and generates profit through sports. In its turn, sports content is disseminated, transmitted, and popularized through the media. Thus, theoretically, sports and media exist in symbiosis. However, practically, this relationship is complex and includes many factors. First of all, in recent decades, the process of overall digitalization (and digital transformation) of all fields of life has had a crucial impact on sport, media, and their interrelationship. This paper aims to conceptualize and analyze the possible impact of digitalization on "winner-takes-all" (WTA) (winner-takes-most, WTM) dynamics in the professional sports industry, notably for spectating audiences, and answer the question: "Can digitalization be seen as a driver of ecosystem change and how it should be tested?" This conceptual model paper seeks to construct and develop a theoretical framework that can explain and predict relationships between concepts of digitalization and key sport spectating variables: audience, TV rights, and revenue through a prism of WTA. We found that the technological change in the sports media market and the greater global-orientated strategy of leading sports organizations have re-sorted and compressed many market shares, but the effect of technological disruption has been significantly less pronounced for the most powerful digital leaders in the industry. To this end, we represent digitalization as the main accelerating factor of the WTA effect (along with other auxiliary effects) in the sports industry and propose future research directions and perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the present paper is to put a milestone on the roadmap toward a global economic system of professional sport, at least as regards its financial dimension, i.e., its model of finance, its ownership, and some new trends in global sport finance. Professional sport went through a radical change during the 1990s when switching from gate receipts to TV rights revenues as its major source of finance and from local/domestic to internationalised/globalised sources of revenue. This change was more marked in European soccer (football) before spreading throughout other professional sport disciplines. In fact, the whole distribution of sport financing was restructured as shown in this paper. Starting from this evidence of the first stage of sport finance globalisation, it appears that new transformations have been at work in sport finance more recently. In particular, soccer moved from globalisation of flows (revenues, finance) to asset globalisation in terms of club ownership. At last, this paper discusses the emergence of new trends in global sport finance such as treating professional (soccer) players as financial assets and crypto-assets penetrating the sports business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With recent technological advancements, quantitative analysis has become an increasingly important area within professional sports. However, the manual process of collecting data on relevant match events like passes, goals and tacklings comes with considerable costs and limited consistency across providers, affecting both research and practice. In football, while automatic detection of events from positional data of the players and the ball could alleviate these issues, it is not entirely clear what accuracy current state-of-the-art methods realistically achieve because there is a lack of high-quality validations on realistic and diverse data sets. This paper adds context to existing research by validating a two-step rule-based pass and shot detection algorithm on four different data sets using a comprehensive validation routine that accounts for the temporal, hierarchical and imbalanced nature of the task. Our evaluation shows that pass and shot detection performance is highly dependent on the specifics of the data set. In accordance with previous studies, we achieve F-scores of up to 0.92 for passes, but only when there is an inherent dependency between event and positional data. We find a significantly lower accuracy with F-scores of 0.71 for passes and 0.65 for shots if event and positional data are independent. This result, together with a critical evaluation of existing methodologies, suggests that the accuracy of current football event detection algorithms operating on positional data is currently overestimated. Further analysis reveals that the temporal extraction of passes and shots from positional data poses the main challenge for rule-based approaches. Our results further indicate that the classification of plays into shots and passes is a relatively straightforward task, achieving F-scores between 0.83 to 0.91 ro rule-based classifiers and up to 0.95 for machine learning classifiers. We show that there exist simple classifiers that accurately differentiate shots from passes in different data sets using a low number of human-understandable rules. Operating on basic spatial features, our classifiers provide a simple, objective event definition that can be used as a foundation for more reliable event-based match analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to propose an analysis of financial regulation practices, identified thanks to an extensive benchmark carried out in eight European professional sports leagues. Design/methodology/approach: Between 1970 and 2018, 81 French football clubs went bankrupt. The paper proposes an analysis of financial regulation practices in eight European professional sports leagues to enhance the prevention of bankruptcy of French football clubs. Three research questions are addressed: What are the financial and accounting disclosure practices in the main professional leagues? What assessment tools are employed to evaluate the financial risk and budgetary feasibility? What financial support measures exist for clubs and how are insolvency proceedings initiated by clubs? To identify financial regulation practices in professional sport, a selection of leagues was made based on their economic importance, specific regulatory tools used, and their approach to financial difficulties and the handling of insolvency proceedings. Findings: Through an examination of financial regulation practices in other leagues, three main findings are highlighted: The significance of required financial documents and deadlines varies depending on the competition organizer; some leagues utilize ratio-based assessments rather than relying solely on opinions from financial oversight bodies; certain leagues have established assistance processes for troubled clubs as opposed to punitive measures resulting in administrative regulations. Practical implications: This study proposes new financial regulation modalities to prevent the bankruptcy of French football clubs. Firstly, a reform management control is suggested. Secondly, the engagement of stakeholders in bankruptcy prevention is recommended. Lastly, the implementation of a dedicated policy to support clubs facing difficulties is proposed. Originality/value: The French football federation and the professional league are important actors in the European football. Many bankruptcies are noted in these championships and since the COVID crisis, the financial situation of the clubs has deteriorated, pointing to a strong risk of bankruptcy in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper examines Sports Analytics, focusing on injury patterns in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and their impact on players' performance. It employs a unique dataset to identify common NBA injuries, determine the most affected anatomical areas, and analyze how these injuries influence players' post-recovery performance. This study's novelty lies in its integrative approach that combines injury data with performance metrics and salary data, providing new insights into the relationship between injuries and economic and on-court performance. It investigates the periodicity and seasonality of injuries, seeking patterns related to time and external factors. Additionally, it examines the effect of specific injuries on players' per-match analytics and performance, offering perspectives on the implications of injury rehabilitation for player performance. This paper contributes significantly to sports analytics, assisting coaches, sports medicine professionals, and team management in developing injury prevention strategies, optimizing player rotations, and creating targeted rehabilitation plans. Its findings illuminate the interplay between injuries, salaries, and performance in the NBA, aiming to enhance player welfare and the league's overall competitiveness. With a comprehensive and sophisticated analysis, this research offers unprecedented insights into the dynamics of injuries and their long-term effects on athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2016, Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to improve his country's economic and strategic position through sports diplomacy. These efforts include investments in a diverse portfolio of sports properties, including hosting marquee professional sporting events at home and financing leagues and teams abroad. It is all part of Saudi Arabia's 'Vision 2030' strategic plan to diversify the Kingdom's economy. This paper discusses the foreign and domestic policy purposes underlying Saudi Arabia's sports diplomacy and their wider implications for the global economy. I argue that the sports diplomacy initiated by MBS is an investment both in the long-term strategic interests of Saudi Arabia and in the longevity of the ruling regime. Soft power accumulation, as would be predicted by the sports mega-events literature, is a secondary consideration. This paper unfolds in three parts, First, I discuss the relationship between sportswashing, sports diplomacy, and soft power. Second, I provide an overview of Saudi Arabia's sports engagements since 2014. Third, I explain Saudi Arabia's behaviour relative to the literature on sports diplomacy. Fourth, I explain Saudi Arabia's sports diplomacy with reference to the goals laid out in its Vision 2030 policy. I conclude with a discussion of the wider implications of Saudi Arabia's sports diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, because the complex system discrete model has brought good results in the application of many research directions such as human management analysis, control system prediction, and animal group prediction, how to combine the complex system discrete model with the prediction of enterprise brand communication effect has become a current research hotspot. Based on this, this paper studies the application of the discrete model based on the complex system in sports club to enterprise brand communication and designs a model of the impact of professional sports club on enterprise brand communication based on the SIR model and PSO algorithm. Firstly, this paper analyzes the research status of the impact on enterprise brand communication at home and abroad and optimizes and improves the impact of professional sports clubs on enterprise brand communication and the shortcomings of big data analysis technology in the current research. The complex system discrete model can accurately analyze the enterprise brand communication and conduct big data mining analysis with known professional sports clubs to achieve accurate calculation. The results show that in the process of analyzing the impact of professional sports clubs and enterprise brand communication, the communication mode design of professional sports clubs based on SIR-PSO algorithm can not only effectively deal with various complex discrete data evaluated by club users but also analyze and evaluate the impact of professional sports clubs on enterprise brand communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments provide many crucial services from limited budgets, yet often subsidize the profitable, private businesses in professional sports leagues in the United States. Policing represents one important public service. Policing typically constitutes large portions of government budgets and also generates revenue through fines and forfeitures. Existing evidence suggests that large municipal expenditures in other areas can have an ambiguous effect on policing outcomes. This paper addresses the question of whether large public expenditures on sports facilities affect drug asset forfeiture using two-way fixed effects (TWFE) and generalized dynamic model specifications (GDMS). The results are similar across estimation methods, with static TWFE results suggesting a treatment effect of $1,274–5,589 in additional forfeiture per million in subsidies and results from the newer GDMS estimators suggesting $7,703 per million in subsidies. The results imply that, beyond generating no tangible local economic benefits, public subsidization of sports facilities also leads police to make up budget shortfalls by more aggressive policing, which has important implications for racial equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States Supreme Court ruling that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was unconstitutional in May 2018 has changed the professional sport landscape. Currently, states are working to create and pass sports betting laws and capitalize on the financial opportunities, while professional leagues are looking to do the same. One way the leagues can further benefit financially from sports betting is selling athletes' biometric data (ABD) to data providers, such as Sportradar and Genius Sports. However, the dearth of legal precedent on protections of ABD and the lack of delineation of ownership of ABD within collective bargaining agreements poses obstacles for leagues to overcome before offering ABD in sports betting platforms. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss (1) the current state of sports betting in the United States, (2) the legal precedent around ABD, (3) the challenges that stem from legal precedent or laws, and (4) a solution for how leagues can sell ABD to data providers while being compliant with applicable laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a landmark study of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the field of sports analytics. We developed a survey that examined personal and job-related demographics, as well as individual perceptions and experiences about EDI in the workplace. We sent the survey to individuals in the five major North American professional leagues, representatives from the Olympic and Paralympic Committees in Canada and the U.S., the NCAA Division I programs, companies in sports tech/analytics, and university research groups. Our findings indicate the presence of a clear dominant group in sports analytics identifying as: young (72.0 %), White (69.5 %), heterosexual (89.7 %) and male (82.0 %). Within professional sports, males in management positions earned roughly $30,000 (27 %) more on average compared to females. A smaller but equally alarming pay gap of $17,000 (14 %) was found between White and racialized management personnel. Of concern, females were nearly five times as likely to experience discrimination and twice as likely to have considered leaving their job due to isolation or feeling unwelcome. While they had similar levels of agreement regarding fair processes for rewards and compensation, females "strongly agreed" less often than males regarding equitable support, equitable workload, having a voice, and being taken seriously. Over one third (36.3 %) of females indicated that they "strongly agreed" that they must work harder than others to be valued equally, compared to 9.8 % of males. We conclude the paper with concrete recommendations that could be considered to create a more equitable, diverse and inclusive environment for individuals working within the sports analytics sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how professional wrestling expanded stereotyped race, national, and class images toward the Spanish public in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The professional wrestling circuit of music halls, theaters, and circuses helped connect a myriad of grappling practices spanning different national traditions. Nonetheless, it also helped convey different racial, ethnic, and national images within a frame of social class divide at a time of rampant imperialism and colonial domination. In this context, Spain experimented with a short-lived wrestling mania, with several international wrestling tournaments and jujutsu exhibitions before World War I. In these tournaments, both fighters and patrons exploited racial stereotypes as a way to better sell the activity to the paying audience, connecting with, but also reinforcing, the perceptions that populated the collective imagination about different people, due to ethnicity or nationality linked also to social class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the gendered, disruptive effects and affective intensities of COVID-19 and the ways that women working in the sport and fitness sector were prompted to establish more-than-human connection through technologies, the environment, and objects. Bringing together theoretical and embodied insights from object interviews with 17 women sport and fitness professionals (i.e., athletes, coaches, instructors) in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper advances a relational understanding of the multiple human and nonhuman forces that shape and transform women's wellbeing during pandemic. Drawing upon particular feminist materialisms (i.e., Barad, Braidotti, Bennett), we reconceptualize wellbeing to move beyond biomedical formulations of health or illness. Through our analysis and discussion, we trace embodied ways of knowing that produce wellbeing as a more-than-human entanglement, a gendered phenomenon that can be understood as an ongoing negotiation of affective, material, cultural, technological and environmental forces during a period of disruption and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's right to play and leisure has historically and currently been violated by the many demands of adults. This is now evident in the widespread structuring of the time of middle-class children in programmed activities, including sports. In a contribution to this special issue on leisure, citizenship and human rights the paper begins with an overview of how participation in sports became so work-like for many children. This is followed by an examination of the struggle to define such work as child labour. And the paper concludes with a consideration of how it may be possible to transform sport, protecting participants under the framework of children's and labour rights – nurturing children accomplished in sport without exploiting or abusing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the return to sport (RTS) rate and performance upon RTS in professional baseball players who underwent biceps tenodesis. A secondary purpose was to compare the postoperative performance of the group of players who underwent biceps tenodesis to a group of matched controls. Methods: All professional baseball pitchers who underwent biceps tenodesis between 2014 and 2017 were included. Players with concomitant rotator cuff repair were excluded. Demographic and performance data (preoperative and postoperative) were recorded for each player. Performance metrics were then compared between the biceps tenodesis and matched control (no history of biceps tenodesis) groups. Results: 14 players (average age 27±4 years; 12 pitchers, 2 position outfielders) were included. Most (79%) were open subpectoral tenodeses while two were arthroscopic biceps transfers, and one was an arthroscopic suprapectoral tenodesis. Fixation methods included cortical button (42%), interference screw (25%), suture anchor (25%) and drill holes (8%). Most players (79%) underwent concomitant procedures (43% underwent SLAP repairs). Among the 14 players, 2 were unable to RTS, 5 RTS but to a lower level, and 7 RTS at the same or a higher level. Thus, overall, while 86% (12/14) were able to RTS, 50% (7/14) RTS at the same or a higher level and 50% were either unable to return or returned to a lower level. Among pitchers, 100% (12/12) were able to RTS, but only 50% (6/12) were able to return to the same or a higher level. For those players who did return to play, it took 245±84 days, and their performance following RTP was unchanged and did not differ from matched controls. Conclusions: While 86% of professional baseball players returned to sport following biceps tenodesis, only 50% returned to the same or higher level. No decline in performance was noted in players who successfully returned. Open subpectoral tenodesis is the most common tenodesis technique performed on professional baseball players UPLOAD-https://planion-client-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AOSSM/blobs/c7753b55-d658-4847-a8e7-7b70c6cad84f/1/Table%5f1.docx UPLOAD-https://planion-client-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AOSSM/blobs/961efbc8-aedb-4cfe-b18f-6b8c07d93ec7/1/Table%5f2.docx UPLOAD-https://planion-client-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AOSSM/blobs/36fbb55a-f22f-468e-a8a3-e7a29979b4b8/1/Table%5f3.docx None [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applied performance analysts are increasingly seen as sports science professionals; however, there is no accepted framework for professional practice. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a framework for professional practice in applied performance analysis (PA) which identifies the components of practice and the expertise underpinning it. A six-step framework analysis was conducted: (1) An initial conceptual framework was devised based on well-accepted components of applied practice; (2) A systematic review identified 90 papers relating to applied PA practice; (3) Papers were coded to the initial framework and additional themes recorded; (4) Themes were analysed and synthesised to construct a draft framework; (5) This draft was validated by surveying 24 experienced applied performance analysts and academic experts; (6) A revised framework is reported based on stakeholder engagement feedback. Nine components of practice were identified; establishing relationships and defining roles, needs analysis and service planning, system design, data collection and reliability checking, data management, analysis, reporting to key stakeholders, facilitation of feedback to athletes and service review and evaluation. Our evidence suggests that applied PA practice is underpinned by five areas of expertise: contextual awareness, building relationships, performance analysis and sporting expertise, technical expertise and professional behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a vast concern about high income inequality in Thailand as opposed to empirical findings around the world showing people's preference for fair income inequality over unfair income equality, it is therefore important to examine whether inequality in income distribution in Thailand over the past three decades is fair, and what fair inequality in income distribution in Thailand should be. To quantitatively measure fair income distribution, this study employs the fairness benchmarks that are derived from the distributions of athletes' salaries in professional sports which satisfy the concepts of distributive justice and procedural justice, the no-envy principle of fair allocation, and the general consensus or the international norm criterion of a meaningful benchmark. By using the data on quintile income shares and the income Gini index of Thailand from the National Social and Economic Development Council, this study finds that, throughout the period from 1988 to 2021, the Thai income earners in the bottom 20%, the second 20%, and the top 20% receive income shares more than the fair shares whereas those in the third 20% and the fourth 20% receive income shares less than the fair shares. Provided that there are infinite combinations of quintile income shares that can have the same value of income Gini index but only one of them is regarded as fair, this study demonstrates the use of fairness benchmarks as a practical guideline for designing policies with an aim to achieve fair income distribution in Thailand. Moreover, a comparative analysis is conducted by employing the method for estimating optimal (fair) income distribution representing feasible income equality in order to provide an alternative recommendation on what optimal (fair) income distribution characterizing feasible income equality in Thailand should be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in sporting event suspensions and cancellations, affecting competition calendars worldwide during 2020 and 2021. This challenged high-performance athletes' capacity to complete physical, technical, or tactical training during restricted movement measures (lockdown). With the Football World Cup organized in the last quarter of 2022, the past period of training and match disturbances challenged footballers concerning their performance and potential higher risk of injury at official matches' resumption. There has been considerable debate about the management of resuming professional football (soccer) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governing bodies worldwide implemented measures to ensure a safe resumption of football. These precautionary measures aimed to protect the health of players, their support staff, and officials around the pitch and ensure the enjoyment of the event by spectators in the football stadiums. We have therefore narratively reviewed scientific papers about how football has resumed on the pitch and in the stands with special focus on the COVID-19 infection control strategies allowing footballers to perform again and supporters to enjoy the game after the 2020 global stop to sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study aim(s): This literature review aims to comprehensively analyze the key risk factors associated with shoulder injuries in swimmers, synthesizing existing research to provide valuable insights for injury prevention strategies and the overall enhancement of swimmers' performance and well-being. Methods: Systematic searches on the Web of Science and Scopus databases were conducted using the following phrase: shoulder injury risks in swimmers. Studies included in this review address, the main risk factors that are associated with shoulder injuries in swimmers. This study is a systematic review model, which is based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) standards. Results: This review identified the main risk factors associated with shoulder injuries in swimmers. These insights provide valuable guidance for coaches, athletes, and sports medicine professionals on improving the performance of each swimmer while minimizing shoulder injuries. Conclusion: In conclusion, this literature review has provided a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of shoulder injuries in swimmers and the associated risk factors. Through an in-depth discussion of various studies, we have highlighted the critical aspects that contribute to these injuries. These include the importance of monitoring training loads, maintaining optimal shoulder mobility, considering psychological factors and swimming techniques, and implementing effective injury prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Physical Education Journal is the property of National Society of Physical Education of the Republic of China and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Australian professional sport leagues were impacted by temporary league shutdowns. One example is the Suncorp Super Netball, the world's premier netball competition. This commentary paper explores the Suncorp Super Netball league shutdown from the perspective of the players. Our commentary has emerged from an ongoing ethnographic study supported by interviews with two players (a representative on the players association and a club captain) conducted during the league shutdown. Such a shutdown was the first in the history of the league, and it required an unprecedented response, coordinated by interdependent stakeholders. The authors outlined the importance of stakeholder communication in effectively navigating this extraordinary situation. In addition, the authors discussed the usefulness of technology-as-context for teamwork and leadership, given the limitations on physical interaction and geographical separation. In conclusion, the authors proposed recommendations for sport practitioners and potential research directions resulting from the coronavirus-related league shutdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sport Management is the property of Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For "The Year That Was 2017," I have selected 3 papers in the area of growth, maturation, and exercise during youth. The first paper has been chosen because it provides for the first time the relative age, maturation, and anthropometric biases on position allocation in elite youth soccer players participating in talent identification programs in professional soccer league. Specific anthropometrical attributes characterized playing positions with a bias toward these athletes who are comparatively tall and heavy for their age already in younger ages, whereas position-specific physical attributes do not become apparent until the later stages of talent development. The second paper was selected because it provides a unique perspective on the contributions of different types of sport activities to the development of soccer performance. This paper demonstrated that early specialization and concentration on one sport only during growth is not beneficial in elite youth soccer. In contrast, variable early sporting experience, and not different physiological parameters, facilitates subsequent soccer performance development. The third paper provided some evidence that the consequence of physical activity during adolescence can be far reaching as physical activity might not only predict academic success during compulsory basic education but also boost educational outcomes in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data analysis and action recognition algorithms to conduct in-depth research and analysis of professional sports competition judging and designs a professional sports competition-assisted judging system for use in actual judging. In this paper, a wearable motion capture system based on an inertial sensing unit is developed and designed for kayaking technical motion monitoring to achieve the acquisition, analysis, and quantitative evaluation of kayaker motion data. To limit the gyroscope and pose estimation error, a gradient descent method is used for multisensor data fusion to achieve athlete pose update, and a quaternion-driven human skeletal vector model is proposed to reconstruct the kayaker's paddling technical movements. By calculating the angular sequences of the left shoulder, right shoulder, left elbow, and right elbow joints of the athlete's upper limbs and comparing them with the optical motion capture system, the results show that the motion capture system developed in this paper is comparable to the optical motion capture system in terms of measurement accuracy. It ultimately affects the result of pose estimation. Therefore, high-resolution networks and low-resolution networks can continuously maintain high-resolution features of the image by allowing each representation layer to repeatedly accept the representation information of other networks. A step matrix model is constructed to encode the multiscale global temporal information of action sequences, and action classification is achieved by calculating the response of the step matrix of test samples to the step matrix of each category of actions. The algorithm achieves 78.96%, 91.84%, and 91.18% accuracy of action classification on the Northwestern-UCLA database, MSRC-12 database, and CAD-60 database, respectively. The designed visual motion tracking system was applied to record the motion data of the experimental subjects in the fine motion assessment task and construct the motion assessment database. The experimental results show that the average error between the prediction results of the proposed action assessment method and the manual scoring is 1.83, and the automated assessment of fine movements is effectively realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overdue athletes' salaries, i.e. late, partial or nonpayment of athletes' salaries in professional sports, increases the risk for match-fixing as athletes are rendered more vulnerable to match-fixing approaches and for giving in to such proposals. Even though research and stakeholders recognize the aforementioned risk, the body of literature addressing the issue from a preventative legal perspective is slim to nonexistent. While the Council of Europe's Macolin Convention has stimulated various measures to tackle match-fixing in both ratifying and signatory States, this paper focuses on the Convention's prevention objective by examining how international, European and Belgian football organizations enforce compliance by their affiliated members with their contractual and other obligations. The paper argues that while football federations do take initiative in the matter, they may not yet have found a way to effectively protect the integrity of their competitions when it comes to their approach towards the issue at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments in many countries are increasingly interested in using community sport as a vehicle for improving public health through physical activity (PA) promotion. This has been associated with an increasing interdependence between the community sport and health policy sectors. However, there are no empirically grounded studies which have examined this directly and systematically in England. By examining Sport England's Get Healthy, Get Active (GHGA) initiative, this paper presents novel evidence derived from interviews held with strategic policy-makers from Sport England and a professional football charity (Everton in the Community), and 67 men who engaged in one of the GHGA funded programmes, Active Blues. The findings reveal how the increasing interdependence between community sport and health policy has been characterised by tightly contested and congested relations of power at local and national levels. Although Sport England was the lead organisation which coordinated and was accountable for community sport, it was nevertheless highly dependent on organisations outside of the sector, including health organisations, to deliver their community sport goals. This was indicative of the relatively vulnerable and marginal position which Sport England, and sport policy, occupied in the policy landscape and the associated generalisation of interests from sport to public health. The policy spillover from more powerful policy sectors such as health, to comparatively less powerful ones like community sport, raises questions about the degree to which government can realistically expect to achieve their formal community sport and health policy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Players involved in the various football codes compete throughout the calendar year around the world. Therefore, environmental stressors such as temperature and altitude should be considered in preparation for, and during, matches. We aimed to systematically review the observational and quasi-experimental studies that have been specifically designed to quantify the effects of temperature (hot or cold) high altitude on in-match physical performance indicators. A search of electronic databases (Web of Science, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, PubMed/MEDLINE) was conducted, with 19,424 papers identified as relevant. Following sifting in relation to the eligibility criteria, 12 papers were deemed directly relevant. The reviewed studies scored 6–9 (on a 0–9 scale) for quality assessment using a previously used scale. The major outcome variables relevant to the current review were total distance (m), high-speed running (m) and high-speed runs (count) measured during matches. Standardized effect sizes (ES) were heterogeneous across studies for total distance (ES: −0.96 to −0.14) and high-speed running (ES: −0.69 to 0.12) for >1000 m vs sea-level, time spent at the given altitude being a putative factor for this heterogeneity. Heat had mainly detrimental effects on performance, but ES were, again, heterogeneous across studies (ES: −1.25 to 0.26), dependent on temperature. Given the small number of studies that involved mostly male athletes, and large heterogeneity across studies, more research needs be conducted on physical performance in these environmental conditions, with attention paid to standardizing outcomes and broadening the approaches of studies to guide future decision-making in professional sporting environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Professional sport occupies a prominent cultural position in societies across the globe and commercial organisations make use of this to promote their products. The present scoping review explores existing academic literature on the relationship between professional sports clubs and food and drink marketing and considers how this relationship may impact upon the public's health.Design: The scoping review searched six databases. Experts were also consulted. Records written in languages other than English were excluded. We also excluded records relating to mega events (e.g. Olympics, Football World Cup) and alcohol marketing, because of the attention already given to these.Setting: Professional sports clubs.Results: We identified 18 166 titles, reviewed 163 abstracts and read twenty-six full texts. We included six papers in the review. Four were from Australia and New Zealand. The Australasian literature focused largely on the marketing of foods and beverages to children and the potential impact on consumption. Single papers from researchers in Turkey and the USA were identified. The Turkish paper analysed shirt sponsorship in football leagues internationally and showed food and beverage (including alcohol) companies were the most common sponsors. The US paper examined a mixed reaction to a football team named after an energy drink.Conclusions: Commercial relationships between professional sports clubs and Big Food corporations have largely eluded scrutiny in much of the world. The current review highlights the lack of public health research on these relationships. Research exploring the interdependent commercial practices of food and drink companies and professional sports clubs is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In professional sports physicality is closely connected to an omnipresent capitalist logic. Therefore, professional sports constitute an arena in which bodies are produced, serve as revenue increasing entities, and are ultimately consumed. By taking a closer look at the National Basketball Association's (NBA) as well as affiliated companies' narratological marketing efforts, this paper tries to identify dominant narratives. The NBA constitutes a particularly interesting case, as a racial component highlights the (un)conscious decisions made by corporate leaders. This racial division in fans and athletes could not be bridged for a long time and made the league financially unsuccessful. This changed with David Stern's tenure as commissioner. Theoretically, this paper draws on Stanley Deetz's (1992) concept of "corporate colonization" which implies that, in the act of making sense of the world, interpretations which primarily consider efficiency and/or revenue aspects are selected over other possibilities. This paper highlights the selected modes of (re-)presentation by looking at one of the sport's most recognizable icons, Michael Jordan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have explored the specific risk factors of sports betting attending to the singularities of sports bettors. However, many of these are also present in other gambling profiles (e.g. younger age, males, higher education, skill-based gambling) and fail to tackle the essentially distinguishing trait of sports betting, namely, its symbolic association with sport. This conceptual paper argues that sports betting draws from a rich pool of meanings from professional sport that influences how sports betting products are understood. It argues that, unlike other gambling products whose symbolic covering has to be built after, sports betting relies on a preexisting symbolic pool that structures its social significance. Sport confers to sports betting attributes of agency, control, and skill that make betting products more skill-oriented and less chance-based, but also other attributes of health, game, fun, and nature that decrease the perceived risks associated with sports betting. The paper contends that the symbolic association of sport and sports betting poses particular barriers for treatment of gambling disorder in the form of resistant cognitions about winning because professional sport embodies narratives of success deeply engraved in modern society, to an extent other gambling forms cannot compete in creating via their marketing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found that sports games increase certain crimes including theft and vandalism, but the relationship between sports and other offenses such as motor vehicle theft, robbery, and assaults is mixed. Using regular season National Hockey League (NHL) game data and city-level, incident-level crime data from four large U.S. cities, this paper estimates if professional ice hockey games played at home is associated with increases in property crimes, alcohol-related crimes, and assaults during and right after games the over course of four NHL seasons. Results show that NHL games lead to small but significant increases in property crimes and assaults. There is no significant effect for alcohol-related crimes. Implications and suggestions for future work are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doping is a public health issue and not simply a problem inside the professional sports community It is a complex and ancient phenomenon considering the vast variety of substances, supplied through both legal and illegal trading routes. It occurs in elite athletes but also affects amateur athletes and was generally considered as dangerous and unhealthy. Furthermore, it involves athletes' friends and relatives, medical staff, managers, chemists, biologists and pharmacists, pharmaceutical industries, clandestine laboratories and criminal organizations. Over time, doping has shown a great ability to discover and always use new substances and appropriated the new scientific discoveries. Unfortunately, new discoveries for the human health have been used in distorted way by the athletes. In fact, the athletes may be able to use gene therapy to re-engineer their bodies for better performances. Drug dependence depends on several factors: the socio-environmental context of the subject and what effects have the substance in the body. We will agree that sport is essentially under the current anti-doping campaign executed by a coordinated alliance between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), law enforcement authorities, sports organizers and the media. This paper explores comprehensive description of the state of doping and its regulation in the past and nowadays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The introduction of professionalism in 1995 posed serious challenges for Rugby Union in Ireland, Scotland and Wales given their limited fan bases and broadcast markets. It led to the creation of a new league, the Pro14, with teams from all three countries. The paper asks whether the Pro14 has been a success and whether it might offer lessons for other sports. It thus seeks to extend the knowledge base on professional team sports and derive lessons for management of professional sports leagues in small countries. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyse Pro14 performance using a range of metrics, including attendances, competitive balance and team performances, in European competitions. The authors also analyse the limited financial data available for Pro14 teams. Findings: Pro14 teams have competed successfully in European competition, offering support for claims that mergers of smaller country leagues could improve competitive balance in European soccer. The Pro14 has increased attendances through specific measures and increased broadcast income through geographic expansion. Many Pro14 teams have struggled financially. Several English and French rugby clubs have also experienced financial problems, suggesting that European rugby may need to introduce financial fair play rules (FFPs) similar to soccer. Practical implications: The paper has implications for the Pro14 and its member clubs, particularly with reference to competition design. It may also have lessons for European football where some have suggested that mergers of smaller country leagues could improve competitive balance in European competitions. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the academic discussion on professional team sports, particularly Rugby Union. The paper has implications for Pro14 clubs and league organisers, particularly with reference to competition design. It may also have lessons for European soccer where some have suggested that mergers of smaller country leagues could reduce the dominance of larger country leagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the prevalence of professional sport in contemporary societies, there is little known by academics about professional sports consumers. We know much more about other cultural domains, such as music and the arts. This study examines consumption and sport in Canada to further understand how patterns of sports consumption fit into broader leisure lifestyles. Through investigation of how five professional sports leagues in Canada are consumed, this paper draws conclusions about the lifestyle of these consumers to assess which prevailing theories of cultural consumption are most useful for this segment. By utilising latent class analysis and regression modelling, this paper finds that cultural omnivores are the most likely consumers of these leagues. This group also maps onto theorisations of omnivores as high-status persons. Additionally, this paper suggests that theories of cosmopolitanism in omnivorous consumption may have particular salience for the Canadian case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the players' contribution and economic value in the soccer industry. Media visibility records provide us with comparable metrics to identify talent and make hiring decisions – these records can jointly capture sport (on-field) skills and other attractive (off-field) abilities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a valuation method that applies media visibility appraisals to estimate "theoretical values" of the transfer fees paid for hiring soccer players. The estimations are performed by analysing the evolution over time of the media exposure of about 5,000 individuals of more than 200 clubs. Findings: The study's empirical results reveal that, along with sport performance, the players' media status also affects their economic valuation, which explains why the clubs – in search of greater economic returns – fiercely compete for the most popular players. The paper also identifies the main factors determining the players' economic value. In predicting the players' transfer fees, some variables are statistically significant: individual media visibility, media visibility share of the player within his team, contract duration, status of the hiring team, years of experience, player's age at the end of the contract and the domestic league of the hiring team. Originality/value: Professional sports provide reliable measures on individuals' performance that may help in the hiring process of workers. This paper identifies gifted soccer players while taking into account their skills as media leaders and the economic implications. Insofar as players' talents determine their teams' sport and economic achievements, the transfer fees paid for players must then be seen as a crucial factor. Measuring individual talent and being able to translate this talent into productivity levels entail serious methodological and empirical challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Johan Huizinga's most prolific study of play, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture he states that for play to be considered authentic, genuine and real it must be fun, free, spontaneous and creative. Huizinga believed that play ought to be separate from ordinary and real life with the outcomes of play baring little to no consequences beyond the play contest (1950, 7–13). While Huizinga acknowledged that play could be utterly absorbing it should only be serious within the contest itself and not thereafter. Yet given the serious, structured, commercialised nature of the professional sports industry how can Huizinga's discussion of play be useful today? This paper will highlight that even in the professional world of sport, Huizinga's play characteristics still have an important role to play in ensuring professional athletes and teams can reach their full potential. Indeed, the confrontation between Huizinga and professional sport leads us to re-think Huizinga's account of play. Using the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) as a case study, this paper will highlight how making the club environment and playing the game as fun and free as possible assisted the Tigers in winning their first AFL Premiership for 37 years in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Match day revenue is still an essential source of income for many professional sports clubs worldwide. This paper studies the determinants of ticket pricing in the English Premier League and examines whether and to what extent stadium goers pay a premium for sporting success and spending by clubs in the players' labour market. We estimate regression models for the cheapest and most expensive tickets of clubs playing in the English Premier League for the five seasons between 2014/15 and 2018/19 inclusive. Our study shows that ticket prices are driven by several variables including the opponent and local derbies. The impact of team performance is asymmetric affecting only the most expensive tickets. Capacity utilisation and total labour cost impact the prices of both types of tickets. This research provides insights for both leagues and individual clubs. For example, the findings can be used as a benchmark to assess the magnitude of price increases that the market may be willing to bear. Additionally, clubs can explore the extent to which greater revenues can be extracted from different types of consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Competitive balance is critical for the survival of athletic leagues. A relationship between "uncertainty of outcome" and fan interest has been found in many sports all over the world. This paper examines competitive balance in professional netball in Australia and New Zealand by contrasting two competitions: the ANZ Championship, an elite Australasian competition that began in 2008 but was disbanded in 2016 as there was a perception of dominance by the Australian teams over their New Zealand rivals; and its Australian domestic replacement, Suncorp Super Netball, which started in 2017. Design/methodology/approach: Competitive balance is gauged in three broad ways: match result concentration, which looks at the evenness of each season; team dominance, where comparisons are made across several seasons; and within game equality, which examines the results of individual games. Findings: Several methods are used under each heading, with the results surprisingly showing that measured competitive balance was similar in the two competitions. Originality/value: In sports management, quantitative analysis or sports economics, there are few published papers on netball. This is the first research to examine competitive balance in netball, and the findings have important ramifications for this women-only game, as it competes against other purveyors of professional sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports referees are not always as unbiased or impartial as they ideally should be. Studies have shown, for example, that in their decisions, referees seem to be biased against people of different race, gender or height or biased in favour of the home team. There is no doubt that such partiality work against official ideals of fairness and non-discrimination in sport. The problem with this is that being affected by implicit biases potentially causes the referees to make unfair decisions, with the result that some people are penalised disproportionately within the realm of sport. In this paper, we argue that sports organisations ought to require referees to undergo implicit bias testing as part of their mandatory training, in order to gain knowledge about biases and to take the proper counter-measures to combat such biases. Finally, we present and critically discuss four objections to our argument and conclude that none of them are plausible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The cultivation of professional talents in leisure sports in China started late and has a weak foundation. Compared with developed countries in leisure sports, there is still a big gap in terms of curriculum setting and training direction. Urban residents have differences in the choice of leisure sports, leisure purpose, and understanding of leisure concepts due to factors such as age, gender, education, and occupation. This research mainly discusses the training mode of leisure sports talents under the background of rural revitalization strategy. Combined with the research on the leisure sports industry and high-quality development, this paper clarifies the connotation of the high-quality development of the leisure sports industry and puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote the high-quality development of the leisure sports industry. Over time, leisure has become an important symbol of social development and an important field closely related to the quality of life of each person. As a part of rural space, rural sports space is the main material carrier and foundation of rural residents' leisure sports activities. This paper mainly makes an in-depth investigation and research from two aspects: the status quo of rural leisure sports activities and the talent demand of some leisure sports venues. It makes specific classification standards for the types and specifications of leisure sports professionals required by leisure sports venues. This provides a scientific basis for the cultivation of leisure sports professionals. First, the article analyzes the research background and puts forward the research significance. It analyzes the research status of scholars on the leisure sports industry, high-quality development, and high-quality development of the leisure sports industry. Secondly, this paper clarifies the research content, research methods, and technical route of the research basis for the high-quality development of the leisure sports industry. It conducts conceptual discussions on the leisure sports industry and high-quality development. It adopts the grounded theory to construct a model of factors influencing the high-quality development of the leisure sports industry. It also analyzes its action mechanism from three aspects: the core industry system layer, the industry supporting factors, and the external environment system layer. During the survey, 84.4% of them believed that professionals in leisure sports should have a bachelor's degree. The quality of rural sports space directly affects the breadth, depth, enthusiasm, and effectiveness of residents' participation in leisure sports activities. This research is helpful to deepen the urban and rural sports governance and optimize the management system. It is necessary to investigate and analyze the supply quality of rural leisure sports space and propose countermeasures for the integration and layout of rural leisure sports space. The ultimate goal is to build a leisure sports space optimization development model that meets the leisure sports needs of rural residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to obtain scientific quantitative decision-making of physical education integrated ideological and political teaching in college, and improve the teaching effect of college physical education integrated ideology and politics, a teaching effect evaluation model of physical education integrated ideology and politics based on principal component analysis is proposed. Clear teaching contents, activities planning and organization, sports teams, such as evaluation index, according to each evaluation index, data collection and initial evaluation, in combination with principal component analysis (pca), assimilation process evaluation index, and correlation matrix eigenvalue and characteristic vector and determine the number of principal components, fuse the sports education teaching effect evaluation model of the building. Experiments show that the model of the linear correlation coefficient and the rank correlation coefficient of average 97.3% and 96.7%, respectively, were higher than other methods, fusion and its various professional sports education teaching effect are present must rise, the score of one of the English major students score increased 0.75, the lowest building professional and a higher level of ascension 0.12. The accuracy of the evaluation results of the model in this paper is higher, which can effectively improve the effect of college sports integrated ideological and political teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to consider the necessity of founding ethical committees in professional sports. In the first part of the paper the authors consider the emergence of the first ethical committee in medicine, and the emergence of bioethics as a social movement and academic discipline. In the second part of the paper, the authors examine few examples of ethical committees in contemporary professional sport and the need to set up ethical committees within sports associations to consider numerous ethical problems: doping, match fixing, referee errors, racism, injuries, sex/gender and body issues, sexual abuse in sports etc. These topics are also an inevitable field studied within bioethics, so the following question arises: 'Is the official establishment of ethical committees in professional sports as an aspect of 'bioethicalization' of sport a real need that is imposed due to the growing ethical problems that are present in modern sports?' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]