The data-driven athlete: who owns the game now?

Technology is transforming elite sport faster than the rules that govern it. For clubs, governing bodies and brands, the legal questions are no longer theoretical.

Only a decade ago, performance analysis meant a coach with a stopwatch, notepad and pen. Today, elite athletes are among the most closely monitored people on the planet. GPS vests track every sprint, wearables record heart rate variability and sleep, and AI platforms predict injury risk before a player feels a twinge.

Officiating technology decides matches, and computer vision turns every movement into a data point that can be analysed, sold or bet on. Sponsors and sponsorship deals lean on data as evidence to support product claims, among other purposes.

The benefits are real. Better data means fewer injuries, longer careers, fairer decisions, richer fan experiences and better sales. But every new data stream raises a legal question, and many organisations are answering them by accident rather than design.

Athlete data is not just another dataset

Much of what is collected about athletes is health and biometric information, which UK data protection law treats as special category data. This is subject to more restrictive regulation than other types of personal data. Documented risk assessment is often mandatory, and this kind of data often needs to be safeguarded more carefully.

The employment relationship complicates matters: can a player genuinely consent to monitoring when selection may depend on it? Who owns the data when a player transfers, retires or disputes a medical assessment? And when that data is shared with technology suppliers, sponsors or betting data providers, where does accountability sit?

Women’s sport: opportunity and sensitivity

The growth of women’s sport is one of the great success stories of the decade, and technology is playing its part. Menstrual cycle tracking, for example, is increasingly used to inform training loads and injury prevention. Yet this is some of the most sensitive data an organisation can hold, touching on reproductive health and, potentially, pregnancy.

Historically, sports science has been built around male athletes, and there is a significant knowledge gap surrounding women’s sport data, mirroring the knowledge and data gap in our health systems where female-specific health is concerned. Clubs must therefore ensure that the tools they adopt are validated for female athletes. Robust governance, transparency and genuine choice are essential if trust is to be maintained.

From the elite to the everyday

While the sharpest issues arise at the elite level, recreational sport is not immune. Personal fitness apps, connected equipment, grassroots club platforms and team communications collect vast quantities of personal data, often about children and amateur participants, including their health and injuries. There is often limited understanding of how this data is used and limited resources available to improve data governance. Consumer protection, safeguarding and cyber security obligations apply here just as firmly.

What organisations should be thinking about now

• Map what athlete and other data you collect, why and who it is shared with
• Review player contracts, policies and consent mechanisms for monitoring and data use, including where data or valuable intellectual property (IP) is involved. Factor in the regulation of AI and other technology in decision-making, such as selection, scouting and officiating
• Scrutinise technology and supplier agreements, including the difficult ones such as those for AI, infrastructure and devices, as well as platforms and apps, covering ownership, location, confidentiality, security, liability and commercialisation rights
• Conduct risk assessments and address integrity and other risks, for example where performance data could feed betting markets
• Prepare for cyber incidents and internal data breaches. A breach of health data is a regulatory, reputational, HR and commercial event.

Managing technology and data in sport

Technology in sport sits at the intersection of regulation, data protection, employment, IP, commercial contracts, integrity and dispute resolution. These issues affect clubs, governing bodies, venues, athletes, brands and technology providers across men’s and women’s sport, from the elite game to grassroots.

The organisations that win off the pitch will be those that treat data and IP as assets to be governed, not simply collected, shared and used without restraint.