Global Sports Union: Performance and athlete monitoring technologies
The client was a leading global sports union that supports tens of thousands of members across the world.
Sports technology is accompanied by large volumes of intense data collection and the use of AI in sports brings novel challenges and questions about athletes’ fundamental rights.
The client approached AWO to better understand data rights issues so that the union could advocate and support for their athletes in the face of mass data collection combined with predictive algorithms for athlete performance.
What we achieved
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Research
Our research identified that there were huge compliance gaps among both providers and deployers of these technologies as technology companies often place the compliance ‘burden’ on their users, without providing any guidance or resources on how to safeguard individual rights. It also demonstrated that there was a significant gap in terms of compliance work at the intersection of technology and sports.
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Strategy for player data
We provided guidance and support about the key issues in respect of athlete data including evidencing risks to athletes’ fundamental rights, highlighting legal obligations, due diligence requirements and regulatory compliance gaps, including in respect to new regulations on artificial intelligence.
This work also involved advising on a document used by member unions in negotiations about the processing of athlete data in the context of new technologies.
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Co-design workshop
The final step was co-designing a workshop in which we explored recommendations for key stakeholders including competition organisers, professional athletes and unions, sports clubs (including grassroots), technology/service providers, regulators and civil society organisations. The workshop explored lawful use versus unlawful surveillance of athletes, collection of biometric data and other sensitive data and risk assessments.
This work was pioneering and cutting-edge as it is clear that not enough work is being done in this space. It identified key risks for athletes and clearly provided a basis for advocating for athletes to have greater control and power in respect of their data.