A tripartite evolutionary game analysis of sports data rights protection from the perspective of stakeholder

Abstract

The amount of data in the globe is increasing at an exponential rate, and the role of digital technology and data elements in the modern growth of China’s sports business is becoming more significant. Disputes over sports data rights have grown in the international arena, with a special focus on how to preserve the sports data rights of key stakeholders. This study begins from the standpoint of stakeholders, constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of the government, sports enterprises, and the public around the issue of sports data rights protection, investigates the behavioral evolutionary characteristics of each stakeholder and its stabilization strategies, simulates and analyzes the evolutionary stabilization strategies of the stakeholders in various situations using MATLAB, and proposes a compatible institution. According to the findings of this study, the cost of sports data governance, the cost of sports data sharing, the degree of sports data compliance use, the government incentive system, and the government regulation mechanism are the important elements impacting each stakeholder’s behavioral decision-making. Based on the foregoing, the study proposes corresponding institutional strategies for governments to respond to the issue of sports data rights, which will be more conducive to the safe use of data for development and humanitarian action, as well as contribute to global sustainable development.

Factors affecting the protection of data rights in sports events: a configurational analysis

“…Even a new industry chain has been extended around sports event data, i.e., sports event "right holders" sell live game data to data companies, distributing the data to end-users, such as the sports betting industry, forming a trillion-dollar sports data industry 2 . However, due to the powerful ability of big data technology to collect, store, and process data, ethical issues such as infringement of athletes' privacy rights and jeopardizing the security of sports data, as well as market issues such as illegal theft of sports data, infringement of intellectual property rights of sports events, and unfair competition, have begun to emerge frequently in sports events 3 , 4 . In 1997, the case of NBA v. Motorola was brought to the court.…”

“…), third-party competitors, government departments, and other multi-interested parties must choose to carry out a joint protection strategy to achieve the common goal, i.e., to safeguard their rights and interests. For example, Li (2023) classifies sports data stakeholders into government, enterprises, social public, social organizations, etc., based on the stakeholder strategy management framework proposed by Freeman 4 . However, more than a single factor is needed to determine the prerequisites for realizing such a strategy.…”