ECSS Paris 2023: OP-SH06
The development of professional sports in the United States has a long history, and its management of sports agents is relatively mature and standardized, especially in terms of institutional frameworks. China's professional sports are thriving, but the sports agent industry started relatively late and still faces many challenges. Currently, the management of sports agents in China mainly focuses on regulations issued by certain sports projects and provincial/municipal authorities, lacking unified national-level institutional norms, and the content is incomplete. To promote the development of China's sports agent industry and optimize related systems, this study conducts research on the U.S. sports agent system through literature review, data collection, and analysis of American regulations such as the Sports Agent Act, the Sports Agent Liability and Trust Act, and the Uniform Athlete Agent Act, comparing and learning from their mature experiences. The research reveals that the governance of sports agents in the U.S. is diversified, with corresponding regulations from various associations and state governments; strict entry requirements, high standards for the capabilities and professional ethics of sports agents; standardized contract formats, providing agents with unified model contracts; clear delineation of rights and responsibilities, particularly regarding income caps and supervision of misconduct. Summarizing their successful and advanced experiences, and in light of China's national conditions and the development trends of professional sports, the following insights are offered for the management of sports agents in China: improving relevant legal norms, issuing a national-level Sports Agent Management Measures; establishing a Sports Agent Association; liberalizing the sports agent market to enhance their professional competence; encouraging college athletes to sign with agents; promoting the commercialization of events to increase athletes' freedom, etc.
Read CV YU HEECSS Paris 2023: OP-SH06
Despite growing awareness, racism in sport remains an issue. While overt discrimination is visible, identifying subtler forms—such as distinguishing taste-based from statistical discrimination (Becker, 1971), especially when biases are implicit—remains challenging. To address this, prior research has studied fan behavior using game-based markets such as baseball cards and, more recently, Fantasy Football (e.g., Bryson & Chevalier, 2015). Fantasy Football is an online competitive game in which participants have a virtual budget to assemble a squad of players and earn points based on those players’ real-life performance. This setting allows us to observe hiring decisions where past performance information is fully transparent. We used a unique dataset of over 3 million observations from the Italian Fantasy Football (Fantacalcio) across three seasons. First, we estimated Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models to test whether Black players were underpaid relative to non-Black players with comparable performance. Second, we exploited a distinctive feature of Fantacalcio: unlike English Fantasy Football (Bryson & Chevalier, 2015), where player prices are platform-set, teams are formed through auctions within private leagues of 6–12 participants. We reshuffled players’ skin-tone labels within each position and league and ran Monte Carlo simulations to generate the expected dispersion in the share of Black players across teams under random allocation. If participants were indifferent to skin tone, observed dispersion would match this benchmark. Instead, higher dispersion would indicate that some teams systematically selected more Black players and others fewer, revealing heterogeneity in preferences and suggesting that skin tone influenced performance evaluations. We found no difference in auction prices between Black and non-Black players conditional on performance. However, allocation across teams showed substantial excess dispersion relative to random assignment. On average, observed dispersion exceeded its benchmark by about 19%, consistently across seasons. Placebo tests using irrelevant attributes (e.g., odd vs. even day of birth) confirmed that the pattern was not mechanically driven. These results suggest that competition may correct price discrimination when sufficient non-discriminatory participants are present (Becker, 1971). Nevertheless, allocation patterns revealed persistent racial preferences among a subset of fans, even in highly competitive and transparent environments. The findings provide insights into individuals’ racial biases and performance evaluation in sport and beyond. Becker, G. S. (1971). The Economics of Discrimination (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. Bryson, A., & Chevalier, A. (2015). Is there a taste for racial discrimination amongst employers? Labour Economics, 34, 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2015.03.002
Read CV Manuel ArrigoECSS Paris 2023: OP-SH06
Introduction This study adopts a demand-side perspective, drawing upon the concept of collective effervescence and the theories of group heterogeneity and symbolic capital. It conducted follow-up investigations with heterogeneous participant groups engaged in mainstream endurance sports in Sichuan Province, China. The research aimed to analyse the value dimensions, participant profiles and participation motives underlying endurance event consumption. Methods Using a mixed-methods design, the study conducted industry interviews and a questionnaire survey. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to examine the synergistic pathways and relative effects of market resources, cultural content and commercial capital within the endurance event industry. Results Empirical analysis indicated that endurance event consumption demand is expanding and upgrading. This constitutes the core driving force behind industry development. Four interlocking motivators are mutually reinforcing: heightened participation depth, multidimensional emotional value, club identification and symbolic consumption tendencies. Discussion Within the pan-entertainment sport field, collective effervescence triggers identity formation and symbolic consumption. Through these, heterogeneous groups externalise the cult of the individual, accumulate emotional capital and use shared participation as the mediating link. Optimisation of event resources and product innovation serve as endogenous drivers of consumption upgrading; the cross-sector synergy of the endurance event economy relies on the combined effects of community economy and symbolic capital marketing. The study further indicates that more defined policy frameworks and more fluid commercial environments are pivotal to optimising resource allocation within the sport industry and expanding its social marginal benefits.
Read CV Mingzheng WangECSS Paris 2023: OP-SH06