Deals and dealmaking are among the most obvious examples of collaboration in professional sports. Risk and information get shared in the process and sometimes what results is equitable, sometimes it is not. Fair deals are a sign of an industry that collaborates effectively while unfair deal indicate dysfunction.
In sports the deals are all over the place. Some are equitable and far-reaching, like the Boston Celtics broad partnership with GE that was struck amidst pickup basketball games on the Harvard University courts. Others are consistently unfair, like the tough lives of players on NBA 10-day contracts and low pay, long hours for soccer data analysts (even at elite clubs).
Non-deals, like the case of the NHL refusing to fund CTE research, are a failure by sports organizations to act in the long-term interests of the game and its employees. Critics also point to dangers that the NFL is not addressing and the escalating costs of injuries in the Premier League.
On the other hand, the NBA and GE Healthcare fund research into basketball-specific health issues. In Australia, AIS works with the UK’s University of Newcastle to study athlete recovery.
Individual teams, college and pro, seem to adapt better than the leagues:
A new consulting firm, Sports Innovation Lab, based in Boston, looks like it is well positioned to help sports organizations navigate information and risk. The firm’s founding partners include IBM, Octagon, Gatorade, Booz Allen Hamilton, Go4It, STACK Media, Portico Capital, Harvard Innovation Labs, MIT Sports Tech Research Group, the USC Center for Body Computing, and the NFL Players Association. No doubt, many more customers will sign on.
More things that I read and liked last week: