How to avoid legal risks in sports events? (part I)

Abstract: 

The risk management of sports events is a systematic and complex project. With the increase of sports events held in China, the risk management of sports events is getting more attention from organizers. What measures should be taken to avoid and deal with the risks in the implementation of sports events has become the primary consideration of organizers and managers. The Sports Business Team of Beijing Docvit Law Firm will analyze the legal risks in sports events and make suggestions on how to deal with them.

1

Principles of risk management in sports events

1. Principles of comprehensiveness

When drawing up the risk management plan of sports events, we should identify the potential risk factors that affect the normal running of sports events in a comprehensive and systematic way. There should be detailed arrangements for sports events before they are held. Organizers should fully understand the risks from the environment, work content, participants and the property involved at different stages of sports events so that decision makers can be provided with detailed and complete decision information in a timely and clear manner.

2.Principles of system

The risks of running sports events are not isolated, but are affected by several factors and the environment in which they are located. Risk response should proceed from the overall situation of sports events, grasp the goal of sports events management as a whole, and comprehensively analyze the damage factors affecting the achievement of goals.

3.Principles of importance

The principles of importance can guarantee the efficiency of risk response. The principles of importance means that risk management should focus on the lowest possible economic expenditure to obtain the best benefits. Therefore, under the constraints of resources and conditions, organizers must select the relatively important risks for analysis, and choose the best and most economical way to deal with them according to the actual situation.

4.Principles of objective

The risk response should revolve around the goals of sports events operation. Organizers can find damage factors from targets and determine risk factors from damage factors. Furthermore, risk factors can be identified comprehensively and potential problems can be solved timely. Therefore, the goals are the starting point and root of risk management of sports events.

2

The standard of risk management in sports events

According to the origin and influence range of risk, the standard of risk management in sports events can be divided into basic risks and specific risks.

Basic risks are caused by factors that are not personal, or at least not preventable by the individual, and the loss of basics risk usually affect a wide range. Once such a risk accident occurs, it is difficult for any particular social individual to prevent its spread in a short period of time, such as natural disasters, wars, etc. Basic risks are often encountered in sports events, for example, due to weather conditions, sports events cannot be performed normally. Since the basic risks are not under the control of human beings, and people cannot effectively disperse these risks, the corresponding risks should be borne by the society, that is, social insurance.

Specific risks are caused by particular individuals in a society, and usually by certain individuals or families to bear the risk of loss.

3

Ways of controlling risks of sports events

Risk response methods are generally divided into two categories, one is the response method before the risk occurs, and the other is the response method after the risk occurs. According to risk management theory, risk response generally includes risk avoidance, risk transfer, risk retention, risk prevention, risk suppression and risk emergency.

The basic strategies to deal with the risks of sports events are risk control and risk transfer, both have their advantages and limitations. Therefore, when the organizing committee of the sports events establishes a specific risk response strategy, it must combine the two forms and implement risk monitoring measures throughout the process to minimize the potential risks and improve the control ability of the sports events risks.

Risk control strategies can be divided into two types: risk avoidance and loss control.

1.Risk avoidance

Risk avoidance is the avoidance of potential losses or uncertainties by evading risk factors. But since risk avoidance measures usually represent the abandonment of an activity, this means abandoning the benefits of doing the activity at the same time. However, due to risk avoidance measures often represent giving up an activity, which means at the same time to give up the benefits that activity brought. Therefore, the adoption of risk avoidance measures should be limited to a certain extent, mainly used for some risks with extremely serious consequences and relatively low controllability.

2.Loss control

The loss control strategy is to deal with the risk by reducing the risks or by reducing the severity of the risks in events. Loss control can be divided into loss prevention and loss reduction. Loss prevention aims at reducing or eliminating the likelihood of loss caused by risks in sports events, for example, by installing metal detectors at the entrance to the audience or by designating specialized personnel to conduct security checks to eliminate or reduce security risks. Loss reduction aims to reduce the potential severity of loss caused by risks in sports events. For example, organizers should draw up an emergency plan to control the risk in the most professional and rapid way when the risk occurs, so as to minimize the loss.

In the next article, The Sports Business Team of Beijing Docvit Law Firm will analyze the risk transfer, risk coping and risk consequences of sports events.

Disclaimer

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. The professional articles of Docvit Law Firm WeChat Official Account are all original to our lawyers team.If you need to reprint, please leave a message on our WeChat background.Please do not reprint without authorization.

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