Managing Investigations in the Sporting Industry

Traditional perspectives on sport’s existence focus on people coming together to engage in friendly competition; for local communities to meet; and to participate in pleasurable, competitive and healthy physical activities. However, beyond those perspectives, it has been argued that sport presents a platform to manage many of society’s ills, dilemmas or problems, such as crime, ill health, cultural differences, inequality or unethical behaviour. Alternately, sport offers an open and often unregulated playing field for discrimination, corruption, illegal drug use, gambling, match fixing and other matters of negative exploitation. Therefore, within a business setting, sport and its actors are challenged to use its immense (and often unmatched) media power and public profile to deliver a range of outcomes beyond professional or elite sport, spanning an increasingly complex range of agendas for both internal and external audiences, and using a range of different structures and networks to do so.


It is in that context that we consider the legal and regulatory checks and balances that sport organisations could or should put in place to ensure a foundation of transparency and integrity for their sport. This extends to (cross organisational) information sharing and monitoring, and ultimately, when required intra and inter organisational investigations.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Contextualise the intersection of integrity, governance, and legal frameworks as applied to investigations in the sporting industry;
2. Investigate the various regulatory bodies, enforcement agencies, and type of investigations inherent to maintaining integrity in the sporting industry;
3. Critically review the processes inherent to establishing, planning, conducting, and finalizing investigations in the sporting industry;
4. Appraise the roles, responsibilities, and activities of various stakeholders in managing investigations in terms of information sharing, evidence management, and intelligence analysis; and,
5. Arbitrate a mock investigation panel and interview process.