A new set of data is bringing a new set of problems to professional rugby players.
The players and their clubs have found themselves in a legal strife over the ownership of player data, both performance data and data related to injuries. Not surprisingly, the players feel they own the rights to the data; rugby clubs, on the other hand, feel differently. The dispute comes on the heels of a recent announcement by STATSports to provide its wearable devices to the Irish Rugby Football Union, as well as the company’s massive, $1.5 billion foray into US soccer.
“There have been cases in the recent past that have raised the issue of the use of player data,” International Rugby Players Association CEO Omar Hassanein told RugbyPass. “We understand that this is new territory both for clubs and players and are working with all sides on that basis, however it is important that players are in control and consulted around any use of their playing data.
“We are liaising with clubs, unions and governing bodies on issues that arise,” Hassanein continued. “We believe players are entitled to manage their own private data with the same respect to their confidentiality that any other member of the public would be afforded.”
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SportTechie Takeaway:
The issue is not new for leagues here in the US, and SportTechie has covered it extensively. Shortly after Major League Baseball permitted use of the MotusBASEBALL elbow sleeve, a wearable that tracks the biomechanic movement of a pitcher’s arm, MLB and the MLBPA revised their collective bargaining agreement to prohibit the use of wearables data from being used in arbitration proceedings or for commercial purposes. The league and the players association established a joint committee to examine and approve future wearable devices, and use of wearables like the Motus sleeve remains voluntary. Baseball’s approach mirrors that of the NBA and its players association, the NBPA.
NFL Players Inc. president Ahmad Nassar, when speaking at SportTechie’s State of the Industry event earlier this year, said player ownership of data was the “central bedrock starting point” of his union’s partnership conversation with performance sleep wearable company, Whoop. Last month, the NFL agreed to broadly distribute data from Zebra Technologies, with all teams receiving the global league-wide tracking data sets for the 2016 and 2017 seasons as well as weekly updates throughout 2018.