Sports law is a special type of law that blends together various key areas of law such as contract negotiation, settlement and enforcement, antitrust law and tort law.
Contract law applies most of the times in the field of professional sports. It dictates the terms of the relationship between the professional sports athlete and the team owner or manager. A standard contract form has been widely used by most sports leagues as a model for their contractual agreements, but, as the sports industry has grown more and more, these standard player contracts have evolved into customized contracts negotiated by sports agents representing the interests of each athlete.
Another important law aspect of professional sports is antitrust law. Adopted by Congress in 1890, The Sherman Antitrust Act for combating trust and monopolies and preserving the competition in the trade market, is now the law source of any antitrust law litigation. With each team growing stronger and the sports industry becoming a world class market, antitrust litigation is fairly common in most sports leagues apart from baseball. Law institutes have now extensive research on specific litigation in antitrust law in sports making this specific law career opportunity more and more appealing because of its broad applicability from business economics and sports law cases.
Amateur sports at the high school and collegiate level represent another area where sports law especially contract and tort law, is applied. The governing body that establishes the rules and regulations for intercollegiate sports is the National Collegiate Athletic Association also known as the NCAA. An important part of sports law is Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, also known as Title IX, which applies to colleges and universities that have a sports program and also receive federal aid. The article dictates that these institutions should not discriminate based on gender, when developing and organizing their athletic programs. This article has led to the development of sports programs where women sports teams are enjoying the same resources as men sports teams had been.