May 2025: Australian Sports Law Update

Like many sports, the world of sports law is also fast paced, so we’ve summarised some important updates over the last month or so that we think those involved in sport in Australia should be aware of, so that you can stay ahead of the game. 

Brisbane Olympics: Proposed Amendments to Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements (BOPGA) Act 2021

As preparations for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the Games) gain momentum, the Queensland Government has introduced legislative measures to expedite infrastructure development and streamline processes.

On 1 May 2025, the Planning (Social Impact and Community Benefit) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 (the Bill) was introduced. The Bill amends various Queensland legislation and, most relevantly for those in the sports sector, it amends the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Act 2021 (the Games Arrangements Act). 

The Games Arrangements Act is a key piece of legislation to facilitate the planning and delivery of the Games.

The objective of the amendments to the Games Arrangement Act set out in the Bill is to ensure that the Games venues and villages are delivered in a timely manner and in a way that maximises the legacy benefits of the Games.  The amendments to the Games Arrangements Act set out in the Bill are extensive, and include: 

• identifying Games venues and villages and their Games-related and legacy use in the Act;
• making changes to the functions and powers of the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA) to align with its role to deliver, or monitor the delivery of, Games venues and the introduction of requirements for the GIICA to share information with the chief executive of the department;
• identifying Games-related transport infrastructure;
• providing an expedited pathway for the delivery of Games venues and villages and the construction of Games-related transport infrastructure identified in the Act by removing the requirements for compliance with relevant Acts relating to development and use (other than building work and cultural heritage) and limiting review rights;
• providing for a streamlined 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Board (Corporation) to ensure efficient and effective decision making capability;
• enabling the Queensland Government to have oversight of the Corporation and GIICA by providing for an observer at Corporation Board and Corporation Board committee meetings; and
• acknowledging the Games Leadership Group (membership of the group is to be decided by the Minister) and that both the Corporation and GIICA must have regard to its advice in carrying out their respective functions, as part of broader whole-of-Games governance arrangements.

The Bill was referred to the State Development, Infrastructure and Works Committee for inquiry, and a public hearing is scheduled to be held on 3 June 2025. Please follow this link for further details.

A new ECJ approach? Opinion of the Advocate General on Agent Regulations

On 15 May 2025, Advocate General (AG) Nicholas Emiliou of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) delivered three interlinked, detailed, Opinions (see press release) concerning cases involving FIFA, the German Football Association, and the Portuguese Professional Football League and their respective rules:

• The first of these opinions, Case C-209/23 RCC Sports dealt with a challenge from various football agents against FIFA’s Football Agent Regulations, alleging (inter alia) a breach of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU due to the introduction of fee caps, licensing requirements, and limitations on multiple representation.
• The second dealt with rules of the German Football Association that imposed obligations on football agents including registration and declaration requirements, as well as prohibitions relating to commission and participation in future transfer proceeds.
• The final opinion concerned a ‘no-poach’ agreement adopted in the Portuguese Professional Football League in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The three opinions have been widely reported on, and the findings could merit a standalone newsletter, so we encourage anyone with an interest in competition law and the autonomy of sports organisations to read each of them in detail. For the purposes of this newsletter, the key takeaways are that: 

• No blanket carve-out for sports: the AG considered that any ‘sporting exception’ (i.e. specific rules adopted on non-economic grounds and aimed at regulating the sport itself) should be interpreted narrowly. The AG held that a mere claim that a rule is purely sporting in nature will be insufficient to shield it from scrutiny, and that the rule must be shown, through evidence, to pursue a legitimate objective and be necessary and proportionate to that objective or have tangible efficiencies.
• It is permissible for sports bodies to regulate third parties such as agents, subject to a careful assessment: the Opinion indicates that while sports associations may regulate agent activities in principle, those regulations must abide by EU law, and cases are to be considered on a case by case basis. 

We now wait for the ECJ’s decision, as while an Advocate General’s Opinion carries considerable weight, it is not binding.

For more information, please click here for the ECJ’s press release. To read the full opinion, please follow this link.

ACMA Gambling ads during International live Sporting feeds

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) recently clarified its expectations on broadcasters when they are using international feeds to broadcast live sports events in Australia that contain ads, physical at the venue or virtual overlay, of offshore gambling services as part of the live coverage. 

This guidance has the potential to have significant practical implications for broadcasters and online content service providers, who may have previously formed the view that the ‘incidental exception’ to the restrictions on advertising online gambling services (including offshore services) could be relied upon when broadcasting international feeds of sporting events without any need to take proactive action to remove in-stadia gambling advertising from the feed. 

More specifically, the ACMA’s guidance is that, if gambling advertisements are proposed to be virtually inserted into a feed or physically located at the sporting venue, broadcasters and streamers will be expected to: 

• take proactive actions to access an alternative feed that is free of the gambling advertising, both virtual and physical, particularly for ads about offshore services; 
• if a clean feed is not available, take steps to implement options to remove both virtual and physical ads from the feed provided to audiences in Australia. This may include contractual negotiations with the supplier of the feed or third-party technical solutions to remove or overlay ads; and
• keep and provide evidence of these actions to the ACMA on request. The ACMA will assess each matter on a case-by-case basis.

ACMA has emphasised that this is an area it is monitoring closely, so all broadcasters and streamers which broadcast international sporting events should take note. 

ACMA Tightens Enforcement on National Self-Exclusion Register Requirements

The ACMA is sending a strong message to the wagering industry: compliance with the self-exclusion obligations under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) (IGA) is non-negotiable. A recent enforcement action taken by the ACMA against PointsBet for failing to comply with these self-exclusion requirements has highlighted the importance of wagering operators having in place robust policies, systems and procedures to ensure compliance with them. 

Launched in August 2023, BetStop is Australia’s national self-exclusion register that allows individuals experiencing gambling harm to exclude themselves from all Australian wagering services. It forms part of the National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering; a suite of consumer protection measures designed to reduce the harm of online wagering to Australian consumers.

Under the IGA, once a person registers with BetStop, wagering service providers must comply with certain requirements under the Act in relation to these registered individuals, which include: (a) not providing wagering services to these individuals; (b) not sending regulated electronic (i.e. promotional) messages to these individuals; and (c) closing the account of an individual as soon as practicable after they become a registered individual.

The ACMA’s recent investigation into PointsBet followed the receipt of complaints from consumers that PointsBet had failed to comply with certain of these obligations, including by sending marketing messages to registered individuals and failing to close the accounts of registered individuals ‘as soon as practicable’ once they had become registered individuals. PointsBet argued that these were errors were caused by issues with its own internal systems and processes.  

The ACMA’s investigation found that these issues with PointsBet’s internal systems and processes had resulted in it contravening these requirements under the IGA, including by sending 508 marketing messages to self-excluded individuals, failing to close the accounts of 228 registered individuals with no outstanding bets ‘as soon as practicable’ (which the ACMA considered to  be 7 days) and by sending 22,360 push notifications to customers without including the minimum information required in each promotional message (which includes a reference to BetStop, a statement to the effect that BetStop is the national self-exclusion register and a hyperlink to the BetStop website).

As a result of the ACMA’s findings, PointsBet was required to provide the ACMA with a court-enforceable undertaking to audit its compliance framework, carry out further staff training, implement a BetStop compliance policy and to self-report on any future instances of non-compliance with the IGA. While PointsBet did not receive a monetary penalty for contravening the IGA, it was fined $500,800 for breaching spam legislation by sending over 800 messages with direct links to its wagering products without an unsubscribe function. 

To read the full article, please click here. 

Launch of the Enhanced Games 

The Enhanced Games, a controversial event which permits athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs under medical oversight, was launched in Las Vegas in May 2025.  The Enhanced Games plan to stage their inaugural competition from 21 – 24 May 2026, which will feature swimming, track, and weightlifting, with the lure of substantial prize money for athletes involved.

As part of the promotion of the Enhanced Games, its organisers announced that in February 2025, Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev set an unofficial 50-metre freestyle record of 20.89 seconds (0.02 seconds quicker than the world record set by Cesar Cielo in 2009) after commencing his use of prohibited substances in January. In addition to the performance enhancing substances he used, Gkolomeev was also wearing a full-length polyurethane 'supersuit', which has been banned from competitive swimming since 2010.

Anti-doping organisations and other sporting bodies have condemned the Enhanced Games as irresponsible and dangerous, but they nevertheless continue to generate headlines and public interest. The Enhanced Games will pose a range of questions for sporting organisations if and when they go ahead not least whether athletes associated with, promoting, or competing in the Enhanced Games (whether clean or doped) will continue to be eligible to take part in competitions where regulations based on the World Anti-Doping Code apply.