ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Maurizio Marullo, Giorgio Vagnoni, Francesco Amoresano and Fausto Consolo, LAWP Studio legale e tributario
tions on breaching clubs and on federations fail - ing to guarantee these protections). Italy’s legislature advocates for gender equality in sports, and the “Sports Reform” takes into account gender equality as one of its purposes, establishing the “Fund for professional women’s sports” and promoting gender equality in sports management and administration roles. Most importantly, due to the introduction of the “sports worker” figure, all sportswomen are now eligible for welfare, retirement, and social security protections (including those related to pregnancy and maternity) that the law had not historically granted to any amateur or female athletes (see 7.1 Sports-Related Employment Contracts ). Female professional athletes can take advantage of all aspects of professional sports contracts, such as engaging in collective agreements, the adoption of a standard employment contract and the right to be assisted by a sports agent in transfer operations, etc. 10. NFTs, AI and the Metaverse 10.1 Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) NFT and Italian Law NFTs are not regulated by Italian law. Awaiting specific regulations at national and European levels, law operators are trying to regulate NFTs through the analogical application of several pieces of legislation regarding similar assets (eg, in terms of copyright, money laundering, con -
ingly entering into agreements with NFT com - panies in order to create unique collections to be placed on the market. This is the case with the football Serie, A, which entered an agreement with Socios, the basket - ball Serie, A1, which issued a collection of NFTs on the occasion of the 2022 Italian Cup Final Eight, and many important football clubs. Sponsorships In addition to the initiatives above, crypto com - panies are trying to increase their brand value and widen their fan base through the subscrip - tion of sponsorship agreements with leagues and clubs: the most relevant examples involve entities like Lega Serie, A, Inter Milan, AC Milan, AS Roma and SS Lazio, and companies like Socios, Gate.io, Zytara Labs, Bitpanda and Binance. However, the volatility of the cryptocurrency market, particularly its recent downturn, has led to crises for several crypto companies. This instability has resulted in disputes, especially in cases where sponsored football clubs have faced non-payment of fees per their sponsorship agreements. 10.2 AI The use of AI in sports is becoming pivotal as it represents a means to improve the quality of sports performance and scouting (see 5.5 Sports Data ), offers a better match experi - ence to fans (eg, live statistics), provides more accurate refereeing during competitions (eg, VAR/Instant Replay, Hawk-Eye, etc), enhances sponsorship, ticketing and media opportunities by better targeting audiences and tailoring mar - keting products.
sumer protection, etc). NFT and Italian Sports
Due to the popularity of NFTs with sports fans, sports organisations and athletes are increas -
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