Masterclass Series 2025 Concludes

Tactic Educate for The British Association of Sport and Law

The Tactic Connect Masterclass Series 2025 for the British Association of Sport and Law has concluded this month. We are delighted to provide a range of services, including planning and facilitating these masterclasses. If your organisation needs support with building educational programmes, why not get in touch now by clicking here, or viewing our brochure for more details about our range of services by clicking here. We are hugely appreciative and thankful for all the speakers and hosts for 2025. Thank you for providing spaces and highly engaging content.

You can also download a copy of the brochure here:

TC - NEW Company Brochure - Nov 2025 - ver 1.4 - Digital.pdf

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The last event of our series, titled Equestrian Sports and Effective Regulation was delivered by Jodie Seddon of Aria Grace Equine Law. Jodie is also an international equestrian athlete and combines her extensive knowledge of the equine industry with her legal acumen to provide commercial advice to a wide range of equestrian and rural businesses. Jodie is a skilled commercial and corporate lawyer with over 15 years of experience advising a broad range of clients across various sectors within these practice areas. She was ranked in Chambers for her work in Equine Law in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Within the equine sector, she advises clients ranging from governing bodies of sport to bloodstock agents, retail brands to PR firms, veterinary practices, professional riders, owners, patrons and individuals. She is passionate about the development of equine sport.

Jodie covered a lot of ground, providing an in-depth look at the international economic landscape of the equestrian sector. This includes what is regulated within the sector, such as welfare standards, fair competition, and competition regulation, as well as financial and commercial risks.  The negative impacts of this regulation, but why it is necessary, who the regulators are - nationally and internationally, and who regulates the different equestrian disciplines and how regulators are funded and what is not regulated within the equine industry and how the success of equestrian regulators can be measured. Social Licence to Operate and the importance of the Olympics for equestrian sports with more detail on both horse and human athlete welfare. Jodie also took a look at media rights and sponsorship before wrapping up with an exploration into what may change and develop in the future of equestrian sports.

In November 2025, Andrew Nixon and Sheridans welcomed us to their offices to host the Tactic Connect Masterclass for the British Association for Sport and Law; Esports: An Update.

Andrew Nixon, who is a Partner in the Sheridans Sport Group, focused principally on gaming and wider entertainment sectors, in particular sports tech, digital media, sports data, AI, music and esports. Andrew’s clients include rights holders, sports data companies, sports and esports teams and organisations, game developers, international and domestic governing bodies, agencies, sponsors, and individual athletes and talent.  Andrew has written for numerous publications and is also regularly called upon as an expert and lecturer in sports and gaming law by media outlets, conference organisers and universities. 

Andrew took attendees through an overview of the esports landscape and the rise of esports in the UK and the core game genres. He then went into more details about competitive gaming as an organised format, how it can be categorised as a sport, and how the market has consolidated in 2021 after the boom in 2017. The changes in prize money and fan demographics. Discussion around how betting is the largest market and the biggest integrity concern for esports, including the challenges for betting company sponsorship on shirts, and how the rules change across the types of games. Broadcasting rights and how people are used to streaming esports for free, so there is a gap in broadcasting media rights, as well as broadcasters setting up their own leagues. How sports teams are becoming lifestyle brands, and the creator economy and esports players market themselves and create their own content. Andrew also talked about how the esports' commercial structure differs from that of traditional sports models and that players' transfers and player contracts include esports unique clauses. Intellectual Property in esports, and how it doesn’t exist in traditional sports, and who owns it.

In October, Ruth Kennedy and the team at 11KBW delivered an excellent masterclass on Effective Application of Human Rights Law in Sport.  Attendee feedback included comments, “[The] British Association for Sport and Law Masterclass on the application of human rights in sport exemplifies the high-quality, practice-focused learning opportunities that make BASL’s Masterclass Series such an invaluable resource for those working in sports law and governance.” 

Ruth Kennedy is a leading junior in sports, human rights and employment law, with experience across a wide range of sports including football, Formula 1, athletics, boxing and rugby. She is recognised in the leading directories for her expertise across these areas.

The morning was spent considering and discussing the following valuable and engaging points around such a broad and complex subject.  Each of the human rights articles from the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), how they can potentially be applied to sport and where they have been used in sports cases (successfully and unsuccessfully) before exploring Semenya v Switzerland and the implications of the ruling. Ruth went on to discuss how anti-doping testing and anti-doping practices impact an athlete's human rights under the ECHR  before talking about balancing an individual athlete’s rights with a sport's ability to regulate itself and ensure that the sport remains competitive in the women's categories, and asking when is the interference in both a fundamental and qualified right proportionate in sport, and when is it not. In the final part of the masterclass, Ruth talked about what is classified as a gender affected activity, and how this is decided, as well as the impact of the UK Supreme Court's Women for Scotland decision, before wrapping up with the decision in Haynes v English Blackball Pool and how this ruling is interesting going forward.  Attendees were also treated to a lovely welcome breakfast laid on by 11KBW, which was hugely appreciated by all.

Effective Policies and Practices for Neurodivergent Athletes was the first of the Tactic Connect Masterclass series held in April 2025. This masterclass was all about  how to make effective policies for neurodiversity in sporting settings. Thank you to the co-founder of Neurodiverse Sport, Caragh McMurtry, and chair of the organisation Paul Burrows, for taking the time to deliver this masterclass.

Co-founder and CEO of Neurodiverse Sport, Team GB and Olympic Rower Caragh, received a late diagnosis of Autism, suspected ADHD, and a previous misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder. Caragh spoke passionately about the danger of relying too heavily on labels and a one-size-fits-all approach in sport. In particular, she is determined to challenge common misconceptions relating to neurodiversity, neurodivergence in women and girls, neurodivergent capabilities and mental health.

We were delighted to provide highly interactive masterclasses led by experts. We, at Tactic Connect, appreciate that it is crucial for learning and successful delivery, as each expert is a recognised authority in their field, blending professional and practical knowledge with teaching experience. This ensures that participants and their organisations gain significant benefits. BASL masterclasses help attendees broaden their knowledge, improve their skills, and acquire tools to enhance workplace knowledge, proficiency and productivity.

About BASL

The British Association for Sport and Law is a professional membership association representing sports law practitioners, sports administrators and sports law academics and students. The association runs an annual programme of masterclasses, holds an annual conference, and facilitates a postgraduate certificate in Sports Law to members and non-members. Please click here to find out more, become a member or sign up for their next event.