2.3.4. Other U.S.

Professional Sport
Anti-doping programs are also in effect in other professional team and individual sport.
The collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHL Players’ Association
includes a Performance Enhancing Substances Program (Collective Bargaining
Agreement Between National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players’
Association, 2013). Major League Soccer also has an anti-doping program (Collective
Bargaining Agreement Between Major League Soccer and Major League Soccer Players
Union, 2015–2020). Individual professional sport have also adopted anti-doping rules and
testing. Purportedly the first professional sport to adopt an independently administered
anti-doping program, the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) contracted with
USADA in 2016 to conduct testing of fighters but did not adopt the strict WADA Code or
its procedures (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, 2016). Even emerging sport, such as
competitive video gaming or eSports, are considering doping regulation amidst reports
that gamers use pharmaceutical
neuroenhancers, such as Adderall and Ritalin. Electronic Sports League (ESL), founded in
1997, now with over six million registered users and over one million teams engaged in
competitive video gaming, such as the League of Legends Championships and “Intel
Extreme Masters,” announced in 2016 that it would adopt the WADA banned substances
list, but testing would only occur at ESL’s discretion and only during competition
(Blicharz, 2015; Loria, 2016).
2.3.5. A Critique of the U.S. Sport Self-Regulatory Approach to Fight Doping
Notably, doping regulation and implementation in U.S. professional sport is done by the
sport itself. Major professional sport league doping policies result from collective
bargaining negotiations between the league and respective player union. Other non-
Olympic, professional sport, such as the UFC, establish their own anti-doping
regulations. Arguably, this arrangement has a vested interest in athlete performance and
protecting the sport image and brand from the scandal of doping revelations. This is
viewed skeptically by some because of the apparent conflicts of interest and limited
effective regulation for dealing with new doping issues. In this scheme, the players and
owners agree on how to define and penalize doping. A crucial element of the fight against
doping is missing: independence (Gandert & Ronisky, 2010). Sport leagues, such as MLB
in the 1990s, have little incentive to police themselves when large amounts of revenue
and popularity are being brought to the sport by drug-infused athletes. By contrast, in the
Olympic and international sport realm, anti-doping policies are unilaterally established
and regulated by an agency independent of the sport—WADA and national counterparts,