Innovative Models and Risk Regulation of Digital Finance Driving the Structural Upgrading of the Sports Industry

Also on the Deep Integration of "Sports + Finance" in Guangzhou

Abstract

Under the wave of deep integration between the digital economy and the real economy, digital finance, as an advanced form of financial technology (FinTech), is gradually becoming a key variable in reshaping industrial logic and promoting structural upgrading. As the head of the "Five Happiness Industries" and a new growth pole of the national economy, the high-quality development of the sports industry urgently needs to break the shackles of traditional financial repression and achieve efficient resource allocation and iterative upgrading of industrial forms through digital means. Based on industrial economics, information economics, and financial development theory, this paper constructs an analytical framework of "Technology-Capital-Industry" to deeply analyze the internal mechanism of digital finance driving the structural upgrading of the sports industry. It points out that digital finance empowers the sports industry to achieve a transition from factor-driven to innovation-driven by alleviating information asymmetry, reducing transaction costs, extending industrial chains, and accelerating technology spillovers. The paper selects Guangzhou as an empirical sample. Combining policy texts such as the "Guangzhou Sports Industry Development Plan" and regional industrial characteristics, it uses qualitative analysis methods to conduct a panoramic scan of the development status of "Sports + Finance" in Guangzhou. The research finds that although Guangzhou has a solid foundation in the sports industry, the traditional financial system still suffers from structural pain points such as imbalanced credit rationing, lack of intangible asset pricing, and insufficient coverage of supply chain finance when facing new business formats characterized by "light assets, heavy experience, and high volatility." Based on this, this paper creatively constructs four innovative models: a sports whole-industry-chain supply chain finance model based on blockchain and IoT, a sports intangible asset (IP) securitization and pledge financing model based on big data, a sports consumer finance innovation model embedded in life scenarios, and a regional digital industry-finance ecological platform model based on government-bank-enterprise coordination. At the same time, this paper does not avoid the new risks that may be brought about by the intervention of digital finance. It focuses on analyzing data privacy leakage, algorithmic discrimination, regulatory arbitrage, and systemic technological risks, and proposes a dual risk prevention framework of "RegTech + Ethical Regulation." Finally, combining the dual strategic goals of Guangzhou building an international sports city and a benchmark city for digital finance, systematic practical paths including top-level design optimization, digital infrastructure construction, composite talent cultivation, and the Greater Bay Area coordination mechanism are proposed. The aim is to provide forward-looking theoretical support and decision-making references for the digital transformation and industry-finance integration of China's sports industry.