Arbitration arising from sports law has gained significant traction in the past few years. Owing to the fact that the sports industry constitutes approximately 3-6 percent of the global trade, sports arbitration has carved out a niche for itself in the international arbitration community. At the helm of this development is the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) which is situated in Switzerland.

Though sports arbitration shares many characteristics with international commercial arbitration and international investment arbitration, it has several unique features as well:

1. 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲: Sports arbitration proceedings are speedier, sometimes requiring only 24 hours to conclude. 

2. 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲: CAS has a policy of maintaining a closed list of arbitrators, thereby limiting the choices of the parties, and allowing only sports specialists to be appointed as arbitrators. In Lazutina v. IOC, the Swiss Supreme Court has upheld this policy as an effective mechanism for ensuring that the arbitrators are sports specialists. The parties are not free to choose a seat either, and all proceedings are held at CAS in Switzerland. 

3. 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: One of the most interesting features of sports arbitration is the ease of enforcement of arbitration awards. While the parties have the option of enforcing an award under the New York Convention, it is almost never required for the parties to do so. Usually, sport(s) governing bodies readily comply with arbitral awards and have sufficient internal authority and enforcement mechanisms to impose the awards against their members.