GPS coordinates are the Social Security numbers of the Fishing world. Any online fishing organization that wants to collect GPS Location information from anglers needs to inform its user's information is secured and unusable but also be able to prove it is secure and will not be used.
Any tournament organization's director or employees with privy to such secure information would then need to be banned from fishing any online tournament they work for and any other online tournaments in that region. This is so the GPS locations they have collected cannot be used or shared with fellow employees. Why? They now have more knowledge and access to water then the customers they serve.
Anglers strive so hard to protect their spots, so GPS numbers are access to an angler's sensitive data and make no mistake this is sensitive client data. Directors and employees would have to ban themselves from their own tournaments in the same way as contest and lottery employees.
A common belief is a big percentage of anglers would no longer join tournaments with the risk of their spots at stake. These anglers might return with their dollars for live or site-specific online events. This could have an effect on an organization's bottom line over time. However with the sport growing there would be new anglers never knowing the freedom of fishing where they want and keeping their spots safe.
The online event was created to capture a new demographic and their fishing dollars with the promise of fishing when and where they like on a budget. Fishing is famously known for keeping spots secret. After all, a secret spot is secret by its very nature. There are many reasons fishermen have these secret spots. The largest consequence of a mismanaged or shared data leak followed by overpressure and harvest and the death of the spot or body of water especially in smaller waters or cities and states with poor fish management programs.
Do these organizations really want to send a message to their customers that they do not matter by giving themselves an unfair advantage, bad reputations, and not meeting the client's expectations? With so much cheating being found, organizations will have to walk a fine line with their rules and the client's experience. This is a business, and the product is client based angling experiences. Some directors have forgotten that this business is a business with clients that need to be served and the user experience as their end product. If they have a poor experience they will move on.
Not all leagues are created equal. Some are trying to keep up with the curve with participants in mind. Some fishing leagues have a lot to learn and prove in the future to hold on to angler dollars. Hopefully, there will be a place for GPS mandatory and nonmandatory tournaments in the future. This would satisfy the new high money events and the fun affordable fish your own honey hole on your own time experiences.
