For sports which may dubiously have the distinction as such, see Joke sports.
Fake sports, similar to fake news, entail a false or misleading public representation, often for political or economic gain.
In 2022, the top tennis player in the world, Novak Djokovic, was excluded from competing in the Australian "Open" tournament based on an unrelated political issue concerning his vaccination status. His exclusion had nothing to do with his tennis talent, which is concededly the best in the world and probably the best of all-time. Yet the Australian "Open" proceeded under the pretense that it was some kind of championship tournament open to the best players in the world. It is not.