Three perspectives prevail in the legal community’s discourse on the justification of image right: “natural right of property,” “utilitarian argument” and “economic efficiency.” Much research, however, lacks a generalized theoretical model integrating these perspectives. This has led to the absence of a solid foundation whereby such rights can be put into practice in the form of concrete laws and regulations. The sports scenario gives us an access to a complete theoretical model of image rights. A sportsman’s performance, devotion and personal styling would shape his/her sports image. This is why sports image falls under the category of personality-related rights. However, to translate sports image into commercial benefits, the sportsman needs not only more practice than others but his agent’s careful management. Only with enough market incentives can the sportsman or his agent be fully engaged. Moreover, it is important to learn how to avoid undermining the economic efficiency by appropriately allotting benefits to various contributors since these benefits come from more than one person. This study firstly explores into the economics of law by simplifying the abovementioned sports scenario into a strategic form game. It describes the strategic choices and interaction between the sportsman and the agent (collectively referred to sponsor, advertiser, marketer, and agent in this study, who make sports performance profitable commercially). Making strategic choices depends on the payoff structure faced by the sportsman and the agent, which varies with how applicable laws are made. This study compares the effect of image right-related lawmaking on the economic efficiency: (1) the image benefits deemed public resources, (2) the property rules used to protect image benefits, (3) the liability rules used to deal with the non-pecuniary loss of image benefits, and (4) the liability rules used to deal with the pecuniary loss of image benefits. Results of this study can serve as reference for scholars in the fields of sports and law to formulate public policies.