Athletes All About Their Business.
I spend a lot of time watching sports, and it’s a diverse spectrum of sporting codes. My favourite sport is by far football (soccer), but I also watch rugby, cricket, tennis, formula 1, and golf at a stretch. I have a mild fascination with sports like basketball, and American football as well as Major League Baseball (MLB) .
This fascination with sporting codes popularized in America is how well they package, market, and sell their sporting products to the world. They manage to leverage the intersection of entertainment and a passion point like sport quite effectively.
My other fascination with the American market is how well-paid elite athletes at the upper end of the spectrum get paid. Given, that in all industries people at the elite level, “at the top of their game†demand top dollar because of the commercial value they are perceived to add to the organization. The top dollar here is also relative, America is a large geographical space, and the sporting ecosystem functions at industrial levels with large business interests and massive audiences.
Elite athletes in that space have endorsement deals with an array of products. This can be things like sports apparel, fashion as well as beverages. These partnerships were and still are multi-million-dollar transactions.
Athletes are looking beyond penning endorsement deals but rather the more lucrative and sustainable venture capitalist space. They are using their massive appeal while still active in their careers to attract partners for these funds and invest in diverse industries. Some notable athletes who leveraged their influence while still active on the field are Earvin “Magic†Johnson, Tiger Woods, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Serena Williams.
The current trend though is that athletes are taking ownership and direct interest in their careers from a younger age, even from the onset of their careers. Athletes like Naomi Osaka, Lebron James, and Sir Lewis Hamilton are leveraging their influence on the sports field to have a direct line to the boardroom. Athletes need to leverage their star power while they still can secure their futures beyond the field.
I would like to see the trend of African athletes getting into the business space beyond endorsement deals and brand partnerships and start looking at the equity space. There is a great opportunity for African athletes to partner with businesses and fellow Africans globally and in the diaspora.
领英推è
There is evidence that there is an appetite for this, I have experienced this in my interactions with the venture capitalist space as well as the diaspora community wanting to invest in the continent and build sizeable sports, media, and culture industries rooted in the continent. One only must look at corporations like the National Football League (NFL) , Roc Nation School of Music Sports & Entertainment , and the National Basketball Association (NBA) investing in the continent to see that there are beginnings of a shift towards the continent.?
The next couple of years will be interesting ones for Africa and the diaspora. The question is are African athletes and interested parties well-positioned and prepared to lead the global sporting shift?
Until Next Week!
#TheMatchUpTV
#sportsbiz #athletes #sportsmarketing #sports Sandrine Nzeukou, MBA Alykhan Kaba
References: ?
- https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/jaylen-brown-ambitions-utilizing-304-million-contract-black-wall-street-in-boston/
- https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/varsity-cup-cultivating-next-generation-rugby-chanrey-gibbons-1kf2f/
- https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1086952/university-athletes-south-africa-rwc-win
- https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/news-headlines/2014/09/12/varsity-sports-changes-the-face-of-football/
- https://www.sportsclub.co.za/features/mnyamane-is-top-of-the-class/#:~:text=Varsity%20Football%20star%20Thabo%20Mnyamane%20has%20graduated%20to%20leading%20the,and%20it's%20breathtaking%20to%20watch.
- https://www.multichoice.com/media/news/psl-and-multichoice-launch-second-season-of-player-transition-programme ?
- https://www.thestreet.com/sports/patrick-mahomes-travis-kelce-invested-huge-sports-team
- https://nounouche.online/i-sit-in-boardrooms-with-ceos-now-teko-dona-modise/
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-17/how-peyton-manning-s-omaha-productions-became-a-media-powerhouse
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/investor-hub/2024/03/08/record-q4-sales-and-bright-2024-forecast-send-willdan-group-wldn-surging/?sh=3c5b5ca21d03
- https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7172574297637408768/
- https://billionaires.africa/2024/01/06/5-businesses-owned-by-naomi-osaka/
- https://medium.com/@ben.gauna/beyond-the-capital-how-athletes-are-transforming-venture-capital-a99fd1953c87
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Student at Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School
1 个月this is awesome
Strategic Partner Manager at Greenfly
1 å¹´Francis Ngannou will hopefully get the ball rolling with African athletes taking ownership rather then just penning endorsements deal with his role in the the Professional Fighters League (PFL) as minority equity owner and chairman of PFL Africa.
The Business of Sports in Africa + the Middle East
1 å¹´The more athlete involvement there is, the better the sustainability of the industry will be. Great article Sive Booi!