Sport Business Insights – serie

In a sporting world dominated by media and money, an understanding of sport branding is an essential skill for any sport manager. Success means being able to ‘brand’ – and therefore differentiate – a sport club, player, code, or event in a highly competitive entertainment market. For anyone seeking to understand or manage sport, this book offers an immediate and salient insight into the complex and dynamic process of creating a powerful sport brand. The book explains how a sport brand goes beyond just an identifying badge, reinforced by a name or a logo that helps sport consumers recognise a product or an organisation. It reveals how a brand becomes linked with consumers’ opinions and perceptions of a sport product and the organisation that owns it. Readers will learn how to create a powerful brand that has both recognition in the market and strong associated imagery, by imbuing it with a spirit of the past through appeals to tradition, by endowing it with human qualities of emotionality, thought, and volition, and through the use of characters, colours, texts, and symbols. It also provides a brief guide to the new domains of digital sport branding and social media.Concise, informative, and entertaining, this is an essential resource for anyone exploring or practising the business of sport.

This book is an accessible, practical, and systematic guide to stadium naming rights sponsorship within sport, designed to help practitioners and students gain a better understanding of how naming rights work and the benefits that sport and corporate organisations may get from this kind of arrangement. The book explains the key principles underpinning naming rights deals and sports sponsorship in non-specialist language for readers with little prior knowledge of the subject. Drawing on examples and case studies of naming rights sponsorships in international markets, across both professional and amateur sport, the book examines key practical issues such as how naming rights differ from other types of sponsorship, why brands should sign a naming rights deal, and how organisations can maximise their return on naming rights sponsorship. Concise, informative, and practice-focused, this book offers essential insights for all sport management practitioners, for any marketing executives considering sport sponsorship, and for any students or researchers with an interest in sport marketing, sport management, marketing, or events and facilities management.

This book is an accessible, practical, and systematic guide to stadium naming rights sponsorship within sport, designed to help practitioners and students gain a better understanding of how naming rights work and the benefits that sport and corporate organisations may get from this kind of arrangement. The book explains the key principles underpinning naming rights deals and sports sponsorship in non-specialist language for readers with little prior knowledge of the subject. Drawing on examples and case studies of naming rights sponsorships in international markets, across both professional and amateur sport, the book examines key practical issues such as how naming rights differ from other types of sponsorship, why brands should sign a naming rights deal, and how organisations can maximise their return on naming rights sponsorship. Concise, informative, and practice-focused, this book offers essential insights for all sport management practitioners, for any marketing executives considering sport sponsorship, and for any students or researchers with an interest in sport marketing, sport management, marketing, or events and facilities management.

Sponsorship is a vital area of contemporary sport business. This book offers a concise and practice-focused introduction to sport sponsorship, including an explanation of key concepts, a survey of the key tools required to be a successful practitioner, and insights into real-world practice from authors with extensive industry and academic experience.Covering sport at all levels, from professional to grassroots, and including international cases and examples throughout, the book demonstrates that sport sponsorship works if done correctly. Drawing on the latest cutting-edge research, it introduces the core principles of sport sponsorship and shows how to get maximum value at each stage of the sponsorship process, from plan to activation, servicing and evaluation, for sponsor, property or agency.Requiring no prior knowledge of sport sponsorship, and full of real-world examples of best practice, this is the perfect primer for any student or industry professional looking to improve and deepen their understanding of this core element of modern sport business.

Sponsorship is a vital area of contemporary sport business. This book offers a concise and practice-focused introduction to sport sponsorship, including an explanation of key concepts, a survey of the key tools required to be a successful practitioner, and insights into real-world practice from authors with extensive industry and academic experience.Covering sport at all levels, from professional to grassroots, and including international cases and examples throughout, the book demonstrates that sport sponsorship works if done correctly. Drawing on the latest cutting-edge research, it introduces the core principles of sport sponsorship and shows how to get maximum value at each stage of the sponsorship process, from plan to activation, servicing and evaluation, for sponsor, property or agency.Requiring no prior knowledge of sport sponsorship, and full of real-world examples of best practice, this is the perfect primer for any student or industry professional looking to improve and deepen their understanding of this core element of modern sport business.

Esports Insights outlines the fundamental characteristics, features, and structures of the rapidly growing esports industry and acts as the perfect primer for readers without any prior knowledge of esports. Featuring international case studies in every chapter, this book showcases the contemporary nature of esports through illustrative, industry examples. By offering a concise and easy to understand introduction, it discusses the key components, stakeholders, and features of this commercially driven sector, which by its very nature is dynamic and highly complex. Exploring current regulatory and governance structures within esports, it unpacks the industry’s essential features by outlining the various genres, formats and stakeholders who are instrumental to the functioning of the esports industry. Adopting a critical but balanced analysis, the book discusses the social benefits of esports, outlining its potential as a tool for social inclusion and sport development, whilst acknowledging the potential impacts and risks of esports participation and spectatorship, related to health and wellbeing. Finally, Esports Insights also considers future developments and changes within esports, as the sector evolves and continues to professionalise. This book will be of interest to any student, researcher, or practitioner with an interest in sport business, sport and society, event studies, esports or video gaming, or the wider media industry.

Esports Insights outlines the fundamental characteristics, features, and structures of the rapidly growing esports industry and acts as the perfect primer for readers without any prior knowledge of esports. Featuring international case studies in every chapter, this book showcases the contemporary nature of esports through illustrative, industry examples. By offering a concise and easy to understand introduction, it discusses the key components, stakeholders, and features of this commercially driven sector, which by its very nature is dynamic and highly complex. Exploring current regulatory and governance structures within esports, it unpacks the industry’s essential features by outlining the various genres, formats and stakeholders who are instrumental to the functioning of the esports industry. Adopting a critical but balanced analysis, the book discusses the social benefits of esports, outlining its potential as a tool for social inclusion and sport development, whilst acknowledging the potential impacts and risks of esports participation and spectatorship, related to health and wellbeing. Finally, Esports Insights also considers future developments and changes within esports, as the sector evolves and continues to professionalise. This book will be of interest to any student, researcher, or practitioner with an interest in sport business, sport and society, event studies, esports or video gaming, or the wider media industry.

In a sporting world dominated by media and money, an understanding of sport branding is an essential skill for any sport manager. Success means being able to ‘brand’ – and therefore differentiate – a sport club, player, code, or event in a highly competitive entertainment market. For anyone seeking to understand or manage sport, this book offers an immediate and salient insight into the complex and dynamic process of creating a powerful sport brand. The book explains how a sport brand goes beyond just an identifying badge, reinforced by a name or a logo that helps sport consumers recognise a product or an organisation. It reveals how a brand becomes linked with consumers’ opinions and perceptions of a sport product and the organisation that owns it. Readers will learn how to create a powerful brand that has both recognition in the market and strong associated imagery, by imbuing it with a spirit of the past through appeals to tradition, by endowing it with human qualities of emotionality, thought, and volition, and through the use of characters, colours, texts, and symbols. It also provides a brief guide to the new domains of digital sport branding and social media.Concise, informative, and entertaining, this is an essential resource for anyone exploring or practising the business of sport.

This book introduces the fundamentals of sport governance, assuming no prior knowledge on the part of the reader. It explains to students and practitioners alike why governance matters and how it can be better practiced in sport organizations.Introducing key concepts and the micro-processes of implementation, the book explains what governance is and why it has become increasingly important. It explains what sport boards do, and how they should function for sport organizations to be effective, and it provides practical tools to help ensure good governance.Full of insights from cutting-edge research and real-world cases, this is essential reading for any student or practicing sport manager, administrator, or policy-maker who needs a concise introduction to this important topic.

This book introduces the fundamentals of sport governance, assuming no prior knowledge on the part of the reader. It explains to students and practitioners alike why governance matters and how it can be better practiced in sport organizations.Introducing key concepts and the micro-processes of implementation, the book explains what governance is and why it has become increasingly important. It explains what sport boards do, and how they should function for sport organizations to be effective, and it provides practical tools to help ensure good governance.Full of insights from cutting-edge research and real-world cases, this is essential reading for any student or practicing sport manager, administrator, or policy-maker who needs a concise introduction to this important topic.

This is the first book to examine the impact of blockchain technology on the business of sport. It introduces the fundamentals of blockchain and explores its current and prospective applications in sport, as well as the implications – both positive and negative – of blockchain for the future of the global sport industry.The book opens by explaining how blockchain works, assuming no prior knowledge on the part of the reader, and introduces the most important aspects of blockchain in practice, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), as well as new ways of gathering data, such as the Internet of Things, that interact with blockchain infrastructure. The book then examines blockchain in relation to functional areas of sport business, including marketing and fan engagement, athlete contracting and doping records, sport betting markets, fantasy leagues, and esports.This is essential reading for anybody with an interest in sport business and management, e-commerce, or the impact of new technologies on the economy and wider society.

This is the first book to examine the impact of blockchain technology on the business of sport. It introduces the fundamentals of blockchain and explores its current and prospective applications in sport, as well as the implications – both positive and negative – of blockchain for the future of the global sport industry.The book opens by explaining how blockchain works, assuming no prior knowledge on the part of the reader, and introduces the most important aspects of blockchain in practice, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), as well as new ways of gathering data, such as the Internet of Things, that interact with blockchain infrastructure. The book then examines blockchain in relation to functional areas of sport business, including marketing and fan engagement, athlete contracting and doping records, sport betting markets, fantasy leagues, and esports.This is essential reading for anybody with an interest in sport business and management, e-commerce, or the impact of new technologies on the economy and wider society.

This book is a concise and accessible introduction to positive organizational behavior in sport, a new and dynamic approach to sport management. Clearly explaining core concepts, including the central concept of psychological capital, the book shows how ‘positive sport organizations’ (PSO) can deliver improved performance and enhance employee well-being. Standing at the intersection of positive psychology and theories of organizational behavior, the PSO approach focuses on the development of the person within the organization – their human strengths and psychological capacities – in contrast to traditional approaches that have a more limited emphasis on human capital or social capital. The book takes a close look at attributes including passion, grit, and a capacity for innovation, that characterize the effective employee in the modern, fast-paced sport business environment and that can be developed through PSO, and it explains how employee flourishing and corporate social responsibility programmes can be mutually reinforcing. With examples and cases from contemporary sport business in every chapter, this is illuminating reading for any student, researcher, policy-maker or practitioner with an interest in sport business and management, organizational behavior, corporate social responsibility, human resource management, or human flourishing.

This book is a concise and accessible introduction to positive organizational behavior in sport, a new and dynamic approach to sport management. Clearly explaining core concepts, including the central concept of psychological capital, the book shows how ‘positive sport organizations’ (PSO) can deliver improved performance and enhance employee well-being. Standing at the intersection of positive psychology and theories of organizational behavior, the PSO approach focuses on the development of the person within the organization – their human strengths and psychological capacities – in contrast to traditional approaches that have a more limited emphasis on human capital or social capital. The book takes a close look at attributes including passion, grit, and a capacity for innovation, that characterize the effective employee in the modern, fast-paced sport business environment and that can be developed through PSO, and it explains how employee flourishing and corporate social responsibility programmes can be mutually reinforcing. With examples and cases from contemporary sport business in every chapter, this is illuminating reading for any student, researcher, policy-maker or practitioner with an interest in sport business and management, organizational behavior, corporate social responsibility, human resource management, or human flourishing.

This concise and thought-provoking book examines the myths and realities surrounding the value of sport. It asks a fundamental question: what is it about sport that leads to grand claims about its supposed capacity to do so many good things for society?Examining the evidence from sport around the world, at all levels, the book challenges the commonly held, uncritical assumptions about the value of sport. It looks closely at the claims that sport is likely to improve physical and mental health and social cohesion or that there are demonstrable economic benefits to local communities and positive legacy effects from international sporting events and elite athletic successes. Adopting a value-adding perspective, the book argues that governments and policy-makers must strip away the myths, be more critical in their thinking, and recognise the counter-argument that sport is also associated with negative effects, whether that’s the opportunity costs of allocating public funds to sport or the social harms for which sport can be responsible, such as drug use, violence, misogyny, racism, injury, or abuse. The book presents a broad-based framework for assessing the value of sport that focuses on citizen well-being, where a mix of collaborative public and self-organised regulation is used to help sport avoid becoming an infamous case study in market failure.Presenting fresh thinking on an important topic, this book is essential reading for anybody working in sport policy, sport governance, sport management, or wider public policy spaces.

This concise and thought-provoking book examines the myths and realities surrounding the value of sport. It asks a fundamental question: what is it about sport that leads to grand claims about its supposed capacity to do so many good things for society?Examining the evidence from sport around the world, at all levels, the book challenges the commonly held, uncritical assumptions about the value of sport. It looks closely at the claims that sport is likely to improve physical and mental health and social cohesion or that there are demonstrable economic benefits to local communities and positive legacy effects from international sporting events and elite athletic successes. Adopting a value-adding perspective, the book argues that governments and policy-makers must strip away the myths, be more critical in their thinking, and recognise the counter-argument that sport is also associated with negative effects, whether that’s the opportunity costs of allocating public funds to sport or the social harms for which sport can be responsible, such as drug use, violence, misogyny, racism, injury, or abuse. The book presents a broad-based framework for assessing the value of sport that focuses on citizen well-being, where a mix of collaborative public and self-organised regulation is used to help sport avoid becoming an infamous case study in market failure.Presenting fresh thinking on an important topic, this book is essential reading for anybody working in sport policy, sport governance, sport management, or wider public policy spaces.