The sports business is an increasingly professional and influential industry of vast scale operating on a truly global basis. Remarkably however, it is not always perceived as such by many commentators for a number of reasons, notable amongst which is a lack of understanding of the definition, structure, organisation and size of the industry even down to how to access a career in sport. Of equal importance, and which also strengthens this perception, is the historic lack of professionalism, too much nepotism and not enough transparency of the industry – the latter which sadly continues to permeate certain parts of the business today.
Even though sport has been around for many hundreds of years it is only in the last 30 years that the industry is beginning to mature and where the commercial agenda has come to the fore, and with this has come the responsibility for delivering a much-needed increase in professionalism and transparency to ensure the best talent is attracted to the industry. Similar to the difficulties encountered in earlier days by the entertainment and music industries and new economy industries of today, sport is still going through its early commercial growing pains.
The rapid and exponential growth in the global value and exposure of sport further extenuates the aforementioned problems and puts further pressures on a young industry to meet the challenge of presenting a career in the business of sport as an affirmative alternative comparable to choices peers are making in banking, retail, professional services and many others.
Back at the beginning of 2011 and against this backdrop but with the support of many key players in the industry GlobalSportsJobs was founded. The Company’s vision was to help further professionalise and educate the wider industry, to innovate through the use of a new cost-effective technology-based solution to make the talent acquisition process far more transparent, and finally to inspire a higher quality and diversity of talent to build a career within the industry.
GlobalSportsJobs’ success to date in starting to achieve these aims has seen the further development of its unique digital media platform which now hosts jobs, publishes original, engaging and educational content and provides communication channels and advertising opportunities for sports organisations large and small around the world.
As a result, in an era when both people and organisations are time poor and looking to become information rich, GlobalSportsJobs is rapidly becoming the destination portal for individuals looking for job opportunities, career information and relevant content to their specific requirements. Equally the platform is becoming viewed by more and more sports organisations as a new channel to enhance their employment brands and communicate key corporate or brand messages to the wider industry.
I am pleased to say that this increased transparency has resulted in a growing demand from sports organisations and candidates alike for GlobalSportsJobs to offer a local as well as a global presence. A new German language digital media platform globalsportsjobs.de , servicing the DACH region – Germany, Austria and Switzerland – is the first step in addressing these needs at a local level, providing job seekers with the best available vacancies in the business of sport in the region. While GlobalSportsJobs remains a global business with a global mind set, it also recognise the need to deliver on a local basis.
Innovating, educating and inspiring is never easy but GlobalSportsJobs believes these are three of the key ingredients that the sports industry needs to keep focussing on to ensure that it can continue to attract the talent that it needs to professionalise and sustain the long term growth of the industry.
Editor's note
Since this article was first published, GlobalSportsJobs has also launched Globalsportsjobs.fr , a French language platform servicing French-speaking territories.
Karl Oliver is the Executive Chairman of Global Sports & Media Group owners of GlobalSportsJobs Ltd who operate the digital media platforms globalsportsjobs.com and globalsportsjobs.de . He has worked in the sports industry for the last 15 years and was the founding CEO of the British Champions Series the successful season-long premier horseracing competition launched in 2011. Prior to his time in the sports industry he held senior management positions with Unilever, Universal Studios and Swatch Group.
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