If you’re reading this, chances are you’re interested in a career in sports. When looking to get into the industry, you may have questions referring to what the job market is like, or what type of roles there are that could give you an opportunity. Well, we’re here to answer those for you!
It goes without saying that the industry is a competitive one. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a multitude of opportunities available, with more openings in more roles available now than ever before, because there definitely are.
A statistic to convey this is that since 2021, there has been a 20% increase in UK employment in the sports and fitness occupations, with an estimated 183,300 working in the industry right now.
These jobs extend across a myriad of sectors. One example is sports technology. This fast-growing area incorporates everything from the use of AI to sports data analysis, and the UK ranks 1st in Europe for number of Sports Tech start-ups. In Australia, the sector’s annual revenue is around AU$4.69 billion a year.
As teams and athletes look for ways to boost their performances, another evolving sector is sports health, where products like sports therapy or medicine led to the area having a global spend of more than $130 billion in 2023 according to Global Sports Insights.
One more is coaching, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 9.2% employment growth by 2032, and is one of our many postgraduate degree subjects at GIS.
As you can see, there are plenty of sectors that contribute to Global Sports Insights estimating sports business to have a global revenue of $2.65 trillion in 2023. Yep, trillion. One of the larger sporting nations in the world, the UK’s sports and physical activity scene contributes £39 billion to the nation’s economy.
These opportunities are also increasingly diverse, with the ever-expanding women’s game and growth into international markets providing even more chances to get your foot in the door. The 2024 Sports Industry Outlook also sees positive movement, saying, “Emerging trends- a greater variety of investors and media rights holders, globalization, the growth of women’s sports, and new real estate ventures— could unlock new possibilities.”
If any of these opportunities sound appealing, education is a vital starting point. With GIS, you can study any one of our postgraduate programmes that helped us to victory at the 2023 Football Business Awards, with 99% of our graduates employed and 79% working in sport.
One of these graduates is Maria Hasler. Having studied at GIS, Maria now works as Senior Commercial Rights Manager at Arsenal FC, saying, “I had loads of work experience that I gained during my time at GIS. I joined a charity called Bloomsbury Football where I was heading their partnerships department… I did deals with Nike and spoke to a lot of stakeholders within the sports industry.
“That was valuable experience that I then showcased in my interview process and that’s how I secured a role at DAZN before my current role with Arsenal.”
Featured in SportsBusiness Magazine’s Top 40 Postgraduate Programmes, where better to kickstart your career than here!
Article by Zak Anani
