Guest Speakers
January 27, 2025

GIS Insight Series Recap: Sports Entrepreneurship 

GIS Insight Series Recap: Sports Entrepreneurship 

Sport has been ranked as the ninth largest industry on earth. Within this exciting, fast-paced, and ever-evolving industry, there are many opportunities for new business ideas to flourish. 

From academies to agencies, business experts shared their experience and advice with GIS in one of our signature Insight Series events. 

Hosted by Lynsey Hooper, four entrepreneurs were part of an expert panel that talked about all things business.  

The panellists were: 

  • CEO of GROW football agency, Thomas Freismuth 
  • Investor in African women’s sport, Abiola Ijasanmi 

To begin with, Tom Vernon’s Right to Dream is a youth football academy in Ghana that he started when he was just 19 years old. Now, the organisation owns professional teams in Denmark, Egypt, and the USA, with the academy one of the most productive in Africa. 

But, as with any successful business, there were challenges along the way. During the session, Tom recalled that it took 10 years for any ‘green shoots of success’ to appear, during which there was a fine line between perseverance and potentially accepting reality. 

Telling listeners that, “giving it a go while you’re young is the best thing to do”, Tom highlighted the idea of ‘failing fast’ as a good skill to have in entrepreneurship. 

“You can find out quickly whether it’s going to work or not. There’s a real skill in not flogging a dead horse. Don’t be afraid to accept that it’s not working, and you need to pivot. Start young, limit your responsibilities so you can experience the emotionally and financially draining things without it encroaching into your personal life.” 

He continued to emphasise the importance of introspection, advising listeners to “be honest with yourself. 

“Whenever you have your own idea, you think it’s the best idea in the world, but the market will speak.” 

Tom went on to say that a way to navigate around the tricky world of sports business is having the right mentors around you, which Abiola agreed with. “Being surrounded by fantastic advisors has been really key and helped me hone in on what the gaps in the market were,” she added. 

Discovering these gaps is a key factor as to whether or not your business can be a successful one. 


Thomas knows this all too well, and said in his case, “We tried to find a bit of a niche.

“Having spent 7 years in England and being a native German speaker, we tried to find a link between the markets in Germany, Austria and England.” 

At GROW agency, he works with Dr Erkut Sogut, the former agent of Mesut Özil, who has worked with GIS in the past. University is actually where Thomas and Erkut met, and is how their business idea became a reality. 

“It all started at UCFB Wembley”, Thomas began. “I went to UCFB wanting to start a career in football, but I said the one thing I don’t want to be is a football agent, because those are only dodgy people!

“But I got to meet Erkut, and he taught me everything. At some point, we decided to start an agency, which is obviously very challenging, but for me, is a great experience.”  

Now, Thomas aims to change the preconceptions people, like himself, hold around agents, and said, “We try to change the narrative of agents by providing education in the industry. 

“Seeing many other agents join the industry with the right values and the right way of doing things is a big success of our agency.” 

This human side of business is one that often gets overlooked, but is also one that the entire panel agreed was vital. 

Looking back on his career so far, Tom said his biggest successes have revolved around the relationships that he built. 

“We’re in an exclusively human-centred business, so for 25 years, you build some pretty precious relationships and take kids and staff on amazing journeys.  

“How you address HR in your business is critical, because when you’re the founder and you are perceived to be the one getting most of the upside, how you take care of your people is fundamental. Especially in a startup, HR might be something you’re tempted to delay a bit, but how you treat the people you start with is absolutely critical.” 

Tom then said that if he could have his time back, he’d have “brought someone in from HR earlier and been more HR savvy”, again underlining the importance of your relationships with others in the industry. 

Another important aspect of being an entrepreneur in sport is consistency. Always having to find guests and publish podcasts on a tight schedule, Edem shared his thoughts on this. 

“If you release an episode and the numbers are very low- don’t stop. 

“People give up because they don’t see growth, but you need to be able to look five, ten years down the line”, he advised. “When I celebrated episode 100, I was thinking about episode 1000. In podcasting, finding guests may become a problem, in all growing businesses, money may become a problem, but that fire of consistency is burning within you, you still go for it.” 

But this long-term vision also needs to be balanced with short-term focus so you don’t get overwhelmed.  

As Abiola says, “From an entrepreneur’s perspective, it’s one day at a time.” 

Whether it be studying International Sports Management like Edem, or any of our other courses, click here to learn more about how you can kickstart your GIS journey. 

Article by Zakaria Anani 

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