Are you interested in the commercial aspect of the sports industry? Keep reading to learn more about Kyle’s Sponsorship Executive role, helping establish, negotiate, and deliver partnerships across the sports landscape!
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Can you tell us about your journey into the sports industry and when you knew you wanted to work in sports?
I have always been interested in sports from a young age. Even when studying law at university or working as a grad in the finance/asset management industry, I knew that I ultimately wanted to make my way into the sporting world. However, I didn’t know how or where to start.
As a law student, I naturally explored sports law as a potential avenue – I attended a few sports law events in London and connected with sports lawyers, but they all said that sports law was still a niche sector. There were not that many opportunities for junior-level roles. This led me to actively search for roles on various sports job websites and platforms which advertised a variety of jobs across the sporting industry. I applied for multiple roles but had no luck for the better part of a year. Still, I kept going and ultimately found a position and company that suited me quite well.
What does your current role as a Sponsorship Executive entail?
My role primarily involves elements of business development – lead generation, new business outreach, relationship building, managing the sales and negotiation process between companies/brands & rights holders (this is the industry term for clubs, organisations, leagues, etc.), and ultimately trying to establish and deliver partnerships across the sporting landscape.
The role does require a lot of proactivity by way of being entrepreneurial, constantly generating new ideas and leads, connecting with key decision makers across various industries, having excellent levels of client servicing, being commercially aware and savvy, and having an overall positive attitude and mindset.
What is your favourite part of the job so far?
So far, one of the best things has been getting exposure to key decision-makers within various clubs and teams worldwide. Similarly, the opportunity to connect and speak with people in global companies about exciting opportunities within the world of sports has been an aspect of the job that I’ve really enjoyed as someone who is just starting in the industry.
How did you find out about this opportunity to work at ORSEN SA? If you had an application process, what did it involve?
I was signed up to the Global Sports Jobs (GSJ) page and saw ORSEN’s listing on there with a detailed job description, which I found quite interesting. I applied by sending over my CV, and the recruiter from GSJ got in touch after a few days, saying the team liked my CV and wanted me to fill in a short cover letter-type form with about 4-5 questions on general personality traits. After sending that form back to them, the recruiter arranged my first video interview with the ORSEN team about a week later. I then had a second in-person interview, which involved preparing a mini case study with examples of potential sponsors for one of the sporting properties ORSEN represented – this was an exercise meant to test how well-suited I would be to the role. This was then followed up with a final online interview with the CEO before they formally offered me the job. All in all, the entire process took about one month from applying to being offered the role.
One of the biggest challenges for young people who want to work in sports is the lack of knowledge about available opportunities. Do you know of any initiatives ORSEN runs to help young people gain industry experience?
ORSEN is still a relatively new and small company, so it does not currently run any major or structured initiatives. However, during my time here so far, we have had two high school students who joined as interns for about 1-2 weeks as a way for them to get first-hand experience and knowledge of the sports industry and the kind of work we do daily – something that the team plan to build upon and do more of in the future.
Did you face any challenges trying to get into the industry? If so, how were you able to overcome them?
I would not say that I encountered any overt challenges in my journey getting into the industry per se – the only thing I can highlight is that I was unable to find or was unaware of any centralised information sources that make clear the various roles within the sports industry. I was only signed up to job boards that intermittently posted positions as and when they came up. It would have helped if I knew what specific roles entailed or knew more people in and around the industry who regularly spoke about their roles and journey of getting into the industry.
What is one piece of advice you would give to a young person who has a similar background to you and feels the industry is not for them?
As someone who came to the UK from Kenya when I was 18, I quickly had to adopt the mentality of being comfortable in spaces where I would not see that many people who looked like me – this mindset has served me incredibly well so far. It’s easy to feel like you don’t belong and have imposter syndrome about being in the sports industry – but when you look at the actual sporting side of the industry, there are so many people like us that shine on the pitch/field so I’d argue that it’s only fitting that we should likewise be just as present and prominent on the business side of things as well.
If you were to choose one person to shine a light on in the industry, who would it be and why?
One person that I’d like to highlight is Mayowa Quadri, the Head of Brand for VERSUS – they recently ran a campaign in collaboration with Chelsea FC to offer two creatives from underrepresented backgrounds the opportunity to showcase their talents through the club’s platform and ultimately help improve and promote diversity within the creative industry where less than 10% of the people are from minority backgrounds.
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