Opportunities from SportsPro, Youtube, the Coca-Cola Foundation and nine others to help you unlock new income in sport.
The definitive guide to finding opportunities, building partnerships and generating new income in the sports industry.
Hello and Welcome
On The Ball is a fortnightly newsletter sharing opportunities, tools, tricks, and templates to help you unlock new income for your business or non-profit in sport. We are democratising sales, business development, and fundraising in the industry.
This week we have twelve (!!) more opportunities for you to consider, from upcoming networking events and exhibitions to grants, funds, incubators and so much more. From here on in we’ll be jam-packed full of the latest funders, guides, events, and tools curated specifically for sales, business development, and fundraising in sport and the surrounding industries.
But first, a word to our partners
The 2023 edition of the International Sports Convention (ISC) is fast approaching, and there are only a few days left to secure early-bird ticket prices. Taking place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London at the end of March, the event will bring together more than 1000+ attendees and 100s of speakers across five stages of sports industry-focused content.
This is shaping up to be a mega-event of the pre-Covid variety. There are a diverse range of themes and speakers, with federations, leagues, clubs, NGOs, and sponsors gathering to discuss the future of broadcasting, sponsorship, tech, major events, and governance. Hear from and meet the likes of Spotify, Formula E, World Netball, Unilever, Juventus FC, FIFA, Sporting Equals, and the Parimatch Foundation all under one roof during the two-day event.
TOP TIP: If you’re considering it, act quickly. Get your ticket by the end of this week, or it will cost you at least an additional £300. Early bird pricing (£495 + VAT per person) ends on the 16th of December. With more than 1000 attendees and plenty of networking, there should be more than enough opportunity to recoup the early bird price.
So, let’s get into it:
️⚽️Our friends at Football Business Inside (FBIN) are hosting their first physical meet-up of 2023 on January 21st in Venice, Italy. Hosted by the fashionable Venezia FC, the informal gathering will feature some educational sessions on the art of creating a brand and standing for something besides football, as well as several networking opportunities. Attendance is limited to 55 people and tickets cost $149 per head but include food and a ticket to watch Venezia FC and FC Südtirol. We can think of a few other reasons to visit Venice too…
🏀The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) is seeking a new supplier to operate and maintain one of the most iconic venues from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games - the Copper Box Arena. The Arena is a key sporting destination for basketball, netball, and esports and this autumn hosted the opening matches of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, as well as community sport, health, and fitness. A ten-year contract is on offer for the winning supplier with a performance-related five-year extension option. Interested parties have until the 8th of February to request participation in the tender process.
🏆The team behind SportsPro have launched the Ignition Innovation Competition; a platform for startups to demonstrate their solutions in front of industry leaders, potential buyers and investors at their Ignition summit in February 2023. The competition is focused on five themes; media and consumption; data and analytics; fan engagement; in-venue; and commerce. The competition costs nothing to enter, and the winner will receive an equity-free growth support package valued at over $100,000. Interested? Applications are due by January 12th.
🏃♀️Scottish Sports Futures (SSF) have announced their upcoming Changing Lives Through Sport conference will take place in Glasgow on the 23rd and 24th of February 2023. The event will provide several networking opportunities and also a chance to hear from industry experts on the role sport can play in addressing societal needs. A two-day ticket costs £200, and you can expect to meet speakers from Sweaty Betty Foundation, Sport Scotland, Actify and other brands, federations and NGOs.
⬆️Working within a large business but interested in using sport for good? The United Nations Global Compact SDG Innovation Accelerator is open for applications from young professionals aged 35 and under. Participants will join a cohort of other young professionals and embark on a nine-month learning journey, led by experts at the United Nations and purpose-led companies. The Call for Nominations ends on the 13th of January and the programme is set to start by the end of the month. Make sure you check the participating countries before applying!
🎤Launching a podcast or trying to grow one? The team at Youtube have pulled together their complete Guide to Podcasting; 67 packed pages of learnings from hundreds of successful podcasts hosted on the platform in recent years. From content strategy and promotion to content creation and basic how-to’s, the guide is a rare opportunity to take advice from one of the world’s most successful platforms to help you grow your reach - whether you’re a federation, club, business or NGO.
🥤More than 500 grants were awarded by The Coca-Cola Foundation in 2022, and plenty went to sport-related causes. The guidelines are broad, but typically funded projects tend to focus on empowering women, enhancing communities, protecting the environment and education-related programmes. Most grants made by the Foundation are over $50,000, and you can view a full report on where the money went last year on the Foundation website. For example, TIBU Maroc were awarded over $120,000 for a women and girls-focused sport and entrepreneurship programme.
💻No cash is involved, but the LinkedIn Ad Grants scheme has opened for applications, providing free advertising for non-profit causes that could prove crucial to your fundraising and marketing plans in early 2023. The programme supports organisations working on racial and gender equity, economic opportunity/employability, and environmental sustainability. Applications are due at 11:59pm PST on Wednesday, January 4th, and your organisation can be based anywhere in the world.
And finally, a few tools and resources you might find useful:
Get a 30-day free trial of Sunsama, the only productivity app you’ll ever need.
Join 700,000+ others and read the latest sports news, written by women, at The Gist.
Make your writing bold and clear with the Hemingway Editor.
And yes, you might as well give Chat GPT from OpenAI a go. Everyone else has.
We’re heading off now until January, so we’ll see you all in 2023 with a fresh set of opportunities 😎 Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
