The SportsTech behind the athletes’ road to the Olympics

23/08/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

During the summer of 2021, the Olympic Games was held. Despite a special Olympics with no fans attending, the athletes made great competitions and broke many records. One thing that is getting more and more popular to talk about is what helps athletes to go higher, faster, better and together. One of the secrets to this is SportsTech. In this article, we will break down some behind the scenes from the athletic successes by sharing the SportsTech that was behind many of the athletes in the Olympic Games.

What is SportsTech?

There are several ways to explain what SportsTech is and one of the ways to explain it is described by Daniel Marcus at Forbes, where he writes that SportsTech has emerged as a viable sub-sector in the tech space. SportsTech combines two things that the general population views as “sexy”, startups/technology and sports.

In 2018, the SportsTech sector generated an estimated $2.5 Billion in venture capital funding with some estimating that number growing to over $30 Billion by 2024. Moreover, the definition of what qualifies or is considered to be SportsTech only continues to grow. When people think of the term SportsTech, they think of different kinds of wearables, media platforms like The Athletic or Overtime, and probably e-sports and gambling technologies. There was a point where the term “SportsTech” would prompt eye rolls from people like Daniel Marcus – there was a pervasive sense that the sports industry was grasping at something that simply wasn’t there. However, the space has evolved over the past few years, as SportsTech is no longer limited to the traditional areas mentioned earlier in this article, as SportsTech now includes (or at least should) – not just technology that has applications in sports but technology where sports can be used as a vehicle or a platform for the success of the company.

SportsTech is the intersection of sports and technology

To put it simply, sports tech is the intersection of sports and technology. In other words, when technology is used to create a solution in the realm of sports, it falls under the umbrella of SportsTech. Think of solutions that have changed the way athletes compete or help them improve their performance or even new ways of engaging sports fans — that’s all SportsTech.

SportsTech is here to stay and to help athletes train better and win competitions (and make money) while delivering better experiences for fans. So let us have a look at what SportsTech was part of the Olympic Games 2021.

SportsTech help athletes train better

San Francisco-based asensei helped the British rowing team prepare (see video below) with its connected coaching platform. The company raised another $2.2M to build out a library of exercises including rowing, yoga, pilates, rehabilitation, kettlebells, and TRX.

Los Angeles-based StreamRecap produces “instant automatic highlights” for high school and college athletes that help with training and recruiting. The company was one of 10 winners of this year’s NBCU SportsTech Accelerator getting exclusive access to teams and Olympic coverage this year.

Other coaching platforms with recent successes include:

New York-based Obe Fitness, which raised $15M for its “personality-driven” exercise platform;
New York-based Citytrow, which raised $12M for its at-home digital platform and chain of rowing studios.
Grand Rapids, Mich.-based MaxOne, which raised $3.5M from NBA point guard Chris Paul and others for its system that allows coaches to upload training videos for players;
Seattle-based Boost Sport, which raised $1.3M for its AI-powered video analysis software; and
Palo Alto, Calif.-based SwingVision, which was named the official shot-tracking technology for Australian tennis after raising $120k from pro tennis player Andy Roddick and others.
SevenSix, the winner of the Nordic Sports Innovation Challenge 2020.

Emerging platforms for more general audiences include A-Champs and Utah-based Freeplay.

SportsTech improves an athlete’s performance and recovery

Other SportsTech companies are upgrading the equipment athletes use to train and recover.

Two other NBCU accelerator winners include Atlanta-based swim apparel maker Ane Swim, which creates swim caps designed to make the water more appealing for diverse audiences; and Ohio-based Safety Skin, which sells reflective skin to improve roadside safety.

Houston-based GRIND raised $250k from Mark Cuban and others for its basketball hoop that passes the ball back to you. France-based Stendo is developing technology to help athletes recover faster by sending “cardio-synchronized massages” through an IoT-enabled bodysuit.

Oura ring is a $300 Sleep Tracker That Provides Tons of Data.

SportsTech can also apply mental training

Mental health took center stage at this year’s Olympics Games, providing opportunities for startups focused on the mental side of sports.

Swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history, recently joined the board of Australian technology startup Medibio, which uses data technology to help those dealing with depression and anxiety.

The Indian Olympic Association partnered with Dhyana, a meditation-tracking startup that uses a ring to track a user’s heart rate variability, to help all of its athletes focus on their mental wellbeing.

New York-based Sharper Sense developed a “sensory patch” that sends electrical signals into an athlete’s body to improve awareness and reaction time. Denver-based GameSense trains baseball players to recognize pitches faster, and Arete offers personalized mental training and support from an “AI-powered wellbeing coach.”

SportsTech also help athletes making money

SportsTech startups are also using tech to help athletes monetize their passion.

Toronto-based Eon Media, another NBCU SportTech Accelerator winner, helped the U.S cycling and swimming teams understand the exposure they’ll get during the Olympics through its AI-enabled video platform.

London-based SportsIcon helps athletes create “one-of-a-kind, inalterable digital memorabilia” for fans to buy, while Own The Moment works to build “the Bloomberg for NFTs.” Both companies are part of this year’s Techstars Sports Tech accelerator.

Tokyo-based Ventus Inc., which allows people to support teams and athletes by buying digital trading cards, has partnered with the Japan Sumo Association.

Influencer culture is expanding, with some estimating that brands will spend up to $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022. Antourage allows sports organisations to leverage influencers, or super fans, to create interesting, engaging content.

Min Fotboll, ‘We’re in the game now’: How Sportswik helped the SvFF connect Swedish football from top to bottom. Min Fotboll allows football clubs at the grassroots level to live stream their games and enable friends and family to follow every step on the pitch.

SportsTech improves the fan experience

SportsTech startups across the globe are creating new ways for fans to enjoy live sports, too, as well as athletes road to the Olympics.

Because international spectators were banned from this year’s Olympics Games, there wasn’t much need for the fleet of robots that stood ready to help fans navigate the venues. But Perth-based Komo Digital partnered with the Australian Olympic Committee to create the country’s first virtual fan hub.

GreenPark Sports raised $14M for its social sports platform. The company, which was founded in 2018 by former execs at YouTube and Zappos, recently entered a partnership with the NBA so fans can outfit in-game avatars with jerseys and hats of their favorite teams.

Meanwhile, Buzzer raised $20M from pro sports legends Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, among others, for its live-sports service that aggregates streaming rights to give users an all-in-one-app experience.

The Sonar Company recently raised $1M from Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers and others to use ultrasonic tones to communicate with fan devices. For example, instead of displaying a QR code for fans to scan on their TV, future broadcasts could play a tone only recognized by enabled devices.

A host of AR companies—including Paris-based Immersiv.io and Bangalore, India-based Edisn.ai are working to bring stats and other information to fans as they watch games.

Want to take grassroots sports to the next level? Joymo have created an innovative fixed installed camera system, the Livecaster Pro, which brings automatic action tracking and higher resolution detail and when combined with the Joymo platform elevates and empowers everyday superstars.

What’s next for SportsTech and the Olympic Games?

Esports continue to await their Olympic debut.

Ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a local cleantech accelerator is pushing for California to win a “gold medal for clean air” by boosting electric vehicle use.

Meanwhile, in Brisbane, which hosts the 2032 Games, entrepreneurs are already mulling economic opportunities in tech.

Curious to learn more about SportsTech, you should read how sports technology has changed physical activity.

Should I outsource or hire in sports? Here are the pros and cons

04/08/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

When you are in a situation where you need to increase your staff, you are also faced with a choice between several options. But question is, what is the best option for your organization? Should you ask your employees and volunteers to do a bit more? Or maybe you should hire a new employee? Maybe renting or outsourcing could be the optimal option? One of the aspects to look at is what is most profitable financially. In the sports world, we know how difficult this situation is and that usually we think it is too challenging to think about anything else than hiring or not hiring. With this article, we will help you keep track.

To hire in sports – more costs, but cheaper in the long run

When you hire in sports, you take on a great deal of responsibility and make an investment financially. Not only do you pay salary once a month, but also a variety of other costs. First and foremost, you pay for the often time-consuming recruitment process. Once you have hired someone, there is an employer contribution for each salary, pension costs and costs such as holiday and sickness compensation. Therefore, you as an employer even pay when the employee is unable to work. However, you do not need to add any extra compensation to a staffing company och consultancy, which usually means that it can be cheaper in the long run and you control everything internally.

For outsourcing and renting in sports – fewer costs and needs-based

When you rent staff or outsourcing your tasks, you usually pay a fixed hourly cost to the staffing company. This is generally more expensive than with an employment – on the other side there are many costs you will avoid. When you rent someone, it is the staffing company and not you who is the employer. This means that you hand over everything from salaries and employer contributions and various benefits to them. In addition, you can think more of needs-based, which means, you only need to get in new people during the period when it is actually needed instead of all year round. This means that you will only pay for the time that the staff is actually at the workplace and working, while you save time (which is also money) as you do not have to think about administration and recruitment.

What is most profitable depends on your needs

In terms of cost, there are both pros and cons to both alternatives. What is most economical for you simply depends on your needs in your sports organization. If you are looking for recruiting in sports for a long time to come and do not have large shifts in the workload, it can be most advantageous to hire staff in the sports industry. If you have a more varied need, where workloads vary season to season, then you would benefit to have people for a shorter period, which renting or outsourcing would be your best option. This is perfect if you want to avoid spending time and money on the administration, you have a lot to gain from hiring staff or outsourcing your workload.

Additional benefits with outsourcing in sports

If you get an assignment but do not have staff to carry it out, you get zero costs, but at the same time zero income because you don’t have people to carry out the work. When you as an organization really need that income you will be willing to pay more to really get the skills the work demands. When time is short and there is a big opportunity to bring in new income to the sports club renting or outsourcing could be a great investment in order to develop the sports club’s strategic priorities and ambitions.

Here are some additional benefits that could guide you in your future decisions:

• A way to meet tougher international competition. “Everyone chases time and has shorter and shorter foresight. Orders and deliveries, everything should be done in less time. If you do not complete the assignment, someone else will take over ”.

• Expert help when recruiting. Faster and easier to get the right skills. Opportunity to test staff and hire employees that you are happy with. You avoid costs for incorrect recruitment.

• The staffing/outsourcing company pays for long-term sick leave, rehabilitation and work clothes.

• Get help to organize and streamline operations.

• Cheaper to rent than hire fixed-term staff.

• Acquires freedom of appeal. It takes time and commitment to bring in and get rid of your own employees. Smaller personnel departments are required.

• Staffing and outsourcing companies like Sportidealisten are better than the National Public Employment Service at matching jobs with employees.

Curious to learn more about how you could benefit from outsourcing or hiring in sports?

Head over to our page for Sports Employers here

The gig economy in the sports industry

23/01/202221/07/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

Gig economy, Sports industry, Sports Clubs

The gig economy in the sports industry

One of the things that will change the workforce in 5 years is the “gig economy”. It is all about working with different projects instead of one full-time job. Your next coach or sports marketer might stay with you for 6 months and then move further. Even though the gig economy is new to many sports clubs and workers in the sports industry, a lot of them have understood that they need to work differently in the near future to keep up with the fast-paced technological developments. In this article, we will go through the concept of the gig economy, the benefits for an employer, the trends for the labor market and the hottest jobs right now.

The gig economy at The World Economic Forum

At The World Economic Forum’s inaugural Pioneers of Change Summit where innovative leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world showcase their solutions, build meaningful connections and inspire change across the Forum’s diverse multistakeholder communities, four things were mentioned as changes of how we work in 5 years. One of these is the “gig economy”.

What is the gig economy?

The gig economy is quite similar to what we are used to calling freelancing, it’s basically the idea that the old economy was one of freelancing. Back in the days, people had their full-time jobs but every now and then they did some freelancing jobs. The new economy and ways of working, gig economy provide a platform for ad hoc tasks to be completed by freelance workers but instead of having a full-time job, freelancing is the new full-time job.

There are more and more opportunities now through new platforms for people to engage in freelancer work at every type of scale except the sports industry. These new platforms and opportunities can be done once a day, once a week.

The gig economy in the sports industry

How would it look like? If you would work within the gig economy you could continuously be shifting between employers, let’s say, working for a few hours for IOC, then switching to UEFA, then doing maybe a few hours for FIBA or Bayern Munich (this could obviously be within national sports organizations too).

Entrepreneurs in the sports industry

Being a gig economy worker could actually look like the life as an entrepreneur. You need to drive where you think you are going to find more work. We know people do what we call multi-homing, they switch between platforms. But at the same time, we see an attempt to try to streamline and create a more consistent vision of where things are going.

However, looking at the former freelancing setup working full-time and then freelance every now and then, the gig economy has now turned into more of a passion. People who joined the gig economy started to supplement their income. Maybe they added one more shift or tried to pay for their vacation, but actually more people are realizing that they actually enjoy it and enjoy the flexibility that comes with it. So, the question is if we will see more gig workers in the sports industry in the near future since the passion for sports is a common thing within the sports sector.

The growth of the gig economy in the sports industry

The European project, ESSA-Sport that was concluded in October 2019, with research aimed to create a debate within the sector on the key issues of skills and workforce development, contained some interesting insights about entrepreneurship. Even though the labor market in the European sports industry is mostly built up with employed staff there is another way to work too. With a comparison between 2011 and 2018, the labor market in the sports industry saw a rise in self-employed people. Taking into consideration this growth, we could expect a change with more gig workers in the sports industry in the coming 5 years too.

The sports labor market in Europe 2011
Employed: 81.8%
Self-Employed: 18.2%
The sports labor market in Europe 2018
Employed: 79.2%
Self-Employed: 20.8%
ESSA-Sport

From another study made by the Boston Consulting Group, The New Freelancers – Tapping Talent in the Gig Economy, the use of gig economy platforms has increased quite a lot, especially in some bigger countries and economics. There is still a huge majority who use the gig economy as their secondary income however more and more are adopting the life as a gig worker as a primary income source.

Future of work, sports industry, sports club, gig economy — Image: Boston Consulting Group

Two things you need to know about the gig economy right now

The World Economic Forum mentions two things you might know about the gig economy.

First, that it’s big. In 2019, roughly one-in-10 workers in the UK earned a living in the gig economy. In the US, the equivalent figure was an estimated 8%. According to the World Economic Forum, there was a pan-African survey 2019 that showed that 1.3% of adult Africans now earn money from gig economy platforms (the online companies that provide the work). More and more statistics show that there is an increase all over the world working in this way.

Second, the World Economic Forum mentions that the jobs being created are not necessarily of good quality. There are several struggles for workers due to the way that the platform’s work is organised. There seem to be a number of undesirable outcomes for workers – who can suffer from low pay, wage theft, precariousness, dangerous working conditions and discrimination. Not only that the working condition could seem horrible, when any of these issues arise, platforms simply tend to point to the fact that they aren’t responsible. They tend instead to present themselves as a simple intermediary rather than an entity that has the ability to shape actual on-the-ground working conditions.

The benefits of the gig economy

What we mentioned earlier in the article gig workers didn’t only work for the necessity of earning enough money for the vacation, workers also realized the great benefits the gig economy offers with tremendous flexibility for workers and employers.

For employers, this is a benefit because it gives them flexibility and it allows them to have more workers working fewer hours, and it protects them from having to provide health insurance or higher rates of pay.

The gig economy offers more or less agility to employers that must adapt to unexpected challenges every now and then and it also provides freedom to workers who want flexible and remote work arrangements. Embracing this working style can help employers and freelancers to succeed in the future of work, no matter where or when that happens.

Is your sports club ready for the gig economy?

According to The World Economic Forum’s inaugural Pioneers of Change Summit, one of the things that will change the workforce in 5 years is the ”gig economy”, where innovative leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world showcase their solutions, build meaningful connections and inspire change across the Forum’s diverse multistakeholder communities. Another change for the next 5 years is “Remotopia, head over here to learn more about if your sports club is part of “Remotopia”?

As a sports club finding great talent could be a challenge, especially if the club is a small sports club. Most sports clubs in the Nordic sports industry are volunteer-driven which makes it even harder to find great talent. Everyone in a local sports club volunteers their time to make sure sports activities can be provided in the neighborhood or in the city they live in. However, time is always a big challenge in the sports industry.

What if a sports club could bring in a freelancer for a limited time helping them in the most stressful period of the season. This would of course be a cost but looking at the outcome of getting in another person could actually become an investment for the club. If you are limited to only spend 5 hours work, you will only be able to gain x amount of revenue, however, getting additional 5 hours could mean a bigger revenue for the club.

Another way to think about the benefits of the gig economy in the sports industry is when you applied and received funds for a new development project from your municipality or sports federation. When this happens you will always need to add a project manager to handle this new project. This is also an example of freelancers in the sports industry, working for a limited time.

Still not sure if this would suit your sports club? A good example of onboarding a new colleague or freelancer is to know what tasks should be done, what expectations your club has and what resources and time the potential colleague or freelancer has. With clear objectives and job descriptions, less time will be spent on onboarding and more time on developing the sports club and its revenues.

So is your sports club ready for the gig economy?

Find great people in the sports industry with a gig job

The gig economy is perfect for the sports industry for ad hoc tasks to be completed when time is not an option. And time is our biggest opponent in the sports labor market. If you feel that you and your sports club are stressed out or you are in need of getting more tasks done, let us know.

If you need help finding your next hire and want help finding a great future employee no matter if it is remote or not, Sportidealisten can help you. We know that finding the best candidates and sports job isn’t as easy as in many other industries and it takes a lot of time. That is why we are changing this, a niched platform where you can only find candidates and jobs from the sports industry.

Do you want to recruit in a smart way? Are you part of a growing sports organization and want to be part of our platform? We have daily new sports job seekers. Join today by posting a sports job free of charge.

GET IN TOUCH WITH US

Is your sports club part of “Remotopia”? Check out here

Gothia Cup found their dream team at Sportidealisten

09/07/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

Gothia Cup, dream team at Sportidealisten

During the spring of 2021, the world’s biggest football tournament, Gothia Cup was looking for a new colleague to join their team. Sportidealisten helped them on their journey to find their dream team. In this article, we will share about Gothia Cup and how we helped Gothia Cup to recruit a sports job seeker.

As you may know, Gothia Cup has been the highlight of the year for every young footballer. Not only is it a place for footballers, but it is also a big organization that requires a lot of work to be done behind the scenes. Below is a quote from one of many who has been part of the Gothia Cup tournament.

I am proud to be part of the huge Gothia Cup Family. The tournament is part of my life. It is amazing to see how Gothia has grown and I am so fortunate year after year to get to spend time with the young people whose lives are changed through this incredible experience. I love Gothia Cup!
Patricia Espinosa
Mexico

About Gothia Cup

Gothia Cup is the world’s largest and most International youth football tournament. Each year, around 1700 teams from 80 nations take part and they play 4500 matches on 110 pitches.

Gothia Cup was first held in 1975. The tournament was started by the football clubs BK Häcken and GAIS and a local newspaper, since the early 80’s the tournament is own entirely and solely by BK Häcken.

The organization

The organization consists of eight full-time employed staff and during the tournament more than 2500 people work.

More than a football tournament

Getting involved in children’s conditions other than on the football pitch and outside Sweden has always been an important part in Gothia Cup. Their schools in Congo, Gothia Special Olympics Trophy and SKF’s Meet the World are an example of that.

Through the years, over a million players from a total of 149 countries have participated in the tournament.

Gothia Cup starts a new tournament in Mexico

Gothia Cup expands across the Atlantic Ocean. In January 2022, the first edition of Gothia Cup Cancun will be played.

– Mexico is a genuine football country, and it feels extra fun to be able to implement the new tournament now, to be able give the youths hope and faith about the future again, after such a long lockdown due to the pandemic, says Dennis Andersson, general secretary at Gothia Cup. Read the full story here.

We believe that it is important to make a tournament a lifelong memory. With moments for everyone – moments of harmony and fellowship – moments where everyone comes together.
Gothia Cup

How Sportidealisten helped Gothia Cup

During the spring of 2021, Gothia Cup announced a new role to help them with their event. The Tournament Secretary, Jonas Berglund shared this on LinkedIn and Sportidealisten’s founder Jakob asked him how the response had been. Jonas told Jakob that they have received many applications already.

Jakob asked Jonas if he wanted to post on the sports job platform, Sportidealisten too. And the answer was yes!

How did it go? You will soon find out, first we want to share how it works.

Do you need to create an account or how does it work to post a sports job at Sportidealisten?

If you are an employer looking to find a new colleague, you are able to post your job ads for free at Sportidealisten. You don’t need an account or pay upfront.

You simply send us an email or contact us here. You can send a job ad completely by yourself or getting help from us and we will set it up for you. We call this being flexible, adaptable and quality assurance.

Gothia Cup found their dream team at Sportidealisten

Now back to how we helped Gothia Cup finding a new colleague.

From the day Jonas said yes to us to post the job, it only took a few weeks until Jonas got back to us and told us this:

“We have now found a candidate that we have hired for the position. I even think she found the ad via your site! Wonderfully.”

Before the expired date was reached we took down the job ad and since Jonas was so satisfied with our help he also shared a quote from the candidate, Jenny who found the sports job at Sportidealisten.

What is it like to be part of Gothia Cup?

Jenny shares her thoughts on the new job as Tournament Secretary within the project volunteers, and what is it like to be part of Gothia Cup.

It will be incredibly fun and exciting to start my next chapter with the team at Gothia Cup. As a young football girl I fantasized about participating, now I look forward to helping and developing successful tournaments for youth teams, officials and the audience. After a long pandemic, we are all looking forward to return to big festive events and it is a super interesting time to join the team at Gothia Cup!
Jenny Söderman

Work at Gothia Cup

If you want to work at the team of Gothia Cup yourself, stay tuned for more opportunities coming up at Sportidealisten.

Finding your passion and to work as an account manager at PUMA

03/06/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

Account Manager, PUMA, Passion, Interships

In this article, we will share the story from Jur who is an account manager at PUMA. You will learn what PUMA is about and how to get a job in sports. What does an account manager do at PUMA and what are the tasks included? The full story is based on a podcast episode from Sports Views Podcast.

This is a shorter article based on an interview with Jur van Schijndel from the Sport Views Podcast! The sport we are talking about is mostly football but Jur has a great passion for Formula1 too. In this episode, you will learn a lot! Jur will share what it is like to work at one of the biggest sports brands, PUMA and what it is all about, why he thinks sport studies is a great career step. We also talk about sales skills and communication skills and how he made it to PUMA.

Finding your passion and importance of network and sport studies

Jur’s first sports memory was basically that he lived on the football pitch. With this, he means that he spent all his spare time and weekends on the pitch playing and watching football. Then later on in life, he started to ask himself what he should do later in life. He started to think about what he enjoys and realized that sports are always fun and that brought him to study sport marketing studies. He did a 4-year study in 3 years, including two summer schools and 1 semester abroad.

Just be yourself, be confident what you did in the past and just go for it.
Jur van Schijndel

When he looks back at his experiences from the summer schools and the exchange semester he shares his expectations and results being at a summer school. He also talks about gaining multicultural experiences, practical views of how things are. But also the great importance of networking. ”You never know who you met before that you can use later on…” is a phrase that suits the network effect. In the interview, Jur also shares why he did an exchange semester and that the biggest lesson learned being abroad was dealing with people from other cultures.

What is PUMA about?

PUMA is a lifestyle explains Jur. He said that basically, the mission at PUMA is making sure people enjoy the lifestyle of PUMA and the importance of following your passion.

Looking at what PUMA says themselves, they say:

THIS IS PUMA – Sport has the power to transform and empower us. As one of the world’s leading sports brands, it’s only natural that we want to stand on the same playing field as the fastest athletes on the planet. To achieve that, the PUMA brand is based on the very values that make an excellent athlete.

Sport is our world. This makes us passionate about designing, developing, selling and marketing footwear, apparel and accessories. In the course of more than 70 years, PUMA has made history as a creator of fast product designs for the fastest athletes on the planet: We enhance sports such as football, running and training, golf, basketball and motorsports with performance and sport-inspired lifestyle products. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, PUMA’s more than 13,000 employees push sports and culture forward in more than 120 countries.
PUMA

PUMA IN FIGURES

5.23 BILLION EURO SALES IN 2020

209 MILLION EUROS EBIT IN 2020

≈14,300 EMPLOYEES

1948 – YEAR OF BIRTH

Internship at PUMA

Before Jur got his job at PUMA he did two internships at PUMA within marketing and performance and the second one didn’t he want to do, but at the end of the internship period, he finally enjoyed it.

If you listen to the episode that you can find below you will get the opportunity to get recommendations of how to apply for an internship role at PUMA.

One advice when applying for jobs is to just be yourself, be confident what you did in the past and just go for it.

”You never know who you met before that you can use later on…”
Jur van Schijndel

What does an account manager do at PUMA?

First of all Jur and his colleagues at PUMA are making sure people enjoy the lifestyle of PUMA and following their passion.

As an account manager your work with sales. You have some stores that sell PUMA products and you are helping them to sell and make the most out of providing PUMA at their stores. But no matter what, even if it is mostly about sales he puts focus on the important skill of communication that is more important than sales skills. Because in the end, the sales will become better when the relationship is better.

Lessons from sports

Jur thinks you are born with a passion for something and in his story, sports is his passion. He talks about the emotions that sports bring is great. But he also talks about the people involved. Every sport is a team sport, there are always more people involved behind the athlete.

If you are unsure how to know what do do next, then Jur shares a good idea in the end of the podcast.

Jur also shared some book recommendations and Jur recommends:

Open by Andre Agassi

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight

Also, Jur had a question to the audience, feel free to answer in the comments below:

Jur wants to know what you do in sports! Please share to us at our email or on Social Media.

Listen to the full episode in the player below or at your podcast player.

Join the Sports podcast, Sport Views Podcast

Want to learn more, join Sports Views Podcast and the guests behind the scenes on Instagram, find them @sportviewspodcast. If you got any feedback or want to recommend any future guests feel free to let them know on Instagram or send them an email at sportviewspodcast@gmail.com

How to use LinkedIn to find a job in sports

05/07/202130/04/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

Have you ever asked yourself, how to use LinkedIn to find a job in sports? LinkedIn is the professional platform for every industry to connect and find like-minded people, finding clients and customers, but it is also a great platform to find a job in sports. This article is a short one where we bring up some good tips of how to find a job in sports, how to apply for a job in LinkedIn and some benefits for sports employers and job seekers to use LinkedIn.

Is LinkedIn a good tool to find a job in sports?

When our founder was interviewed at the Halftime Snacks podcast he got a question about the impact of LinkedIn to find a job in the sports industry. Here is what Jakob answered.

I think it’s actually the platform for showing your professionalism or where you aim to be. The people at LinkedIn have done a great job so far with building this professional approach to finding jobs. I think there’s a lot of great jobs out there on LinkedIn. And some of them are posted from the hiring organization looking for candidates and some are the recruiting firms that post. And some of the job posts on LinkedIn are from sports organizations. But yes, there many different jobs on LinkedIn and some are for us in the sports industry.

Easy to apply for sports jobs on LinkedIn

So from a job seeker side of it, I think there are actually great opportunities out there. And it’s easy to apply for a job because you can also share your resume very easily, so to say, from your LinkedIn page immediately. Basically, applying for LinkedIn jobs is so easy that it is enough to share your LinkedIn profile as a resume.

Another great thing about LinkedIn and having an updated LinkedIn profile is that many hiring organizations also provide the opportunity to apply with your LinkedIn account on their recruiting platforms.

No matter if you apply for jobs via LinkedIn or on other platforms with the help of using your LinkedIn profile, the importance of an updated LinkedIn profile is hugh!

However, some sports jobs ads on LinkedIn will be more basic and will ask you to send in your normal resume via the hiring organization’s email. So sometimes you just have to accept that some organizations aren’t that modern yet.

So is LinkedIn a good tool to find a sports job?

I would say so! I think it’s worth it.

If you have an updated profile that you’re making sure looks professional, you will have come far and have already improved your chances of getting a sports job via LinkedIn. Just make sure to have a good (serious/professional) picture, a realistic title, the latest working experiences added, and so on.

The importance of LinkedIn in the sports industry

If you’re thinking about a sports job and want to act professionally, you should start with your LinkedIn profile. Is it up to date? The sports industry is smaller than you think and when people find you on LinkedIn you want to make sure to capture their attention and when they are checking out your name or your profile page, you want to make sure they are seeing the latest version of you.

Another point of the important of LinkedIn in the sports industry is that if you are applying for a sports job, the chances that the hiring manager is looking at you on LinkedIn are quite high.

That’s one way to look at it. And for me, you shouldn’t look at LinkedIn as the one thing. You should look at LinkedIn as a tool that can help you boost your career, either finding a sports job or finding great candidates, and so on. But don’t look at it as the only way. We have to use it as a tool to help us increase our chances to find the next sports job or the next candidate.

This was an excerpt from an interview with our founder Jakob Wikenstaal in the Halftime Snacks podcast.

Listen to how to use LinkedIn to find a job in sports via Spotify below

What does a content producer in sports do?

26/04/202118/04/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

In this article we will share the story from Adam who is the content producer at Storvreta IBK. You will learn what floorball is and how to get a job in sports. What does a content producer do and what are the tasks included? The full story is based on a podcast episode from Sports Views Podcast.

This is a shorter article based on an interview with Adam Troy from the Sport Views Podcast! The sport we are talking about is a well-known sport in Sweden so therefore we believe it is important to share this conversation with Adam. In this episode, you will learn a lot! Adam will share what content production is all about, why he is unique in many ways in Sweden but also in America. We talk about the sport Floorball, how he created a federation, as well as:

What does a content producer in sports do?

Adam Troy is a digital communicator and content producer. But for many of us it could be hard to understand what that mean. Here is some of the main tasks:

Updating website, social media as well as taking photography, producing videos, organizing the occasional event, networking at events all over the world and more.

As well as work on newsletters, organize training camps, visit clubs abroad to promote Storvretacupen.

Read the summary of how to create a sport federation

How Adam got into his sports job with content production in floorball

Adam shares some great advice on how to get a job in sports.

If you want to learn more about working with content production, Adam recommended the podcast, Social on the Sidelines

If you want to learn more about adding value, Adam recommends to read Gary Vee’s books, e.g. Jab Jab Jab Right Hook

Also, Adam had a question to the audience, feel free to answer in the comments below:

What is the content piece/social media post that has made you emotional or gotten your attention?

Watch some of Adam’s work in the videos below

The first video is Storvreta’s special intro.

The second video is a player presentation with one of the best player in floorball history, Anna Wijk.

Listen to the full episode in the player below or at your podcast player.

Storvreta Floorball Club: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Join the Sports podcast, Sport Views Podcast

Is your sports club part of “Remotopia”?

21/07/202108/04/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

One of the things that will change the workforce in 5 years is “Remotopia”. It is all about working from home. Less than 5% of workers did their jobs remotely before 2020. Now, more than half of knowledge workers work remotely. Even though remote working arrangements are new to many sports clubs and workers, a lot of them have understood that they need to think and collaborate in different ways than before. In this article, we go through the concept of Remotopia, the benefits for an employer, the trends for the labor market and the hottest jobs right now.

“Remotopia”: work from home

At the outset of 2020, less than 5% of workers did their jobs remotely. Now, more than half of knowledge workers work remotely.

In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a number of high-profile companies – Facebook, Google, PayPal, Shopify, Siemens, and more – have announced long-term or permanent remote work policies. But many in the sports industry have taken these steps towards a remote working environment too.

Remote working arrangements, which are new to many companies, sports clubs and workers, require vastly different ways of thinking and collaborating. For example, the emerging normalcy of distributed workforces will place even greater importance on soft skills such as communication, relatability, empathy, and flexibility. Even though the start of the pandemic had a big negative hit on the sports clubs all over the world, the majority have adapted to the digital setup and started to understand that they can work on a remote setup too.

The benefits of remotopia

Studies show that remote employees work longer hours and are more productive than in-office counterparts. Both workers and employers alike must learn to balance those gains with increased likelihood of burnout and feelings of isolation. Additionally, recruiting for knowledge workers can expand to new geographies and include previously underrepresented populations like disabled or chronically ill workers. These changing dynamics will move to the HR forefront in the years to come. Today you don’t need to find your next hire in your sports local area, you can actually find the right candidate living in another city!

Looking at today’s working environment most sports clubs have understood that they can complete more tasks remotely and have understood that this opens up new opportunities for the sports industry’s working force. As an HR manager, you can now hire and find more qualified candidates with the setup of a remote working environment. Also, you don’t have to consider the sports office as it was prior to the pandemic. Today the sports offices will be enough with space for some working areas, meanwhile, we will see more jobs being held on a remote basis. This means, fewer costs at the office and less time spent on travel, and more qualified time for work.

Remote jobs and skills in focus 2021

LinkedIn analyzed job trends in 15 countries around the world for its annual Jobs on the Rise report. The hottest jobs for 2021 can all be done remotely, according to work trends – meaning that people with strong digital skills will have a significant advantage in the jobs market. If you’re in the market for a new role, and you have the right skills for a position in e-commerce, healthcare, or digital content, you’re in luck: they’re all on the list of LinkedIn’s predictions for the hottest jobs of 2021.

The labor market will become more democratized since there are more opportunities for employees who may not be based in major urban hubs and this will open up access to fresh talent for employers. However, the key will not only be about bringing new great talents into your staff, but you also need to be prepared for how to introduce the new remote employees and sharing your culture and how things work in your sports club.

One step to consider when hiring your next remote employee is to assess your own team according to soft skills such as communication, relatability, empathy, and flexibility. If you feel that you are in need of strengthening these skills you could take the opportunity to upskill yourself and your team via all the great online education that you can find here.

If you’re in the market for a new role, and you have the right skills for a position in e-commerce, healthcare, or digital content, you’re in luck: they’re all on the list of LinkedIn’s predictions for the hottest jobs of 2021.
Jobs on the Rise report

Is your sports club ready for remotopia?

One of the things that will change the workforce in 5 years is “Remotopia”, which was mentioned at The World Economic Forum’s inaugural Pioneers of Change Summit where innovative leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world showcase their solutions, build meaningful connections and inspire change across the Forum’s diverse multistakeholder communities. Less than 5% of workers did their jobs remotely before 2020. Now, more than half of knowledge workers work remotely.

Even though remote working arrangements are new to many sports clubs and workers, a lot of them have understood that they need to think and collaborate in different ways than before. Skills to manage in 2021 and forward will be of greater importance on soft skills such as communication, relatability, empathy, and flexibility. Even though the start of the pandemic had a big negative hit on the sports clubs all over the world, the majority have adapted to the digital setup and started to understand that they can work remotely too.

The hottest jobs for 2021 can all be done remotely with employees who have strong digital skills. Positions in e-commerce, healthcare, or digital content, will be the hottest jobs of 2021. If you are looking for a job in sports, make sure to develop your skills today.

If you are an employer then hiring a remote worker could enable you to hire the best candidate available despite their location. This also provides opportunities to find talents with great digital skills that could help your sports club to be ready for the coming 5 years.

Find great people with a remote job

GET IN TOUCH WITH US

Is your sports club ready for the gig economy in the sports industry?

How to find a sports management program?

28/04/202101/04/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

Do you love sports and want to work in the sports industry? Maybe you lack the experiences and knowledge to find a sports job? Well then it could be a good step to study a sport management program. In this article we will share with you how to know if you should study sport management programs, what to consider, as well as what to know to study sport management programs.

Are you considering to study sport management?

Do you love sports and share the emotions of competitiveness or the leadership or social benefits? Sport Management is the program for you who want to work with leadership, organization and development in the sports, health, leisure and event sectors.

Are you interested in leading and developing the sports of the future in associations, federations, municipalities, companies and other organizations? Be part of the developments of a sports society that is characterized by inclusion, gender equality and entrepreneurship and that meets the challenges of the future.

Do you feel align with the above? Well then studying sport management might be something for you. As with everything it is important to make the right decision when studying at a university since the study time will be at least 3 years. There are so many different programs within the sport management field. You could study the managerial side of it, you could study the science part of sports or more the analytical side of it. Start thinking about your future job. What would you like to work with?

Make a list of tasks you would like to do. Then start identifying if you want to go abroad or not. Head over to the universities that offers sport management related programs and look through their study plan. Try to identify what sport management program that could help you explore those skills and areas of work that could take you on the journey to find your dream job in sports.

Here is a list of different topics and areas of sport management:

Sport Governance and Policy
Strategy, Leadership and Stakeholder Management in Sport
Sport Marketing
Sport Consumer Behaviour
Sport Events and Tourism
Sport, Media and Communication
E-Sport and Technology
Sport Facility Management
Sport Funding and Finance
Legal and Ethical Aspects of Sport
Public Health and Physical Activity Management
Sport Development and Socio-Cultural Perspectives
Sport Management Education
Broader, New and Critical Aspects of Sport Management

What can you work with from a sport management program

The job opportunities from a sport management program are plenty, however vacancies in the sports industry are quite hard to find. But when it comes to what you can work with in the sport management filed there are opportunities available in both the non-profit, public and private sectors. To start with, you have good conditions to influence your professional career during the sport management studies. You will have internship opportunities and you will write theses and you can of course also volunteer at different sporting events to try out different areas in the sports sector and see what you enjoy to do. Examples of professional titles in sports and leisure are: development consultant, sports and club manager, coach / trainer, sports manager, sport administrator, event manager, coordinator, media manager, facility manager, office manager and project manager. In addition, the core areas of sport management programs – management and organization – provide career opportunities in other sectors too.

Think about this before applying for sport management programs

Make sure to do your research about the different studies and their application processes. When to apply and how to apply. Do you want to study abroad? Do you want to go for an exchange semester? There are different benefits at each sport management program. Find out if you are eligible and make sure to contact the program manager in order to ask those questions you might have. It will be worth the time to ask those questions you might have when looking at the different sport management programs.

In order to find different sport management programs we have created this page where we have gathered the sports programs that are offered in the Nordics starting with sports programs in Denmark, then sports programs in Finland and then Norway and lastly Sweden.

What to know as a sport management student

Tons of people start every year a sport management education in order to later work in sports, to get that dream job. There are also lots of unanswered questions or hidden tips of how you actually getting through your education and getting closer to that dream job in sports. Check out this article if you want to get some advice about what to know as a sport management student.

Time to apply for sport management programs

Depending on you want to study abroad or not you need to apply several months ahead. For example, in Sweden, you can apply for sport management programs in the middle of the Spring or Fall. Make sure to do your research in time and take your decisions without any stress. You can find a mix of native speaking courses and programs to international Bachelor, Master and PhD programs in sport management at our list of sports studies in the Nordics here.

Good luck applying and we hope that you take a smart decision that brings you closer to your dream job in sports!

10 questions that every recruiting manager should ask

17/03/202115/03/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

No matter if you are recruiting for a small organization or a bigger one you will always need to ask some questions to your future employee in order to know if he or she could be a good fit in your organization and at the new job. In times like a pandemic when recruiting is mostly held remotely the interview questions are even more important now than ever before. In this article you will get 10 interview questions to assess a candidate’s soft skills and whether a candidate will be successful at your organization. Recruiting successfully will help you reduce churn, increase employee engagement, and find productive employees.

Top 5 difficulties expressed for retaining staff

Before the pandemic a 3-year European project, ESSA-Sport project was concluded in October 2019. A research aimed to create a debate within the sector on the key issues of skills and workforce development. The aim of the ESSA-Sport project, funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme, was to establish a European Sector Skills Alliance covering the full breadth of the sport and physical activity sector across the EU.

One of the highlights for this article is the Top 5 difficulties expressed for retaining staff.

Better pay by other organizations
Lack of career progression/pathways
Better pay offered in other job roles
Lack of financial stability for the organization
Lack of commitment to the job

Many organizations struggle to retain their staff but the question is more why they haven’t known these problems with their staff earlier and solved them before it is too late. One good way to solve these difficulties is to ask your staff how they are doing and listen to what they are saying both orally and with their body language. However, actually, everything starts at recruiting. When you hire a new staff member you should have understood the person and pointed down what their motivations are and how they view their future years at the organization. This is why we really want to help you avoid struggles with retention of staff and start with your next hire. Let us share a solid ground with questions to explore how your next staff member works and feels in different situations.

If you want to learn more about difficulties for recruiting managers to fill vacancies and more about the recruitment of sports employees and how to build a recruiting strategy, then you can learn more here.

The following questions are all suitable for every role you will ever hire, no matter level of it. At the end you can download our free bank of 47 interview questions.

First let us start with two questions for the hottest criteria, culture compatibility.

Culture compatibility recruiting questions

Culture compatibility is one of the hottest criteria that recruiters look for in candidates. When candidates align to your company culture, they are more likely to be engaged, productive, and less likely to churn within the first year. Here are 2 interview questions that you should be asking your candidates to ensure they fit in with your company culture.

What type of work environment do prefer and find motivating?
How do you handle stress/pressure?

Recruiting questions, Recruiting manager, Hiring

Communication skills recruiting questions

Communication skills are necessary, regardless of an employee’s role. During the time at your company, hires will be required to communicate within your team, with different departments, and even customers and fans. These questions will help you understand your future employee’s communication skills.

Tell me about a time where you were the expert in a subject and had to explain to someone else. What was the subject and how did you go about explaining it to someone who was new or unfamiliar?
Give me an example of when you had to interact with a difficult client/customer. What were the circumstances of the interaction? How did you handle this difficulty? Were you able to change the experience from negative to positive?

Self motivation recruiting questions

Self motivation and commitment to your company are important soft skills that you’ll want in any hire. These 2 interview questions will help you determine if a candidate will be committed and happy at your company, or if they’ll churn immediately at the sight of a pay raise.

What motivates you to come to work everyday?
If you find yourself stuck doing repetitive work, how do you motivate yourself to continue and complete it?

Creative thinking recruiting questions

Creative thinking is directly linked with high performing employees. Use these 2 interview questions to learn how your candidate solves problems on a daily basis.

Describe a time where there was a problem at work and you had to come up with a creative solution to resolve it.
Describe a situation where you faced a challenge in doing your job. What were the challenges, and how did you overcome them?

Team player recruiting questions

Will your new hire be nice with others? If they’re an individual contributor, then you may be able to get away with hiring someone who is not as much of a collaborator. However, the majority of hires will need to be able to collaborate or work within teams of various sizes. Use the 2 questions below to determine their preferred role on teams and level of collaboration.

If you notice a member of your team is struggling, what would you do?
Tell me about a time where a team you were a part of experienced some sort of conflict. What did you do to help resolve the issues?

There are several steps you could do to improve your candidate experience and find the best talent for your organization in the sports sector. We have written about three smart recruiting tips on how to become a smarter recruiter today. The first solution is called Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). The second one towards smarter recruiting is recruiting where your ideal job candidate is. Lastly, when you are hiring a role you have less knowledge about, talk with your network first.

Smart recruiting

We know that finding the best candidates and sports job isn’t as easy as in many other industries and it takes a lot of time. That is why we are changing this, a niched platform where you can only find candidates and jobs from the sports industry.

Do you want to recruit in a smart way? Are you part of a growing sports organization and want to be part of our platform? We have daily new sports job seekers.

47 questions that every recruiting manager should ask

These general interview questions are a great way to assess a candidate’s soft skills and whether a candidate will be successful at your company. These are great tools that best-in-class recruiters use to reduce churn, increase employee engagement, and find productive employees. Do you want to get a bank of good questions to ask for different assessments? We will be happy to share that with you. Feel free to add value to your recruiting process and download our free bank of questions a recruiting manager should ask.

Recruiting,Hiring,Recruiting questions,recruiting manager

Download our free bank of questions a recruiting manager should ask here

How to create a sport federation

19/03/202111/03/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

In this article we will share the story from Adam who built up a sport federation in the United States of America. You will learn what floorball is and how to get a job in sports. The full story is based on a podcast episode from Sports Views Podcast.

This is a shorter article based on an interview with Adam Troy from the Sport Views Podcast! The sport we are talking about is a well-known sport in Sweden so therefore we believe it is important to share this conversation with Adam. In this episode, you will learn a lot! Adam will share why he is unique in North America. You will learn about the sport Floorball and how he created USA Floorball, the floorball federation in the United States of America.

Furthermore, you will learn how Adam got into his job and floorball.

The worst and best experience with the American team.

Adam also shares some great advice on how to get a job in sports.

Listen to the full episode in the player below or at your podcast player.

USA Floorball: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Extra material When USA Floorball got smashed by Sweden

Join the Sports podcast, Sport Views Podcast

These are the top 20 football leagues according to social responsibility

03/02/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

It is time to learn more about social responsibility in sports and more specifically in football. The tenth annual ranking of international football leagues’ environmental, social and governance commitments, RESPONSIBALL helps us explore and learn more about the work outside of the pitch. In this report you will be able to explore: how the different football leagues are ranked according to the topics; Governance; Community; Environment. Additional key issues are also included in the report: Racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and other discrimination in football; Domestic violence; Refugees and migrants; Women’s football. Lastly, the report also shares some good practices from each topic. In this article we will share some highlights from this report and you will learn who tops the ranking.

About RESPONSIBALL

RESPONSIBALL is the first point of reference for responsible football clubs. It supports the progress of social responsibility at all football clubs.

Funded by the work of SchweryCade, RESPONSIBALL provides an online platform for a community of practitioners within the football sector to act together and promote and maintain high standards of meaningful social responsibility.

RESPONSIBALL has two key goals at the heart of its mission:
• To showcase good practices in governance, community development, and environmental stewardship;
• To support a community of practitioners

About the 2020 RESPONSIBALL RANKING

AUTHOR

SchweryCade

RESEARCHERS

Lili Borisova, Kenneth Cortsen, Juan Manuel Ferrer, Sung Jung, Jean Lee, Nina Lunkina, Alex Matsuo, Oscar Manuel Palma, Ilias Petrogiannis, Manas Rastogi, Mia Salvemini, Marisa Schlenker, Taizo Uchida, Graziella Widmer, Jakob Wikenstål.

Contact

info@schwerycade.com
Twitter: @Responsiball
Facebook: facebook.com/Responsiball
LinkedIn: Group – Responsiball
Instagram: @Responsiball_org

The ranking 2020

The purpose of the annual RESPONSIBALL Ranking is to raise awareness and demonstrate the level of social responsibility in elite level professional football, looking specifically at governance, community and environmental aspects of a club’s activities and commitments. This season saw an increase in all aspects of the research scoring, with the German Bundesliga ultimately being crowned the top of the 2020 RESPONSIBALL ranking. Their efforts in community and environmental work, in particular, pushed them ahead of the 19 other leagues that were studied this season.

This season, an extraordinary one marked by a latter half filled with disruptions, delays and a constant redevelopment of the idea of what could or could not be done, was not solely defined by the Covid-19 pandemic. The first half of the 2019/2020 season, which for most leagues began in August or September of 2019, was business as usual; it was not until March of 2020 that the global pandemic changed the face of football for the remainder of the year.

Governance

This season, 35% percent of the 320 clubs researched have at least one female representative on the superior decisionmaking body (board) at the club. Sweden led the charge with female representatives at 14 of their 16 clubs.

“Corporate social responsibility is a hard-edged business decision. Not because it is a nice thing to do or because people are forcing us to do it… because it is good for our business.”
Niall Fitzgerald, Former CEO, Unilever

Community

30% percent of the 320 clubs researched provide the contact information of a Disability Access Officer. Of the 20 English Premier League clubs researched this season, all 20 clubs provided contact information for a Disability Access Officer (DAO); no other leagues had 100%, though 16 of 18 German clubs and 14 of 18 Japanese clubs also provided contact information.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend‘s or of thine own were: any man‘s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”
John Donne

Environment

Of the 320 clubs researched this season, 8% of clubs play in stadiums which achieved an environmental certification. The majority of those stadiums, 42%, are from the German Bundesliga.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, overcivilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.”
John Muir

Additional Key Issues

Each year, we discuss the three key topics governance, community and environment within the RESPONSIBALL ranking, these focused on 46 particular indicators that were chosen to represent universal commitments and activities that make the basis of a socially responsible club.

In this edition, we would like to offer a broader perspective, looking at some of the key issues that are not within the indicators, but that have stood out to us, both as football fans and sustainability professionals. The issues we have chosen to highlight do not represent all of the issues within football that are possible to discuss; we chose these because of their particular global relevance.

Want to learn more about these additional Key Issues, head over to the report.

Good Practices

In the last section around good practices you can learn more about governance from FC Schalke O4 (Bundesliga – Germany), Getafe CF (La Liga – Spain), St. Mirren (Scottish Premier League) and NAC Breda (Eredivisie – Netherlands).

When it comes about good practices within community you can learn more from FC Lugano (Swiss Football League), Ulsan Hyundai (K League 1 – South Korea), AC Milan (Serie A – Italy) and Aalborg BK (Danish Superliga).

Lastly there are some good practices around environment from New York Red Bulls (Major League Soccer – USA/Canada), Club Necaxa (LigaMX – Mexico), Gamba Osaka (J League – Japan) and St. Pölten (Tipico Bundesliga – Austria).

Want to learn more about these additional Good Practices, head over to the report.

Download the RESPONSIBALL RANKING 2020

This article is just highlighting the tenth annual ranking of international football leagues’ environmental, social and governance commitments, RESPONSIBALL. When reading this you should have been able to have some understanding about the work outside of the football pitch. In this report we have briefly explored: how the different football leagues are ranked according to the topics; Governance; Community; Environment.

If you want to learn more about the full report, make sure to head over to the report here.

Additional reading

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more how to work within the social sphere in sports then you should definitely learn and adapt to the Convention on the rights of the child in sports.

2 tips to find a job in sports

14/06/202119/01/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

In this article we share 2 tips to find a job in sports. Many people have a sports job as the dream job and therefore this article could help you get closer to your dream. The tips we are talking about is believing in yourself and creating your own experiences. You will also learn about permissionless work.

This article is based on a conversation our founder Jakob had as a guest on The Half Time Snacks Podcast where he shared many great tips but the focus in this article will be about 2 tips around how to find a job in sports.

Sport as a job is a dream job

The first advice to find a job in sports: If sport is the dream job, keep believing that you can make it. That’s the first thing.

Create your own experiences for a sports job

The second piece of advice to find a job in sports is a bit longer. This is all about being creative and being an entrepreneur. If you are very creative and want to do stuff, take the entrepreneurial pathway into sports, it’s not a bad thing at all. It’s actually a good thing because you could actually build your own experiences. So if you think you have a resume where it basically says that you do not have any working experience in sports, then you might ask yourself: how can I get into a job in sports? Well, actually, you can build your own experiences.

You could launch your own podcast and actually learning a lot from its content creation. It’s like learning interviewing skills. And there are so many more skills being gained behind the scenes that you’re not thinking about right now. You can also run a blog, where you will learn a lot when you do your research. Both these two can be shared with people; you will actually create a lot of value. These things shouldn’t be thought of as something cheap, just a free time thing. It’s actually something that you can use in your own experiences for your future work.

And then just think of the mindset where you are trying to help as many as you can. It could be one person you help, but it could be 20 people too. Or why not 1 000. But start easy and smart. Start with that one person that you actually can help today. So building your own skills is one way to find a job in sports and just keep in mind that you always want to add value and help others.

If you want more advice about finding a job in sports you might like to read about this article too around how to build your sports job.

Permissionless work

Creating your own work and helping people without asking them first is also a concept called “permissionless work”. Basically, it is that you don’t really ask for permission to do something for someone. A guy called Jack Butcher from Twitter mentions this all the time. If there’s a company that you like to work for, just figure out the problem on their website or in their marketing, and just fix it. Publish it on the networks, or send it to them, or just do it and send an email to the CEO and be like, “Hey, you did this wrong, here’s how you should do it.” That’s how you can actually catch the attention of the people you want to work for or work with.

Conclusion

So to wrap this all up. There are many great ways to start to do right now and in this article we share 2 tips to find a job in sports. The first one is all about keep believing in yourself. You know and can do so much more than you think!

The second one is about adding value to other people and this could be done by creating your own working experiences like your own podcast, your own blog. Write or talk about things you find interesting and ask people to share their feedback. Learn from that and keep building. The more you build, the more experiences you got and can learn from and share with others.

The bonus advice is a concept called “permissionless work”. If you see problems in the sports industry, like a website or a newsletter that could be managed better, well write down your suggestion, build it and send it to them.

Year in review 2020

13/01/202110/01/2021 by Jakob Wikenstaal

Time to share some highlights and what we have been doing under 2020. In this post, we share some important moments and steps for Sportidealisten’s development. We had a good start and then as the rest of the world, a pandemic hit all of us hard. However, we still saw growth and new ways to develop our services and this and a bit more will be shared.

Highlights of Sportidealisten 2020

While we all are excited that 2021 is finally here, 2020 was a good year for us – largely thanks to people like yourself who make us a part of your monthly routine! We couldn’t come to this point without you and therefore we want to highlight our year in review including the most popular reads 2020.

I developed into we. From being an one-man show we got two more people working hard and passionate about building the #1 sports jobs platform. With our innovative and open-minded mindsets and thanks to your loyalty and trust, we have managed to develop the website with an improved design and content which seems to be enjoyed by everyone. The same goes for our newsletter that has gotten some improvements.

In 2020 our founder and CEO, Jakob had the great opportunity to moderate a panel at the Creative Business Cup Sweden with world-class athletes. If you want to learn more about this, we shared a four part series about this (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4).

Sportidealisten, Transferable skills in sports

Soon after this we developed our list we call “the Passion List” where people looking for sports jobs can add themselves onto the list. A great feature in order to better connect future employees and employers in the sports industry and to provide impactful matches between hiring managers and job seekers in sports.

Covid-19 has also put many people out of work and we felt the urge to help out. Our job is to find yours and we want you to feel empowered and ready for a successful career in the sports industry. Therefore we developed another feature called “Develop your career“. We have shared lots of education that is free to learn on this page. Since we know how important personal development is, it is crucial to always learn something new every day and we hope that you have had the opportunity to do so.

Lastly, during 2020 we took another big step by creating the first-ever education for club directors in sports in Sweden together with Sportseminarier. We had a good mix of sports and the clubs were a great spread from around the country thanks to our online format.

Our vision
We believe that all sports bring a lot of engagement and emotions and that is why many of us want to work in sports. Our vision is to have a world where everyone can work with their passion.

I personally want to thank you for being part of Sportidealisten. Without you and your passion this platform and vision wouldn’t have been the same. As I usually am talking about it takes a lot of time to find the dream job in sports but also to find and recruit the best candidates. And from the start of Sportidealisten I have wanted to change this and I know that we can change this. Let us keep working to make employment in sports easy, fun and allow more people to work with their passion.

2020 Sportidealisten Recap

– 1 ➡️ 3 team members
– Launched a new web design
– 176% increase in monthly readership to the site
– 208% increase in monthly pageviews
– 134% increase in newsletter readers
– Hosted a panel with 4 world elite athletes at the Creative Business Cup Sweden
– Launched our education page
– Launched the first-ever education for club directors in sports in Sweden in collaboration with Sportseminarier

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Transferable skills from competitive athletes part 4: Handle pressure and being solely responsible

18/12/2020 by Jakob Wikenstaal

How to handle the pressure? And what about being solely responsible? As an athlete there are many great skills being developed like discipline, focus, goal setting and balance and those are not only for an athlete, their skills can be useful in other contexts too, for example in an entrepreneur’s environment. This is what we call transferable skills. During the spring of 2020, right at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak in Sweden, our founder Jakob had the opportunity to sit down at an entrepreneurial event with four elite athletes with extensive knowledge of personal durability, the knowledge that has given them a total of thirty Olympic and World Cup medals combined. In this article, we will share about personal durability, pressure and responsibility with the former boxer Klara Svensson. Klara recently finished her career as a professional boxer and has begun a new career as a sole business owner.

Transferable skills from athletes: Skills you gain as an athlete

This is a four-part series where we share the conversation from a panel discussion from an entrepreneurial competition during spring 2020. We have divided each athlete’s story and experience into a separate blog post. Usually, when we are talking about skills, we are talking about skills needed in different jobs. Job ads contain some required skills for a role or some preferable skills needed. Even if you don’t have that skill from previous job experiences you might already have the skill from other experiences. This is called a “transferable skill”.

If you have played sports you probably have learned about teamwork, goal setting, or showing respect. This is something you could bring into your future job, which means, you transfer the skills into something else, like from youth sports to a job. Therefore, transferable skills. You could basically acquire skills from other experiences in life than your current job, but also from one industry into another. For example, what can we learn from athletes?

In the first part of the Transferable skills from competitive athletes four-part series we share a great story from Susanna Gunnarsson, one of Sweden’s most successful canoeists and she explained how to develop the secret to her successes and why it is her strongest skill. After that we had the second part Skills you gain as an athlete – Balance and focus where one of the best Martial Arts athletes, William share about the importance of balance and focus. And then in the latest article, we had Rob Haans, who has won three individual world championship gold medals and has been the coach of the Swedish national team in jujutsu. He shares about, among other things, how curiosity has given him success and how important it is to create a strong team.

Transferable skills from competitive athletes, Part 1: Skills you gain as an athlete – Mental strength

Transferable skills from competitive athletes, Part 2: Skills you gain as an athlete – Balance and focus

Transferable skills from competitive athletes part 3: teamwork, values curiosity

How to handle pressure

In the fourth part of the series about personal durability we meet the former boxer Klara Svensson, who talks about the importance of working systematically without making excuses. Klara recently finished her career as a professional boxer and has begun a new career as a sole business owner. She joined during the Swedish final of The Creative Business Cup on the 12th March to share her experiences with entrepreneurs. An athlete must be prepared to constantly think and rethink in order to be successful – and the same is true for someone that runs a startup. Klara Svensson has gone from being part of a team to training alone as a professional boxer with an emphasis on the individual.

Klara Svensson has recently ended her career as a boxer. As an amateur she won several Swedish Championship gold medals, and a total of five silver and bronze at the World and European Championships. She fought in twenty fights as a professional boxer and won five titles, including winning the WBC interim welterweight title and light-welterweight.

Klara Svensson – you have experience being both an entrepreneur and athlete. Is it easier for athletes to put themselves at the center?

– As an athlete you often need to be selfish, but many people respect that because athletes have clear goals. As an entrepreneur it can be more difficult, but even as an entrepreneur you must be able to demand a lot from yourself and your surroundings.

How do you handle pressure?

– I have been under pressure many times. In professional boxing a fight can be very crucial for survival. I remember early on in my career seeing Armand Krajnc at a gala and I was nervous to see him alone in the big arena and by how much focus there was on him. But attention is something that you grow into and mature to. One method can be mental training and to prepare yourself by questioning what will happen if the match goes to hell. The world actually goes on.

How have you handled injuries and illness and what has it taught you?

– I have not had too many injuries, but I often became sick during hard training periods prior to big matches. Now in hindsight I can see that should have trained differently and demanded a different training schedule. It is difficult to appreciate this when you feel a lot of stress to get in shape and have many workouts to cope with. As an entrepreneur it is important to identify where the energy is and to see how it can be distributed in the long run. It is important to know yourself and to stop basing yourself off other people’s agenda. We are all different and it can be good to dare to step outside the box.

You have told us that your trainer worked according to certain guidelines – what significance has this had on you?

– My trainer was principled and disciplinary, and it takes clear leaders to move forward. I learned to never lie or be dishonest with training and that it takes patience to become good. It is important to work in a systematic way without making excuses or dodging responsibility.

How to deal with pressure and be solely responsible

As a professional boxer you are often on your own without teammates. What has it been like to work alone?

– Ever since I turned professional, I have trained alone. I knew that I did not have any teammates to hide behind. I have grown into the notion that I have to deliver and that is part of the charm of it. It is both demanding and wonderful to be solely responsible.

You have recently retired as a boxer. How should you prepare yourself for life after sport?

– In Sweden we are generally bad at taking care of former elite athletes. We don’t have that culture. I had aspirations and plans, and early on got an assignment in the media. Both as an athlete and as an entrepreneur it is good to have a plan B, or else the uncertainty can cause stress. And that’s not good if you, as an entrepreneur, have a constant fear of bankruptcy and panic.

If you missed the first or second or third part about Mental strength, Balance and Focus, teamwork and Values Curiosity check them out here.

Transferable skills from competitive athletes, Part 1: Skills you gain as an athlete – Mental strength

Transferable skills from competitive athletes, Part 2: Skills you gain as an athlete – Balance and focus

Transferable skills from competitive athletes part 3: teamwork, values curiosity

This story is made by Caroline Wendt at Future By Lund and the original story comes from here: Personal durability, Part 4: Klara Svensson “It is both demanding and wonderful to be solely responsible”.

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If you like this, you might want to go further and read these:

– How to get a job in tennis
– What a current sport management student needs to know
– For employers and job seekers in the sports industry
– 3 ways to express passion for sports jobs

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