If you are one of the billions worldwide with a passion for sports, you may dream of working in the industry. Packing up your desk and leaving the office to dedicate the best years of your life to a Super Bowl hopeful, a big name from the NBA, or even a superpower of the English Premier League. You might think you’ve left it too late, missing the boat and settling for watching sports live on television. But that’s not true.
Modern sports is a lucrative business and has many sectors. From playing and coaching to greenkeeping and publishing odds for firms listed at Betonline, there’s something for everyone. There’s much more going on than the players. In the past, you may have thought the only way into sports is by becoming a professional player, but that’s no mean feat. Then it would help if you found a team willing to employ you and pay those big wages you’ve dreamed of since childhood. The fortune, fame, and attention are all there waiting for you to grab it.
If your best days are behind you and playing professional sports has become a forgotten pipe dream, you still have options. If you’re talented enough, you could pursue a sports coach career, passing your knowledge and experience to the next generation. Sports teams are always looking for new coaches to help give players an edge over the competition. Knowledge is valuable in this industry.
Professional teams only hire the top coaches and sports scientists, but amateur and youth clubs are always looking for help. Many aspiring coaches start at the lower level and work their way up, gaining experience as they progress through the ranks.
Non-Playing Alternatives
The playing and coaching staff roles are the most exciting in sports and usually offer the highest wages, but this article isn’t for former players and new coaches. We want to showcase the many avenues available in sports and how your current job could lead you to the industry. Teams are big business now and, as such, have multiple departments. Landing a career in sports could be as simple as finding where you fit.
That’s where this article aims to help. We have researched the most popular and accessible jobs in professional sports, returning with our findings. Our researchers and writers have trawled the vacancies, checked the relevant qualifications needed, and compared the wages offered. We found three areas most skilled people could consider or start studying. These aren’t the most apparent careers; we’ve intentionally taken you off the beaten track for sports.
The jobs we settled on that are available in sports today are areas our readers already know well. Graphic design, technology, and marketing all made the list. If you already work in one of these sectors, you are already well on your way to gaining employment in professional sports. Imagine working for the Buffalo Bills without being tackled regularly or earning at Manchester City minus the punishing training schedule.
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Graphic Design
What does a football team need a graphic designer for? The answer would be many things. From the club website to the match day program, sports teams require a full-time graphic designer employed by the business or on a freelance contract. The top clubs go with a combination of full-time workers and freelancers who come in to help when needed.
The most obvious work for a graphic designer is on the website, where a team communicates with its fans. The website and smartphone apps are the first port of call for supporters looking to purchase tickets, watch interviews, or read the latest news. A team of journalists will create the content and send it to be published by the website team. It now needs graphics to help the pages stand out and attract attention.
You’ll work on many exciting assignments. Graphic designers create posters for upcoming games to push ticket sales. You may get the early news on a new signing and must mock up an unveiling poster or video. Designers also work on the design of tickets, match day programs, and more. Teams are desperate to impress fans and drive repeat business while standing out from the competition and attracting new followers.
Technology
Tech plays an integral part in sports, more now than ever before. The best tech has dragged football, soccer, tennis, and boxing into the 21st century, but it’s only sometimes popular. The tech you’ll notice during the game includes VAR and Hawkeye, which help officials make the correct decisions in soccer and tennis. The margin for human error is now minute, leading to fair results every time.
If you want to be involved in the match day experience, apply for a job as a VAR operator. Your duties include watching the game on several monitors covering several angles. The goal is to spot anything the referee missed during the build-up to a goal or an off-the-ball flashpoint. Anything caught and noteworthy will then be passed to the officials to consider their decision.
The club’s app is another area of interest. Customers use the app to check fixtures, purchase tickets, and order merchandise. It’s not a good look for the club if the app goes down or stops working. Keeping a club’s online presence running takes an entire team. If you have a background in sports, you could play an integral part in maintaining the app and site.
Marketing
Lastly, which sector doesn’t require a team of ambitious marketers thinking outside the box? Sports teams have millions of followers worldwide, and some may feel marketing takes care of itself, but nothing could be further from the truth.
If a team has an important game and wants to fill the stadium, they’ll require intelligent marketing. If there’s a new home shirt to be released, a clever advertising campaign will help encourage sales. Use your marketing experience to take on a new audience.
If you love sports, selling to like-minded fans is easy. The marketing team is often in-house, but some work freelance as a backup.
