15 Lucrative Sports Business Ideas & Opportunities

The sports business lies in a vast industry with so many opportunities for new and existing entrepreneurs. It makes following your dreams a reality for most sports fanatics.

With the increasing number of sports loyalists, lucrative opportunities continue to spring up from starting niche sports magazines to running sports viewing centres, sports shops, a sports blog, handling public relations for athletes, and more.

If you have a knack for sports, feel it’s a dream you should pursue, or are just looking-out for business opportunities in the industry, here are 15 profitable sports business ideas that can turn your passion into a lucrative income stream:

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1). Start A Sports Newspaper Or Magazine:

The extreme love for sports has driven a lot of the less-internet-connected part of the population to flock news stands daily, in order to read the latest sports news, especially on football. These sect follow news about their favourite teams and players to know what they’re up to, how the season is going, and if there’s hope for their favourite clubs to clinch the title.

A successful example is Complete Sports, in Nigeria. The sports newspaper became an instant hit when it was launched because, a large part of the population follow sports updates on daily newspapers.

By launching a sports newspaper or magazine focusing on a smaller niche and doing things differently from the existing competition, you can carve out a position for yourself in the market.

2). Start A Sports Viewing Centre:

Sports viewing centres in Africa, especially Nigeria, are almost never empty. Whether there’s a tournament, football match, tennis match, or nothing going on, people love to flock them and have passionate sports discussions.

Whenever there’s a football match going on, the viewing centres get filled to the brim, and their owners make a considerable income. Their incomes even explode further when an El Classico match is played.

The viewing centre is a great sports business for any average person to start up.

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3). Start A Sports Shop:

The number of fitness junkies around the world is growing exponentially. In Nigeria, so many people hit the streets every Saturdays for intense workouts. The most activity happens in places like stadiums, where thousands of people converge to workout during the weekends.

By starting a sports shop in a well visited sports environment, you can serve the needs of fitness junkies by selling sport shoes, trophies, gym supplements, gloves, jerseys, face towels, shakers, and a lot more.

4). Become A Personal Trainer:

Africa is a continent with a lot of over-sized women or ladies trying to burn off a form of fat. A great percentage of these women are mostly post-birth mothers, who want to look beautiful as soon as they bear a child. Others are ladies who want to have more confidence in their bodies and the way they look.

With a large market looking for ways to shed weight, you could apply for the job of a fitness trainer at a hotel, health centre, and more, to train people daily. During the course of the trainings, some of the trainees would request private sessions from their homes.

As you acquire clients, your portfolio would grow, and soon, you’d have more than enough clients to enable you quit your job and focus squarely on your business.

Note: You must be physically fit to be a fitness trainer.

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5). Run A Sports Television And Radio Show:

This may be a tad expensive, but running a sports television or radio show discussing the latest sports trends, news, controversies, and more, would overtime gain a lot of loyal viewers, since sports is an industry a lot of people are excited to follow or talk about.

With a large audience, you could earn a lot of income from sponsorships, advertisements, promoting your own products, and more, through the show.

6). Become A Sports Coach:

So many aspiring footballers start their careers early on. The key element to them undergoing the right training to be able to improve their skills to a national or international level, lies partly in the ability of a good coach to guide them.

By being a football coach focused on young footballers below the age of fifteen, you can create a steady income stream.

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7). Start A Sports Academy:

Sports academies like the Pepsi Academy, gives young footballers the opportunity to not just hone their talents, but offers more exposure to increase their chances of being spotted by a football scout.

By starting a sports academy that trains would-be professional footballers, you will not just be responsible for the success of many future players, but would build a profitable business in the process.

8). Start A Gym:

So many ladies and gents flock the gyms occasionally to maintain a sexy or fit look. They visit them whenever they’re free and/or whenever they have the motivation to workout.

With the increasing number of individuals looking for various places to workout due to a strong influence by Instagram fitness models, setting up a standard & affordable gym in a residential area is a smart sports business to venture into.

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9). Become A Football Scout:

Scouts spot great talent for football clubs and national teams. They spend a lot of time at football pitches, stadiums, sports environments, and more, studying the gameplay of thousands of people. Whenever they spot a rare talent a club or national team will be interested in, they get paid by the club and also get a percentage of the player’s first signing fee, which is usually a whole darn lot!

A successful football scout is usually a dollar millionaire. With a great eye for talent, and the right connections to football clubs and national teams, you could start out as a football scout.

10). Become A Health/Nutrition Coach:

With thousands of various health defects for people to worry about, more people are looking for professional nutritionists to guide them on what and what not to eat. These nutritionists most times could also be yoga instructors and/or fitness instructors. But their services are crucial to the overall health and wellbeing of their clients.

If you know a reputable doctor or have a strong network of doctors and hospitals, you can let them know you’re a professional nutritionist, so they can always refer patients who require your services.

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11). Start A Local Sports Club:

Starting a football club in your country is one great way to get into the sports business, but it is a venture for only individuals with a lot of money or funding.

With local successes like Eyimba, Ifeanyi Ubah FC, and many more local football clubs, starting a soccer team to battle for the trophies in your local leagues is a bold way to get into the sports business.

12). Start A Sports Blog:

While others tell sports stories via newspapers or magazines, you could tell it online through a personal blog or media channel. Asides from talking about just sports news, you could also choose to run a fitness blog, where people could learn various ways to stay healthy, how to workout right, and what meals to consume to be in top shape.

By taking advantage of people’s cravings to find solutions to various health or fitness problems, starting a sports blog focused on fitness and general wellbeing could be a great bet.

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13). Start A PR Business For Athletes:

Most athletes get into trouble and begin to search for ways to manage their brand crisis. Others may be performing so well in their tournaments and more, but get low recognition, which inadvertently affects their endorsement deals and contracts.

By offering a Public Relations (PR) service for athletes, which would manage their brand identity and always make sure they’re on the media for the right reasons, you could build a profitable business.

Success with one athlete would give you a much larger opportunity to manage another, and subsequently much more. With great PR skills and experience in the sports industry, starting a brand management sports business is a great bet to make.

14). Start A Sports Betting Company:

Sports betting has taken the whole world by storm. In Nigeria alone, the average revenue generated from sports betting companies daily, sits at about $7 million dollars. This extreme figure has caused the cost of obtaining a sports betting license to skyrocket through the short years, to a current fee of 50 million Naira as at 2016.

Since so many people are super addicted to placing bets on various matches every time there’s a game to be played, this industry continues to remain ever green, unless a government policy affects it.

If you’re looking for the most lucrative sports business to get into, sports betting is probably the best choice with the highest returns.

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15). Start A Sports Jersey Customization Business:

While several sports businesses generate high revenues, some generate moderate to low revenues, but are still valid sports businesses.

Many individuals look for businesses who can make custom jerseys for them. If you already run a printing business or a t-shirt manufacturing business, taking advantage of this sports business category could keep your cashflow running.

The only downside to this is you’d have to run it as a general t-shirt manufacturing business; so when there’s no one printing or making jerseys at any time, you can be making other types of t-shirts for individuals or organisations.

What are your thoughts on these 15 sports business ideas? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

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