In the last two decades, innovation, data analysis and technology have driven a tectonic shift in the sports business. Game of Edges is the story of how sports franchises evolved, on and off the field, from raggedly run small businesses into some of the most systematically productive companies around. In today’s game, everyone from the owners to the marketing staff are using information—data—to give their team an edge. For analysts, an edge is their currency. Figuring out that bunting hurts your offence? That’s an edge. So is discovering metrics that can predict the career arc of your free agent shooting guard. Or combing through a decade of ticket-buying data to target persuadable fans. These small, incremental steps move a sports franchise from merely ordinary to the leading edge. Franchises today are more than just sports; they integrate a whole suite of other businesses—television and digital content, gambling and real estate, fashion and clothing, entertainment, catering and concessions and much more. But an optimised franchise has no room for error. Teams must do what the numbers say, reducing the element of chance, limiting those random moments of athletic heroism that make sports thrilling to watch. Optimisation also means the franchise’s main goal isn’t championships anymore; it’s keeping you, the viewer, engaged with the product. Drawing on extensive interviews with franchise owners, managers, executives and players, Bruce Schoenfeld introduces dynamic leaders who are radically reimagining the operations of these decades-old teams—and producing mind-boggling valuations. He joins the architects of the Golden State Warriors dynasty for an exclusive reception before tip-off. He stands among the faithful at Anfield, watching Liverpool’s analytics guru size up a prized midfielder. And he watches the president of the Chicago Cubs break ground on a new DraftKings gambling parlour at Wrigley Field, not ten miles from the site of the original Black Sox betting scandal. Essential reading for anyone interested in sports, business or technology Game of Edges explores a world where winning the game is only the beginning.

Developing and executing marketing strategies is a vital aspect of any business and few books currently cover this with relation to creative industries. This textbook provides students and managers in the creative industries with a solid grounding in how to maximize the impact of their marketing efforts across a range of business types in the creative and cultural industries. The author, an experienced cultural marketing educator, provides sector-contextual understanding to illuminate the field by: * taking a strategic approach to developing marketing plans; * bringing together strategic planning, market research, goal setting, and marketing theory and practice; * explaining how content marketing on social media encourages a relationship with consumers so that they co-promote the creative product. With a range of learning exercises and real-life examples throughout, this text shows students how to create successful marketing plans for their creative businesses. This refreshed edition is a valuable resource for students and tutors of creative, cultural and arts marketing worldwide.

Developing and executing marketing strategies is a vital aspect of any business and few books currently cover this with relation to creative industries. This textbook provides students and managers in the creative industries with a solid grounding in how to maximize the impact of their marketing efforts across a range of business types in the creative and cultural industries. The author, an experienced cultural marketing educator, provides sector-contextual understanding to illuminate the field by: * taking a strategic approach to developing marketing plans; * bringing together strategic planning, market research, goal setting, and marketing theory and practice; * explaining how content marketing on social media encourages a relationship with consumers so that they co-promote the creative product. With a range of learning exercises and real-life examples throughout, this text shows students how to create successful marketing plans for their creative businesses. This refreshed edition is a valuable resource for students and tutors of creative, cultural and arts marketing worldwide.

Drawing on recent work in sport studies, business and management, health, science, and law, this book offers a critical examination of the latest published research on sport and environmental sustainability. It examines how strategic management, policy and education influence the relationship between sport and the natural environment, and how the transmission and advancement of knowledge via research journals can, and should, have an impact on policy and practice. Covering sport at all levels, from professional to non-profit, and across all sectors of sport management, from marketing and events to facilities and communications, Sport and Environmental Sustainability makes a powerful argument for an awareness of, and need for, environmental sustainability in sport. Chapters outline the research and methods used, expose gaps in the literature and encourage opportunities for future inter-disciplinary research. Topics include sport and climate change, sport and safeguarding air and water quality, education for sustainability, and sport policy. This is an invaluable resource for researchers in sport and environmental sustainability, and academics working in sport management, business, recreation and leisure studies, and sustainability programs, as well as sport policymakers and industry practitioners.

"Advances in Hospitality and Leisure" ("AHL"), a peer-reviewed series, seeks to deliver refreshing insights from a host of scientific investigations pertaining to hospitality, leisure, and tourism while rendering an academic forum to stimulate discussion on current literature, contemporary issues and emerging trends essential to theory advancement as well as professional practices from a global perspective. The main focus of this journal is to divulge the innovative methods of inquiry so as to inspire new research topics that are vital and have been in large neglected. AHL strives to address the needs of the populace willing to disseminate seminal ideas, concepts, and theories derived from scholarly inquiries. Potential readers may retrieve useful texts helping outline new research agendas, suggest viable topics for a dissertation work, and augment the knowledge of the new subjects of learning.

Sports betting has become a truly global phenomenon, facilitated by new communication technologies. As a result, the development of deviances, from match-fixing to money laundering, has accelerated. This new reality has numerous implications, for both the regulation of this billion-dollar industry and the very integrity of sport, sport financing and betting operations. Written by an international team of academic researchers and industry professionals, International Sports Betting explores the central concepts of integrity and deviance, governance and policy, as well as perennial issues linked to the gambling sector, such as regulatory responsibilities and the fight against gambling addiction. Unlike other treatments of the gambling industry, the book offers a multi-disciplinary sociological and managerial critique that goes beyond a traditional focus on law and regulation. This is fascinating reading for any student, researcher or practitioner working in the areas of sport business, international business, international regulation, policy studies or gambling studies.

Contemporary sport business is international. From global sport competitions and events, sponsorship deals and broadcasting rights to labour markets and lucrative flows of tourists, anybody working in sport business today has to have an international perspective. This book offers the broadest and most in-depth guide to the key themes in international sport business today, covering every core area from strategy and marketing to finance, media and the law. Including authors from more than twenty countries spanning the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, this handbook addresses the most important issues in the world of sport business from a uniquely global perspective. Each chapter examines a particular cross-section of business and sport, encompassing all levels from grassroots to professional and elite. Divided into seven major subject areas, it offers insights from experts on: International Sport Business Strategy Sport Marketing Sport Economics and Finance International Sport Law Sport Media and Communication Sport Tourism Sport Development. The Routledge Handbook of International Sport Business is an essential resource for any course on sport business, sport management or international business.

The global health and fitness industry is worth an estimated $4 trillion. We spend $90 billion each year on health club memberships and $100 billion each year on dietary supplements. In such an industrial climate, lax regulations on the products we are sold (supplements, fad-diets, training programs, gadgets, and garments) result in marketing campaigns underpinned by strong claims and weak evidence. Moreover, our critical faculties are ill-suited to a culture characterized by fake news, social media, misinformation, and bad science. We have become walking, talking prey to 21st-Century Snake Oil salesmen. In The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science, Nicholas B. Tiller confronts the claims behind the products and the evidence behind the claims. The author discusses what might be wrong with the sales pitch, the glossy magazine advert, and the celebrity endorsements that our heuristically-wired brains find so innately attractive. Tiller also explores the appeal of the one quick fix, the fallacious arguments that are a mainstay of product advertising, and the critical steps we must take in retraining our minds to navigate the pitfalls of the modern consumerist culture. This informative and accessible volume pulls no punches in scrutinizing the plausibility of, and evidence for, the most popular sports products and practices on the market. Readers are encouraged to confront their conceptualizations of the industry and, by the book's end, they will have acquired the skills necessary to independently judge the effectiveness of sports-related products. This treatise on the commercialization of science in sport and exercise is a must-read for exercisers, athletes, students, and practitioners who hope to retain their intellectual integrity in a lucrative health and fitness industry that is spiraling out-of-control.

Surfing and Sustainability presents a new way of understanding the impact of surfing on the environment, society and the economy, providing important insights into the field of sustainability and arguing that the activity of surfing offers a unique opportunity to explore the ambiguity of sustainability. The book contextualises surfing within current debates on sustainability and applies these debates to an innovative theoretical framework drawn from elements of a risk society and sociotechnical transitions. The book discusses the capacity of surfing to influence behaviour, both at an individual and organisational level, exploring sustainability from a range of perspectives including industry, the charity sector, media and celebrity culture. Featuring a range of international case studies, it analyses the greening of the surf industry through topics such as ECOBOARD surfboard manufacturing, business innovation and branding, environmental activism, information technology and surf forecasting, as well as the expansion of artificial wave technology. The book also considers the future directions of surfing and how the inclusion of surfing in the 2020 Olympic Games will impact sustainability debates. This is important reading for academics and scholars, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students working and studying in sports studies, sociology, geography, economics, psychology, marine science, coastal management and economics. It is also a valuable resource for practitioners across the globe.

Just One More Hand tells a story that workers all over can relate to: an industry that promised a solid and stable livelihood is being transformed by competitive pressures, causing employees to lose their economic footing. What seemed like a good job one day becomes a bad job the next. Incorporating the real experiences of casino employees, the book demonstrates the difficulties for local communities that are building new casinos in the hopes of luring tourists. Local communities placing all their chips on casinos as an economic development strategy face increasingly long odds. Life stories of individual workers in Atlantic City are explored in the context of the history of the city and the now-global gaming industry. With more and more casinos competing for customers, employees are feeling the brunt of cost-cutting measures, including the wholesale closure of some casinos. While long-time employees are fighting against concessions and wage stagnation, younger workers juggle multiple part-time and seasonal jobs at several casinos. Policy makers hoping to offset these trends are trying to rebrand Atlantic City for a younger, hipper, and more well-to-do clientele using public-private partnerships. Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid to the core issue in economic development-the need for sustainable livelihoods and meaningful work. Here, Ellen Mutari and Deborah Figart explore the realities of the industry and the lives and challenges the workers within it are facing.

This book examines the development of sport sponsorship and its impact on global public health. It argues that sport governing bodies should not continue to treat fans solely as consumers, and that a more ethical approach should be taken to sport sponsorship. Drawing on research from sport studies, marketing and public health, the book presents a brief history of advertising and marketing in sport, including the importance of tobacco in the development of sport sponsorship, before exploring key aspects of the contemporary relationship between sport and corporate sponsors, including mega-events, digital technologies, and brand engagement. It offers an in-depth case study of sponsorship in the English Premier League - one of the world's most successful sporting properties - before considering how sport might be better regulated, now and in the future, to better protect the interests of fans and other stakeholders from a health perspective. The book features a number of insightful images showcasing sport sponsorship in connection with tobacco, mega-events, alcohol, junk food and drink, and gambling over the years. Addressing a topical and hugely important issue, this is important reading for students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers with an interest in sport business and management, the ethics of sport, physical activity and health, event studies, marketing or public health.

What are the social, political and economic consequences of staging sport mega events such as the Olympics and the World Cup? Capitalism, Sport Mega Events and the Global South presents a new approach to sport mega events and related issues, exploring elements that are not present or are not developed in the existing literature. This book explores the socioeconomic impact of these events on host countries in the Global South. Drawing on a thorough case study of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, it examines how the residents of Porto Alegre perceived how they were affected and considers the relationship between sport mega events and the wider social sphere of global capitalism. Supported by original socioeconomic research conducted in the area, this is fascinating reading for all students and scholars interested in sport mega events, sport tourism, international development, sport geography and the sociology of sport.

Cultural policy intersects with political, economic, and socio-cultural dynamics at all levels of society, placing high and often contradictory expectations on the capabilities and capacities of the media, the fine, performing, and folk arts, and cultural heritage. These expectations are articulated, mobilised and contested at - and across - a global scale. As a result, the study of cultural policy has firmly established itself as a field that cuts across a range of academic disciplines, including sociology, cultural and media studies, economics, anthropology, area studies, languages, geography, and law. This Routledge Handbook of Global Cultural Policy sets out to broaden the field's consideration to recognise the necessity for international and global perspectives. The book explores how cultural policy has become a global phenomenon. It brings together a diverse range of researchers whose work reveals how cultural policy expresses and realises common global concerns, dominant narratives, and geopolitical economic and social inequalities. The sections of the book address cultural policy's relation to core academic disciplines and core questions, of regulations, rights, development, practice, and global issues. With a cross-section of country-by-country case studies, this comprehensive volume is a map for academics and students seeking to become more globally orientated cultural policy scholars.

Sport volunteering is becoming an increasingly popular motive for international travel. Many tourism organisations now advertise sport volunteering projects, with colleges and universities also offering students the opportunity to participate in similar projects abroad. This is the first book to bring together diverse and interdisciplinary insights into the development of the contemporary sport volunteering phenomenon. It addresses conceptual uncertainties and challenges emerging from the growing international sport volunteering market, and offers insight into its future directions, impact and sustainability. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, Part I examines volunteering in the context of international sporting events, while Part II evaluates volunteering initiatives related to sport development. Including case studies from Australia, Cameroon, Namibia, Norway, Russia, the UK, the US and Zambia, this substantial volume provides a truly international perspective on the changing roles of sport volunteering. Showcasing the latest research from across the globe, International Sports Volunteering is a valuable resource for any course on sport studies, sport event management, sport development, sport tourism, sport geography, the sociology of sport or leisure studies.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. How has globalization impacted on sports media? What are the economic ramifications? And what is the future of sports media? In order to answer these questions, this book investigates the constituents, dimensions and implications of the flows of media sport from the Global West to the Global East, and in the reverse direction. At an historical moment when the relative stability of the Western media sport order is under challenge, it analyses a range of key structures, practices and issues whose ramifications extend far beyond the fields of play and national contexts in which sport events take place. The book will appraise and analyse the state of sports television, rise of new sports media, emergence of hybrid sport cultural forms, eruption of sport-related political controversies, scandals and power struggles, mutations of forms of global sport fandom, and projections of the future of global media sport. In bringing together the latest research from across a number of disciplines, this book offers an exciting contribution to the emerging field of global sports media.

The Olympic Games is a unique event centering global interest on its host city. The financing of the Games has changed dramatically since Munich (1972) and economic interests and effects are increasingly paramount. It is therefore an anomaly that accurate economic analysis and comparison is not readily available. This is the most detailed study on the economic implications of recent and future Olympic Games over four decades. Holger Preuss analyses the most important issues surrounding the hosting of the Olympics, and its wider economic effects, including: * financial gigantism of the Olympic Games * commercialisation and its control * problems associated with achieving the Olympic requirements and standards * the economic legacy of Olympic Games * the feasibility of developing countries staging future Olympic Games * detailed post Olympic analysis of financial figures * conclusions on the economic related achievements of respective Organising Committees. Academics and researchers of sports economics, international economics, international business and competition will all find this fascinating book of great value. The rigorous and authoritative analysis ensures valuable information will be available for future bid cities, and in a wider context, any city planning to bid for a major sporting event. It will also appeal to those interested in the broader context of the Olympic Games and concerned by their commercialisation and gigantism.

Surfing and Sustainability presents a new way of understanding the impact of surfing on the environment, society and the economy, providing important insights into the field of sustainability and arguing that the activity of surfing offers a unique opportunity to explore the ambiguity of sustainability. The book contextualises surfing within current debates on sustainability and applies these debates to an innovative theoretical framework drawn from elements of a risk society and sociotechnical transitions. The book discusses the capacity of surfing to influence behaviour, both at an individual and organisational level, exploring sustainability from a range of perspectives including industry, the charity sector, media and celebrity culture. Featuring a range of international case studies, it analyses the greening of the surf industry through topics such as ECOBOARD surfboard manufacturing, business innovation and branding, environmental activism, information technology and surf forecasting, as well as the expansion of artificial wave technology. The book also considers the future directions of surfing and how the inclusion of surfing in the 2020 Olympic Games will impact sustainability debates. This is important reading for academics and scholars, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students working and studying in sports studies, sociology, geography, economics, psychology, marine science, coastal management and economics. It is also a valuable resource for practitioners across the globe.

In this book, Julian Hellaby presents a detailed study of English piano playing and career management as it was in the middle years of the twentieth century. Making regular comparisons with early twenty-first-century practice, the author examines career-launching mechanisms, such as auditions and competitions, and investigates available means of career sustenance, including artist management, publicity outlets, recital and concerto work, broadcasts, recordings and media reviews. Additionally, Hellaby considers whether a mid-twentieth-century school of English piano playing may be identified and, if so, whether it has lasted into the early decades of the twenty-first century. The author concludes with an appraisal of the state of English pianism in recent years and raises questions about its future. Drawing on extensive research from a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, this book is structured around case-studies of six pianists who were commencing and then developing their careers between approximately 1935 and 1970. The professional lives and playing styles of Malcolm Binns, Peter Katin, Moura Lympany, Denis Matthews, Valerie Tryon and David Wilde are examined, and telling comparisons are made between the state of affairs then and that of more recent times. Engagingly written, the book is likely to appeal to professional and amateur pianists, piano teachers, undergraduate and postgraduate music students, academics and anyone with an interest in the history of pianists, piano performance and music performance history in general.

Ties theory to practice via the provision of case studies and problem-oriented pedagogical features Comprehensive expert coverage of the full spectrum of business disciplines covered by experts in each topic International perspectives benefiting from a global spread of contributions

Following consistent and rapid general economic growth, Pacific Rim countries have grown as a major force in sports. Australia, China, Japan and Korea populated the top ten medals list at the 2012 London Olympics. Pacific Rim countries are major consumers of international sports and domestic professional sports have expanded continuously over time. Nippon Professional Baseball and the Korean Baseball Organization are the second and third largest baseball leagues measured by attendance and revenue following Major League Baseball in the U.S. This book also includes event studies of team ownership, assessment of human capital markets, analysis of the relationship between attendance and competitive balance, the components of fan demand in common the world over, and business decisions concerning attendance and pricing. There is already demand for comprehensive study of the sports business in the Pacific Rim as witnessed by this growth. This book will be of interest of researchers studying and/or teaching in the fields of sports economics and sports management as well as a general audience interested in business governance around the world.

As football clubs have become luxury investments, their decisions increasingly mirror those of any other business organisation. Football supporters have been encouraged to express their club loyalty by 'thinking business' - acting as consumers and generating money deemed necessary for their clubs to compete at the highest levels. In critical studies, supporters have been portrayed as passive or reluctant consumers who, imprisoned by enduring club loyalties, embody a fatalistic attitude to their own exploitation. As this book aims to show, however, such expressions of loyalty are far from hegemonic and often interface haphazardly with traditional ideas about what constitutes the 'loyal fan'. While there is little doubt that professional football is experiencing commodification, the reality is that football clubs are not simply businesses, nor can they ever aspire to be organisations driven solely by expanding or protecting economic value. Rather, clubs hover uncertainly between being businesses and community assets. Football Supporters and the Commercialisation of Football explores the implications of this uncertainty for understanding supporter resistance to, and compromise with, commodification. Every club and its supporters exist in their own unique national and local contexts. In this respect, this book offers a Euro-wide comparison of supporter reactions to commercialisation and provides unique insight into how football supporters actively mediate regional, local and national contexts, as they intersect with the universalistic presumptions of commerce. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

This guidebook presents historical and new material to assist the reader to understand NFL game strategies and provides a winning betting strategy. The authors, William Ziemba and Leonard MacLean are professors, traders, financial analysts and sports enthusiasts. They covered ideas like the game's strategies, and shared their wealth of personal experience analyzing the regular season, the playoffs and the Super Bowls in the years 2010-2017. The results of their actual betting for the 2009-10 to the 2017-18 seasons are provided. The authors concluded the book with a forecast for the 2018-2019 season. They determine the players most valuable to win the games, discuss crucial decisions and provide prediction methodology. The authors concluded with a forecast of the top teams, players and odds to win the 53rd Super Bowl.

This field guide provides methods and studies on how-to-do case study research in natural settings. A truly international guide, this text is ideal for those studying and conducting case study research in tourism, hospitality and leisure disciplines. It provides a comprehensive and practical account of how to describe, explain and predict both individual and group case behavior, at the same time explaining behavior among a set of cases relevant to a specific context. This guide embraces and extends Herbert Simon's (Nobel Prize in Economics recipient) insight that a decision results from the conjoining two antecedents in human behavior: cognitive processing of an individual or group and a given context or problem framing. Divided into six parts, this guide includes chapters on: analysis of texts; how-to-do executive interviews; field interviewing in international contexts; stakeholder participatory research; researching indigenous and marginal peoples; and cross-case analysis. The chapters increase skills and understanding of culture, tourism, and hospitality behavior through analysis of the four principle objectives of case study research: accomplishing accuracy; achieving generality; reporting complexity and broad coverage; and achieving impact for improving the individual condition, client, and/or society.

In recent years, football's status as "the world's sport" has shown little sign of waning. From increasing participation at grassroots levels and to the highly lucrative media rights deals secured by the top elite clubs, the game appears to be thriving as it continues to excite and enthral billions of people around the globe. Nevertheless, there are a number of challenges and opportunities facing the football industry today that warrant further examination. This book brings together leading international researchers to survey the current state of the global football industry, exploring contemporary themes and issues in the marketing of football around the world. With contributions from Europe, Asia and the Americas, it discusses key topics such as football club management, the economics of the football industry, match-fixing, social media, fan experiences, the globalized marketplace, and the growing popularity of the women's game. Offering insights for researchers, managers, and marketers who are looking to stay ahead of the game, The Global Football Industry: Marketing Perspectives is essential reading for anyone with an interest in international sport business.